June 16, 2014 by Angela Tung

The Words of ‘Game of Thrones,’ Season 4

HERE BE LOTS OF SPOILERS.

Another season of Game of Thrones has ended, and with it many lives — and many shits — were lost. But we kept our heads all season (see what we did there) and have compiled for you this handy glossary. Enjoy!

Book of Brothers

Joffrey [to Jaime]: “So this is the famous Book of Brothers. All the great deeds of all the great Kingsguard, huh?

“Two Swords,” April 6, 2014

The Book of Brothers, also called the White Book (after the white cloaks of the Kingsguard), “is the tome that records the deeds of every knight who has ever served in the three hundred year history of the Kingsguard.” In the Book of Brothers, Jaime has only half a page, as Joffrey helpfully points out.

Children of the Forest

Child of the Forest: “The first men called us the Children, but we were born long before them.”

“The Children,” June 15, 2014

The Children of the Forest are a mysterious race of creatures “that were reportedly the original inhabitants of the continent of Westeros.” and have been written off by most as mythic or extinct.

UPDATE: Jennifer Vineyard at Slate has a lot more on the Children of the Forest. The Children of the Forest are the ones who planted the weirwood heart trees and carved the faces in them, so they could keep watch,” who “helped fight back the White Walkers during the Long Night,” and “gave the Night’s Watch the dragonglass to keep [the White Walkers] at bay.”

The Citadel

Prince Oberyn: “The King was poisoned.”
Lord Tywin: “I hear you studied poisons at the Citadel.”
Prince Oberyn: “I did. This is why I know.”

“Breaker of Chains,” April 20, 2014

The Citadel is the seat of the Order of Maesters, “‘an order of scholars, healers, and learned men’ who focus on scientific knowledge and have only a ‘disdaining belief in magic.’”

The common citadel refers to “a fortress in a commanding position in or near a city,” or “a stronghold or fortified place; a bulwark.” The word comes from the Italian cittadella, diminutive of città, “city.”

Craster’s Keep

Jon Snow: “Brothers, I’m going beyond the Wall to Craster’s Keep. I’m going to capture the mutineers holed up there. Or kill them.”

“Oathkeeper,” April 27, 2014

Craster’s Keep is the “small, fortified homestead of” Craster, a wildling who has the habit of taking his own daughters as his wives and sacrificing his sons to the White Walkers.

Dornishmen

Bronn: “How many Dornishmen does it take to fuck a goat?”

“Two Swords,” April 6, 2014

Dorne is a “constituent region” of the Seven Kingdoms, with “a unique culture, law, and ethnic background.” The Dornish “have more ‘relaxed’ views towards sexuality and love than the rest of Westeros,” including holding paramours, or the unmarried lovers of noble men and women, in the same regard as spouses; having no particular stigma against homosexuality; and raising bastards without stigma and alongside “their trueborn siblings and cousins.”

These “relaxed” views are probably what perpetuates jokes about Dornishmen having sexual relations with livestock.

Drowned God

Theon Greyjoy: “I am your prince. I swear it by the Drowned God. What is dead may never die.”

“The Mountain and the Viper,” June 1, 2014

The Drowned God is worshiped by the inhabitants of the Iron Islands, “one of the few regions in Westeros not abiding by the main religion of the Seven Kingdoms, the Faith of the Seven.” The North is another such region, “where the worship of the Old Gods of the Forest remains strong.”

What is dead may never die is the start of a common prayer that has the responding line, “But rises again, harder and stronger.”

giants

Janos Slynt [as Giants approach the gate of the Wall]: “No such thing as Giants. Stories for the children.”

“The Watchers on the Wall,” June 8, 2014

Giants are thought by many to be the stuff of myth. However, as evinced by this episode, they exist “in the furthest north Beyond the Wall.” It’s said that Hodor, a “simpleminded” yet gargantuan servant from House Stark, is part giant.

Apparently, Giants “are very shy” but “their shyness can quickly turn into rage.” Moreover, the Free Folk, or wildlings, “believe giants were enslaved with magic to get them to build the Wall.”

The characteristics of giants differ across various mythologies. While in Norse and Welsh myths, giants are, well, gigantic, in ancient Greek tales, they “were a race of great strength and aggression, though not necessarily of great size.”

