It's either educational or a time sucker. Okay, it's both, and fun too. A perfect rabbit hole!
Visuwords
Showing posts with label word news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label word news. Show all posts
2008/02/02
2007/12/12
This is where the English language is headed?
On the heals of locavore and grass station, we have another word of the year for 2007. This time it's Merriam-Websters choice, or more accurately, it's the choice of the people who voted in the online poll. Those people (who obviously spend a lot of time in online conversations have spoken and they have said
Now, I'm the first person to say that language is a living thing, growing and changing every day. I argue that if ideas are being successfully exchanged, any grammar "rules" broken in those exchanges are superfluous. I once had a protracted arguement with a very good friend that "then" and "than" will become the same word in common usage some day, and it won't be the end of the English language.
But come on....w00t???? It's not even all letters, for crying out loud!
w00t.
Now, I'm the first person to say that language is a living thing, growing and changing every day. I argue that if ideas are being successfully exchanged, any grammar "rules" broken in those exchanges are superfluous. I once had a protracted arguement with a very good friend that "then" and "than" will become the same word in common usage some day, and it won't be the end of the English language.
But come on....w00t???? It's not even all letters, for crying out loud!
2007/11/13
2007 Word(s) of the Year
Oxford Universty Press has chosen its word of the year, and it's a good one, I think. It's locavore, a person who chooses to have a smaller negative impact on the environment by obtaining the food for themselves and their families as close to home as possible. Generally, that "close to home as possible" is defined as a 100 mile radius, but depending where the locavore lives, sometimes it's a smaller circle, sometimes it's bigger. As a word and a movement, I think locavore has staying power.
I can't say the same thing for the word of the year chosen by Webster's New World Dictionary. It's environmental too, but Grass Station? That's a new one on me, so good thing they included a definition in their press release: "a theoretical fill-up spot in the not-too-distant future; it reflects America's growing love affair with hybrid cars and vegetable-based fuels (and words), including ethanol and biomass fuels -- some of which really are distilled from plain old grass". Uh-huh. It's an interesting turn of a phrase, but I can't see it becoming a part of many people's working vocabulary. (By the way, Webster's New World Dictionary is not Merriam-Webster, for those of us who believe that dictionaries, like news sources, come with different levels of esteem.)
I can't say the same thing for the word of the year chosen by Webster's New World Dictionary. It's environmental too, but Grass Station? That's a new one on me, so good thing they included a definition in their press release: "a theoretical fill-up spot in the not-too-distant future; it reflects America's growing love affair with hybrid cars and vegetable-based fuels (and words), including ethanol and biomass fuels -- some of which really are distilled from plain old grass". Uh-huh. It's an interesting turn of a phrase, but I can't see it becoming a part of many people's working vocabulary. (By the way, Webster's New World Dictionary is not Merriam-Webster, for those of us who believe that dictionaries, like news sources, come with different levels of esteem.)
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