The Lexicographer's Rules

Recent interesting catchwords on the Double-Tongued Dictionary are:

tulies: n. the boondocks or the middle of nowhere. Out in the tules/tules means “out in the boondocks” or “far away.” Another spelling is “tules,” plural form of “tule,” pronounced TOO-lee, which is a type of Californian bulrush and the origin of the term. The expression is most common in the American southwest, including California.

poli-fluential: n. a person who is actively involved in influencing others about their political points of view. This brand-new term is untested and joins the oodles of words coined by political marketers and analysts, most which fail to catch on. You can read the report from which it comes here.

generation Q: n. a generation of young people who are idealistic and active in pursuing a better world, but who do not participate in the related political or social discourse that helps form popular opinion or influence elections. The “Q” comes from “quiet.” Coined by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in what appears to be a typical columnist’s ploy of launching a new term to see if it will stick and thereby measuring one’s influence.

skittles room: n. at the venue of a chess tournament, an area or room where players can play informally, either for fun or to hustle each other for money. A commenter remarks that he’s known this term for 40 years, which makes it perfect catchword fodder: it does not appear in any of a dozen mainstream dictionaries that I checked.

I was excited to see the reference to “tulie.”  I have heard this word used here in Toledo, Ohio.  And, I had no idea that it was widespread.  Years ago, while a friend and I were driving through a rural area near Toledo, my friend mention that the locals referred to fog as “tulie mist.”  When he told me this I gave him a response of disbelief.  I hadn’t heard the word before and I thought that it was entirely made up.  But, alas the word has precedence.  Thanks.

Joel, that’s probably a different thing altogether. More than likely it was a metaphorical reference to tulle, “a fine (often starched) net used for veils or tutus or gowns.”

Tule Fog: Radiation fog in the Central Valley of California. It forms during night and morning hours in late fall and winter months following the first significant rainfall. A leading cause of weather related casualties in California.

From the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/glossary/index.php?letter=t

and also from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tule_fog

So in the end I think that tule mist or fog probably refers back to the bulrushes of Central Valley California rather than “tulle” as a thin vail.

Well, there you are. Thanks!

“Skittles” has long been used as name for casual, or pick up chess games among at least US chess players.  Most chess tournements I have played in for 30 years have provided a room to play skittles.  Don’t know how many called it a “skittles room,” but the meaning is clear among chess players, I think, and would have been clear for many years.

Thanks, Joe. It’s not in any dictionary I checked, though, which is why it’s recorded here.

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