"Words -- so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them."
July 3, 2012 2:18 PM Subscribe
Save the Words: Adopt words that have been abandoned by the English language.
Yep, the interface lost me as soon as one of the words said, "Oy! Oy!" Pass.
posted by azaner at 2:23 PM on July 3, 2012
posted by azaner at 2:23 PM on July 3, 2012
So the joke here is that these are all fake words, right? And that's why they're all wavy underlined in red?
posted by 2bucksplus at 2:29 PM on July 3, 2012
posted by 2bucksplus at 2:29 PM on July 3, 2012
I gave up before the site loaded.
posted by tommasz at 2:29 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by tommasz at 2:29 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
jesus that was horrible.
posted by mary8nne at 2:29 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by mary8nne at 2:29 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
It's a nice idea, and I thought about adopting a word. But most of them seem to be form the kind of Latin-wanking that used to be popular. If you really said "frutescent" instead of "shrubby" you deserve to die out.
posted by Jehan at 2:31 PM on July 3, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by Jehan at 2:31 PM on July 3, 2012 [4 favorites]
Truth is you could really only do a site like this in flash.
Fun idea ruined by too much interface.
posted by mattoxic at 2:32 PM on July 3, 2012
Fun idea ruined by too much interface.
posted by mattoxic at 2:32 PM on July 3, 2012
One of my daughters is a regular spelling bee competitor. This site is right up her alley. I mean, "seplasiary"? I can just hear the pronouncer saying it now.
posted by phong3d at 2:32 PM on July 3, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by phong3d at 2:32 PM on July 3, 2012 [3 favorites]
Pretty sure I heard mingent used last night on a TOWIE rerun. Something like that anyway.
posted by 2bucksplus at 2:33 PM on July 3, 2012
posted by 2bucksplus at 2:33 PM on July 3, 2012
It's a perfetly cromulent website.
posted by ten pounds of inedita at 2:37 PM on July 3, 2012 [11 favorites]
posted by ten pounds of inedita at 2:37 PM on July 3, 2012 [11 favorites]
What? This rules--a wall of stuff I don't know. (Turn the sound off and it's great.)
posted by resurrexit at 2:38 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by resurrexit at 2:38 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
If it won't let me adopt merkin, I'm not going to adopt anything.
posted by Mad_Carew at 2:40 PM on July 3, 2012
posted by Mad_Carew at 2:40 PM on July 3, 2012
If "obarmate" means "to arm against," why does their example sentence involve "...to obarmate against alien invasion?"
posted by Earthtopus at 2:45 PM on July 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by Earthtopus at 2:45 PM on July 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
perstringe is a good one.
posted by mrgrimm at 2:46 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by mrgrimm at 2:46 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
I learned yesterday that moon is a verb. And not in the way that means drop your pants at a passing police boat.
posted by joecacti at 2:48 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by joecacti at 2:48 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
Crassulent is a word we need to start using more.
The usage example sounds like something written on Urban Dictionary.
Very fat, overweight, grossly obese.
She may be the bride, but her crassulent state doesn't permit her to go through the church door.
Aw Snap!
posted by hot_monster at 2:54 PM on July 3, 2012
The usage example sounds like something written on Urban Dictionary.
Very fat, overweight, grossly obese.
She may be the bride, but her crassulent state doesn't permit her to go through the church door.
Aw Snap!
posted by hot_monster at 2:54 PM on July 3, 2012
Xenization is an interesting state in which to perceive a city or a country, but not really know it.
posted by Skygazer at 2:56 PM on July 3, 2012
posted by Skygazer at 2:56 PM on July 3, 2012
So the joke here is that these are all fake words, right?
Don't be a foppotee.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 2:57 PM on July 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
Don't be a foppotee.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 2:57 PM on July 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
Hey! Frutescent & crassulent are perfectly cromulent words in botany!
posted by Pinback at 2:58 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Pinback at 2:58 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
♩ In the arrrrrrms of the angels...
["Rannygazoo" gazes imploringly at the camera. It knew joy once in its life; once, and just long enough to sharpen the pain of the subsequent decades of neglect.]
...fly awaaaaaay from here... ♫
["Unparagoned" hangs its head. One of its eyes has been put out; the other searches for the release of death.]
...from this cold, dark hotel room...
["Candent" shivers uncontrollably.]
...and the emptiness that you fear... ♩
[Sarah McLachlan reclines in a tastefully appointed living room, stroking a blissful "Resplendent's" glossy coat.]
