I took a class in early 20th century American literature while I was a student at the University of Florida. Every essay, book, or article we read struck someone somehow. I got so disgusted by students saying, “What struck me about…” or, “I was struck by…” that I wrote a response paper asking the professor to imagine me striking a student on the head with my Norton Anthology the next time someone said something about being struck. I found a list of world wide web dangerous words today and it reminded me of that class.
Posts tagged “words”
Jumping the Shark
“Jump the Shark” has totally Nuked the Fridge. via the Longboard
New Words
The Pseudodictionary is full of words (and phrases) that aren’t really words but should be. In the early 80s we used to call these sniglets, a term coined by, I think, Rich Hall of HBO’s Not Necessarily the News. I first found the Psuedodictionary several months ago when there were only a handful of words
On Speaking
On speaking goodly
Half-Baked Ideas
If someone devises a really incredible caper, why don’t we say that it was fully-baked? I’m constantly hearing of half-baked plans. Half-baked schemes. Half-baked ideas. Does anyone have a thoroughly-baked thought?
The Big Dig
I‘ve talked about this happening IRL with several people recently and tonight I finally remembered to visit the site. bigdig.com details “The Central Artery/Tunnel Project” in Boston. Basically they are taking the entire highway system in Boston and putting it underground. It’s amazing. Fun Fact: Underfund is the only other word in English that begins
a hucklebuck response
my hucklebuck response from Peter Bowler‘s The Superior Person’s Book of Words defenestration n – the act of throwing someone or something out of a window napiform (adj) – shaped like a turnip quiddity n – the essence of something; literally, its whatness a quibble, or trifling nicety subderisorious adj. – mocking, but gently and
Nympholepsy
The proper term is nympholepsy. And not for Swedish furniture, either, pal.
definitions
Check it: New definitions added to the blog dictionary.
Appendix A
Spoon! Updated Appendix A – blog dictionary Let me know if you can think of something to be added or edited.