Gigantomachy, which comes from a Greek phrase meaning “giant battle,” is “the mythological war of the giants against Zeus, symbolizing the antagonism between terrestrial and oceanic and celestial forces.”

Iron Bank of Braavos

Ser Davos: “I suppose if you work for the Iron Bank of Braavos, and each one of your gold bars is worth half a kingdom, you tend not to be overly concerned with the kind of distinction. . . .I need you to write a message.”

“Breaker of Chains,” April 20, 2014

The Iron Bank of Braavos is “the most powerful financial institution in the Known World,” and says of clients who fail to pay back their loans, “the Iron Bank will have its due.”

Find out how the Iron Bank stacks up against powerful real-life financial institutions.

King-Beyond-the-Wall

Stannis Baratheon: “You’re the King-Beyond-the-Wall? Do you know who I am?”

“The Children,” June 15, 2014

The King-Beyond-the-Wall is Mance Rayder, the leader of the Free Folk or wildlings. He has managed “to unite a significant number of the northern tribes under his command, enough to pose a threat to the Seven Kingdoms south of the Wall.”

Moon Door

Robin: “It was already ruined because it didn’t have a Moon Door! I was fixing it!”

“Mockingbird,” May 18, 2014

The Moon Door is located in the floor of The Eyrie, the “principal stronghold of House Arryn,” which sits atop a mountain. The Moon Door opens to reveal a very long drop and is the execution of choice for Lady Arryn, ironically enough.

Lady Arryn has said that those dropped through the Moon Door “break apart.” However, according to Time, if the distance from the Moon Door to the ground below is “more than 2,000 feet,” the faller “would reach 125 miles per hour, which means broken bones and near-certain death — but not necessarily breaking into pieces.”

In addition, “such a fall wouldn’t be a 100% guarantee of death”:

During World War II, for example, there were lots of people falling out of burning airplanes — and, though many of them died, a lucky few survived, often thanks to a combination of factors that slowed their falls.

However, we doubt that Lady Arryn will be making a comeback.

Purple Wedding

“Aside from the bridegroom’s customary torture-tainment, everyone was on their best behavior … until the wine started flowing, and we realized why fans have dubbed this the Purple Wedding.”

Drusilla Moorhouse, “‘Game of Thrones’ kicks off a murder mystery with the Purple Wedding,” Today, April 13, 2014

The Purple Wedding refers to the wedding between King Joffrey and Margaery Tyrell, which takes place during the episode, “The Lion and the Rose.” The wedding is so-called by fans of the A Song of Fire and Ice novels due to the poisoned wine that is used to kill Joffrey and the association of the color purple with royalty. The televised version plays this up: Joffrey’s face turns a grotesque shade of purple as he dies.

Why is purple associated with royalty? Back in the day, purple dye was expensive and difficult to make. According to Live Science, the dye initially used to make the color purple was obtained “from a small mollusk that was only found in the Tyre region of the Mediterranean Sea.”

Like the Red Wedding, the Purple Wedding was inspired by a historical event. A Song of Fire and Ice author George R.R. Martin explained to Entertainment Weekly that he based Joffrey’s death “on the death of Eustace, the son of King Stephen of England.” Eustace “choked to death at a feast,” which people are still debating about a thousand of years later: “Did he choke to death or was he poisoned?”

Sand

Cersei Lannister: “Can’t say I’ve ever met a Sand before. I’m not quite sure what to call you.”
Ellaria Sand: “‘Ellaria’ works for everyone else.”

“Two Swords,” April 6, 2014

Each House in Westeros has a special name for their noble-born bastards, children born out of wedlock between a noble and non-noble. The monikers each have to do with geographic characteristics of each house or region: Snow for the North; Waters for The Crownlands; and Sand for Dorne.

In England during Anglo-Saxon times, “the descendants of kings were called aethelings, whether legitimate or not.” Those born “illegitimately,” also known as royal bastards, often had the surname Fitzroy, which ultimately comes from the Latin fils, son, and regalis (by way of the French roial), “of a king, kingly, royal, regal.”

Slaver’s Bay

Daenerys: “How can I rule seven kingdoms if I can’t control Slaver’s Bay?”

“First of His Name,” May 4, 2014

Slaver’s Bay is “the hub of the international slave trade” and may be based on the slave coast of Africa.

