Sarcophagus – Podictionary Word of the Day
The podictionary word of the week is “Sarcophagus”.
Around Ethnic Slurs
Part 1: Squaw
Anatoly Liberman describes how “misspent political zeal turned ‘squaw’ into an ethnic slur.”
Celebrate – Podictionary Word of the Day
The podictionary word of the week is “celebrate”.
Monthly Gleanings, Part Two
Anatoly Liberman’s monthy gleanings.
Daisy – Podictionary Word of the Day
The podictionary word of the week is “daisy”.
From nom de plume to el cheapo: Pseudo-foreign words
Not all foreign-sounding words are quite what they seem.
Expo – Podictionary Word of the Day
This week’s podictionary looks at the word “expo.”
The Evasive Yeoman
Oxford Etymologist, Anatoly Liberman, traces the roots of the word “yeomen.”
Technology – Podictionary Word of the Day
The podictionary word of the week is “technology”.
Can You Trust Your (Etymological) Dictionary?
Anatoly Liberman demonstrates the difficulty of tracing the origins of every day words–especially considering the lack of consensus among linguists.
DSNA 2009, or,
Why don’t more people go to conferences?
Ammon Shea reports on the Dictionary Society of North America Conference.
RT this: OUP Dictionary Team monitors Twitterer’s tweets
A recent study out of Harvard confirms Twitter is all vanity. This is not a big surprise to the dictionary team at Oxford University Press. OUP lexicographers have been monitoring more than 1.5 million random tweets Since January 2009 and have noticed any number of interesting facts about the impact of Twitter on language usage. For example the 500 words most frequently used on Twitter are significantly different from the top 500 in general English text.
Bikini – Podictionary Word of the Day
The podictionary word of the week is “bikini”.
English Is Astoundingly Like Russian, But What About French?
(The Origin of the Word Bistro)
Anatoly looks at the word “bistro”.
Tarmac – Podictionary Word of the Day
The podictionary word of the week is “tarmac”.
Monthly Gleanings: May 2009
Anatoly’s monthly gleanings.