Set Phasers on Tweet: A Star Trek Snowclone Blizzard on Twitter
Mark Peters looks at all the variations of the snowclone “set phasers to x” on Twitter.
A mystery-y-ish-y word trend: the –y suffix has gone bananas
Many lessons can be gleaned from watching reruns of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’: Indirect sunlight is not an unlife-ender for vampires. Some small-town mayors may yearn to become giant unholy snake things (no surprise there). As Cordelia Chase said, “People, you’ve got to leave your tombs earthed.” (Whoops, that was on the Buffy spinoff Angel—but whatever).
Spacemen and Anonymuncles Attack!
Old Words for Writers
Mark Peters resurrects some old words to describe writers.
Cuckoo for Snowclone Puffs: An Essential Part of an Insane Vocabulary
Mark Peters explores the phrase “I’m cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.”
Vilipendious Pig-dog! Balatronic Dastardling! Contemptibly Obscure Words
Mark Peters looks at the 263 words in the Oxford English Dictionary with contemptible in the definition.
Frakin’ Cylontastic: Battlestar Galactica’s Other Successful Word
Peters explores the word “Cylon”.
From here till nano-eternity: The biggest little word-maker
Mark Peters looks at the word “nano.”
Post-traumatic snowclone disorder
You don’t have to be an MD or a sick puppy to appreciate the enormous family of humorous medical terms, including ‘peanut butter balls’ (phenobarbitol), ‘horrendoplasty’ (an operation without a sunny forecast), or ‘duck’s disease’ (‘being short’, so-named for the non-NBA-ready stature of quackers).
Quit squawking, fleshwad! Futurama’s human-insult-a-palooza
Peters explores the vocabulary used on the show Futurama.
Buckle up your mirdle! Euphemisms from heck
Mark Peters looks at euphemisms.
Wienerhuahuas will inherit the earth:
the blend-y world of dog breed names
Word blending is a full-time sport in the world of dog breeding. Any two breeds, and their appellations, might spawn a blend. Some recent designer breeds, as they are known, include ‘Beagadors’ (Beagle and Labrador), ‘Maltipon’ (Maltese and Pomeranian) and ‘Jackabees’ (Jack Russell and Beagle).
Know Your Nonsense–A Lexical Guide to Horse Apples
Mark Peters looks at synonyms for “bullshit”.
Calling all tonguesters: Refresh your gossip with old words
Mark Peters guest blogs for Ben Zimmer.
Word Love
Some word love for Valentine’s Day.
One-Hit Wonders: From Hapax to Googlewhacks
Ben Zimmer looks at hapax legomena.