Thenn

Tormund Giantsbane: “Thenns. I fucking hate Thenns.”

“Two Swords,” April 6, 2014

The Thenns are an advanced and disciplined wildling tribe, who engage in “self-scarification as well as cannibalism, feasting on the flesh of their enemies.” Evidence has been found that real-life ancient Britons also engaged in cannibalism, perhaps for the purpose of removing competing groups and getting more food, and of gaining the enemy’s power.

trial by combat

Tyrion: “I will not give my life for Joffrey’s murder and I know I’ll get no justice here. So I will let the gods decide my fate. I demand a trial by combat.”

“The Laws of Gods and Men,” May 11, 2014

Trial by combat is, according to Tyrion Lannister, “deciding a man’s guilt or innocence in the eyes of the gods by having two other men hack each other to pieces.” But the practice has real medieval history.

According to The Atlantic, in ancient England, trials by ordeal were more common than trials by combat. Such ordeals included:

pluck[ing] a stone from a cauldron of boiling water, oil, or lead; if their skin didn’t burn off, they were judged innocent. In other cases, the guilty were believed to be those who suffered grave injuries from walking across hot iron, or ingesting poison.

Injuries from walking across hot iron or ingesting poison? You mean like any normal person? It seems that if you were sentenced to trial by ordeal, you were SOL.

Trial by combat, The Atlantic continues, “happened less frequently…but persisted in history for longer.” A historical example is that “of a Flemish murder inquiry in the 12th century that was resolved in a duel distinctly recalling the one” on Game of Thrones,” in which when opponent was about “to deliver the coup de grâce,” the other “reached up and grabbed [his] testicles, held on to them tight, and then shoved [the man] aside without loosening his grip.” The man with “all his ‘lower parts broken apart’” had to admit defeat.

Usurper

Daenerys [to Ser Jorah Mormont]: “Why did the Usurper pardon you?”

“The Mountain and the Viper,” June 1, 2014

Usurper “is a derogative term that refers to individuals who have seized power in opposition to a ‘legitimate’ or ‘rightful’ ruler.” It’s also what Daenerys, her brother, and House Targaryen loyalists call King Robert Baratheon, who took the Targaryen throne by force.

The word usurper comes from the Latin usurpare, “to seize for use, to use.”

white cloak

Sir Tywin [to Jaime]: “You’ll remove your white cloak immediately. You will leave King’s Landing to assume your rightful place at Casterly Rock. You will marry a suitable woman and father children named Lannister, and you’ll never turn your back on your family again.”

“The Laws of Gods and Men,” May 11, 2014

Members of the Kingsguard, “an elite group of seven knights” whose sworn duty “is to protect the king and the royal family from harm at all times,” dress in “gold plate and scale armor with white detailing and white armor,” thus gaining the nicknames, White Swords or White Cloaks.

The Kingsguard are like the Night’s Watch in that they “are sworn for life and are forbidden from owning land, taking a wife, or fathering children.” But while the Kingsguard are “supposedly the greatest and most skilled warriors in all of Westeros,” the Night’s Watch — who dress all in black, and thus are also called crows or black brothers — are “comprised of criminals avoiding corporal punishment or nobles avoiding scandal.”

May 28, 2014 by Angela Tung

The Words of ‘Mad Men’: brunch, the four Ps, Mary Wells

There’s only half a season left of Mad Men! We couldn’t mess around and lose our second to last chance to share our favorite words from the show.

brunch

Margaret: “I’d like to have brunch Sunday morning.”
Roger: “Sure, that’d be nice. I’ll bring vodka.”

“Time Zones,” April 13, 2014

While brunch, a combo of breakfast and lunch, may seem like a fad of the 1980s, the word actually originated around 1896 as “British student slang.” According to Google Ngrams, brunch gained a bit of popularity in the 1960s (this episode takes place in 1969) but didn’t really start to take off until the late 1970s.

four Ps

Wayne Barnes: “They pay me to think about the four Ps. Price, product, place, and promotion.”

“Time Zones,” April 13, 2014

The four Ps, or McCarthy’s four Ps, were proposed by marketing professor E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960. The four Ps are part of the marketing mix, a business tool. Also part of the marketing mix are the four Cs, which Robert F. Lauterborn developed in the 1990s: consumer, cost, communication, and convenience.

