Archives for Language

A brief tirade about totaphobia... (August 13, 2006) This is trivial and I will be mocked. More 4 is currently rebroadcasting The West Wing from the beginning and they have it surrounded by this sponsorship thing from 118118 which is some directory thing I refuse to use. And...

On Pokemonetisation... (April 24, 2006) Only colleague (but not for long) Simon Willison and I have been spending a hell of a lot of time over the last three weeks sitting in a tiny room with lots of whiteboards puzzling over motives for collecting and...

On Paralepsis (Part Two) (April 5, 2003) One of my favourite words is paralepsis (I've even talked about it before). It's a word from the ancient study of rhetoric and it essentially means that you state loudly the subjects that you're not going to talk about -...

On workaholics, sexaholics, alcholics and etymology... (October 18, 2001) I have a bone to pick with you. You've all had a drink in your lives, I assume. You've all gone out and bought some alcohol? Some of you may have got rather too keen on alcohol. You might even...

On creative etymology... (November 10, 2000) Notice the similarity in pronunciation between these two words: "Homey" (as in homeboy, contemporary American street-slang) and "Omi" (old gay palare for man). Palare had a word, "omipalone" (Oh-Mi-Pal-Oh-Nee) which was a combination of Man and Woman ("palone"), and which...

Why don't Americans understand British English? (May 7, 2000) This post is SOOOOO not going to go down well. Tracy and Katy are having a conversation about American and British English. Before I begin, I know that I am jumping rather savagely into the fray on this one, that...