John Gordon Ross

Almost everyone uses language, so inevitably almost everyone thinks they are an expert in it. I don’t consider myself an expert, though most of my work requires at least language competence and sometimes actual skill, but I do follow the blogs featured on this feeds page.

(If you are wondering where the translation-related feeds have all gone, I have put them on their own page.)

Most of the blogs represented here are in English, most of the time, but don’t be surprised to find other languages used. Go with the flow – I occasionally find myself pleasantly surprised at how much I can grasp in languages I have never seen before.

Language On the Net

languagehat.com » The Dawn’s Posterior.

Wednesday 21 January 19:38:53 UTC 2015

Frequent commenter Paul sent me a French etymology so piquant I have to share it with all of you. There are two synonymous obsolete expressions (now used humorously), potron-jacquet and potron-minet, appearing only in the phrases à potron-minet/jacquet and dès (le) potron-minet/jacquet ‘at the crack of dawn.’ In today’s French dictionaries, minet means ‘pussycat,’ jacquet means ‘backgammon,’ and there is … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Sing a disney song

Wednesday 21 January 8:00:00 UTC 2015

Have sex or do anything sexual. *Taken from the movie Lion King where Simba and Nala lick each other while the song "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" plays. G: Honey, I feel horny as ever B: Come on and sing a disney song with me babe G: Screw me. [Link]

languagehat.com » Ogee.

Wednesday 21 January 1:35:10 UTC 2015

I’m still reading Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty , and I’ve gotten to the part where the title is explained. First, on p. 176: The ogee curve was repeated in the mirrors and pelmets and in the wardrobes, which looked like Gothic confessionals; but its grandest statement was in the canopy of the bed, made of two transecting ogees crowned by … [Link]

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