"Hail. I Sarah McLachlan am hight. Wilt thou refound, and prove Ophanim?"
♫ may you find...some easement here... ♩
posted by Iridic at 2:58 PM on July 3, 2012 [11 favorites]
["Rannygazoo" gazes imploringly at the camera. It knew joy once in its life; once, and just long enough to sharpen the pain of the subsequent decades of neglect.]
...fly awaaaaaay from here... ♫
["Unparagoned" hangs its head. One of its eyes has been put out; the other searches for the release of death.]
...from this cold, dark hotel room...
["Candent" shivers uncontrollably.]
...and the emptiness that you fear... ♩
[Sarah McLachlan reclines in a tastefully appointed living room, stroking a blissful "Resplendent's" glossy coat.]
"Hail. I Sarah McLachlan am hight. Wilt thou refound, and prove Ophanim?"
♫ may you find...some easement here... ♩
posted by Iridic at 2:58 PM on July 3, 2012 [11 favorites]
These are just rarely-used word. Some of them more so than others, and some of them are more useful than others.
Several that I looked at interested me, for example, rogalian, "pertaining to a large fire". I can't think of an alternative and it will sadly be an increasingly relevant word in the coming years.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:06 PM on July 3, 2012 [3 favorites]
Several that I looked at interested me, for example, rogalian, "pertaining to a large fire". I can't think of an alternative and it will sadly be an increasingly relevant word in the coming years.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:06 PM on July 3, 2012 [3 favorites]
Several that I looked at interested me, for example, rogalian, "pertaining to a large fire". I can't think of an alternative and it will sadly be an increasingly relevant word in the coming years.You never heard of a bonfire? Or even a balefire? There's note special about half of these words, honestly.
And think of your readers! Verstegen had a funny anecdote from about 1600, where some folks received a letter asking them to "equip" a horse, but they didn't know what the word meant. They wondered if they should "whip" a horse instead, but they weren't sure how that would help...
posted by Jehan at 3:17 PM on July 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
Save the shitty interface.
posted by Luminiferous Ether at 3:18 PM on July 3, 2012
posted by Luminiferous Ether at 3:18 PM on July 3, 2012
There is such a thing as linguistic Darwinism, and I welcome you to the Giant Panda exhibit.
An enormous, slow, poorly camouflaged creature with incredibly picky dietary habits that seems barely able to reproduce itself and drops dead if you sneeze loudly a mile away, kept on evolutionary life support at fantastic expense while other less cuddly species go hang.
posted by unSane at 3:20 PM on July 3, 2012 [3 favorites]
An enormous, slow, poorly camouflaged creature with incredibly picky dietary habits that seems barely able to reproduce itself and drops dead if you sneeze loudly a mile away, kept on evolutionary life support at fantastic expense while other less cuddly species go hang.
posted by unSane at 3:20 PM on July 3, 2012 [3 favorites]
Some high percentage of these words have been "abandoned" because they refer to things that either don't exist anymore or have been otherwise depreciated. So we don't use "jumperism" anymore because the splinter Methodist sect to which it refers no longer exists, and we don't use "vitamin G" because we decided to call it "riboflavin" instead.
Also, why would you want to use "halatinous" when "saline" works just fine?
posted by valkyryn at 3:22 PM on July 3, 2012
Also, why would you want to use "halatinous" when "saline" works just fine?
posted by valkyryn at 3:22 PM on July 3, 2012
Poorly reproduced from a genuine diatribe unleashed on me by a drunken zookeeper from London Zoo, who hated pandas with the burning fire of a thousand suns. He also told me that one of the Rhinos was called 'nutter' and no-one looked forward to moving him. There was also an excellent story about Gorillas and Bon Jovi T-Shirts but I think I've told it before.
posted by unSane at 3:22 PM on July 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by unSane at 3:22 PM on July 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
If you really wanted a word to be adopted, you'd follow the basic shelter guideline for promoting a cat's adoption: find out its history, and if you can't do that, at least endow it with a halo of loveability by giving it a non-obvious moniker. These example sentences are painfully ad hoc. E.g. for scaevity, glossed as 'unluckiness': "After spilling coffee on her blouse, ketchup on her skirt and ink on her jacket, Christine found out scaevity does come in threes." If this site were advertising an black cat for adoption, they would call it Blacky.
posted by feral_goldfish at 3:24 PM on July 3, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by feral_goldfish at 3:24 PM on July 3, 2012 [3 favorites]
Save the shitty interface.
