The Lexicographer's Rules

…in your first paragraph then you disqualify your dictionary review from being taken seriously. The review is not overly critical of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, but the review is unremarkable, forgettable, and largely valueless.

This is making the rounds: did you know that “420” means “marijuana”?!!!!???? It’s an over-excited and facile television report filled with unsubstantiated claims about weed, and somehow, the great mystery of slang is at the bottom of it all. A code-word kept secret by millions of people! It’s like the best local news parody you’ll ever see.

At Philebrity, the reporter weakly defends himself.

Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary are:

menoporche n. a play on “menopause,” referring to the supposed tendency of men going through a mid-life crisis to buy impractical sports cars.

sewer service n. (of a process server) discarding subpoenas or other legal papers instead of serving them to their recipient.

Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary are:

Michigan 11-pointer n. an immature male deer with small antlers.

kinnear v. to surreptitiously take a candid photograph, especially by holding the camera low and out of the line of sight. This new word was coined in August 2007 by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee after the actor Greg Kinnear, of whom she was unable to take a photo during an encounter at an airport.

The American Name Society requests nominations for the “Name of the Year for 2007.” The name selected will be the one that best illustrates, through its creation and/or use during the past 18 months, important trends in North American culture. All categories of names and naming, including given names, surnames, brand names, place names, street names, building names, pseudonyms, and names from fiction, are eligible! All members of the American Name Society attending the annual meeting in Chicago will select the winner from among the nominees on January 4, 2008. The winner will be announced that evening at a joint celebration with the American Dialect Society.

Nominations must be received by December 31, 2007. Please send your nominations, along with a brief one paragraph rationale, by United States mail or e-mail to:

Dr. Cleveland K. Evans
Psychology Department
Bellevue University
1000 Galvin Road South
Bellevue, NE 68005-3098
cleveland.evans@bellevue.edu