Wednesday, April 23, 2003
“I’m sorry; but just because they haven’t been translated into English doesn’t mean they don’t exist. There was supposed to be a conference ten years ago in St. Louis, and the university there announced, “Mr. Robbe-Grillet will speak French.” So a minister who is interested in literature calls the university and is told by a professor that I do not speak English. The minister replies, “He could have made an effort to learn English, because God wrote his Bible in English."—Interview with French author Alain Robbe-Grillet by Thomas McGonigle from Book Forum.
This is the personal weblog of Grant Barrett, editor of the Double-Tongued Dictionary, a collection of words from the fringes of English. More about this site...
Recent Entries
- A hearty endorsement of shout quotes: scare quotes used for emphasis
- How to buy a dictionary
- Jinx and padiddle: games we play
- Saying it wrong on purpose
- Nicknames from the Underground: Busharraf, Chillary, and Killadelphia
- New slang unpacked
- UPDATED: Crosswords in Black and White
- Find me in American Way Magazine
- Recent catchwords: read-alike, violin hickey, throw a Porsche at someone, Q-tip cruise, 1-800 car
- The Tell-All of the Century: Snitching Slang
- Fog line, instant ancestor, trashout
- See, ya kid: saying goodbye in slang
- Interview with British slang lexicographer Jonathon Green
- New Scientist: “Word nerds capture fleeting online English”
- The blueprints of a Craigslist apartment scam
Recent Catchwords
- mill and fill n. (7/3)
- snake run n. (7/2)
- hurricane amnesia n. (7/2)
- dollar-a-year man n. (7/2)
- tranny n. (7/1)
- secular adj. (6/30)
- commuter trip n. (6/30)
- wendy v. (6/30)
- double-dekker n. (6/30)
- gas-sipper n. (6/29)
- nuke the fridge v. phr. (6/29)
- mannyhose n. (6/29)
- run one’s pockets v. phr. (6/29)
- gay-lister n. (6/29)
- cross-shopping n. (6/29)
- weird stacking n. (6/29)
- block busting n. (6/27)
- beek n. (6/27)
- sweatbox n. (6/26)
- bump-out n. (6/26)
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