My iPad tried to do that. Literally.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 3:36 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
My iPad tried to do that. Literally.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 3:36 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
mattoxic: "Truth is you could really only do a site like this in flash.
Fun idea ruined by too much interface."
You could do it in HTML5 too, but it would be easier to make it horrible in Flash.
The real question is, why is their homepage blank?
posted by Deathalicious at 3:40 PM on July 3, 2012
Fun idea ruined by too much interface."
You could do it in HTML5 too, but it would be easier to make it horrible in Flash.
The real question is, why is their homepage blank?
posted by Deathalicious at 3:40 PM on July 3, 2012
The word I'm adopting is "fetumsh."
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 3:41 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 3:41 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
Deathalicious, I disagree--I like the fonts better on the OP's link. But yours has good words...
posted by resurrexit at 3:43 PM on July 3, 2012
posted by resurrexit at 3:43 PM on July 3, 2012
One of the entries is actually ten-cent-store. That word still exists, it just got renamed to dollar store because now people actually throw away pennies, nickels, and dimes like garbage.
posted by Deathalicious at 3:46 PM on July 3, 2012
posted by Deathalicious at 3:46 PM on July 3, 2012
Colin Meloy needs to get his songwriting cranked up again. . .
posted by Danf at 3:50 PM on July 3, 2012
posted by Danf at 3:50 PM on July 3, 2012
I was not sure if they just made them all up, but then I found "long play" (meaning an LP record), which I guess is real enough.
But yeah, they basically made browsing the list of words as painful as possible with the current (10 year old) technology. I'm sure they have big ideas for the site once the USB Robotic Boxing Glove becomes more common though.
posted by aubilenon at 3:52 PM on July 3, 2012
But yeah, they basically made browsing the list of words as painful as possible with the current (10 year old) technology. I'm sure they have big ideas for the site once the USB Robotic Boxing Glove becomes more common though.
posted by aubilenon at 3:52 PM on July 3, 2012
I got kind of excited about "pregnatress" which the site describes as something like a "female who conceives of ideas," but then I Googled it and the only places the word appears on the web seems to be people who are using the word as a revival in a "wouldn't it be cool if we said this" sense along the same lines as this website.
Google Books tells me that the word was only ever used in text by Jacob Boehme in his 17th century religious, but somewhat off-doctrine writings. He doesn't even seem to be talking about women, just about "Nature" when he uses the word.
I'm so disappointed.
posted by newg at 3:52 PM on July 3, 2012
Google Books tells me that the word was only ever used in text by Jacob Boehme in his 17th century religious, but somewhat off-doctrine writings. He doesn't even seem to be talking about women, just about "Nature" when he uses the word.
I'm so disappointed.
posted by newg at 3:52 PM on July 3, 2012
I cannot hate on anything that introduces me to the word "snollygoster."
posted by darksasami at 3:55 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by darksasami at 3:55 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
"You never heard of a bonfire? Or even a balefire? There's note special about half of these words, honestly."
Rogalian isn't a noun. Rogalian suburban change is an increasing fact of life in the southwest US is an example where it has particular utility.
"There is such a thing as linguistic Darwinism, and I welcome you to the Giant Panda exhibit.
"An enormous, slow, poorly camouflaged creature with incredibly picky dietary habits that seems barely able to reproduce itself and drops dead if you sneeze loudly a mile away, kept on evolutionary life support at fantastic expense while other less cuddly species go hang."
Wow, that manages to be both bad-linguistics and bad-evolution. Congratulations.
The idea that language is evolving to something "better" (and that therefore rare words are necessarily inferior) is just as fundamentally mistaken as the idea that language is devolving into something "worse".
And comparing language change to natural selection is either facile or misleading, or both, though I'm aware that it's not uncommon and tempting even for linguists. That makes it no less dumb.
Obviously there are selective environmental pressures on language. But both "selection" and "environmental" must be so hugely abstracted for that statement to be true, that it's not a useful statement. Not the least because it encourages one to think about language change in constraining, distorted ways related to biological evolution — reproductive fitness and all that. It also encourages scientists who aren't biologists and aren't linguists to misunderstand both biology and linguistics to data-mine and build models and propose speculative theories about proto-languages and migration and such, which is just embarrassing.
