TAG: language
Steven Johnson breaks down which authors use the longest sentences.Combatants include: Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Pinker, Seth Godin, Christopher Hitchens, Michel Foucault and Frederic Jameson.
Tags: writing books language statistics visualization
Theory: The life of a buzzword
"A buzzword is no black swan, but when one breaks out of the long tail into the short head and hits the tipping point it still makes me question the wisdom of the crowds. But because the world is flat, I've listed a freakonomical list . . . "
William Safire talks about how the title "strategist" is all the hype.
Tags: strategy politics business language nytimes
Irish Goodbye: "Leaving the bar or anywhere for that matter, without closing niceties, like a kiss goodbye to that annoying girl or mentioning something to your friends"
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
"Bison from upstate New York who are intimidated by other bison in their community also happen to intimidate other bison in their community." Head = exploded.
Did pirates really say "arrrr"?
"Probably not. Both that phrase and the accent that goes with it are strictly Hollywood. They originated with Robert Newton, the actor who played Long John Silver in the movies and on TV through much of the 1950s." I'm crushed.
Tags: history funny language movies
"Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate."
Tags: visualization language
"Either of two blue lines running across an ice-hockey rink, usually 60 feet from each goal, and dividing the rink into defensive, neutral, and offensive zones."
Tags: language definition
"A violent demonstration of rage or frustration by a full-grown man in protest of or reaction to a difficult household chore or home-improvement project"
33 Names of Things You Never Knew had Names
Including such gems as "SNORKEL BOX - A mailbox with a protruding receiver to allow people to deposit mail without leaving their cars."
Tags: fun language lists strange
Scott Adams, illustrator of Dilbert, came down with something called Spasmodic Dysphonia. Basically you're brain forgets how to speak in normal context. No one had ever recovered. Until now . . .
Tags: brain language happiness psychology health bestarticlesof2006
The Politically Incorrect Alphabet
"Lacking any tact or decency, I therefore determined to create an alphabet using only subjects that, while they might have been unremarked a few decades ago, are now outside acceptable usage."
A defense of the much-maligned word.
Using Adoption Metaphors to Increase Customer Acceptance
“Adoption metaphors have a lifecycle. They begin by introducing a new concept. They help us map something new to something we already understand and give us a framework in which to understand the new thing.�
Tags: metaphors language internet innovation ux
The history of the word 'slut'.
Does the World Cup have a lingua franca?
"If a player doesn't happen to share a language with the referee, he might yell in his native language just to convey that he's upset. "Any kind of fellatio comment is inevitably understood," says Alexi Lalas, who was on the U.S. World Cup roster in 1994
How Brazilian soccer players get their names
How Brazilian soccer players get their names.
Tags: soccer sports language culture brazil
"Why do so few American citizens care that our own government is spying on us?"
Tags: politics privacy language
The Printer's Devil's Dictionary
Definitions of design terms. My favorite: "Over-analyze, v. 1. To perform even the most cursory critical study of a design artifact. 2. To analyze."
On the cooption of language.
Tags: language design intelligentdesign
Blogging For Blogging's Sake or The Tyranny of the Term
"Take “blog� as another example  “web log� software is simply a publishing platform  an easy-to-use content management system  but it has come to connote an iconoclastic, power-to-the-little-guy ethos."
"But what if … what if we had a graphic vocabulary that actually meant something? What if it were a hard fact that, say, an open swoosh = transition, and a closed swoosh (halo) = transition completed."
Tags: design branding history language
Powazek: Just a Thought: Death to User-Generated Content
"Calling the beautiful, amazing, brilliant things people create online 'user-generated content' is like sliding up to your lady, putting your arm around her and whispering, 'Hey baby, let's have intercourse.'"
Tags: marketing language communication passion internet
"It's turning into what Julian Bleecker calls a 'Theory Object,' which is an idea which is not just a mental idea or a word, but a cloud of associated commentary and data, that can be passed around from mouse to mouse, and linked-to."
Tags: things google language search
When It Comes to Blogs, There Aren't Enough Words
"Think about how we use 'blog' in conversation and compare that with our more evolved slang for print publications. Nobody calls Sports Illustrated a 'group magazine.' And we don't call everything we read on paper a 'print.'"
Tags: language blogs media slang
"that is why I believe that nano is the new turbo, another technical term appropriated by marketing people and applied in so many ways as to make it meaningless."
Tags: marketing apple technology language posted
"OneLook's reverse dictionary lets you describe a concept and get back a list of words and phrases related to that concept."
Tags: communication creativity language reference writing tools posted
Searching for a fake word in the New Oxford American Dictionary
Tags: copyright funny language posted
" A piece about memories, seasons and using the elements of the textual representation of the memory to create an interactive one."
