Welcome to Word Buzz Wednesday, your go-to place for the most interesting words of the week. The latest: in the better mood, forensic fallacy, too many storms.

mood repair

“Even weirder is if you ask people why they’re sitting down in front of the screen in the first place or why they’re picking a particular television show or film, they’ll explicitly mention what’s known as ‘mood repair.’”

Jessica Firger, “Why ‘This Is Us’ Makes You Cry So Much,” Newsweek, September 29, 2017

Mood repair is the attempt to shift one’s mood from negative to positive, or to avoid negative feelings. While some mood repair strategies can lead to procrastination — “I imagine that cleaning my house is boring so I’ll watch TV instead”  — it can also be used to complete those dreaded tasks, such as imagining a clean house. The mood repair strategy of recalling positive autobiographical memories has been shown to improve sad moods.

wayfinding

“Hawkins said the welcome sign is part of what’s called wayfinding — giving the city its own brand and letting visitors and residents know what the community has to offer.”

Bob Gross, “Signs help St. Clair toot its own horn,” The Times Herald, October 2, 2017

According to the Society for Experiential Graphic Design, wayfinding refers to “information systems that guide people through a physical environment and enhance their understanding and experience of the space.” In cities, wayfinding involve “signage and information systems for both pedestrians and motorists, who each have unique challenges navigating streets and roadways.”

chicken pickin

“I’ve worked on different approaches to chicken pickin’ techniques for years, and I love to incorporate this distinct sound into metal-style solos.”

Mike Orlando, “Using Country-Style ‘Chicken Pickin’ in Metal,” Guitar World, October 2, 2017

Chicken pickin’, says Guitar World, is a “distinct country-style [guitar] picking approach.” It involves “hybrid picking,” a technique in which “one alternates between notes picked with a downstroke in a conventional manner and notes that are fingerpicked.” It’s perhaps named for the chicken’s pecking motion.

CSI effect

“Despite that, the shows have led to a so-called ‘CSI effect’ in court cases where jurors expect forensic evidence to be presented.”

Melissa Locker, “John Oliver Casts Josh Charles as ‘CSI: Crime Scene Idiot’ on Last Week Tonight,” TIME, October 1, 2017

The CSI effect refers to the expectation created by forensic television shows that “every trial must feature high-tech forensic tests,” says NPR, and that the lack of such tests might lead juries to wrongfully acquit guilty defendants.

500-year storm

“Allison was what’s known as a 500-year storm.”

Brittanie Shey, “Houston after Harvey,” Curbed, October 2, 2017

A 500-year storm or flood is one that has only .2% chance of occurring in any given year. Houston has already seen three 500-year floods in the past three years.

Welcome to Word Buzz Wednesday, your go-to place for the most interesting words of the week. The latest: a big boy pants party, an activist generation, getting comfortable for the big sleep.

breeching ceremony

“Today, almost all Western children start wearing pants of some sort at an early age, but for centuries a little boy’s first donning of trousers was momentous, worthy of celebration. This meant a ‘breeching’ ceremony or party.”

Natasha Frost, “For Centuries, People Celebrated a Little Boy’s First Pair of Trousers,” Atlas Obscura, September 18, 2017

Back in the day, at least in Western society, boys and girls both wore dresses — that is until the boys turned between four and eight. Then out came the trousers, and with great fanfare. This breeching ceremony, says Atlas Obscura, “seems to have started in the United Kingdom sometime in the middle of the 16th century, and then made its way across the Atlantic with early European migrants.” By the early 20th century, the practice died off, “perhaps in part because changes in laundry technology made washing soiled pants—after inevitable childhood accidents—a bit easier.”

386 generation

“This translates into rage against Korea’s political left, much of which comprises what’s called the ‘386 generation.’”

Kelly Kasulis, “Inside Ilbe: How South Korea’s angry young men formed a powerful new alt-right movement,” Mic, September 18, 2017

On the cusp between baby boomers and Generation Xers, the 386 generation in Korea refers to those who were “in their 30s in the 1990s, went to college in the 1980s and were born in the 1960s,” says Mic. They were also known for “driving the democracy movement in the 1980s, which railed against oppressive dictatorial presidents who slaughtered protesters, censored the media and tortured college students.”

grave-casual

“In other words, people dying today are buried in what you might call grave-casual.”