Words are as useful as we make them. They don't have inherent magic. There's nothing more invalid about using rare, archaic words than there is in using rare neologisms. Such rare, archaic words are no more necessarily inherently useful or useless than are neologisms necessarily inherently useful or useless. They're all as useful or as useless as they are.
"I'm so disappointed."
Why? Use he word if you like it.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:58 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
Rogalian isn't a noun. Rogalian suburban change is an increasing fact of life in the southwest US is an example where it has particular utility.
"There is such a thing as linguistic Darwinism, and I welcome you to the Giant Panda exhibit.
"An enormous, slow, poorly camouflaged creature with incredibly picky dietary habits that seems barely able to reproduce itself and drops dead if you sneeze loudly a mile away, kept on evolutionary life support at fantastic expense while other less cuddly species go hang."
Wow, that manages to be both bad-linguistics and bad-evolution. Congratulations.
The idea that language is evolving to something "better" (and that therefore rare words are necessarily inferior) is just as fundamentally mistaken as the idea that language is devolving into something "worse".
And comparing language change to natural selection is either facile or misleading, or both, though I'm aware that it's not uncommon and tempting even for linguists. That makes it no less dumb.
Obviously there are selective environmental pressures on language. But both "selection" and "environmental" must be so hugely abstracted for that statement to be true, that it's not a useful statement. Not the least because it encourages one to think about language change in constraining, distorted ways related to biological evolution — reproductive fitness and all that. It also encourages scientists who aren't biologists and aren't linguists to misunderstand both biology and linguistics to data-mine and build models and propose speculative theories about proto-languages and migration and such, which is just embarrassing.
Words are as useful as we make them. They don't have inherent magic. There's nothing more invalid about using rare, archaic words than there is in using rare neologisms. Such rare, archaic words are no more necessarily inherently useful or useless than are neologisms necessarily inherently useful or useless. They're all as useful or as useless as they are.
"I'm so disappointed."
Why? Use he word if you like it.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:58 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
and I welcome you to the Giant Panda exhibit.
Shoots. Eats. Leaves.
posted by chavenet at 4:02 PM on July 3, 2012
Shoots. Eats. Leaves.
posted by chavenet at 4:02 PM on July 3, 2012
One of the entries is actually ten-cent-store. That word still exists, it just got renamed to dollar store ...
It was replaced by "dime store" long before that.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 4:05 PM on July 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
It was replaced by "dime store" long before that.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 4:05 PM on July 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
Rogalian isn't a noun. Rogalian suburban change is an increasing fact of life in the southwest US is an example where it has particular utility.I know rogalian is an adjective, but English has ways of making adjectives from nouns if needed, or even slight rephrasing otherwise. Further, I don't understand your example. How can suburban change be like a big fire?
posted by Jehan at 4:12 PM on July 3, 2012
Flagged as a flash only website.
posted by humanfont at 4:15 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by humanfont at 4:15 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
My word is "agonyclite", a member of a heretical sect. AWESOME.
posted by Renoroc at 4:15 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Renoroc at 4:15 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
Save the shitty interface.
My iPad tried to do that. Literally.
I know it's a fundamental architectural decision, but I can't be the only one amazed that there no iOS browser to support Flash yet. Does Chrome not either?
posted by mrgrimm at 4:18 PM on July 3, 2012
My iPad tried to do that. Literally.
I know it's a fundamental architectural decision, but I can't be the only one amazed that there no iOS browser to support Flash yet. Does Chrome not either?
posted by mrgrimm at 4:18 PM on July 3, 2012
The concept delights my inner English major. The hellacious interface is just cringe worthy.
posted by shooze at 4:19 PM on July 3, 2012
posted by shooze at 4:19 PM on July 3, 2012
Why? Use he word if you like it.
I was disappointed because it doesn't mean quite what the site said it means; at least, the recorded usage I was able to uncover doesn't mesh.
I guess it's fun to say and I think people sort of could get my meaning but if I were to try and use "pregnatress" in a contemporary context, I'd basically be inventing a new meaning for the word.
I've invented words before for my own enjoyment but I don't enjoy using them in conversation because if the goal is to communicate, words that literally no one but myself know the precise meaning of aren't super useful. I find making myself understood difficult enough and some words are fun to say but at some point it's just the speaker enjoying the sound of their own voice if they aren't going to bother to use words that other people know.
Usually new-to-me words are exciting when they capture a more specific meaning or idea than any other word I already know. Assigning a meaning to a word in an almost arbitrary manner doesn't work the same way for me.
