I was delighted beyond reason this past summer when a Scot called me mate. But I think I’ve typed my last cheers. The New York Times reports on America’s slippery slope into Britishisms.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Word of the day: malarkey
From a New York Times editorial:
Vice President Joseph Biden Jr. would not sit still for a parade of misleading and often blatantly untruthful descriptions of the state of the economy and the Republican prescriptions for it. Though his grins and head-shakes were often distracting, he did not hesitate to interrupt and demand an end to “malarkey.”The Oxford English Dictionary defines it:
Humbug, bunkum, nonsense; a palaver, racket. (Usually of an event, activity, idea, utterance, etc., seen as trivial, misleading, or not worthy of consideration.)One might say that malarkey is Irish for bullshit, but that would be malarkey. The OED notes that “A surname Mullarkey, of Irish origin, exists, but no connection is known between any person of that name and this word.”
By Michael Leddy at 8:54 AM comments: 0
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Fall Peanuts
[Peanuts, October 8, 1970. Click for a larger view.]
I’ve had the October 7, 2004 reprint of this strip taped to the side of a reading carrel since, well, uh, 2004.
Other Peanuts posts
Milk bottles
Schulz’s Beethoven
By Michael Leddy at 9:49 AM comments: 0
Red Rose Irish Breakfast
All tea posts (Pinboard)
By Michael Leddy at 9:25 AM comments: 4
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Bicycles, streetcars, annular systems
Justin Hollander cautions against ditching “good old paper,” pointing out that the merits of such once-passé technologies as bicycles and streetcars have of late been recognized anew. I’m reminded of the trope of the “annular system” in David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. One example from the novel: telephone users who take to videophones return at last to “good old voice-only telephoning.”
And about words on paper: when Elaine and I were browsing in an excellent used-book store a couple of weeks ago, we noticed that every other customer — and there were many — was a young (or younger) adult, digging the pages.
Related reading
All paper posts (Pinboard)
By Michael Leddy at 3:28 PM comments: 0
Mitt Romney debates himself
Yes, the candidates disagree: Mitt Romney debates himself.
By Michael Leddy at 11:13 AM comments: 2
Word of the day: apotropaic
A wonderful word from the Greek: apotropaic. It has something to do with turning, yes? But what? Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate has the etymology: “Greek apotropaios, from apotrepein to avert, from apo- + trepein to turn.” That which is apotropaic is “designed to avert evil,” to turn it away. It’s curious and fitting that the thing averted forms no part of the word itself. Speak no evil.
Apotropaic got me thinking about apo-, which has a range of meanings: away from, off; detached, separate; formed from, related to. Thus for instance, apocalypse, to uncover, disclose. And I now see that word in a new way, as I recall that the name Calypso in Homer’s Odyssey is related to the verb kaluptein, to cover. Keeping Odysseus on her island, removed from human culture, Calypso is a concealer, a burier.
Wikipedia has a page on apotropaic magic, with photographs of painted eyes averting evil. I got thinking about apotropaic during a trip to a museum, where I saw the word in a description of an ancient Greek drinking bowl.
By Michael Leddy at 8:37 AM comments: 0
Sniffing out word origins
“I found myself wondering recently whether the word odor has negative connotations or not. This led me to write a list of other nouns pertaining to that sense we exercise with our noses”: Daughter Number Three investigates the origins of words that name smells and finds a clear pattern.
By Michael Leddy at 8:33 AM comments: 0
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
An afterthought
If I were Boing Boing, the title of the previous post might’ve read like so: Hardee’s commercial likens young women, virgins to breakfast meat. No reply yet from Hardee’s or the advertising agency responsible for the commercial. (I’ve called them both.)
By Michael Leddy at 12:28 PM comments: 3