Hooterville telephone operator

Don: “I didn’t know I was going to get interrogated by the Hooterville telephone operator.”

“A Day’s Work,” April 20, 2014

Hooterville is the fictional town of TV shows Petticoat Junction and Green Acres. The telephone operator was Sarah, says the AMC blog, “the elderly switchboard ‘oppa-ray-TOR’ who tended to turn calls through the town’s antiquated party-line system into a variation on the telephone game.”

leg

Lou: “Why don’t you take us through the legs.”
Peggy: “Let’s start with radio.”

“The Strategy,” May 18, 2014

To be honest, we’re really not sure about the definition of leg here. We’re assuming it’s a broadcasting term, as per the Oxford English Dictionary, “a branch or supplementary network attached to the main network and providing coverage for a particular region,” where each leg is a different form of media (e.g., radio, print, and television).

An idea that “has legs” has staying power.

Longfellow Deeds

Lou: “What am I supposed to do? Just hide while he sits down there cooling his heels like Longfellow Deeds?”

“Field Trip,” April 27, 2014

Longfellow Deeds is the main character of the film, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Deeds is “the co-owner of a tallow works, part-time greeting card poet,” and a tuba-player who “inherits 20 million dollars from his late uncle.” He’s considered by some to be a “heartless” and “ultra-rich man, who will not lift a finger to help the multitudes of desperate poor.”

Marriage Encounter

Brooks: “She hasn’t been herself lately, and we went to this Marriage Encounter group.”
Roger: “You’re kidding.”

“The Monolith,” May 4, 2014

Marriage Encounter is a religiously-based program developed in the early 1950s to “help married couples by reason of discovering or re-discovering the need for God in their lives.”

Marriage Encounter was started by Gabriel Calvo, a priest in Spain, while the New York City chapter was held under the guidance of Jesuit priest Charles (Chuck) Gallagher.

Mary Wells

Roger: “You want to walk down some hotel hallway and see Mary Wells sitting on Don’s lap the next time you go in to present?”

“Field Trip,” April 27, 2014

Mary Wells refers to Mary Wells Lawrence, the founding president of ad agency Wells Rich Greene and the first female CEO of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In a previous episode, Don had lunch with an executive from Wells Rich Greene to discuss job prospects.

mess around

Peggy (to Don): “No. Stop messing around. It’s not funny.”

“Waterloo,” May 25, 2014

Here by messing around Peggy means joking or kidding around. This is probably the oldest meaning of the term, originating around 1853, according to the OED. Around 1896, mess around gained the meaning of “to handle roughly” as well as to have sex or an affair with someone.

In the mid-1920s, mess around also came to mean to improvise, especially in jazz music or dance. The Mess Around was “an improvised jazz dance” from the 1920s and 1930s.

retard

Ed: “What if you replaced [the Burger Chef mascot] with a fresh recruit? A saucy little retard named Scout.”

“The Runaways,” May 11, 2014

Retard is an offensive slang term for someone who is mentally handicapped, and by extension, a person thought to be “foolish or socially inept.”

In the early 1900s, says the OED, retard was a clinical term used in education and psychology meaning “a person displaying or characterized by developmental delay or learning difficulties”:

Then there are the backwards, or the retards for their years, and those subnormally endowed in respect to mental gifts, afflicted with physical defects of various kinds and degrees.

It was around 1968 that the term started to be used as derogatory slang for someone mentally or physically deficient.

tag

Peggy: “I want to get started right away. I think, 25 tags should get the ball rolling.”

“The Monolith,” May 4, 2014

Tag is short for tag line, “an often repeated phrase associated with an individual, organization, or commercial product; a slogan.” The Online Etymology Dictionary says tag line originated in 1916 as the “last line in an actor’s speech,” and then as the “punchline of a joke” in 1926. When it gained the meaning of “slogan” in advertising we’re not sure. If anyone has any insight, let us know in the comments!

May 20, 2014 by Angela Tung

The Reverb App, Now Available for the iPhone!

Of course we love the iPad. It’s within arm’s reach, if not right in front of our faces, when we watch TV or unwind before bed. But it’s our iPhones that we turn to throughout the day, whether it’s first thing in the morning, on our commutes to and from work, or during lunch or coffee breaks.

