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
Language Log » Apparently this is not an April Fool's joke
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languagehat.com » Maundy.
Lane Greene of The Economist has a “Johnson” column in which he discusses the “three rather strange names … ‘Maundy’ Thursday, ‘Good’ Friday and ‘Easter’”; the last two are pretty straightforward (good used to mean ‘holy, godly’ and Easter is after a dawn goddess Eostre), but the first is more confusing. Greene doesn’t care for the OED’s explanation (“< Anglo-Norman ... [Link]
Wordorigins.org » Maundy Thursday
The day before Good Friday is often called Maundy Thursday, but that term is a bit mysterious to most modern English speakers. Outside of the name of the holiday, maundy isn’t a word we much use anymore. The word comes to us from the Anglo-Norman, the dialect of French spoken in post-Conquest England, mandet or mandé, and ultimately from the … [Link]
Wordorigins.org » Good Friday
Good Friday is the day that Christians commemorate the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ, which leads many people to ask “what’s so ‘good’ about it?” That’s a fair question, and the answer is that good has been used to designate a number of religious holidays. In Old and Middle English, the adjective god (good) could mean ‘pious, devout, morally … [Link]
Language Log » Anti-Bowl
A month ago, we studied the enigma of "Anti-mouth-bowls" (3/1/15). It was Jan Söhlke who had sent me a photograph of what were labeled "Anti-Mund-Schuessel" ("anti-mouth-bowl"). He mentioned that the same Viennese shop had other bowls with equally mystifying names and promised to go back and take pictures of them. Jan has now delivered on his promise by sending the … [Link]
Language Log » Ask Language Log: hippocampus
Via Jason Schrock on Twitter… Hey @LanguageLog check it out pic.twitter.com/Hxh1ngD55y — jason (@jason_schrock) April 2, 2015 hǎimǎ 海马 ("seahorse") So where does the "Hippocampus" on the pictured language learning card come from? That's the scientific genus name for what is commonly known as the "seahorse". It derives from Greek hippos ("horse") and kampos ("sea monster"). The reason this card … [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Vellichor
The recently invented 'vellichor' deserves to be better known. [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Galoot
Can one have a small 'galoot'? And what's the source of the word? [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Crizzling
Is 'crizzling' the action of frost forming on water, or its sound? [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Caparisoned
'Caparisoned' is a posh word meaning richly clothed. [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » selfie stick
1. a selfie stick 2. slang for one's own johnson The Louvre has banned the selfie stick.
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languagehat.com » Manx Update.
I recently posted a brief account of “Manx’s Surprising Revival”; here‘s a longer one by Sarah Whitehead of the Guardian, with quite a detailed account of the history: One of the biggest pioneers in the revival is Brian Stowell, who decided to learn the Manx language in 1953 after reading an article about a man called Douglas Faragher, who was … [Link]
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