verbolatry

Reverse Dictionary

2004-11-05T22:29:00.000-08:00

Reverse Dictionary

Look up words by entering their definition.

Ludic

2004-10-18T22:47:00.000-07:00

adj.

Of or relating to play or playfulness: “Fiction... now makes [language] the center of its reflexive concern, and explodes in ludic, parodic, ironic forms” (Ihab Hassan).

valence

2004-10-18T22:34:00.000-07:00

1. Chemistry.
1. The combining capacity of an atom or radical determined by the number of electrons that it will lose, add, or share when it reacts with other atoms.
2. A positive or negative integer used to represent this capacity: The valences of copper are 1 and 2.
2. The number of binding sites of a molecule, such as an antibody or antigen.
3. The ability of a substance to interact with another or to produce an effect.
4. Psychology. The degree of attraction or aversion that an individual feels toward a specific object or event.
5. Linguistics. The number of arguments that a lexical item, especially a verb, can combine with to make a syntactically well-formed sentence, often along with a description of the categories of those constituents. Intransitive verbs (appear, arrive) have a valence of onethe subject; some transitive verbs (paint, touch), twothe subject and direct object; other transitive verbs (ask, give), threethe subject, direct object, and indirect object.
6. The capacity of something to unite, react, or interact with something else: “I do not claim to know much more about novels than the writing of them, but I cannot imagine one set in the breathing world which lacks any moral valence” (Robert Stone).

Dictionary by email / another word

2004-10-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

At wordsmith.org's Wordserver, you can find instructions on how to get definitions and synonyms for words by automated email responses. This is more interesting than useful, I think... these days I imagine anyone who has email access also has web access. But you can also get it to make anagrams out of a word you send, as well as have it expand an acronym (or you can add an acronym's definition to the database).

Also, here's an interesting word that I should have just been able to figure out on my own: polyonymous. Should be obvious: kind of the polar opposite of anonymous. Makes me wonder what other interesting words could be made by switching prefixes.

Writing is Life and Publishers are Strange

2004-10-02T21:05:00.000-07:00

How to Write a Best-Selling Fantasy Novel. Damn funny, and a good overview of things not to do when writing genre fiction - unless you know how to do them really quite well. Avoid this if you can't take some thinly veiled piss-taking at Tolkien's expense.

How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days After. A surprisingly moving essay by Philip K. Dick. Nominally about writing, but its scope goes far beyond wordcraft, touching on philosophy, personal destiny and even the nature of reality. Don't make me break out the "If You Only Read One Essay This Etc." cliches.

I also recently read "Leaving Buenos Aires," a wonderful essay by Eduardo Galeano. Another strikingly poignant piece that uses writing as a vehicle to discuss grander issues, in this case oppression in Latin America specifically and living an engaged life in general. If you can get your hands on a copy - the version I was reading was appended to a print of Days and Nights of Love and War - I highly reccomend it.

And finally, in keeping with the wordporn theme, I thought I'd toss in a few interesting publishing terms that have entered my vocabulary over the last couple of years of becoming a "professional" journalist.

The two that cause the most trouble are lede and leading. You've probably heard someone refer to the lede of a story, and thought they were saying "lead." They mean the same thing - the lede is the first paragraph of an article - but the original printing presses used lead (the metal), and the spelling was changed so as to avoid confusing the technicians. This also explains why leading - referring to the space between lines - is actually pronounced like the metal ("led").

The space between letters - for what it's worth - is kerning. I don't know why.

The other two aren't words, but terms:

Pull quote refers to those quotes from articles which are reprinted somewhere within the article's layout, usually large and bold and set apart from the normal flow of the columns, to draw attention to the story and sum it up.

Above the fold means what it says. It refers to stories on the top half of the first page of a daily newspaper - the ones that will be seen through the newspaper box window.

collectanea

2004-09-26T21:47:00.000-07:00

pl.n.
Passages selected from various authors, usually for purposes of instruction; miscellany; anthology.

When synonyms aren't

2004-09-18T23:14:00.000-07:00

From Many-to-Many: Folksonomy:

Synonym control is not as wonderful as is often supposed, because synonyms often aren’t. Even closely related terms like movies, films, flicks, and cinema cannot be trivally collapsed into a single word without loss of meaning, and of social context.

via notebook

Don't make your paragraphs embarass themselves

2004-09-16T22:09:00.000-07:00

I think one of the overused writing mistakes that bothers me the most in others' writing - probably because I'm always tempted to do it myself - is the dramatic afterthought paragraph, or exhale paragraph. It's when someone appends to a thought a sentence or two intended to emhpasize or make a smarmy little full-stop transition.

Just like this.

It's annoying - eye-gougingly annoying - when used loosely, and, oh, loosely it is used. Observe::

"The idea is that if you can get these things written down, into a system you trust, and know that you'll be reminded of them at the appropriate time, you can get them out of your head, and use all that spare head-space for something more useful. Storing cheese, perhaps.