Like, I'm not going to run around being a pregnatress of words, or anything. Seems impractical.
posted by newg at 4:21 PM on July 3, 2012
I was disappointed because it doesn't mean quite what the site said it means; at least, the recorded usage I was able to uncover doesn't mesh.
I guess it's fun to say and I think people sort of could get my meaning but if I were to try and use "pregnatress" in a contemporary context, I'd basically be inventing a new meaning for the word.
I've invented words before for my own enjoyment but I don't enjoy using them in conversation because if the goal is to communicate, words that literally no one but myself know the precise meaning of aren't super useful. I find making myself understood difficult enough and some words are fun to say but at some point it's just the speaker enjoying the sound of their own voice if they aren't going to bother to use words that other people know.
Usually new-to-me words are exciting when they capture a more specific meaning or idea than any other word I already know. Assigning a meaning to a word in an almost arbitrary manner doesn't work the same way for me.
Like, I'm not going to run around being a pregnatress of words, or anything. Seems impractical.
posted by newg at 4:21 PM on July 3, 2012
Unparagoned? Didn't he lead his troops through the wastes of Rhudaur against the Witch King of Angmar, and was never seen again?
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:33 PM on July 3, 2012
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:33 PM on July 3, 2012
I know it's a fundamental architectural decision, but I can't be the only one amazed that there no iOS browser to support Flash yet. Does Chrome not either?
Are you kidding? Adobe has even given up on developing Flash for Android.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 4:40 PM on July 3, 2012
Are you kidding? Adobe has even given up on developing Flash for Android.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 4:40 PM on July 3, 2012
you bastards shut up about pandas
posted by elizardbits at 4:42 PM on July 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by elizardbits at 4:42 PM on July 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
This smacks of astroturfing. Does anyone really protest lost words? No; they're just advancing the agenda of Big Dictionary.
posted by bicyclefish at 4:46 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by bicyclefish at 4:46 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
"I've invented words before for my own enjoyment but I don't enjoy using them in conversation because if the goal is to communicate, words that literally no one but myself know the precise meaning of aren't super useful."
That's not really true. We infer the meanings of unfamiliar words from context and that's mostly how neologisms spread. And it's not the case that you need to be, say, Shakespeare to coin new words (though it helps!) — most neologisms are not, of course, the product of famous writers.
What does make a difference is is probably some combination of how large a specific need a neologism serves and how effective one is at using language to communicate. And then numerous other factors. But if one goes around creating neologisms, then, yeah, the difference between utility/popularity and bafflement will be if you're very good at it, whatever that means. Some people are. Some people aren't. This is exactly as true with regard to merely unfamiliar/rare words as it is with neologisms.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:52 PM on July 3, 2012
That's not really true. We infer the meanings of unfamiliar words from context and that's mostly how neologisms spread. And it's not the case that you need to be, say, Shakespeare to coin new words (though it helps!) — most neologisms are not, of course, the product of famous writers.
What does make a difference is is probably some combination of how large a specific need a neologism serves and how effective one is at using language to communicate. And then numerous other factors. But if one goes around creating neologisms, then, yeah, the difference between utility/popularity and bafflement will be if you're very good at it, whatever that means. Some people are. Some people aren't. This is exactly as true with regard to merely unfamiliar/rare words as it is with neologisms.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:52 PM on July 3, 2012
Sad that I don't have the occasion to use 'pseudisodomous' in casual conversation after all.
posted by Jugwine at 4:54 PM on July 3, 2012
posted by Jugwine at 4:54 PM on July 3, 2012
No; they're just advancing the agenda of Big Dictionary.
I believe you mean 'they are forwarding the nostrum of Bounteous Lexicon.'
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:06 PM on July 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
I believe you mean 'they are forwarding the nostrum of Bounteous Lexicon.'
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:06 PM on July 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
I'm thinking of adopting "aquabib" in Rand Paul's name.
posted by MikeMc at 5:14 PM on July 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by MikeMc at 5:14 PM on July 3, 2012 [2 favorites]
previously... not that the cause is any less worthy than 3 years ago.
posted by Enki at 5:51 PM on July 3, 2012
posted by Enki at 5:51 PM on July 3, 2012
What is the archaic term for "garish interface that immerses you in a tide of desperate pleas as your mouse cursor hovers over it indifferently" because I was looking for a term to encapsulate "the workplace of Tomorrow" and all I left with was "ten-penny-store" and quite frankly, I left unhappy.
posted by passerby at 6:24 PM on July 3, 2012
posted by passerby at 6:24 PM on July 3, 2012
Well, that was a gallimaufry, and no mistake!
posted by SPrintF at 6:25 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by SPrintF at 6:25 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
Save the shitty interface.
