The Lexicographer's Rules

Jennifer 8. Lee writes in the City Room blog of the New York Times that difficulties in choosing the correct Spanish word for “wheeze” are making it difficult to treat asthma in Hispanophones. Be sure to read the comments, where Spanish-speaking doctors chime in with informed opinions (alongside the usual half-assed comments from anyone with a browser, an online dictionary, and a sense of self-importance—if any blogs in the world cry out for something like Slashdot karma for comments it’s those of New York Times).

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

o-beer time: in the Philippines, an instance of or an occasion suitable for drinking, similar to “beer o’clock” and “beer thirty.”

butthurt adj. angry, indignant, offended, or outraged.

way back n. the backmost area of a station wagon (British: estate car), usually used for portage or storage.

huacha: a Mexican Spanish borrowing of the English word “washer,” referring to a small, flat ring of metal. “Huacha” is also a throwing game using washers.

Deborah Cameron’s book The Myth of Mars and Venus seems to be a fact-based debunking of the popular notion that men and women speak and write differently. It’s Language Log territory, for sure.

In the London Times she outlines the myths about communication between genders:

Myth 1: women talk more than men.
Myth 2: men and women communicate differently.
Myth 3: men’s and women’s brains are hardwired differently when it comes to language.
Myth 4: men interrupt more than women.

If you’re interested in more, the book has been excerpted in three parts in the Guardian.

1. What language barrier?
2. Speak up, I can’t hear you
3. Back down to Earth

In the Edmonton Journal, Bill Mah takes a quick look at police-given names for criminals. “For us, instead of saying, ‘You know, the guy who’s running around with a hammer targeting bakeries,’ it’s easier to give the guy a name,” Hewko said.…While some of the names sound silly, Hewko says police aren’t being flippant about crimes that are often violent and terrifying for victims. “We’re not trying to trivialize the crimes or glorify these guys.”

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).