That’s why we’re so excited to unveil the latest iteration of our sister product: the Reverb App for iPhone.

With the Reverb iPhone app, you get the same robust content, from breaking headlines, to personalized news, to stories your friends are sharing — all in one place and on the go. The app still opens with a beautiful Word Wall interface —

— showing by topic the Top News from around the world that you need to know that day.

For the news your way, swipe over to the My News view:

In My News, the topics and articles adapt to your interests according to what you’ve read, and what topics you’ve added and deleted.

Love your social feeds but sick of humblebrags and selfies? Connect Twitter or Facebook, swipe to Social News —

— and and you’ll get only the articles your friends are sharing, all in one place.

Finally, once you create a Reverb account, you’ll be have your very own My Profile page.

On your profile, you’ll see all the articles, topics, and collections you favorited, as well as any collections you made if you had the iPad app. Oh, and logging into the Reverb iPhone app with your iPad user credentials will synch up your content perfectly.

But don’t take our word for it. Download the Reverb App for iPhone today!

May 1, 2014 by Angela Tung - 1 Comment

10 Phrases That Come from Horse Racing

This weekend marks the 140th running of the Kentucky Derby. While last year we celebrated with hat words, this year we’re rounding up now-common phrases that you might not know come from horse racing. And we’re off!

across the board

Across the board, meaning “pertaining to all categories or things,” originated around 1903 as a betting term in horse racing. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, wagering across the board means betting that your horse will finish “in either first, second, or third place.”

charley horse

You know the feeling: that sudden tightening of your calf or thigh that just won’t stop. So what does a muscle cramp have to do with a horse named Charley?

The term charley horse began as baseball slang around the late 1800s, says the OED. The origin is unknown, but there are a few different theories.

Phrase Finder and Wiktionary both say the phrase might be named for pitcher Charlie “Old Hoss” Radbourn, who suffered from such an ailment. The Online Etymology Dictionary says it may be from “from somebody’s long-forgotten lame racehorse,” perhaps specifically, as Word Origins proposes, a workhorse with a hobbled, stiffened gait as a result of pulling heavy loads, as witnessed by baseball player Joe Quest.

According to Quest, “the ball players troubled with the ailment hobbled exactly as did the old horse,” and so “Quest dubbed it ‘Charley horse.’”

dark horse

Dark, in addition to meaning “lacking light” or having a complexion that “isn’t fair,” also means concealed, secret, or mysterious. By that token, a dark horse is “a horse about whose racing powers little is known,” says the OED. The term was first used by Benjamin Disraeli in his 1831 novel, The Young Duke:

The first favourite was never heard of, the second favourite was never seen after the distance post, all the ten-to-oners were in the rear, and a dark horse, which had never been thought of, and which the careless St. James had never even observed in the list, rushed past the grand stand in sweeping triumph.

Dark horse now often refers to any unexpected success, while in politics, a dark horse candidate is one who unexpectedly comes up from behind.

front runner

A front runner is the leading candidate in a contest, competition, or election and comes from the horse racing term referring to “a horse that runs best while in the lead.”

give-and-take

Give-and-take, the art of compromise or “a lively exchange of ideas or conversation,” originally referred to, in horse racing, the give and take plate, says the OED, “a prize for a race in which the horses which exceed a standard height carry more, and those which fall short of it less, than the standard weight.”

By 1769, give-and-take also referred to races in general “in which bigger horses were given more weight to carry, lighter ones less.” It was around 1778 that the phrase gained the meaning, “the practice of mutual yielding,” of which the earliest recorded citation is from one of our favorite writers, Fanny Burney, in her novel Evelina: “Give and take is fair in all nations.”

hands down

To win something hands down means to win it easily. It comes from the practice of horse racing jockeys loosening the reins when it seemed certain that they would win.

home stretch

When you’re in the home stretch, also known as the home straight, you’re almost done with whatever you’re trying to accomplish. That meaning came about around 1860, according to the OED, while the horse racing term is from about 1841 and refers to the final length, or stretch, of the racetrack.

