languagehat.comLanguages, hats, and more.INDIAN NONSENSE.- (Found July 6, 2008 ) A new book called The Tenth Rasa: An Anthology of Indian Nonsense sounds like a lot of fun; amardeep of Sepia Mutiny says in his post "The book is a collection of nonsensical poems and short stories from all over India, most of them translated into English. Its one of those rare Penguin India titles that ended up getting distributed in the U.S." and quotes some samples, of which my favorite is:Idli lost its fiddli Dosa lost its crown Wada lost its violin And let the whole band down.The primary..http://www.languagehat.com/archives/003164.php PHAISTOS DISC A FORGERY- (Found July 6, 2008 ) An e-mail from Jerome M. Eisenberg, Editor-in-Chief of Minerva, The International Review of Ancient Art & Archaeology, alerts me to his article in the JulyAugust issue claiming that the Phaistos Disc is "a clever forgery." His press release says:Dr Jerome M. Eisenberg, Editor-in-Chief and founder of the magazine in 1990, presents his spectacular findings based on scrupulous and painstaking research initiated nearly four decades ago. His aesthetic and technical analyses convincingly demonstrate.http://www.languagehat.com/archives/003165.php IT BURNS ME UP.- (Found July 6, 2008 ) Dear Abby ventures into the realm of language today, something that rarely goes well:DEAR ABBY: Does a house "burn up" or "burn down" — HOT TOPIC IN ASHEBORO, N.C. DEAR "HOT": It does both, depending upon where the fire starts. According to the Beverly Hills Fire Department, if a fire starts in the attic, it burns down — and if it starts on the first floor, it burns up.Who do you turn to when you need linguistic information Why, a fireman, of course! I have no idea whether...http://www.languagehat.com/archives/003166.php A ROSE IS A ROSE.- (Found July 6, 2008 ) Except when it's a piece of metal. We had a minor household crisis recently that involved breaking into our own house in broad daylight through a window and the replacement of a doorknob, and in the course of the latter process we found that the instruction sheet referred to "the rose." Rose Why yes, as the OED says (s.v. rose 14.): f. Building. A circular, sometimes ornamental mounting through which the shaft of a door-handle may pass. The next definition, equally surprising to me, was: g..http://www.languagehat.com/archives/003167.php HOW WINTLE BECAME WINKLE.- (Found July 6, 2008 ) A great story of dialect pronunciation at Linguism: My paternal grandmothers maiden name was Winkle. Dont laugh - this is a relatively common name in the Potteries, and presumably originates in the place name Wincle, which is a village in Cheshire. ... When I started researching this part of my family history, I spent a cold afternoon in a church vestry copying out all the relevant birth marriage and death entries in the Registers, and noted that some of the entries had the spelling Wintle. I.http://www.languagehat.com/archives/003168.php FUTILITY CLOSET.- (Found July 6, 2008 ) Via MetaFilter, I discovered Greg Ross's excellent website, Futility Closet, self-described as "An idler's miscellany of compendious amusements." It has a language category full of such gems as Roll Call: A pangrammatic anagrammatic verse composed by Edwin Fitzpatrick each line contains each of the 20 consonants once and each of the six vowels twice: Why jog exquisite bulk, fond crazy vamp, Daft buxom jonquil, zephyr's gawky vice Guy fed by work, quiz Jove's xanthic lamp Zow! Qualms by...http://www.languagehat.com/archives/003169.php SCAPEGOAT.- (Found July 6, 2008 ) I looked up scape 'plant stalk' (a word my wife and I learned at the Food Bank Farm, where they had garlic scapes), thinking it might have an interesting etymology; it didn't particularly (it's from Latin scapus 'shaft, stalk'), but right below it there was a word with a really great etymology, scapegoat. I'll quote the OED:Apparently invented by Tindale (1530) to express what he believed to be the literal meaning of Heb. 'az&257;zel, occurring only in Lev. xvi. 8, 10, 26. (In verse 10 he...http://www.languagehat.com/archives/003170.php ANEGRE.- (Found July 6, 2008 ) A wonderful NY Times story by Caroline H. Dworin describes the Putnam Rolling Ladder Company, its 80-year history and charmingly antiquated practices ("the hanging sign outside is now completely black, its letters faded off. It used to be attached to Putnams horse-drawn buggy, but having gotten rid of the actual buggy, Gregg says, the Monseeses used its sign for their store"). For a newspaper story, it's damn well written:The silent third floor hides a deep forest of ladders, ladders leaning...http://www.languagehat.com/archives/003171.php SHODDY.- (Found July 6, 2008 ) An interesting post over at Derryl Murphy's blog asking about a Prince Georgian usage he's started hearing:When the boys, or for that matter any kid here in town, wants to lay claim to something, they quickly shout out "I shoddy the last ginger ale!" or whatever it is they want to get. Of course, a search of definitions comes up with the usual, and nothing else. ... And so I find myself wondering, is this a spontaneous creation, or has it arisen from somewhere else and are others seeing it as..http://www.languagehat.com/archives/003172.php WE GADARENES.- (Found July 6, 2008 ) Tuesday was my birthday (I have as many years behind me now as Heinz has varieties), and my wife gave me, along with a gorgeous bluish-gray linen shirt, the Collected Poems of Richard Wilbur, one of my favorite living poets. I've only begun to explore it; I could quote what is still perhaps the poem of his I love best, "Love Calls Us to the Things of This World" ("Oh, let there be nothing on earth but laundry"), but I think instead I'll go with "Matthew VIII, 28 ff." (q.v.):Rabbi, we...http://www.languagehat.com/archives/003173.php |