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Upon learning that someone is trying to insert "dadelor" into the English language, we have but one reaction: Make it stop. We get that all the good portmanteaus and puns seem to be taken in various corners of the Internet, but this is a bridge too far in the realm of weak punnery. More »
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Horrible neologism alert: "manopause" has entered the vernacular. More »
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California's gubernatorial race has momentarily shifted from Brown vs. Whitman to slur vs. slur. Go go Oppression Olympics! More »
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If you're an OED enthusiast, you'll be happy (or perhaps horrified?) to know that the famed dictionary has added several new words, including "vuvuzela," "staycation," and "turducken." [NPR] More »
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Four adults dressed in bee costumes appeared yesterday outside the Grand Hyatt where the Scripps National Spelling Bee is being held. They were, oddly enough, there to protest words. More »
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In an effort to be extremely (overly?) sensitive, NPR has instructed staffers to no longer use the terms "pro-choice" and "pro-life." They're not "neutral" enough, apparently, so they're going to tiptoe around from here on out. More »
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Yesterday we were introduced to "hegan." Today, it's "chexting," and its close friend, "brexting." No, really. More »
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Things women supposedly feel/think about while giving a blow job, according to a proposed ad for Durex condoms: satisfied, contented, blush, luscious, fruits, fruits, fruits, and dainty. And just wait till you see what happens when we fuck. More »
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The good news: the number of women starting their own businesses is on the rise. The bad news: the number of words describing this process is also on the rise, hence the birth of "fempreneur," "femterprise," and "domestecutives." [TimesOnline] More »
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James Frey's six-word memoir for It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure is "So would you believe me anyway?" Feel free to write your own six-word celebrity memoirs in the comments. [PageSix] More »
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A few months ago, I came home to find my dog rolling around in a pile of garbage, celebrating his destruction with the dance moves of Templeton from Charlotte's Web. The first words out of my mouth were "For Cripessake!" More »
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Apparently the longest entry in the new Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary goes to the word "immediately," which has a whopping 265 synonyms with which to express our collective impatience and probably exaggerated sense of urgency. [TimesUK] More »
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Professor Christian Kay has spent 42 years compiling the world's most comprehensive thesaurus. (Which of course means the Daily Mail refers to her as a "lingo-loving spinster.") Says she, "Scots are quite good at dictionaries." [Daily Mail] More »
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I never knew how much I hated the word "fiancé" until I got engaged. I kind of cringe when I have to say it to people I don't really know and lately, I've been finding myself saying "my boyfriend," then quickly, quietly adding "or fiancé, whatever." The word just sounds so pretentious and fruity, and it inherently implies a kind of smugness about marriage that I find embarrassing. But there's pretty much no alternative, because its synonyms - "betrothed," "intended," "promised" - are worse. After doing a quick poll of married and engaged friends, I realized that this word is universally uncomfortable and awkward. Let's brainstorm for a new term after the jump. More »
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Gourmet magazine has a story (via Newser) about Jaime Araujo, a "Napa Valley Girl" who has made a splash in French wine making. "A lot of what I do is psychological," Ms. Araujo tells the magazine. "Changing the identity of a wine that’s been in your family for four hundred years is hard, and it takes a lot of hand-holding." She also says: "France is a much more macho culture." But what about American culture? After all, she's being called a girl. A valley girl — a Napa Valley Girl, a play on words. It's a joke. But still: Jaime Araujo is 37 years old. When does a girl become a woman? And why are grown women so often called girls? And can we get fired up by a magazine calling a grown woman a "girl" when we're guilty of doing so ourselves? More »
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