Browse by Tags

The Comprehensibility Test

In a remarkably sane post about new words, editor John McIntyre of the Baltimore Sun offers the following bit of wordly wisdom: [T]he point is not whether a dictionary has conferred legitimacy on [a] word; the point is whether the word is comprehensible and appropriate in context. Exactly. This applies...

Posted to Lingua Techna (Weblog) by Paul on 08-12-2008
Is the English Language Full?

Some folks just don't get it: The English language is a growing concern. Every year, Collins gets a pile of free publicity by publicly announcing new additions to its dictionary (last year: Facebook (as a verb), poke (as an action on Facebook) and sub-prime (adjective)). The Oxford English Dictionary...

Posted to Lingua Techna (Weblog) by Paul on 06-19-2008
Seth Godin Coins Word

Seth Godin neologizes : So, very soon, you will own a cell phone that has a very good camera and knows where you are within ten or fifteen feet. And the web will know who you are and who your friends are. What happens? Well, when you take a photo, you can automatically send it to the clowd. The clowd...

Posted to Lingua Techna (Weblog) by Paul on 06-16-2008
I'll Drink to That

Perhaps the folks who coined manstincts should read this : Over the past year, there has been plenty of talk in bar and restaurant circles about wine-based cocktails. Some people in the industry have even coined the term "winetails," I guess mainly because people can't resist coining ridiculous...

Posted to Lingua Techna (Weblog) by Paul on 06-12-2008
A New Word Record: 3.6 Million Letters!

When a man has anything of his own to say, and is really in earnest that it should be understood, he does not usually make cavalry regiments of his sentences, and seek abroad for sesquipedalian words. —Charles Dickens, Household Words , 1858 A sesquipedalian word is one that's either very long or...

Posted to Lingua Techna (Weblog) by Paul on 06-11-2008
The Language Manstinct

In yesterday's Chicago Sun-Times, Lewis Lazare wrote about a new marketing campaign that Kraft Foods is running for Planters nuts: Planters, a unit of packaged foods behemoth Kraft Foods, decided sometime last year to shift the marketing focus for its iconic nuts brand to men. Okay, so far so good;...

Posted to Lingua Techna (Weblog) by Paul on 06-10-2008
Mobile clubbing

Last month on Word Spy , I posted the phrase silent disco , which I defined in part as "a party where each person dances to whatever music is playing on his or her MP3 player." In today's New York Times Magazine , Rob Walker provides a synonym, mobile clubbing , and provides a terrific...

Posted to Lingua Techna (Weblog) by Paul on 06-08-2008
Word Spy Tech Terms: lifestreaming

n . An online record of a person's daily activities, either via direct video feed or via aggregating the person's online content such as blog posts, social network updates, and online photos. Read more about "lifestreaming" on Word Spy

Posted to Lingua Techna (Weblog) by Paul on 05-05-2008
Word Spy Tech Terms: mullet strategy

n . A website design where a site's main or most visible pages are professionally written, edited, and laid out, while the rest of the site relies on content supplied by volunteers and site visitors. Read more about "mullet strategy" on Word Spy

Posted to Lingua Techna (Weblog) by Paul on 04-25-2008
Word Spy Tech Terms: digital native

n . A person who grew up in a world with computers, mobile phones, and other digital devices. Read more about "digital native" on Word Spy

Posted to Lingua Techna (Weblog) by Paul on 04-10-2008

Page 1 of 5 (41 items) 1 2 3 4 5 Next >