The Lexicographer's Rules

I forgot to mention that Double-Tongued Word Wrester got two mentions in the Washington Post in a list of Jane Mengenhauser’s favorite food words. (Source Link)

I’ve been reading the blog Sixth Seal for years. Originally, Malaysian Poh Huai Bin caught my eye because he and a friend were posting about experiments with various legal and illegal drugs. It seemed bold and revolutionary and a good way to find new drug slang. Now I read it because his prose is straightforward, his pictures interesting, and his insights into life in a country very different from mine feel edifying. It’s like he’s my penpal and doesn’t know it. : ) (Source Link)

There’s a thread on Ask Metafilter about foreign names for the camel toe. You know: when a woman’s pants are too tight. Eh? Update: The Ask Metafilter thread inspired today’s DTWW entry for moose knuckle. (Source Link)

Here’s a statement with which I almost completely disagree. It’s from a footnote on the first page of John Lancaster Riordan’s article “American Naval ‘Slanguage’ in the Pacific in 1945,” from California Folklore Quarterly, Oct. 1946, vol. 5, no. 4, p. 375.

The employment of unprintable language represents an attempt to be manly—"one of the boys.” It indicates indolence of thought and an egregious lack of originality. Moreover, it is generally characterized by dreary repetitions and references to the bodily functions which are completely foreign to the subject concerned.

Was there ever a clearer statement that someone should not be in the business of recording or writing about slang? The witless word “slanguage” in the title is the first tip-off, though. I don’t care which dictionaries include it as an entry, it’s permanently on my list of loathed words—and it is a marker for indolent thought itself.

That last post got me curious about how the name “H5N1” came about. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains:

“Influenza type A viruses are divided into subtypes and named on the basis of two proteins on the surface of the virus: hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). For example, an ‘H7N2 virus’ designates an influenza A subtype that has an HA 7 protein and an NA 2 protein. Similarly an ‘H5N1’ virus has an HA 5 protein and an NA 1 protein. There are 16 known HA subtypes and 9 known NA subtypes. Many different combinations of HA and NA proteins are possible.”

Also, while we’re here: The Big Picture Book of Viruses.

(Source Link)