February 23, 2015 by Angela Tung

Like billy-o! Our Favorite Words of Downton Abbey, Season 5

Another season of Downton Abbey is ending, which means another batch of our favorite Downton Abbey words.

The fifth season (or series, the British way) takes place in 1924. Vladimir Lenin has died, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was performed for the first time, and Calvin Coolidge was elected President of the U.S.

Meanwhile, over in Yorkshire, meaningful glances were exchanged, acerbic quips quipped, and anachronisms dropped (we noticed three and a half). Pour yourself a cuppa and enjoy.

brownshirts

Edith: “Apparently, there’s a trial going on in Munich of the leader of a group of thugs there.”
Lord Grantham: “I read about this. They wear brown shirts and go around bullying people. They even tried to start a revolution last year.”

Episode 4, January 25, 2015

The brownshirts refer to members of the Nazi SA, or Sturmabteilung, who wore brown uniforms.

The Sturmabteilung, also known as Storm Detachment or Assault Division, was the “original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party,” and “played a key role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s.”

cocktail party

Mary: “It’s very daring of the Lord Lieutenant to give a cocktail party. What do you think, Carson?”

Episode 5, February 1, 2015

Anachronism alert! While this episode takes place in 1924, the term cocktail party, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), originated in 1928. The earliest recorded citation from is D.H. Lawrence: “She almost wished she had..made her life one long cocktail party and jazz evening.”

However, it’s possible that the term was in use a few years before Lawrence used it in Lady Chatterley’s Lover since the word cocktail referring to a mixed alcoholic drink was coined in the early 1800s.

crofter

Mary: “What is your main objection to Mr. MacDonald? That the Prime Minister is the son of a crofter?”

Episode 1, January 4, 2015

A crofter is a tenant farmer, and a croft, as you might have guessed, a tenant farm. According to the OED, the word crofter is from the 18th century while croft is much older, originating in the 10th century. They both come from the Dutch kroft, “prominent rocky height, high and dry land, field on the downs.”

The “Mr. MacDonald” Mary refers to is James Ramsay MacDonald, Britain’s first ever Labour Party Prime Minister. His working class background — MacDonald “studied and worked his way from a village to London and from manual labor to a political career” — was at the time unusual for a politician.

electrotherapy

Thomas: “I went to London for what they call electrotherapy, and the pills and injections were supposed to continue the process.”

Episode 6, February 8, 2015

Electrotherapy is medical treatment using “electric currents.” The practice, used for everything from neurological disease to wound healing, was first developed in 1855 by French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne.

While electric shocks were used starting in the 1960s in homosexual conversion therapy, we couldn’t find, in at least a cursory search, the use of electrotherapy in the kind of conversion therapy Thomas is attempting in 1924.

In 1920, Sigmund Freud wrote in a paper that “changing homosexuality” would be difficult as it “was not an illness or neurotic conflict.” In 1935, Freud called homosexuality merely a “variation of the sexual function.”

Ellen Terry

Lady Grantham [to Isobel]: “Ellen Terry has nothing on you when it comes to stringing out a moment.”

Episode 5, February 1, 2015

Ellen Terry was an English stage actress known for her Shakespearean roles. Above is a painting by John Singer Sargent of Terry in perhaps her most famous role, Lady Macbeth.

fit as a flea

Rosamunde: “She’s just very tired. She’ll be fit as a flea tomorrow.”

Episode 5, February 1, 2015

Fit as a flea is an idiom meaning “in good health,” and originated around the 1880s, says the OED.

While the phrase probably plays off as fit as a fiddle, which came about in the 17th century, we don’t know why fleas would be considered hale, except perhaps because of their energetic jumping abilities.

So what does a fiddle have to do with being fit? Fit hasn’t always just meant healthy. In the 16th century, the word meant “possessing the necessary qualifications” and “in suitable condition,” according to the OED. So, presumably, a fiddle that was fit meant that it was fit for playing. It was around 1869 that fit came to mean being in good physical condition.

like billy-o

Lord Grantham: “But darling, you don’t want to rush into anything.”
Rose: “But I do. I want to rush in like billy-o.”

Episode 7, February 15, 2015

Like billy-o is an intensive phrase similar to like the devil, says the OED, and originated around 1885.