Well, apart from the cheese, anyway. That's my own suggestion."

ARGH. Not only is that embarassingly far from the shocking grand reversal that the author implies it is (on purpose or otherwise) with that two-sentence paragraph sticking out like a bare ass, but he also completely declaims the humour he was going for a mere sentence earlier. A disturbing mixture of hubris and underconfidence.

As I say, I'm frothing like this because it's a bad habit of mine too. I am. not. crazy.

Borges on Dictionaries

2004-09-13T13:22:00.000-07:00

"It is often forgotten that (dictionaries) are artificial repositories, put together well after the languages they define. The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature." -Jorge Luis Borges, Prologue to "El otro, el mismo."

one of us. one of us. one of us.

2004-09-12T22:26:00.000-07:00

linguablogs. blogs by language nerds. diggit.

The art of making language

2004-09-12T22:18:00.000-07:00

So. Fucking. Awesome.

I happened upon this site while googling the etymology of a suffix, which is probably one of the dorkiest phrases you have read in a good long while. (For those who are interested, munis means to acquiese or be assenting... giving an interesting insight to the words immunity and community: not assenting and assenting together, respectively).

ANYway. It's a site about building languages and words. This is something I often find myself doing, as do many poets I'm sure, but being the geek that I am I prefer to try and do it using proper etymology - taking a modular approach to words. Not too different from sampling and remixing, really.
So, naturally, I was excited to find this site. I haven't given it a real browse yet, but for what it's worth, here's a bit of the site's intro page:

Some people build model airplanes, some craft model trains and some... well, they invent model languages. Model languages can be everything from a few words of made-up slang to a rigorously developed system of interrelated imaginary tongues. It is not a hobby many people know about, since model languages cannot be flown in the park like a model airplane or displayed in full glory in the basement like a model railroad. Model languages exist on paper or in computer files and may be shared only with a few close friends or may be used to give depth to imaginary worlds read or watched by millions.

Millions of people have created model languages of some small scope. Many children invent their own secret vocabularies to share with friends, while teenagers may develop their own private slang to talk about the opposite sex. If few adults seem to create model languages, it is only because schools teach us that language is a formal structure, not a casual, informal world to be explored. The teaching of rigid dictionary definitions, sentence parsing and grammar dry up our interest in the wellspring of language.

Model languages demystify and demythologize the study of language. For too often, our desire to learn to express ourselves with language, to create new words, has been suppressed in favor of rigid conformance to the norm.

Beware the written word! Steer clear of self-reflection!

2004-09-09T12:55:00.000-07:00

This is the stupidest thing i've read in a while:

Keeping a diary is bad for your health, say UK psychologists. They found that regular diarists were more likely than non-diarists to suffer from headaches, sleeplessness, digestive problems and social awkwardness.

Their finding challenges assumptions that people find it easier to get over a traumatic event if they write about it.

“We expected diary keepers to have some benefit, or be the same, but they were the worst off,” says Elaine Duncan of the Glasgow Caledonian University. “In fact, you’re probably much better off if you don’t write anything at all,” she adds.

i shudder to think that some people are now saying, "i'd better stop writing in my journal - it's making me sick!" because of this. i can suggest one reason for their "findings" - maybe people who write in diaries regularly may have more things to work through, and that's why they're going to exhibit more health problems. an other explanation is that the scientist involved is a bloody hack.

sorry, i just find an article encouraging people to write less to be a little obscene.

Grade school be damned

2004-09-07T16:07:00.000-07:00

e-editor.co.uk: For those who live by the words :: editors and writers everywhere

But/however: Starting a sentence with “But” is deeply troubling to many would-be business writers. They rush to change it for “However,”, magnifying all the little shifts of direction that “but” can signal into great, portentous reversals. “However” should only be used when what comes next is a flat and unexpected contradiction of the previous idea, or when you are about to unleash a massive irony.

Experimenting with Ideas

2004-09-07T15:54:00.000-07:00

Martha's Blog: Experimenting with Ideas

a substantial list of ideas for getting past (or around or through) writer's block.

umlauts

2004-09-06T20:25:00.000-07:00

mimi smartypants on umlauts

according to that blog entry, those little double-dot things above letters are called "umlauts". not sure what langauges exactly use them and which don't...

polyglot

2004-08-30T13:20:00.000-07:00

adj.

Speaking, writing, written in, or composed of several languages.

n.

1. A person having a speaking, reading, or writing knowledge of several languages.
2. A book, especially a Bible, containing several versions of the same text in different languages.
3. A mixture or confusion of languages.

sessile

2004-08-27T12:12:00.000-07:00

Dictionary.com/sessile: "adj.

1. Botany. Stalkless and attached directly at the base: sessile leaves.
2. Zoology. Permanently attached or fixed; not free-moving: a sessile barnacle.
"

ersatz

2004-08-24T20:05:00.000-07:00

Dictionary.com/ersatz: "Being an imitation or a substitute, usually an inferior one; artificial: ersatz coffee made mostly of chicory."

bathos

2004-08-24T20:04:00.000-07:00

Dictionary.com/bathos

n.