Tags: art design language memory posted
" Wordcounter ranks the most frequently used words in any given body of text. Use this to see what words you overuse (is everything a "solution" for you?) or maybe just to find some keywords from a document."
Tags: language tools writing posted
A new Pew study indicates only 9% of Americans know what an RSS feed is
Tags: research rss language technology posted
Carny Lingo from Welcome to The Fair
"I believe this is the most comprehensive glossary of carnival terms to be found anywhere on the Internet."
Tags: strange language slang reference posted
Inc.: "Refining your company's message is an ongoing process and it requires considerable discipline."
Tags: business branding copywriting language posted
Going commando? Chavtastic, says dictionary
The dictionary adds words such as "going commando" and "drunk dialing"
Why smart people defend bad ideas
scottberkun.com: "The primary point is that no amount of intelligence can help an individual who is diligently working at the wrong level of the problem."
Tags: intelligence business language logic posted
"If you control what is acceptable to say, to print, to show, you control the ability of people to form opinion, especially dissenting opinion."
Tags: mcluhan postmodernism media language posted culture
Top Ten Favorite Words (Not in the Dictionary)
Ginormous and woot made the list.
Tags: language lists funny posted
"A weblog: blogs run by twenty-something Americans with at least an unhealthy interest in computers." Ouch!
Tags: funny language apple posted
The article that changed the world
Overinflated claims in book titles reveal a lack of self-confidence among publishers
Tags: books language funny history writing posted
half-RSSed, adj., haff-AHRST: A blog whose RSS feed offers only headlines and not the body text you really want to read.
Tags: rss funny language posted blogs
McSweeney's: "______-______-bo-______-bananna-fanna-fo-______-fee-fy-fo-______. ______!"
Tags: funny lists language posted
William Safire goes off on "branding"
Tags: branding marketing nytimes language posted
Gender Differences in Spoken and Written Communication
"One study that she references found that reviewers could guess the gender of the author of a paper with 75% accuracy."
Tags: culture im communication language gender posted
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.
McSweeney's: "Hey there, my little ... my little cowgirl. I'm Jack Bartlett. Want credit for a quotation? I don't think anyone's laid claim to your phone number yet. Nice. Just ... just one second, let me get a pen." - John Bartlett
Tags: funny language lists posted
What's Your Brand Mantra?: "So if a monologue is one person talking, and dialogue is two people talking, what's a multilogue?"
Tags: blogs language marketing posted
The new geek speak / neo-marketing language
Creating Passionate Users: "When people are passionate (or even just "into") something, they have a shared lexicon that helps dinstinguish them from those who aren't."
Tags: blogs language business passion posted
A list of 42 fallacies
Tags: lists language law reference
What is the difference between i.e. and e.g.?
A good thing to know
Epithet Morphs From Bad Girl to Weak Boy
New York Times examines the use of the word "bitch," especially directed towards males
All your word questions answered. Like why do police have the nickname "the fuzz?"
Learning a Language in the Digital Age
Some good tips on learning a new language
Tags: education language howto software posted
An SAT Without Analogies Is Like: (A) A Confused Citizenry...
NYTimes: "Since the SAT no longer contains analogy questions, here is one: A nation whose citizens cannot tell a true analogy from a false one is like - fill in your own image for precipitous decline."
Tags: testing SAT education language posted nytimes
Video rental style
Tags: funny movies language posted
The Web Not the Death of Language
Turns out that college students who communicate online are not butchering the language as many are led to believe.
Tags: language conference posted
A parent's primer to computer slang
Lots of great tips on understand what your children mean when they write "1337"
Tags: funny microsoft language slang
State of the Union Parsing Tool
Find words within the State of the Union. I've preloaded it with "terror" and "freedom" for your convienence.
Tags: politics language posted
A list of all the different ways people around the world say cell phone
Conception of a Question: Who's Your Daddy?
The origins of the term "Who's your daddy?"
Tags: language
Reading William Safire write "dropping the kids off at the pool" nearly brought a tear to my eye
A four-letter term that came to symbolize the difference between old and new media during this year's presidential campaign tops U.S. dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster's list of the 10 words of the year.
The 70 most beautiful words in the English language
Tags: language
Have you been searching for just the right cliché to use? Are you searching for a cliché using the word "cat" or "day" but haven't been able to come up with one? Just enter any words in the form below, and this search engine will return any clichés whi
Tags: language
Get hip to chav as this year's wizard word
Buzzwords from 1904 to 2004
Tags: language
List of country name etymologies
Good to know . . . I guess
Tags: language
What's the origin of izzle? It's eezy
Safire explores izzle, does it get any better than this?
Tags: language
Tags: language
Tags: language