But where it comes from is less clear. While the town of Maldon in Essex attributes the saying to Joseph Billio, a minister who arrived in 1696 to build a chapel there, World Wide Words says the phrase billy-o arrived too long after the minister Billio, and that a connection is unlikely.

Other possible origins include “Lieutenant Nino Bixio, an Italian soldier at the time of Garibaldi (whose name was said a little like billy-o)”; Puffy Billy, industrial engineer William Hedley’s early steam engine; or Good King Billy, William III of England.

Marie Stopes

Mary [to Anna]: “I have a copy of Marie Stopes’s book. Tells you everything.”

Episode 2, January 11, 2015

Marie Stopes was a campaigner for women’s rights and “pioneer in the field of birth control.” While her most well-known publication is Married Love: Or, Love in Marriage, the book Mary is referring to is probably Wise Parenthood: A Book for Married People, which describes the diaphragm Mary asks poor Anna to purchase for her:

The best appliance at present available for [closing the minute entrance of the womb] is a small rubber cap, made on a firm rubber ring, which is accurately fixed round the dome-like end of the womb…and should be procurable from any first class chemist.

mumsy

Rose [modeling a dress]: “You don’t think it’s a bit mumsy?”

Episode 8, February 22, 2015

Another anachronism! While mumsy has been in use since the 1870s as a childish imitation of mum or mummy, says the OED, the word meaning motherly, homely, or conventional didn’t originate until 1961.

(one’s) thing

Edith: “I thought you’d gone with them.”
Tom: “No, I have a lot to do. And to be honest, it’s not really my thing.”

Episode 6, February 8, 2015

While it may seem quite modern to use a possessive pronoun with thing to mean something one is interested in, the construction has been around since at least the 1930s, according to the OED: “If pottery’s your thing. Mountains are not my thing. The sea is my thing.”

But of course since this episode takes place in 1924, the phrase is still an anachronism.

shell shock

Mrs. Hughes: “Mr. Carson, surely by now we know enough about shell shock to be more understanding than we were at the start of the war.”

Episode 3, January 18, 2015

Shell shock is also known as combat fatigue, or “posttraumatic stress disorder resulting from wartime combat or similar experiences.” According to the OED, the term combat fatigue originated in the early 1940s.

The OED describes shell shock as a disorder identified specifically in soldiers from World War I, with the earliest recorded citation from 1915:

Only one case of shell shock has come under my observation. A Belgian officer was the victim. A shell burst near him without inflicting any physical injury. He presented practically complete loss of sensation in the lower extremities and much loss of sensation.

While the usage of shell shock spiked in 1920, both shell shock and combat fatigue leveled off after World War II, and the term PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, rose sharply after the early 1980s.

small beer

Carson: “This is very small beer.”
Mrs. Patmore: “Mr. Carson, it’s my kind of beer and I know how to drink it.”

Episode 5, February 1, 2015

The phrase small beer originated in the 15th century, says the OED, and referred to beer that was weak or of inferior quality. About two hundred years later, the phrase came to mean something unimportant or trivial, as first used by Shakespeare in Othello: “To suckle fooles, and chronicle small Beere.”

To think small beer of means “ to have a poor or low opinion of (oneself or others),” while a small-beer chronicle is “a narrative of trivial, usually domestic, events.”

sympathy butters no parsnips

Mr. Carson: “I don’t want you think I’m unsympathetic.”
Mrs. Patmore: “Yes, well, sympathy butters no parsnips.”

Episode 3, January 18, 2015

Sympathy butters no parsnips is a variation on the saying, fine words butter no parsnips, which means fine words achieve nothing.

The phrase comes from the historically British practice of generously applying butter to most foods, including parsnips, apparently “much to the disgust of the French” as well as to the Japanese, who referred to Westerners as bata kusai, or butter-stinkers.

tin-pot

Lord Grantham: “So every time we entertain, we must invite this tin-pot Rosa Luxemburg?”

Episode 2, January 11, 2015

Something or someone tin-pot is unimportant, inferior, or shoddy, the way tin is considered an inferior or shoddy metal. Rosa Luxemburg was a revolutionary socialist who co-founded the Communist Party of Germany.

yummy

Mary: “He looks after the pigs.” [Focuses on a dress.] “Oh, yummy.”

Episode 4, January 25, 2015

Yummy meaning delicious or delectable might be a bit of an anachronism. While in 1899 Rudyard Kipling uses the word — “Kissy! come, come!.. Yummy-yum-yum!” — it might just be a play on the word yum meaning “an exclamation of pleasurable anticipation,” as per the OED.

