It’s Friday again, fellow word nerds, which means it’s time for our Language Blog Roundup, in which we bring you the highlights of our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news.

Yesterday was Bloomsday, and if you’re still jonesing for some Joyce, check out our blog post, which gives a bit of history and a roundup of all things Ulysses around the web.

Fritinancy’s vote for word of the week was the Streisand Effect, or the “backfiring of an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information,” named for Barbra herself when her “attempt in 2003 to suppress photographs of her residence inadvertently generated further publicity.”  Word Spy spied some excellent words including bacn and champagne problem. However, our favorite was timmolation, “the destruction of a person’s career or reputation caused by lewd or insensitive Twitter posts.” Speaking of which, The New York Times offered a medley of “my bads.”

The NYT also noted that justices seem to be turning more and more to the dictionary for help in the courtroom while Johnson, The Economist’s language blog, warned that the dictionary isn’t the law, at least not in a courtroom, and that “rather than rely on dictionaries, statute-writers should be as careful as possible to use words in the way that they are commonly understood (especially in quality edited writing).”

Johnson also noted a Chinese artist defying the laws of censorship with secret puns and homophones ( Fǎ Kè Yóu, you French-Croatian Squid!) while Wired deciphered the secret meanings in text message punctuation.  K International was excited about automatic sign language and “Tattúínárdœla Saga, the ‘Star Wars’ story rewritten in the style of the Old Norse Sagas and translated into Old Norse as well” (sure, why not).

Dialect Blog wondered when Americans stopped talking “British”; pondered the Scots-Irish influence on Appalachian English; and puzzled over the multiple meanings of the Irish dialect word, craic. The Virtual Linguist took a look at philogynist, the opposite of misogynist; bridewell, a lovely-sounding place but not a nice place to be; and grockle, a West-Country word for “tourist.” Arnold Zwicky came across some cool words too, including foofaraw and garmento, as well as several portmanteaus, such as murderabilia, viewmongous, mathemusician, and Newtiny.

Daily Writing Tips discussed the changing meanings of the word freak, while The Independent reported on one man’s war on cliches. Meanwhile, the Oxford University Press Blog proposed that teaching proper comma usage wouldn’t necessarily improve writing.

Language Log mused on minimal pairing and why some jokes won’t die (a priest, a rabbi, and the Dali Lama walk into a bar. . .). Stan Carey at Sentence First discussed the evolution of the language organism, while Boing Boing examined how visual perception varies across languages; the NSA Style Manual; and a house made of bookcases (in the inimitable words of Cory Doctorow: WANT).

In more “want” news, the British Library announced they would be releasing “more than 1,000 rare books [from their 19th-century collection] in the form of a single app for the iPad.”

Finally, you may have heard about the gentleman who was kicked off an airplane for swearing. He was speaking “Brooklynese,” he insisted, and claimed that Brooklynites “curse as adjectives.” Others would beg to differ.

That’s it from here.  Remember, if you have a tip or would like your language blog to be included in our weekly roundup, let us know in the comments, via email (feedback AT wordnik DOT com), or on Twitter.

It’s time again for our weekly Language Blog Roundup, in which we bring you the highlights from our favorite blogs and the latest in word news.

We love lists, and so does the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.  Their exhibit, “Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists’ Enumerations,” is open now through October 2, and features lists such as “bills to pay, things undone, failings in oneself and others; lists of people to call, stuff to buy, errands to be accomplished,” as well as “lots of lists of artworks, real and imaginary.”

Another very long, very old list is “the 21-volume dictionary of the language of ancient Mesopotamia and its Babylonian and Assyrian dialects, unspoken for 2,000 years but preserved on clay tablets and in stone inscriptions deciphered over the last two centuries,” which was finally “completed by scholars at the University of Chicago” this week after a 90-year effort, as reported by The New York Times.

Arnold Zwicky poked a bit of fun at The Gray Lady and its demure coverage of New York hot dog chain Papaya King’s suggestive marketing for its new Hollywood location.  (See for yourself.)

Speaking of, um, weiners (yes, we went there), Johnson (*sigh*), The Economist’s language blog, lauded the congressman’s real apology (as opposed to a fauxpology) but questioned his characterization of his indiscretions as “mistakes.”  Johnson also discussed the berk-wanker (sorry) language spectrum of descriptivists and prescriptivists.

Meanwhile, Language Log explored the origins of the phrase, “that’s mighty white of you” (which surprisingly did not always have to do with race); how language style matching may predict relationship attraction and stability; and the Navy SEALs of snowclones.  Language Log also took on speech-based lie detection of Russian ATM machines, and discussed more trouble with translation, Italian this time.

K International talked about some Italians who were unhappy with the Jersey Shore cast, pronouncing them supercafoni, or superboors, as well as the challenges of translating humor.  Sentence First considered the origins of a “thick” Irish expression while Dialect Blog mused on the “foreign” Welsh accent; estuary English; Pittsburghese; and objected to objections about a particular British dialect.

Bananagrammer reviewed the good and the not-so-good of the new Scrabble words in the British Collins dictionary; Online Universities aggregated “40 fascinating lectures for linguistics geeks”; and Word Spy spotted the SoHo effect, “when the artists who made a neighborhood cool and exciting are forced to move out because they cannot afford the rents after the area becomes gentrified.”