Holy festering xenizations!! Enough with the endless UX interface gradgrind steveyobism you...you...hobblidehoy pinchbecks picklesterns. Stick your ipad-sies up your gobbleholes...and crinklescunt the rex contentus scalabilititus.
And furthermore...poo.
posted by Skygazer at 6:30 PM on July 3, 2012
Holy festering xenizations!! Enough with the endless UX interface gradgrind steveyobism you...you...hobblidehoy pinchbecks picklesterns. Stick your ipad-sies up your gobbleholes...and crinklescunt the rex contentus scalabilititus.
And furthermore...poo.
posted by Skygazer at 6:30 PM on July 3, 2012
What is the term for "garish interface that immerses you in a tide of desperate pleas as your mouse cursor hovers over it indifferently"
I would propose that it be referred to from hear onward into perpetuity in this thread as beating a giant dead panda's nutsack.
posted by Skygazer at 6:33 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
I would propose that it be referred to from hear onward into perpetuity in this thread as beating a giant dead panda's nutsack.
posted by Skygazer at 6:33 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
i-resartiate [three dot triangle] icasm
"[oxford comma]"
posted by vozworth at 6:55 PM on July 3, 2012
"[oxford comma]"
posted by vozworth at 6:55 PM on July 3, 2012
Judging by my Forgotten English page-a-day calendar, there are lots of words threatened with extinction--unless you read a lot of fantasy novels. Seriously, "wyvern" is rare now?!
posted by nicebookrack at 6:55 PM on July 3, 2012
posted by nicebookrack at 6:55 PM on July 3, 2012
Bah! The world obviously needs more synonyms for "dragon" than "panda." It's very important to know which species is eating you. Tarragon, wyrm, feilong, ryuu, basilisk, snallygaster, ouroboros, the little dragons that sit on your shoulder and look cute...
posted by nicebookrack at 7:15 PM on July 3, 2012
posted by nicebookrack at 7:15 PM on July 3, 2012
we don't use "vitamin G" because we decided to call it "riboflavin" instead.
We use "Vitamin G" as a term for Guinness Stout. It only has about 3% of your RDA of riboflavin per serving.
After 33 pints of Guinness, you're pretty well riboflavined.
posted by Mad_Carew at 8:17 PM on July 3, 2012 [4 favorites]
We use "Vitamin G" as a term for Guinness Stout. It only has about 3% of your RDA of riboflavin per serving.
After 33 pints of Guinness, you're pretty well riboflavined.
posted by Mad_Carew at 8:17 PM on July 3, 2012 [4 favorites]
Hey you naysayers, I know a myriander of people who appreciate the chance to save a pretentious word and use it at a cocktail party!
posted by 1000monkeys at 9:27 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by 1000monkeys at 9:27 PM on July 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
I am reminded of "inkhorn terms".
Mid-16th to mid-17th century English developed in order to complete with (and hopefully displace) the perfection of the classical languages. Translators working with re-discovered texts from Classical Antiquity or with new texts from the Continent found themselves facing the limitations of the English language which was not equipped to discuss disciplines such as philosophy, politics or (natural) sciences.
And so people began coining words - and a lot of them did so by borrowing heavily from Latin and Greek. Several, several coined words are still used today but - by golly - many were terribly obscure, infrequent and personal coinages which demanded that the reader was familiar not only with the classical languages, but certainly also with the associative mind of the author. These are now generally referred to as "inkhorn terms" - and yes, these are obsolete, pretentious words of the highest order.
If anybody wants to delve further into this, I can recommend the works of Sir Thomas Urquhart - a 17th C translator of Rabelais who also found time to write "Logopandecteision, or an Introduction to the Universal Language". His work is filled with the most puzzling, over-the-top personal coinages, and while it may not do what it says on the tin, it is a very entertaining read.
posted by kariebookish at 2:30 AM on July 4, 2012 [2 favorites]
Mid-16th to mid-17th century English developed in order to complete with (and hopefully displace) the perfection of the classical languages. Translators working with re-discovered texts from Classical Antiquity or with new texts from the Continent found themselves facing the limitations of the English language which was not equipped to discuss disciplines such as philosophy, politics or (natural) sciences.