The OED’s first post-1899 citation of yummy is in 1934 as a listing in Webster’s New International Dictionary of English Language, and then in 1950: “Lora’s attractive face or Dorothea’s yummy figure.”

[Image via PBS]

February 18, 2015 by Angela Tung

Word Buzz Wednesday: Beck’ed, Brownbacking, measles party

Happy Wednesday! It’s time for the latest buzzworthy words that caught our eye. This week: a Beck-worthy eponym, a new Jon Stewart-ism, and a party you definitely don’t want to go to.

Beck’ed

“Kanye West has been ‘BECK’ed’!”

Yaron Steinbuch, “Kanye’s free NYC concert gets ‘BECK’d’,” The New York Post, February 13, 2015

To be honest, we’re not positive what Beck’ed means. What we do know is that in response to Kanye West’s interrupting Beck during his acceptance speech (now commonly known as pulling a Kanye) at the Grammys and saying that Beck should have given his award to Beyonce, an ad agency put up large letters spelling out BECK! in building windows facing a free concert West was giving in the Flatiron District of Manhattan.

We’re guessing to be Beck’ed means to be publicly reminded of a prior “diss.”

debbie downer from mcfly.ttrav on Vimeo.

breaking

“The digital short, ‘That’s When You Break,’ centered on various Saturday Night Live cast members ‘breaking’ (as in, breaking character and laughing) during sketches — with a special emphasis on the infamous breaking duo of Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz.”

Pilot Viruet, “The 5 ‘SNL 40′ Sketches You Absolutely Have to Watch,” Flavorwire, February 16, 2015

While the word breaking could very well be a shortening of breaking character, another possibility is that it comes from or is influence by the phrase break up, or “to convulse with laughter,” as the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) puts it.

While this sense of break up originated in the latter half of the 1800s, we’re not sure when the term breaking character was coined. (It’s not in the OED or Wordnik for that matter). Google Ngrams shows a slight bump for break character around 1860 (although this might have referred to the opposite of build character); another small rise in the early 1910s (perhaps when vaudeville was at its peak), and finally a rapid escalation around 1959.

Corpsing is the British English equivalent of breaking. According to the OED, corpse began as actors’ slang in the 1850s, meaning to confuse an actor during his performance or “to spoil (a scene or piece of acting) by some blunder,” perhaps with the idea of killing a character or scene.

By 1874 the term specifically meant to forget one’s lines, and by the early 1970s, “to spoil one’s performance by being confused or made to laugh by one’s colleagues.”

Brownbacking

“But Stewart brought it back home by noting that Alabama just last year passed an amendment barring the use of foreign law in state court deliberations — and since the Bible was written in a foreign land, ‘you have f—ed yourself with your own statute,’ Stewart told the Yellowhammer State. ‘Or as I hope it comes to be known: ‘Brownbacking’.’”

Peter Weber, “‘Brownbacking’: Jon Stewart tackles gay rights in Kansas, Alabama,” The Week, February 12, 2015

Recently the governor of Kansas, Sam Brownback, “signed an executive order rescinding legal protections for gay and lesbian state employees,” says The Week. In addition, Alabama state Chief Justice Roy Moore ordered local courts to not hand out marriage licenses to same-sex couples, defying a federal court ruling. Moore cited the Bible despite Alabama’s own amendment “barring the use of foreign law,” of which the Bible is, “in state court deliberations.”

Stewart suggested calling such a practice Brownbacking, named for the Kansas governor and playing on the term barebacking, which means to have sex without a condom, especially between men.

chakka

“The ad reaches its lowest point when they call Team India chakka (eunuch) nicely hidden behind the cricketing term also called chakka meaning sixer! *Slow Clap* for the ‘creativity’ of this particular ad-makers.”

Rashmi Mishra, “Pakistan’s response to India vs Pakistan promotional ad of ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 is disgusting!” India.com, February 13, 2015

The word chakka has various meanings across multiple Indian languages, making it ripe for punning. In Malayam, a language of Kerala, the word refers to jackfruit. In Hindi, it’s a cricket term meaning “six runs,” but it’s also derogatory slang referring to either a eunuch, a male-to-female transgender, or the female gentials.

measles party

“California health officials are warning parents not to hold ‘measles parties’ that intentionally expose their children to measles and other childhood diseases.”