Ken Jennings, Jeopardy! uber-champion (the Navy SEALs of Jeopardy! champions, perhaps?), was so inspired by chatting with Merriam-Webster dictionary editors at last week’s Scripps National Spelling Bee, he put together a list of “songs about looking words up in dictionaries.”

Finally, while we at Wordnik love words and everything about them, sometimes no words, whether spoken or texted, is better, especially during a movie.

That’s a wrap!  Remember, if you have a tip or would like your language blog to be included in our weekly roundup, let us know in the comments, via email (feedback AT wordnik DOT com), or on Twitter.

It’s Friday, which means it’s time again for our new(ish) weekly series, Language Blog Round-Up, in which we bring you the highlights from our favorite blogs and the latest in word news.

In punctuation land, Slate discussed the rise of “logical punctuation,” or the placement of commas and periods outside of quotation marks, while The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks continued to fight the losing yet hilarious battle against superfluous punctuation (“Think” Positive; “Greatest” Mural; “Do Not” Put Nothing [sic] Here).

The Columbia Journalism Review‘s Language Corner discussed the broadening definition of curator (with a shout-out to Wordnik, thanks!) beyond “one who manages. . .a museum collection or a library,” to journalists, Tweeters, and even “closet-clearing gurus.” Meanwhile, The Economist‘s language blog, Johnson, discussed the “insider language” of another profession in “Airplanese” (what the heck’s a “ground stop”? why “deplane” and not just leave?); the unique accent of the U.S. inland south (think northwest Texas, swathes of Oklahoma, and north Arkansas); and whether or not to use “shall” (don’t).

The bloggers at Motivated Grammar assured us that changing language is not like changing math (thank goodness), while those at the Language Log discovered that Wikipedia has a sense of humor (at least about toilets); the College Board endorses the passive voice; that “can” versus “may” can (or may?) be a matter of life or death; and the dangers of being accidentally counter-revolutionary.

Lynneguist at Separated By a Common Language contemplated a “funny,” yet hated, British cliché while the Virtual Linguist questioned the origin story of another well-known British saying; bemoaned the capaciousness of cliches used during news reports on troubled former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn (care for some champagne socialist?); and discussed Strauss-Kahn’s perp walk.

The Word Spy noted the recent comeback of cybrarian, “a librarian who works with digital resources online,” just in time for the centennial of the New York Public Library’s main building. In celebration, the NYPL will be exhibiting, among other pieces, cuneiform tablets and typewriters; a Gutenberg bible; a love letter from John Keats; and Charles Dickens’ letter opener, the handle of which was made from “the paw of Dickens’s pet cat Bob” (post-mortem, of course).

In live animal news, the Baltimore Sun discussed how race horses get their (sometimes) crazy names ($5 to win on Bodacious Tatas!), while The New York Times covered the Kegasus (part pegasus, part, um, keg? but it’s a centaur, oh never mind), one man/horse/beer-vessel who will be way too busy partying to race.

That’s it for this week. Remember, if you’d like your language blog to be included in our weekly round-up, let us know in the comments, via email , or on Twitter.

Welcome to the inaugural post of our new weekly series, the Language Blog Round-Up, in which we’ll be taking a look at some of our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news, and giving you the highlights.

The Economist’s language blog, Johnson had lions on the brain, discussing the proliferation of lion-like Arabic names and a few of the 400 different ways of saying “lion” in Arabic, according to al-Husayn ibn Ahmad ibn Khalawayh, a 10^th century Arabic scholar, in his “The Names of the Lion.” A true OCD-Wordnik at heart, the scholar also composed such gems as “The Names of the Serpent,” “The Book of Trees,” “The Names of the Hours of the Night,” and “On the Names of the Wind.” I think we have  lists for those!

Meanwhile, The Virtual Linguist explored the controversy and history around the word “slut”, from its first attestment around 1402 (at the time, the word also meant “kitchen maid” and was used affectionately), to the development of  “promiscuity and loose morals” sense in the 16^th century, to an upsurge in the 1980s, and most recently, SlutWalks, an attempt to reclaim the word.

Beauty Marks discussed the challenge of disparate products with the same name (when you hear “Magnum,” do you think ice cream or condoms? or perhaps Ben Stiller’s Zoolander pose?) while Language Log took a look at the difference between “comprised of” and “composed of” and the dangers of picking the wrong synonym.

Finally, you probably heard that the Collins Scrabble dictionary (used primarily in the UK) has added nearly 3,000 new words and terms into its approved Scrabble list. Newly included are non-English words (qin, aloo, and fiqh); slang (thang, innit, blingy); and technology terms (Facebook, MySpace, webzine).

This prompted much discussion among logophiles, including questioning whether or not “mispronunciation constitutes a genuine neologism” (short answer: yes). This sparked another debate over at the Language Log: what is the true origin of American spelling? What caused the change from “British” spelling (-our, -ise) to “American” (-or, -ize). Did Noah Webster single-handedly nationalize American spelling, or was he simply documenting an already on-going trend?

Whatever the reason, Scrabble lovers now have two new Q words that don’t require u’s. (We here at Wordnik expect our Scrabble scores to rise accordingly.)