1.
1. An abrupt, unintended transition in style from the exalted to the commonplace, producing a ludicrous effect.
2. An anticlimax.
2.
1. Insincere or grossly sentimental pathos: “a richly textured man who... can be... sentimental to the brink of bathos” (Kenneth L. Woodward).
2. Banality; triteness.

maudlin

2004-08-24T20:01:00.000-07:00

adj.

Effusively or tearfully sentimental

two sites on common grammatical/language errors and grammar tips

2004-08-23T20:12:00.000-07:00

link 1

link 2

WEEKLY Writing Tips click to subscribe now

2004-08-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

WEEKLY Writing Tips click to subscribe now

WritingTips-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

most other stuff here is bunk, and the "blueprint for internet success" link seems downright sleazy, but the tips seem useful.

Alternate definitions

2004-08-23T20:06:00.000-07:00

The Washington Post recently published a contest for readers in which they were asked to supply alternate meanings for various words. The following were some of the winning entries:

Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.

Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent

Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.

Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly
answer the door in your nightie.

Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.

Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.

Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.

Semantics (n.), pranks conducted by young men studying for the
priesthood, including such things as gluing the pages of the priest's
prayer book together just before vespers.

Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified demeanor assumed by a Proctologist
immediately before he examines you.

Frisbatarianism (n.), The belief that, when you die, your soul goes up
on the roof and gets stuck there.

Hypobulia

2004-08-23T20:04:00.000-07:00

Hypobulia (n) Difficulty in making decisions.

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Actual Entries from the Scots Dialect Dictionary

2004-08-02T21:07:00.000-07:00

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Actual Entries from the Scots Dialect Dictionary: "A C T U A L E N T R I E S F R O M
T H E S C O T S D I A L E C T
D I C T I O N A R Y "

Aphasia

2004-07-27T11:26:00.000-07:00

"Partial or total loss of the ability to articulate ideas or comprehend spoken or written language, resulting from damage to the brain caused by injury or disease."

Boston IMC: newswire/23803

2004-07-25T14:31:00.000-07:00

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture, just get people to stop reading them."
Ray Bradbury

Scansion

2004-07-25T11:51:00.000-07:00

Scansion: "Scansion is the analysis of a line of poetry for foot and meter. To 'scan' a line of poetry means to analyze it rhythmically."

Google and language

2004-07-24T22:31:00.000-07:00

Google is undoubtedly having an impact on the evolution of the English language. I’d be surprised if the folks at the Oxford English Dictionary don’t have a secret threshold number of hits needed for new words to become official. “Blog” was recently added (3.7 million Google hits). I’m sure “Findability” is next (3,690 Google hits). Google is changing authority in ways we don’t fully understand.

And of course there's the unofficial verb google: to google something you want information about. strange how it's used as if googling were some act you perform on the information itself, as if it were a physical object and you're poking it. different from inquiring about something or looking for something...

Source: Digital Web Magazine - Ambient Findability I'm not terribly excited about referring to an article which actually uses the subheading "Intertwingularity" while on the subject of language, but it is somewhat interesting.

Zoetrope

2004-07-23T20:19:00.000-07:00

Zoetrope: "A zoetrope is a circular device with slits cut vertically in the sides which has either individual frames from a video/film or images from a set of sequenced photographs. When viewed through the slits on the outside, the images produced are the equivalent of a motion picture.

The zoetrope was invented in 1834 by George Horner.

The word is a combination of Greek words. It might mean something roughly like 'Wheel of Life' or 'Living Wheel'."

Alacrity

2004-07-21T21:30:00.000-07:00

"Alacrity, noun. From the Latin alacritus meaning promptitude. Similar in meaning to its synonyms Velocity and Celerity, all three mean quickness in action or movement. Alacrity stresses promptness in response to a suggestion or command, cheerful and eager willingness, appropriate quickness, and in general the beginning of fast movement."

Poynter Online - Writing Tool #4: Period As a Stop Sign

2004-07-17T23:46:00.000-07:00

I've only recently decided to do a real browse through Poynter, though it's been in my bookmarks for a while. A lot of fluff, but a lot of useful stuff as well - especially the "Writer's Toolbox" column. Behold:

Poynter Online - Writing Tool #4: Period As a Stop Sign: "In any sentence, the comma acts as a speed bump and the period as a stop sign."

What kind of freak gets off on writing so much as to be excited by articles on punctuation? Whatever kind of freak it is that I am, I suppose. But in a way it's no more strange than a woodworker being interested in lathes, or a photographer in lenses. We all have our tools...

ano-

2004-07-17T20:46:00.000-07:00

"anodized" - To coat (a metallic surface) electrolytically with a protective or decorative oxide.

"anodyne" - adj - Capable of soothing or eliminating pain.
- n - Something which soothes pain