Liz Neporent, “Stay Away from ‘Measles Parties’ Docs Warn Parents,” ABC News, February 9, 2015

Since the story broke about anti-vaccination parents possibly holding measles parties, some sources are now reporting that recent occurrences of such types of social engagements may simply be a rumor.

ABC News says measles parties were held “in the 1950s and 1960s before the MMR vaccine program was introduced for measles, mumps and rubella.” In our cursory search, we couldn’t find a primary reference for measles parties being popular during those decades, although we did find a mention from 1914:

You can imagine how shocked they were when they heard of a woman who gave a ‘measles party’ when her children had the disease so that her friends children might get it, too.

Measles parties seem to have made a resurgence around 1998 after a study emerged linking MMR vaccines to autism. However, in 2009 it was revealed that the study’s author “had manipulated patient data and misreported results,” and the paper was retracted in February 2010.

Chickenpox parties were common before the introduction of the varicella or chickenpox vaccine in 1995. But the scare around MMR vaccines seems to have spread to vaccines in general, and like measles parties, chickenpox parties made a resurgence after 1998.

[Photo via Flickr, “Party 1950s Style,” CC BY 2.0 by NinaZed]

February 17, 2015 by Angela Tung

Happy Mardi Gras! Everyone Loves Parade Words

Happy Fat Tuesday! This is your last chance before Lent to partake in revelry and debauchery — or if you don’t practice Lent, just another excuse to revel and debauch.

Today’s post is more festive than depraved as we delve into nine parade words, from the disapproving — and noisy — French, to secret New Orleans societies, to centuries-old folk traditions in the U.S.

callithump

“You probably don’t know what callithump is, but you will find out if you undertake to hoe sod-ground potatoes in July. It has something to do with brazen trumpets and violence.”

Albert Bigelow Paine, Dwellers in Arcady: The Story of an Abandoned Farm, 1919

A callithump is a parade of the “somewhat riotous” vein, accompanied by “the blowing of tin horns, and other discordant noises.”

The Online Etymology Dictionary says the word originated around 1836 as a U.S. colloquialism and “fanciful construction.” Callithump or callithumpian probably plays off Gallithumpians, a “Dorset and Devon word” from the 1790s for “a society of radical social reformers, and also in reference to ‘noisy disturbers of elections and meetings.’”

The American English sense commonly refers to “’a band of discordant instruments’ or bangers on pots and pans, especially to ‘serenade’ a newlywed couple to show disapproval of one or the other or the match.”

cavalcade

“‘But does your foolish old hen suppose that this entire cavalcade, which is bound on an important adventure, is going to stand still while she lays her egg?’ enquired the Tin Woodman, earnestly.”

Frank Baum, Ozma of Oz, 1907

A cavalcade is a procession of people on horseback, as well as “a formal, pompous march of horsemen by way of parade.” The word is an old one, from the 1590s, and comes from the Italian cavalcare, “to ride on horseback.”

In the early 20th century, –cade came to be known as a suffix meaning “procession” or “display, and gave rise to words such as motorcade, autocade, and aquacade.

charivari

“The popping of revolvers, the clanging of cow bells, the clash of tin boilers–all that medley of discord which lends volume to the horror known as a charivari–tore to shreds the harmony of the night.”

William MacLeod Raine, A Man Four-Square, 1909

A charivari is pretty much just like a callithump, that is “a mock serenade of discordant noises, made with kettles, tin horns, etc., designed to annoy and insult” newlywed couples busybody neighbors don’t approve of, such as “an older widower and much younger woman, or the too early remarriage by a widow or widower.”

Charivari, which literally means “rough music,” is older than callithump by about a hundred years. While French in origin, charivari ultimately comes from the Greek karebaria, meaning “headache.” An alteration is shivaree, which originated in the U.S. in 1843.

fanfaron

“Calling him an old blower and bloat, a gas-bag and fanfaron, a Gascon and a carajo, alma miserabile, and a pudding-head…and a darned old hoffmagander…the divil’s blissing an him!”

“Chronicles of Secessia,” Continental Monthly, Vol. I. February, 1862, No. II.