Katie Heaney, “What Your Future Burial Outfit Says About You,” Racked, September 18, 2017

Think business casual, only deader. For baby boomers, says Racked, “self-expression is more important than social status or propriety,” even six feet under. So instead of suits and dresses, they might opt for “a beloved sweater, the jersey of a favorite sports team, or even jeans.” The term business casual, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, originated around 1968.

female athlete triad

“I don’t remember them ever talking about the female athlete triad or anything related to it. … It destroyed my collegiate career.”

Christine Yu, “The Condition That’s Quietly Sidelining Female Athletes,” Outside, September 15, 2017

The term female athlete triad seems to have originated in the late 1990s, says Outside. The American College of Sports Medicine described it as “three distinct conditions: disordered eating, amenorrhea (the absence of a period), and osteoporosis.” It “can contribute to long-term health issues like stress fractures, infertility, and impaired cardiovascular health.”

Pao effect

“That’s what some women have been doing since Pao filed her lawsuit in 2012, putting their careers on the line to call out companies and individuals that engaged in discrimination — and got away with it. In Silicon Valley, it’s called the ‘Pao effect.’”

Jessica Guynn, “It’s called the ‘Pao effect’ — Asian women in tech are fighting deep-rooted discrimination,” USA Today, September 19, 2017

Investor Ellen Pao is known for accusing her one-time employer, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, “of not promoting her because of her gender and retaliating against her for complaining,” says USA Today.

Asians and Asian Americans hold “41% of jobs in Silicon Valley’s top companies,” and while “Asian women hold fewer of those jobs than Asian men, they’re employed in far greater numbers than other women of color.” However, research has shown “that Asian women report experiencing as much bias, and sometimes more, than other women do,” and are the least represented demographic group “in the executive suite relative to their percentage in the workforce.”

Welcome to Word Buzz Wednesday, your go-to place for the most interesting words of the week. The latest: not to be confused with a horcrux, a delicious untranslatable, scared man in the metaphorical castle.

hapax

“The Satyricon contains a number of hapaxes, including ‘bacalusias’ (possibly ‘sweetmeat’ or ‘lullabies’) and ‘baccibalum’ (‘attractive woman’).”

Maya Nandakumar, “How Do You Decode a Hapax? (Also, What’s a Hapax?),” Atlas Obscura, September 7, 2017

A hapax legomenon, says Atlas Obscura, is “a word that occurs only once in a text, an author’s oeuvre, or a language’s entire written record.” Honorificabilitudinitatibus, being able to achieve honors, is one of Shakespeare’s most famous hapaxes. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, hapax legomenon translates from Greek as “once said,” where hapax means “once only” and legomenon is a form of legein, “to say.”

sobremesa

“When you do this at home, it’s wonderful. When you do this at a restaurant, at least an American restaurant, you may get dirty looks from your server.”

Robin Shreeves, “8 foreign food words English doesn’t have,” Mother Nature Network, September 7, 2017

Sobremesa translates from Spanish as “over the table,” says Mother Nature Network, and means to stay at the table chatting long after the meal is done. Other foodie untranslatables include the Telugu engili, meaning food that has been bitten into; the Norwegian uteplis, enjoying a drink in the subshine; and the Georgian shemomechama, continuing to eat when already full.

wanchan

“The lead schoolgirl experiences ‘Wanchan Wandoki’ when her friends change her profile in a way that prompts her boyfriend to call her.”

Oona McGee, “Learn Japanese schoolgirl vocabulary with new video from Line,” SoraNews24, September 10, 2017

Wanchan is a transliteration of the English “one chance,” says SoraNews24. Other Japanese schoolgirl slang includes amore, “I love you,” and NHK, an acronym which comes from ni no ude, hippate, kiss, or “upper arm, pull in, kiss.”

grossophobia

“The day before I meet her a councillor under Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, called Gabrielle to ask whether she would consider organising the capital’s first anti-grossophobia (sizeism) day.”

Stefanie Marsh, “Gabrielle Deydier: what it’s like to be fat in France,” The Guardian, September 10, 2017

Grossophobia refers to the irrational fear of fatness or obesity. Grosso– ultimately comes from the Late Latin grossus, “thick, coarse.”

coward’s castle

“Shackles could be applied to the so-called ‘coward’s castle’ of unfettered parliamentary privilege following Rob Pyne’s repeated and unprecedented claims of local government corruption.”