And so people began coining words - and a lot of them did so by borrowing heavily from Latin and Greek. Several, several coined words are still used today but - by golly - many were terribly obscure, infrequent and personal coinages which demanded that the reader was familiar not only with the classical languages, but certainly also with the associative mind of the author. These are now generally referred to as "inkhorn terms" - and yes, these are obsolete, pretentious words of the highest order.
If anybody wants to delve further into this, I can recommend the works of Sir Thomas Urquhart - a 17th C translator of Rabelais who also found time to write "Logopandecteision, or an Introduction to the Universal Language". His work is filled with the most puzzling, over-the-top personal coinages, and while it may not do what it says on the tin, it is a very entertaining read.
posted by kariebookish at 2:30 AM on July 4, 2012 [2 favorites]
I was going to get a word for each member of my family, and then get a T-shirt for each, but, well, I didn't.
posted by newdaddy at 3:01 AM on July 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by newdaddy at 3:01 AM on July 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
They won't let me register.
My word is uviferous, "bearing grapes or vines", which I liked because the meaning is obvious(*), and it's actually useful.
I do agree that a lot of these are Latin or Greek coinages - but in many cases they do fill a gap. People should do that word coinage thing more, it's fun, it makes language more self-aware and your friends can always ask if they are interested.
(* - it was pointed out that this might not be obvious to everyone...)
Slightly OT: I just discovered what appears to be a little word hoax while researching some words from this link.
Someone's trying to convince us that embiggen was invented in the 1800s. But I went and looked at the supposed source of this in Google books in some detail, and the supposed paragraph containing it doesn't exist...
Probably someone should follow this up. :-D
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 3:59 AM on July 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
My word is uviferous, "bearing grapes or vines", which I liked because the meaning is obvious(*), and it's actually useful.
I do agree that a lot of these are Latin or Greek coinages - but in many cases they do fill a gap. People should do that word coinage thing more, it's fun, it makes language more self-aware and your friends can always ask if they are interested.
(* - it was pointed out that this might not be obvious to everyone...)
Slightly OT: I just discovered what appears to be a little word hoax while researching some words from this link.
Someone's trying to convince us that embiggen was invented in the 1800s. But I went and looked at the supposed source of this in Google books in some detail, and the supposed paragraph containing it doesn't exist...
Probably someone should follow this up. :-D
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 3:59 AM on July 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
Sounds like fun but it is not iPod friendly.
posted by caddis at 4:20 AM on July 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by caddis at 4:20 AM on July 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
Now with a regular computer this looks great. I always keep the sound off so I am not sure what bothered other folks there. The interface is not so awful, I just wish they had a non-flash alternative for mobile devices etc. The world is going mobile you know.
I am adopting vappous, and in looking up more definitions have found a great new blog to follow: A Measured Word, The Lens of Language, which is anything but vappous.
Why did I choose this word? Don't quaeritate. If I was in the GOP I might choose to obarmate against Obama, but those crassulent bastards can have that word and I hope they pudify themselves with it.
posted by caddis at 5:59 AM on July 4, 2012 [2 favorites]
I am adopting vappous, and in looking up more definitions have found a great new blog to follow: A Measured Word, The Lens of Language, which is anything but vappous.
Why did I choose this word? Don't quaeritate. If I was in the GOP I might choose to obarmate against Obama, but those crassulent bastards can have that word and I hope they pudify themselves with it.
posted by caddis at 5:59 AM on July 4, 2012 [2 favorites]
Even opening it in Evernote did no good. Hates me some Flash!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 10:19 AM on July 4, 2012
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 10:19 AM on July 4, 2012
I am reminded of "inkhorn terms".The interesting thing about the inkhorn debate is that some of the folk against the making of new words based on Greek and Latin were themselves seriously good Greek and Latin scholars. They gainstood these new words on two grounds. The first and most important was that it went outside what they thought of as good Ciceronian rhetoric, which held purity and perspicuity as principles. They believed that language with a closeness to concrete things and literal meanings worked best, and from there figurative and metaphoric meanings could be built. There was also a slightly vaguer belief that if you grew to have a good feel for a language, you would discover a proper or fitting way of using it which was clearer better quality.
