The Lexicographer's Rules

This week marks the happy launch of my fortnightly slang language column in the Malaysian Star, an English-language daily paper that includes a “Mind Our English” section three times a week. The paper has a readership throughout Malaysia of about 1.2 million.

I’m also pleased to say that my editor there is actor and playwright Kee Thuan Chye. I feel like I’m in good hands.

According to this Russian index (see the original Russian), my weblog is the number one autonomous blog on the Internet, according to the number of readers. That means a blog on its own domain not using a blog hosting service like Blogspot or Live Journal.

But, as noted here, Yandex rating is generally one big joke (see the original Russian version.) Yes, I would say so. Clearly, they’re not looking at, oh, say Boing Boing?

Today we start a new format for the daily emails and the RSS feeds that reflects a change in the Double-Tongued Dictionary web site.

From here on out, I am concentrating on collecting new catchwords, which are those words that to seem to warrant more attention from lexicographers, and less on doing full entries, in which I try to track a word a little way toward its origins.

The main reason for this is the happy news that our language-related radio show is gearing up for its new season and taking a lot more of my time. Making this change will save 10 to 15 hours a week.

So, the daily emails will focus on the most interesting new catchwords found over the last day or two. I hope you’ll find this just as valuable.

In addition, over the next few days I’ll change the RSS feeds so that they’ll include a brand-new “catchword summary,” which I will also post here. This will have the same content as the daily email. They’ll look something like this:

The most interesting recent catchwords in the Double-Tongued Dictionary were:

dipsy-do: another way of saying “an up and down (motion or change).”

wonder bank: an organization in Nigeria that falsely promises high returns on low investments, a trick similar to a pyramid scheme.

hooter hider: a cloth or short apron that gives a mother modesty when nursing a child.

red clown: a zany, antic, destructive clown, opposite of a white clown, who is orderly and calm.

snotting: the practice of deliberately spreading a disease (between horses).

My radio partner Martha Barnette, our producer Stefanie Levine, and I are as happy as dogs with two tails: we’ve struck a deal that will keep our radio show, A Way with Words, on the air.

Read more about it here.

We’re already working on new full-hour episodes, which will broadcast in San Diego and across the country as they always have. Spread the word!

Francis exposes this horror to the world: a bottled espresso-like drink that uses the slogan “Icespress yourself” on top of a Fox-TV-style waving American flag, and crosses off “French” in “French Vanilla” with a big red line and replaces it with a bright red “American” in a cheesy font. All it wants now is a picture of Washington and Reagan crossing the Delaware atop the Liberty Bell while bearing the body of Betsy Ross wrapped up in one of her flags.

Also:

It’s “ultra light latte,” whatever the hell that means. Low calories? Light cream or milk? Less caffeine? Less coffee? Space that needed filling on the label? Staking a claim to the diet space of the ersatz coffee drink market?

The name of the product is creatively capitalized and abbreviated as “iced ’SPRESSO.” How about “icky ’SPULSIONE” instead?

It uses the artificial sweetener Splenda. Yum! None of that nasty sugar taste!

It’s made by “New York Coffee Co.,” thereby ruining New York City’s good coffee name.

And it has its own MySpace page.

Big photo here. Print it and carry it with you: should you lose your passport, it will serve as proof that you are a good American.