Comments by editormark

  • A definition that only existed in lexicographer Kory Stamper's mind for several seconds after receiving an e-mail about the word: "Mythical foolishness of no value whatsoever to enrich a person's thinking."

    May 2, 2013

  • Google hits on April 13, 2013:

    "aw, cute": 327 million

    "aww, cute": 779 million

    "awww, cute": 495 million

    "awwww, cute": 210,000

    My column on dictionaries' lacking a good definition of "aw": http://markallenediting.com/2010/03/18/awe-spreads-faster-than-dictionaries-can-keep-up/#comment-2295

    April 13, 2013

  • From Wikipedia:

    Hoo is used in placenames in the east of England to indicate coastal peninsulas and promontories. It appears in:

    Fort Hoo, a fort on an island in the River Medway, Kent

    Hoo St Werburgh and Cliffe-at-Hoo on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent

    Hoo, Suffolk

    Hundred of Hoo School, a secondary school in Rochester, Kent

    Hundred of Hoo Railway, a railway line on the Hoo peninsula in Kent

    Luton Hoo, a country house in Bedfordshire, England

    St Mary Hoo, a village and civil parish in Kent, England

    Hoo Peninsula, north Kent, England

    Sutton Hoo, an Anglo-Saxon cemetery, Suffolk

    Wan-Hoo, a lunar crater on the Moon's far side

    December 10, 2011

  • Stan Carey on Twitter: "Inventing words just because you like how they sound is completely astribilous."

    October 19, 2011

  • My take on ta: http://editormark.wordpress.com/2009/12/06/7/

    September 21, 2011

  • "Donuts" gets 43 million Google hits to 12.6 million for "doughnuts." But subtract 12.8 million donuts for the brand name "Dunkin' Donuts" and probably millions more for "Buckeye Donuts," "Stan's Donuts," etc.

    "Doughnut" is still ahead on Google's Ngram viewer: http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=doughnut%2Cdonut&year_start=1950&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3

    September 12, 2011

  • "Donuts" gets 43 million Google hits to 12.6 million for "doughnuts." But subtract 12.8 million donuts for the brand name "Dunkin' Donuts" and probably millions more for "Buckeye Donuts," "Stan's Donuts," etc.

    "Doughnut" is still ahead on Google's Ngram viewer: http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=doughnut%2Cdonut&year_start=1950&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3

    September 12, 2011

  • "Bloody" has long been thought of as a profanity, falsely linked in the 1700s to "Christ's blood." It began as (and is becoming) a harmless intensive.

    September 12, 2011

  • Don't call two quarters of GDP decline a "traditional" definition of "recession." The recent convention often is rejected as simplistic. A "recession" ends when a decline hits bottom. It doesn’t mean the economy has recovered, says the National Bureau of Economic Research. The NBER defines “recession” as “significant decline in economic activity lasting more than a few months.” It runs from a peak to a trough.

    September 12, 2011

  • For the comments, see "kitty-corner" with a hypen.

    September 12, 2011

  • Kitty-corner is common enough to be considered a regionalism, most common in the Great Lakes states. http://dare.wisc.edu/?q=node/109

    September 12, 2011

  • "Discrete" means distinct or separate (the island of Crete is a discrete part of Greece). "Discreet" means quietly careful or judicious.

    September 12, 2011

  • Don't fear "effect" as a verb. To "affect" is to influence; to "effect" is to bring about. "Effect" something and you can take the credit.

    September 12, 2011

  • Capitol (think of the shape of a dome) is a building, and it's capitalized if it's specific. Capital is a city, money or uppercase letter.

    September 12, 2011

  • The waist, with an "i," lies between the ribs and hips. Credit Johnson (1755) with the "i" spelling.

    September 12, 2011

  • Yes, this is the spelling you seek. Here is my blog entry on the topic: http://editormark.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/awe-spreads-faster-than-dictionaries-can-keep-up/#comment-283

    August 17, 2011

  • My blog entry on confusion between "aw" and "awe": http://editormark.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/awe-spreads-faster-than-dictionaries-can-keep-up/#comment-283

    August 17, 2011

  • I agree with Emily about the descent into commonplaceness. It's typified by trying to hold on to a theme that once resonated but has since run its course. On Twitter, @willf suggested "jump the shark is the point where it is obvious that something has become irreparably bad."

    August 5, 2011

  • One of the longest words made up of U.S. state postal abbreviations.

    November 11, 2010

  • Eponymous list from the Twitter hashtag.

    October 19, 2010

  • A probably related word is "dinkus," a typographer's symbol used to separate sections of a book within a chapter.

    August 7, 2010

  • A symbol used in book publishing to separate sections within a chapter. Probably related to "dingus" or "dinges," a catch-all pronoun from the Dutch "dinges."

    August 7, 2010

  • Writer Tara Moss's term for three asterisks in a line used typographically to separate sections of a book or other written work.

    August 7, 2010

  • "The ferocity with which people fight about words is astonishing." - George Bernard Shaw

    July 27, 2010

  • So what explains 1830's one-year explosion of "creeped" in Wordnik's date chart?

    July 26, 2010

  • Is this accurate? The two-word "in case" listed as "incase" in GNU Webster's 1913?