Chris Calcino, “Rob Pyne’s repeated corruption claims under parliamentary privilege could lead to change,” The Cairns Post, September 7, 2017

Coward’s castle is Australian slang referring to parliament when it’s “used as an arena in which to vilify and abuse others while under parliamentary privilege.” The Online Etymology Dictionary says the term means “a pulpit,” because “a clergyman may deliver himself therefrom without fear of contradiction or argument.”

Welcome to Word Buzz Wednesday, your go-to place for the most interesting words of the week. The latest: a port in a storm, a sorority pyramid scheme, Smaug snot.

hurricane hole

“Boaters have been trying to seek refuge at this marina because it is what’s called a hurricane hole.”

Kailey Tracy, “Local boaters dock in preparation for possible impact of Hurricane Irma,” WECT, September 4, 2017

A hurricane hole is “a port of refuge from powerful Atlantic storms; a safe haven; a secure anchorage, marina, or harbour, that has a reputation for offering protection from wind and waves.” The Wilmington Marine Center is considered a hurricane hole because it’s “almost entirely enclosed inland so that there’s no sea running,” says WCET, and “tends to break the wind a little bit.”

door stacking

“This is called a ‘door stack,’ and if you haven’t seen one in real life, you very well may have in one viral sorority recruitment video or another.”

Stephanie Talmadge, “The Sisterhood of the Exact Same Pants,” Racked, August 30, 2017

According to Atlas Obscura, door stacking is a sorority tradition in which new pledges form a pyramid in the doorway of the house, “singing welcoming songs to visitors and senior sisters,” and sometimes clapping and engaging in “jazzy choreography.” The practice has been banned by some colleges due to minor injuries that can occur when jostling for position or swinging heads around.

godman

“Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, one of India’s so-called ‘godmen’, has as many as 60 million online devotees, and last weekend’s protest was not the first to turn violent in his defence.”

Ibbo Mandaza, George Nyrota, and Wendy Willems, India: Godmen, Con Men and the Media, Al Jazeera, September 2, 2017

Godman is used in India to refer to a “charismatic guru” or leader of a religious sect. They sometimes claim to have supernatural powers, such as healing abilities, clairvoyance, and telepathy. Recently, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, a so-called godman with “as many as 60 million online devotees” was convicted of “raping two of his female followers.”

mind wandering

“This encourages what’s known as ‘mind wandering’, scientifically known to make creative insights more likely.”

Michael Bloomfield, “Forget about work and keep a dream diary: how to think creatively,” The Guardian, September 5, 2017

When your mind wanders, you stop paying attention to what you’re doing. This can be harmful. You don’t want to zone out when you’re operating dangerous equipment, performing surgery, or in the middle of a conversation. But purposeful mind wandering has been scientifically shown to help with creative insights, says The Guardian. A good way to do so, they suggest, is during “undemanding physical tasks” such as walking, cycling, or knitting (or showering).

dragon booger

“‘Dragon boogers’ go by many names. ‘Moss animals,’ for one, and ‘bryozoans,’ for another. They’re also known as ‘ectoprocta,’ meaning ‘anus outside.’”

Sara Chodosh, “Look at the mysterious ‘dragon booger’ found in Vancouver’s Lost Lagoon,” Popular Science, September 1, 2017

While it might resemble something Drogon sneezed out, a dragon booger, says Popular Science, is actually a colonial animal, or “many individual organisms that live together.” They can “wiggle around using tiny tentacle-y arms called cilia, which they also use to help usher food bits into their mouths.”

Welcome to Word Buzz Wednesday, your go-to place for the most interesting words of the week. The latest: if it walks like a milkshake duck and talks like a milkshake duck; a descriptive Canadianism; kissing cousins, Game of Thrones style.

milkshake duck

“Perhaps the best example of milkshake duck is the tale of Ken Bone, the jolly man in the red sweater who asked a question about climate change at the 2016 presidential debate.”

Eve Peyser, “Corncob? Donut? Binch? A Guide to Weird Leftist Internet Slang,” Vice, August 22, 2017

This term was coined by comic artist Ben Ward, says Vice. Tweeting as Pixelated Boat:

The whole internet loves Milkshake Duck, a lovely duck that drinks milkshakes! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you the duck is racist

In other words, “a random person gets their 15 minutes of viral fame, everyone loves them, and then their secret problematic past is uncovered.” Ken Bone “met his demise” when it was revealed that he had posted on Reddit “about how the murder of Trayvon Martin was ‘justified’ and his penchant for pregnancy porn.”

stashing

“What now? Meet ‘stashing,’ the newest relationship term to strike fear into our hearts.”