The word stretch refers to “a continuous or unbroken length, area, or expanse,” as in “an empty stretch of highway,” and by extension, “a straight section of a racecourse or track, especially the section leading to the finish line.”

in (or out) of the running

In horse racing, those horses in the running are the lead competitors. This term came about in the mid-1800s, according to the OED, while the figurative meaning referring to viable, and not so viable, political candidates originated a couple of years later.

a run for one’s money

To give someone a run for their money means to give them a challenge. The term originated in horse racing around 1839, says the OED, with the meaning “to have (or get, want, etc.) a successful race from a horse one has backed, (in early use) esp. when that horse appeared likely to be scratched.” (Scratched here, by the way, means “withdrawn.”)

Around 1874, the term gained the extended sense of getting “value or satisfaction in return for one’s expenditure or exertions.” The challenge sense came about shortly after that, around 1886.

running mate

Running mate is yet another political term that we get from horse racing. It refers to a “candidate or nominee for the lesser of two closely associated political offices.” In other words, a vice-presidential candidate is the running mate of a potential POTUS.

In horse racing, a running mate is “a horse used to set the pace in a race for another horse,” and also, according to the OED, “a horse that runs alongside a trotting or pacing horse in double harness, relieving that horse of some of the effort of pulling a load.”

[Photo via Flickr, CC BY 2.0 by John Athayde]

April 30, 2014 by Angela Tung

The Selfie Variations

It was the Oxford Dictionaries’ 2013 Word of the Year and has shown no signs of slowing down: the selfie.

The term selfie was apparently invented by an Australian man who took a drunk self-portrait (a drelfie, if you will). There’s no lack of other selfie types: the funeral selfie; the plane crash selfie; the (borderline-inappropriate) survived-a-knife-attack selfie; and the always amusing animal selfie.

Here we take a closer look at nine more selfie variations.

belfie

“Dubbed the Queen of the Belfie (also known as butt-selfie), Selter (and her behind) have become huge.”

“#Belfie Queen Goes High-Fashion,” The Daily Beast, March 13, 2014

We tried to avoid the belfie (a butt selfie, natch) for as long as possible, but now we know entirely too much about it.

According to The Daily Dot, the first ever belfie was taken on July 18, 2012. Jen Selter, a “fitness guru” (whose belfies make our backs hurt) is apparently the Queen of the Belfie, giving another celebrity belfie-enthusiast a run for her money.

dronie

“[Drones] go where we want them to go, so of course they should be taking short videos of where we are and what we’re up to. It’s not a selfie. It’s a dronie (not to be confused with ‘drony’).”

Lily Hay Newman, “If You Thought Selfies Were Bad You’re Gonna Really Hate Dronies,” Slate, April 25, 2014

Vimeo employee Alex Dao coined the term dronie in response to a video posted Amit Gupta, co-founder of Photojojo.

Photojojo, a photo newsletter, has instructions for making your own dronie, says Nancy Friedman, and “in mid-May will offer in-person dronie lessons and rental drone cameras.”

felfie

“[William Wilson, a farmer’s son] started farmerselfies.com, which helped create the hashtag ‘felfie’ to corral agricultural self-portraits from around the world.”

Sam Brasch, “Express Your #Felf: Farmer Selfies Go Viral,” Modern Farmer, January 15, 2014

The felfie began as way to put a face to farming, says Modern Farmer, and to sell to the “locavore crowd” without costly ad campaigns. No surprise that they’re still be going strong — who doesn’t love pictures of affectionate farm animals?

[Photo via Modern Farmer]

helfie

“Comedian Jamie Lee recently told Cosmo that a ‘helfie’ is a selfie, but focused more prominently on your hair.”

Carly Cardellino, “Helfies: An Important New Subgenre of Selfie,” Cosmopolitan, August 27, 2013

A variation of the helfie is the beardie, a beard selfie. Better take one before beards go extinct.

selfeye

“In 2014, the selfie is going to the next level, especially if Max Factor has anything to say about it. Ladies and gentlemen, we’d like to introduce you to the ‘selfeye.’”

Kristin Booker, “2014’s Newest Selfie Craze: The Selfeye,” Refinery29, January 2, 2014

We first heard about the selfeye from our own Erin McKean, who described it as “a selfie showing off one’s eye makeup.”