Mid-16th to mid-17th century English developed in order to complete with (and hopefully displace) the perfection of the classical languages. Translators working with re-discovered texts from Classical Antiquity or with new texts from the Continent found themselves facing the limitations of the English language which was not equipped to discuss disciplines such as philosophy, politics or (natural) sciences.
And so people began coining words - and a lot of them did so by borrowing heavily from Latin and Greek. Several, several coined words are still used today but - by golly - many were terribly obscure, infrequent and personal coinages which demanded that the reader was familiar not only with the classical languages, but certainly also with the associative mind of the author. These are now generally referred to as "inkhorn terms" - and yes, these are obsolete, pretentious words of the highest order.
The other grounds for opposition was rather more simple but less well argued, and far more common outside of the scholarly group. Bluntly put, many folk held translators to be inept and poorly trained. Indeed, many translations in the fifty or so years after printing was brought into England were done by amateurs, often young men barely out of university. More than a few accused them of laziness. Further, Caxton himself admitted that he wasn't even going to try translating everything into English, but would happily leave in any word he thought the educated reader would understand if the English alternative was too "rude", that is, unsophisticated.
It's this view of English as somehow unsophisticated which really drove the history of the language from the 1300s onwards. The upper middle-class would have much rather been speaking French, but neither had the knowledge nor connections to learn it properly by th 1300s. They embraced Chaucer--whose vocabulary had a higher percentage of French and Latin words than most other writers of his time--as the "adorner" of English. And later these piss-poor translators who were too lazy to do their work properly, were, as you've said, welcomed as "improvers". If it was French, or Latin, or Greek, the literate class loved it. English could go to hell, and few people even made a serious attempt to probe the limits of what could be said in the language. It was simply taken that English couldn't be used for "higher" disciplines, and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. There's no reason why new inventions like the telephone, television, bicycle, and so on had to have a classical word, as they certainly weren't around in classical times. This trend has died off somewhat in recent times, with words like hard drive, network, mouse, and so on showing that English really can do anything a language needs to do. But Even today you can still find people who like making new words to "broaden the vocabulary", though curiously only from Latin and Greek. Rogalian indeed!
Needless to say, I'm on the other side of the hedge here, definitely unhappy at the outcome of the inkhorn debate. I suppose we're never going to undo its consequences, but we could at least (and at last) admit the prejudice that English speakers have had against their own language. It seems like a weird vacuum where even the most thoughtful and well-meaning people don't acknowledge the bias English has had against it over hundreds of years. Think about this: the words brewhouse and bakehouse were absolutely standard and normal for hundreds of years, being made in a way that any English speaker could understand, until they were ousted by brewery and bakery in the 1800s, which have French endings. Why is one bad and the other good? It can't be dismissed as simply language change, as it is a real bias toward French, Latin and Greek over English.
posted by Jehan at 11:27 AM on July 4, 2012 [3 favorites]
FWIW 'Brewhouse' and 'Bakehouse' are still absolutely common within the trade. My grandfather was a master baker in Lincoln from about 1930-1960 and he always talked about the bakehouse, as does my mother still. 'Brewery' vs 'Brewhouse' has a slightly different tinge of meaning -- the Brewhouse is the physical building where beer is brewed, but the Brewery signifies the commercial undertaking. So a brewery might build a new brewhouse. Bakery vs Bakehouse has kind of the same thing going on to a lesser extent I think.
posted by unSane at 11:37 AM on July 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by unSane at 11:37 AM on July 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
I like to have a brewhouse lovely to accompany me when I'm "bakehousing," as it were...
Actually I think that's what I'm going to do tonight. For the Fourth of July. Have a brew and a bake.
Happy Fourth everyone, including those filled with uneasy feelings of xenization.
posted by Skygazer at 11:57 AM on July 4, 2012
Actually I think that's what I'm going to do tonight. For the Fourth of July. Have a brew and a bake.
Happy Fourth everyone, including those filled with uneasy feelings of xenization.
posted by Skygazer at 11:57 AM on July 4, 2012
I'm sure that within a trade their may be shades of meaning, but the overall process of them being ousted is right. The general public isn't making these fine distinctions.
posted by Jehan at 11:58 AM on July 4, 2012
posted by Jehan at 11:58 AM on July 4, 2012
This list of words basically reads like a Jack Vance concordance.
posted by dfan at 7:19 AM on July 5, 2012
posted by dfan at 7:19 AM on July 5, 2012
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posted by kmz at 2:21 PM on July 3, 2012 [6 favorites]