Cassie Murdoch, “‘Stashing’ is the newest way to get screwed over in love,” Mashable, August 21, 2017

Stashing refers to when, in a new relationship, everything seems to be going well, except that one party has yet to introduce the other to their friends or family, as though being stashed or hidden away. The Online Etymology Dictionary says stash was originally criminals’ slang from about 1797. Otherwise the origin is unknown.

orthorexia

“It’s believed that less than 1% of the US population has orthorexia, but the documented rates for those heavily involved in the wellness world—including yoga instructors, dieticians, and nutrition students—are, in some studies, as high as 86%.”

Rosie Spinks, “Is wellness culture creating a new kind of eating disorder?” Quartz, August 23, 2017

Orthorexia, says Quartz, is an “eating disorder not about thinness, but rather a moral or righteous fixation on consuming ‘pure’ and ‘clean’ foods.”

Steven Bratman, an alternative medicine practitioner, coined the term “in a 1997 article for Yoga Journal after he noticed that some of his clients, ‘had reduced the dimensionality of their human lives by assigning excessive meaning and power to what they put in their mouths.’” The word comes from the Greek orthos, “straight, correct, right,” and the Greek orexia, “appetite, desire.”

soccer baseball

“But nothing is so upsetting as the above map, which indicates that a large part of the country calls kickball ‘soccer baseball.’”

Barry Petchesky, “Attention: Half Of Canada Calls Kickball “Soccer Baseball,” Deadspin, August 25, 2017

According The 10 and 3’s online survey on “how Canada talks,” other Canadianisms include the Saskatchewan bunnyhug for a hooded sweatshirt; garburator, a genericized brand name for garbage disposal, in much of the West; and Kraft Dinner for macaroni and cheese, regardless of brand, in most of the country.

Westermarck effect

“It is the Westermarck effect, gone terribly wrong. It is a warning about what can befall the world when narcissism gets politically weaponized.”

Megan Garber, “Game of Thrones: About That Hookup,” The Atlantic, August 28, 2017

The Westermarck effect is named for Finnish philosopher and sociologist Edvard Westermarck, who posited that “people raised as siblings do not regard the other as potential sexual partners,” although of course sexing siblings, Jaime and Cersei Lannister, would beg to differ.

Welcome to Word Buzz Wednesday, your go-to place for the most interesting words of the week. The latest: shining bright like a diamond; an Apple prank up for grabs; soft serve with a flaky twist. 

diamond ring effect

“Together with the corona circling the disk, the burst of light creates what’s known as the diamond ring effect.”

Andrew Fazekas, “Amazing Sights You Can Only See During a Solar Eclipse,” National Geographic, August 17, 2017

The diamond ring effect, says National Geographic, occurs “about 15 seconds before the moon completely covers the sun.” At this time, “only a tiny crescent of sunshine is left and the sun’s faint upper atmosphere, or corona, begins to come into view,” at which point “the sliver of bright sunlight transitions into a stunning burst of radiance concentrated in one region along the sun’s edge.”

metapragmatics

“Queen says this is an example of ‘metapragmatics,’ or speakers understanding how to use their speech.”

Adam Rogers, “What a Border Collie Taught a Linguist about Language,” Wired, August 18, 2017

The example Wired refers to is between handlers and their border collies. When the handlers’ “commands have to come faster or more urgently,” they “simplify and remove the parts of the shared language that they don’t need.”

Zaltair hoax

“Last but not least, the lot comes with a copy of a flyer from what’s known as the Zaltair hoax.”

Caroline Cakebread, “Apple fans prepare yourselves: One of the original Apple I computers is going up for auction in September,” SFGate, August 18, 2017

The Zaltair hoax was perpetrated by Apple co-founder and prank-lover Steve Wozniak. Back in 1977, says SFGate, he “printed up a couple thousand brochures advertising a non-existent ‘Zaltair’ computer that was supposed to be cheaper and better than any other on the market.” Zaltair is a play on the Altair computer.

bothie

“The company is pushing what it calls the ‘bothie’ as the next evolution of the selfie.”