Selfeye is an eye rhyme (fittingly) for selfie, that is a rhyme by sight rather sound, and coined by cosmetics line Max Factor.

shelfie

“Given that the objects are often arrayed on a shelf or the equivalent (a windowsill, a desk), you might even call the images ‘#shelfies.’ Some Instagrammers already do, though more typically when they’ve snapped bookcases.”

Dale Hrabi, “The Rise of the ‘Shelfie’: Instagram’s Next Craze,” Wall Street Journal, April 26, 2014

Not surprisingly, the shelfie is our favorite type of selfie. Back in December, The Guardian asked its readers to submit their own, and we were so delighted by the photos of beautiful bookshelves, we had to share our own:

ussie

Selena: “Oh you wanna do a selfie?” [Poses with photographer.] “I call that an ussie.”

“Clovis,” Veep, April 27, 2014

The first we heard of this term was on the most recent (and very funny) episode of Veep, but apparently it’s been around since at least last April.

Perhaps the most famous ussie is the one that broke Twitter during the Oscars.

welfie

“As if to prove the notion that what it means to be body beautiful today is a question of strength, the likes of Miranda Kerr, Doutzen Kroes and Gisele, have taken to Instagram to expose their own strenuous workout regimes via a series of selfies, which we have christened – naturally – #welfies.”

Stephanie Forrester, “You’ve Heard of the Selfie. Now Meet the Welfie,” Never Underdressed, October 22, 2013

“Workout selfie” is just one definition of welfie. Urban Dictionary says it also refers to someone “wealthy in selfies” while this conversation on Stack Exchange suggests welfie is a pejorative term for someone on welfare.

youie

Tom: “Mind if I snap a youie? It’s what I call selfies of other people.”

“Moving Up,” Parks and Recreation, April 24, 2014

A youie, or a “selfie of another person,” could be classified as a retronym, a word created because “an existing term that was once used alone needs to be distinguished from a term referring to a new development.” Another example of a retronym is a 2D film versus 3D. For even more retronyms, check out this list.

And if you want even more on selfies, here’s this Selfie collection at Reverb.

[Photo: “Selfie with Smiley,” via Flickr, CC BY 2.0 by “Light Painting,” CC BY 2.0]

April 10, 2014 by Angela Tung

The Reverb App: Now Even More Collection-y

You know that we at Wordnik love collections. After all, a dictionary is basically a huge collection of words, and lists — of which we have at last count almost 47,000 — are just mini-collections. So we’re extra excited that our sister product, Reverb, is now offering user collections.

In case you didn’t know, Reverb is a free iPad news reader designed to help you read more about what you like, and find new and interesting content, too.

While collections have always been a part of Reverb – for instance, every day our editorial team brings readers a Top News collection — now everyone can make collections too.

How excited are we about this? We held our own collection making tournament in celebration.

To date, we have over 1,500 user collections, including this awesome Wearables collection from our own Erin McKean.

Not only can you make collections of articles you find in Reverb, you can collect those articles you’ve shared with your friends via Twitter and Facebook, just by connecting those accounts to Reverb.

If you follow us on Twitter, you know that we tweet our favorite language stories every day. Now because of Reverb we can easily gather them in a collection.

Don’t have an iPad? No worries: you can view the collection on the web.

We like this feature so much, we’ll be sharing a beautiful favorite Language Stories collection every week!

And if you make a word-nerdy collection we like, we’ll send you some cool schwag. Just tweet your collection at Wordnik with the hashtag #

What are you waiting for? Download Reverb and start making your own collections now!

April 7, 2014 by Angela Tung

Heathers, Much? Our 7 Favorite Slang Terms from ‘Heathers’

We can hardly believe it but Heathers is turning 25 this year. We thought we’d celebrate with some slushies, croquet, and TNT, but that seemed like a lot of trouble so we’re rounding up our seven favorite slang terms from the movie instead.

EXPLETIVE ALERT: if you’re familiar with Heathers, you’re familiar with its, um, colorful expletives, two of which will be discussed at some length below.

damage

Veronica: “What is your damage, Heather?”