    July 13, 2010

  • A short form of the expression "gor blimey," or "gorblimey" or "cor blimey," often pronounced without the "r."

    June 11, 2010

  • Came across this in a business briefing about the economy, seemingly an old idiom conforming to A-H's sixth definition: "An orderly succession of related events or thoughts; a sequence."

    June 10, 2010

  • A blog entry by me on the word and its confusion with "awe": http://editormark.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/awe-spreads-faster-than-dictionaries-can-keep-up/

    June 10, 2010

  • @LiteralMinded's @VisualThesaurus column on "awesome/awful/awe"--and rollercoasters! (paywall) http://bit.ly/bEoLxs

    June 10, 2010

  • @LiteralMinded's @VisualThesaurus column on "awesome/awful/awe"--and rollercoasters! (paywall) http://bit.ly/bEoLxs

    June 10, 2010

  • Language Log on sketchy: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2180 (via Nancy Friedman, who notes that Merriam-Webster online is alone in providing the newer meaning).

    June 7, 2010

  • Available, common on newspaper copy desks. "Who's up?" to work a story, take a sports call, read a proof, etc. (Similar to American Heritage definitions 35-37.)

    June 2, 2010

  • Business jargon for a meeting in which participants touch base on the progress on a project.

    June 1, 2010

  • A choreographed display by fans at a sporting event.

    "A beautiful sight on Saturday as the Nordecke unfurled new tifo. Another terrific photo by Sam Fahmi. http://bit.ly/a4UHJu #TheCrew"

    - @MassiveCityFFC, May 31, 2010

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tifo

    May 31, 2010

  • Recently came across this usage in regard to having an original musical composition played by musicians: "Has this been read yet?"

    May 31, 2010

  • "Fraudster planned to use his own chips in casino."

    -- May 26, 2010 Reuters headline.

    OED's earliest reference is 1975 and all three of its examples are English press. M-W Unabridged suggests word is "chiefly British."

    May 27, 2010

  • The shortest two-syllable word in English.

    May 9, 2010

  • Merrill Perlman's term for dictionaries that let in words or meanings before they are ubiquitous: slut dictionaries.

    April 17, 2010

  • 1. A young child, older than a toddler, not quite big enough to be called "kid.". "Elizabeth is such a cute little kidlet."

    April 6, 2010

  • 1. climbing buildings.

    April 4, 2010

  • Apparently Greek for "march forth," and thus celebrated on March 4.

    February 19, 2010

  • Some thoughts on the alright vs. all right, including a survey of several dictionaries and usage guides: http://editormark.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/

    February 10, 2010

  • Some thoughts on the alright vs. all right, including a survey of several dictionaries and usage guides: http://editormark.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/it’s-all-right-i-think-we’re-gonna-make-it/

    February 10, 2010

  • For a discussion, see World Wide Words: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-fos1.htm

    December 1, 2009

  • I was compelled moments ago to declare my intention to make "ta" the crossover BrE -> AmE word of 2010. (http://bit.ly/8k1TdY) It is the perfect way to say "thank you" on Twitter, much nicer than the clunky TY. I urge you to join me in making '10 the year of "ta"

    Incidentally,none of the examples given present "ta" in its usage as "thank you."

    November 25, 2009

  • Crash blossom has been defined by Language Log as an "infelicitously worded headline that leads the reader down the garden path." Its etymology dates to a discussion on the Testy Copy Editors discussion board (http://www.testycopyeditors.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11134), inspired by this confusing headline: Violinist linked to JAL crash blossoms. Another excellent example from Language Log (from an AP-written headline):McDonald's fries the holy grail for potato farmers.

    September 25, 2009

  • Uses I don't quite understand:

    The user control is granular, allowing unlimited use or timed use. — Wi-Fi Networking News

    "I want (the city budget) to be as transparent and granular ..."

    "Tricryption meets their requirements for transparent and granular security that allows dynamic controls over variable user groups." -- Eruces Data Security

    September 15, 2009

  • "Mike" dates to the 1920s, according to the OED, while "mic" dates to the 1960s. Most dictionaries consider "mic" a variant. Yet Wordnik's stats show a recent explosion in its use. Why? "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" both spell it "mic."

    August 21, 2009

  • "Mike" dates to the 1920s, according to the OED, while "mic" dates to the 1960s. Most dictionaries consider "mic" a variant. Yet Wordnik's stats show a recent explosion in its use. Why? "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" both spell it "mic."

    August 21, 2009

  • American Heritage and Oxford American seem to be out front with the verb use of "articulate" as fitting things together to make a whole (AH definition No. 9). The usage I've been coming across is higher-ed jargon for making sure community college programs jibe with four-year college programs for seamless transition, similar to the anatomical use, to form a joint (AH definition No. 14 and New Oxford American No.2). "Articulation agreement" gets 147,000 hits in a Google search. As defined by City College of Chicago: "An articulation agreement is a formal agreement between institutions that allows credits earned in specific programs at the City Colleges to be applied towards direct entry or advanced standing at another institution." http://www.ccc.edu/admissions/articulation.shtml. Also: "Utica College agrees to articulate with Herkimer County Community. College by providing ... ." www.herkimer.edu/pdfs/transferagreements/.../utica_liberal_arts.pdf.

    July 5, 2009