Samuel Gibbs, “Nokia 8 hopes to beat Apple and Samsung with ‘bothie’, a new version of the selfie,” The Guardian, August 16, 2017

Not to be confused with an ussie or youie, a bothie, at least according to Nokia, is a photo or video in which both the subject and the photo- or video-taker are present.

99

“In Britain, Ireland, Australia, and South Africa, many ice cream vendors sell what’s called a ‘99,’ which is a cone of soft serve ice cream with a Cadbury Flake bar stuck into it.”

“You Can Thank A Flat Tire For Soft Ice Cream,” South Florida Reporter, August 19, 2017

The 99, or ninety-nine, has been around since at least the 1930s, says the Oxford English Dictionary. It first referred to “an ice-cream wafer sandwich containing a similar stick of chocolate” or “a wafer cone or chocolate stick for an ice cream.”

The origin of the name is unknown. While Cadbury produced a candy bar called ‘99’ Flake, that might have come from the ice cream, and “the suggestion that something really special or first class was known as ‘99’ in allusion to an elite guard of ninety-nine soldiers in the service of the King of Italy appears to be without foundation.”

 

Welcome to Word Buzz Wednesday, your go-to place for the most interesting words of the week. The latest: the world’s most succinct untranslatable, dressing to the max, a false equivalence.

mamihlapinatapai

“Listed in the 1994 Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most ‘succinct word,’ mamihlapinatapai stems from the language of the Yaghan (or Yamana) tribe of Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago split between Chile and Argentina at the southern tip of South America.”

Zoe Baillargeon, “How the Internet Changed the Meaning of ‘Mamihlapinatapai,’” Atlas Obscura, August 11, 2017

The approximate translation of mamihlapinatapai is “a look shared by two people, each wishing that the other would initiate something that they both desire but which neither wants to begin.” It was mentioned in 2011 documentary, and since then has gained popularity on the Internet.

However, says Anna Daigneault of the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, “outside of its parent culture, mamihlapinatapai is being viewed and interpreted differently from its original meaning.” Through a Western lens, the word might seem to have a romantic undertone, “but it might not be used in that way in the Yaghan language.” Instead, “it may be closer to ‘a strong, shared glance that connects the two speakers in some way that is beyond words.’”

hot hand

“Using a new method that focuses on fastball velocity, we found a way to detect whether a pitcher is actually throwing with a hot hand — and just how big of a difference it can make.”

Rob Arthur and Greg Matthews, “Baseball’s ‘Hot Hand’ Is Real,” FiveThirtyEight, August 11, 2017

A hot hand is a streak of good luck or success, along with the idea that because someone has had that streak, the more likely they are to continue to have it. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term began as basketball lingo in the 1920s. Today hot hand might be used in sports in general, gambling, and financial investing.

extra

“Never ones to shy away from making a statement, it should come as no surprise that Gen Z’s approach to style is anything but minimal. In fact, it’s pretty much the exact opposite: ‘extra,’ if you will.”

Kelly Agnew, “Gen Z Gives A Whole New Meaning To Dressing Extra,” Refinery29, August 10, 2017

While extra seems to have started as meaning over the top or dramatic in negative sense, it now might refer to a kind of maximalist style, or as Paste Magazine describes it, “loud colors, clashing prints, overstated makeup and dresses over jeans.”

coaster

“Many acknowledged that resting and vesting was a common, hush-hush practice at their own companies. Internally, these people are often referred to as ‘coasters.’”

Julie Bort, “Inside the world of Silicon Valley’s ‘coasters’ — the millionaire engineers who get paid gobs of money and barely work,” Business Insider, August 6, 2017

Coasters, also known as resters and vesters, are “engineers who get paid big bucks without doing too much work, waiting for their stock to vest.”

antifa

“Members of the ‘alt-right’ broadly portray protesters who oppose them as ‘antifa,’ or the ‘alt-left,’ and say they bear some responsibility for any violence that ensues — a claim made by Mr. Trump on Tuesday.”

Liam Stack, “Alt-Right, Alt-Left, Antifa: A Glossary of Extremist Language,” The New York Times, August 15, 2017

Antifa is a shortening of “anti-fascist,” says The New York Times, and “was coined in Germany in the 1960s and 1970s by a network of groups that spread across Europe to confront right-wing extremists.” According to analysts,  “comparing antifa with neo-Nazi or white supremacist protesters was a false equivalence.”