The writer of the film, Daniel Waters, says he stole the phrase, “What’s your damage?” — another way of saying, “What’s your problem?” — from “one of [his] little camper girls” for whom he was a camp counselor, presumably in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

What’s the damage?, meaning “how much will it cost?”, comes from the mid-18th century, says the Oxford English Dictionary. We couldn’t find a year of origin for What’s your problem? meaning “why are you upset?” However, according to the OED, that’s not my problem is from the late 1940s and that’s your (his, etc.) problem is from around 1951.

fuck me gently with a chainsaw

Veronica: “Why can’t we talk to other kinds of people?”
Heather Chandler: “Fuck me gently with a chainsaw. Do I look like Mother Theresa?”

Fuck me in this context is “an expression of surprise, contempt, outrage, disgust, boredom, frustration, or of dismay at undesired events happening to oneself.” The OED says the phrase has been around since at least the late 1920s, evinced in the following from The Middle Parts of Fortune by Frederic Manning: “‘Well, you can fuck me!’ exclaimed the astonished Martlow.”

Waters says that one of his college friends “used to say ‘F— me gently with a crowbar,” and that “apparently ‘f— me gently’ was at one time a common expression in England.” According to Speaking Freely: A Guided Tour Of American English From Plymouth Rock To Silicon Valley, as cited by this blogger, fuck me gently, meaning “don’t take advantage of me too much, don’t cheat me too blatantly,” gained popularity among the British troops during World War I.

megabitch

Veronica: “Why are you such a megabitch?”
Heather Duke: “Because I can be.”

Megabitch, which we were thrilled to find is in the online OED, refers to, figuratively, a really big bitch. The combining form mega– comes from the Greek megas, “great, large, vast, big, high, tall; mighty, important.” While mega often means large or great, in scientific terms it refers to “one million.” A megacorpse or megadeath (not to be confused with Megadeth) is one million deaths, a unit used in nuclear warfare.

Megabitch seems to have originated around 1985, says the OED, a few years before Heathers, in Adweek: “The Joan Collins/Alexis Carrington device here is inspired. She gets to play off the megabitch appeal of Alexis while adding a slapstick, comic twist.”

While mega is mainly used as an intensifier, in the mid-1980s it gained its own meaning of great or excellent: “The new Duran Duran album is so mega.”

pillowcase

Heather Chandler: “Goddamn, Heather, you were with me in study hall when I thought of it.”
Heather Duke: “I forgot.”
Heather Chandler: “Such a pillowcase.”

We’re assuming pillowcase refers to someone empty- or soft-headed, like a pillow or pillowcase. The term may play off basket case, someone in “a completely hopeless or useless condition.” Basket case has a gruesome origin: during World War I, it referred to a soldier who had had lost all of his limbs and had to be carried around in a basket.

Swatch dog

Veronica: “Betty Finn was a true friend and I sold her out for a bunch of Swatch dogs and Diet Coke heads.”

Swatch dog is a play on watchdog (and Diet Coke head on cokehead). A Swatch dog is presumably someone who’s a slave to the latest fashions, such as Swatch watches at the time.

Swatch, which we had always thought was a blend of Swiss and watch, is actually a shortening of Second Watch, with the idea of “watches as casual, fun, and relatively disposable accessories” (although we remember Swatch watches as being terrifically expensive).

very

Heather Chandler: “Come on, it’ll be very. The note’ll give her shower nozzle masturbation material for weeks.”

We assume very here means impressive, good, or just all around awesome, and like mega, is an intensifier that gained its own meaning.

We don’t know if the phrase has anything to do with this Keri “is so very” lotion commercial, but the term very certainly makes us think of it.

X much

Heather Duke [to Veronica]: “Jealous much?”

There has been much written about X much. The OED describes the phrase as “with a preceding adjective, infinitive verb, or noun phrase, forming an elliptical comment or question.”

In other words, “Jealous much?” means “You’re really jealous, aren’t you?” Earlier in the film Heather McNamara says to Veronica, “Drool much?” meaning, “You’re drooling a lot over that guy, aren’t you?”

X much was also often used in the television show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which came out after Heathers:

Excuse much!
Smell of booze, much.
Morbid much?

Kevin Sullivan at Language and Humor found a citation that predates Heathers by over 10 years, from Saturday Night Live:

TODD (points at Lisa’s chest and mock laughs to a pretend audience): Underdeveloped much?

Want even more Heathers? Check out these stories in The Atlantic and Flavorwire, as well as this very entertaining oral history in, appropriately, Entertainment Weekly.