The Lexicographer's Rules

Recent interesting catchwords from Double-Tongued Dictionary are:

minigarch n. a powerful person who is rich but not extravagantly so. From mini ‘small’ plus -garch from a misdivision of oligarch, which comes from the Greek oligoi ‘few’ and arkhein ‘to rule.’

bitza n. a thing that has a mixed heritage or is made of an other assortment of different things. Also spelled “bitsa.” Both are shortened forms of “bitzer” or “bitser,” which in turn are contractions of “bits of.” All variants are far more common in English outside North America and can often be found referring to mixed-breed dogs. A 1990’s British television show, “Bitsa,” involved two men making complex projects out of craft supplies, small common objects, and discarded items.

I want to direct your attention to Wristcutters, a wry, sharp film starring Patrick Fugit, the kid from Almost Famous. It was produced (with others) by my friend Tatiana Kelly. After it made the rounds of the film festivals last year, I feared the little gem would be lost before they could pick up some kind of national distribution. But now it looks like they’ve done it!

There’s a trailer on the Wristcutters web site but because the web site is all Flash-based, it takes some clicking to get to it. Click on “Enter site,” then on the “Menu” in the lower right corner, then on “Videos.” There’s also video in the sidebar of the very positive New York Times review.

Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary are:

paycheck game n. in American college football, a sporting competition between a strong, favored team and a lower-caliber team (usually from another conference), for which the favored team pays the underdog a substantial fee. Also called a bodybag game or a cupcake game.

pull v. to participate in an arm-wrestling contest.

deconstruction n. the re-use of discarded or dismantled building materials in home construction.

Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary are:

pass the trash v. to repeatedly reassign bad teachers to different classes or schools. A synonym for trade turkeys and dance of the lemons.

ibby-jibbies n.pl. a variant of “heebie-jeebies,” meaning extreme nervousness or “the willies.”

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.