joshedwards.com » wordplay

double-u, double-u, double-u

Josh — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 15:30:20 +0000

This is from a few weeks ago, but I love word origins, here’s the etymology of the world wide web: “Web.”

Word Cloud

Josh — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:30:55 +0000

I found this website, Wordle.net that builds word clouds out of text files.

So I uploaded the 380 pages of my Newlywed in Dubai: Best of the Blog book and came up with this:

Pretty cool.

New Words From the Recession

Josh — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:45:07 +0000

The Christian Science Monitor has some new words from our current economic times. Check out: “Recession slang: 10 new terms for a new economy.”

Sigh:

2. Permatemp, n. The condition of being permanently employed as a temporary worker.

This could be due to lack of motivation to seek permanent employment, inability to find permanent employment, or the permatemp’s belief that a company will eventually hire him/her for the job s/he is currently doing for lower pay and without benefits.

Sample sentence: “Wake up, Joe. You’ve been here for six months, your cubicle is decorated better than your living room, and the hiring manager still doesn’t know your name. You’re officially a permatemp, my friend.”

Next week? My twenty-sixth in this job.

You do the math.

Portmanteaux

Josh — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:35:31 +0000

This New York Times “On Language” column is from a couple of weeks ago, but it’s clever and educational and portmanteaus (portmanteaux?) are always fun.

Plus I agree with Mr. Garner that blog is “the ugliest neologism of the last century”.

Check out: “Webinar.”

South African Slang

Josh — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:30:46 +0000

So as you know South Africa is hosting the FIFA World Cup in June.

Ahead of that, the “Schott’s Vocab” blog on the New York Times has a list of South African slang.

Check out: “Soccer World Cup Slang.”

New Number

Josh — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:30:16 +0000

No.

No, no, no, no: “Hella number: scientists call for new word for 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.”

Before this article I’d never heard of “Yotta-” before (it means Septillion) and now they want a number beyond that. Guess “Octillion” is too much like Octo-mom?

But “Hella-” is too much like No Cal “hella“, which I feel is hella lame.

Mengagement Rings

Josh — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:56:45 +0000

I think I’ve linked to this blog before, but quite frankly I’m feeling too lazy right now to check. “Schott’s Vocab” is a blog on the New York Times that is a “repository of unconsidered lexicographical trifles — some serious, others frivolous, some neologized, others newly newsworthy.”

Fun puns, if you will.

Today’s entry is particularly amusing because Liz and I actually did this (with a $5 ring, though): “Mengagement Rings.”

One line interested me, though, “For a certain generation, in Britain especially, to spot a husband wearing a wedding band is rare.”

Men don’t wear wedding rings in England?! Can we confirm that?