A fanfaron is a bully or boaster, as well as a noisy or ostentatious parade. The Online Etymology Dictionary says fanfaron came from French into English in the 1670s, and like the word fanfare, comes from the French fanfarer, “blow a fanfare,” which may be borrowed from the Arabic farfar, “chatter.”

junkanoo

“At a time when Junkanoo is fighting for its survival, we believe that to limit the exposure of Junkanoo to potential spectators, and indeed the world, in this manner is counter-productive.”

Rashad Rolle, “Junkanoo Cut to a Single Lap,” Tribune242, December 31, 2014

A junkanoo is a parade commonly held in the Bahamas on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

The word and practice might be based on John Canoe, which, says the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), stems from the West Indies and refers to “the chief dancer, or one of several dancers, in a Christmas celebration”; any masks or structures worn by the dancer; or the celebration itself.

John Canoe first appears in English in 1774: “The masquerader..dances at every door, bellowing out John Connú!”

krewe

“Each parade is run by a krewe, a volunteer group whose membership dues make the parade happen.”

Kenny Klein, “Krewe Of Muses: Mardi Gras Parades Explained!” The Huffington Post, May 3, 2015

A krewe is “any of several groups with hereditary membership whose members organize and participate as costumed paraders in the annual Mardi Gras carnival.”

The word, an alternation of crew, comes from the Mistick Krewe of Comus, the first of such groups, which was established in 1857. (Mistick is an alteration of mystic while Comus is the Greek god of festivity.) Other such “krewes” formed shortly afterwards, including the the Krewe of Rex, the Knights of Momus, and the Krewe of Proteus.

The first known use of krewe to refer to this type of group in general was in 1936, says Merriam-Webster.

Mummers Parade

“It is a very methodical madness, however, for the chief participants in this great annual festival Philadelphia — which is known as the New Year Mummers’ Parade — begin their preparations for the following year as soon as the sun sets on scene of gaiety.”

H.R. Jones, “A New Year Parade,” The Wide World Magazine, January 1904

The Mummers Parade is a New Year’s Day tradition specific to Philadelphia and believed to be “the nation’s oldest folk festival,” says NBC. The practice blends immigrant traditions from Scandinavia, England, Wales, and Germany, and after the Civil War, African American residents who arrived in Philadelphia “added the signature strut along with ‘Oh! Dem Golden Slippers,’ the parade’s theme song.”

The Mummers Parade is related to the mummers’ play, an English Christmas tradition. The mummers’ play, says the OED, is a traditional play performed by mummers during major holidays. While the practice is from the 18th century, the term “appears to be the invention of 19th-cent. folklorists.”

parade of horribles

“That expression, ‘parade of horribles,’ has special resonance in the legal world, typically as a put-down used by one side in a dispute to dismiss opponents’ concerns about a ruling’s negative effects.”

Ben Zimmer, “Where did the Supreme Court get its ‘parade of horribles’?” The Boston Globe, July 1, 2012

Like the Mummers Parade, the parade of horribles is an American folk tradition, this one originating in New England in the 19th century and involving a procession of people “wearing comic and grotesque costumes” on the Fourth of July.

According to Ben Zimmer, the term parade of horribles is a play on “the ancients and honorables,” a colloquial name for “the country’s oldest military organization, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, chartered in 1638.” The ancients and honorables would “parade around in uniform,” an ostentatious display that was “ripe for satire.”

Parade of horribles is also a rhetorical device in which a speaker argues “against taking a certain course of action by listing a number of extremely undesirable events which will ostensibly result from the action.”

[Photo via Flickr: “Krewe of Barkus and Meoux Pet Parade, Shreveport, LA,” CC BY 2.0 by Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau]

February 12, 2015 by Angela Tung

The Best of Jon Stewart Words

We didn’t want to believe it but it’s true: Jon Stewart is leaving The Daily Show.

While it’s been a while since we’ve covered the most trusted man in America for our Word Soup column, we still have vivid memories of our favorite Stewart-isms, from words in the news, to original portmanteaus, to guest-coined neologisms.

Let’s revisit 12 of our favorites.

anaphor

Jon Stewart: “By using the phrase ‘you didn’t build that,’ you create confusion by using the demonstrative singular pronoun, ‘that’ instead of the plural anaphor, ‘those,’ which of course would be referring to the antecedent, ‘roads and bridges’. . . .My butt is giving myself a grammar wedgie!”

July 25, 2012

An anaphor is a word, such as a pronoun, “used to avoid repetition,” where “the referent of an anaphor is determined by its antecedent.” The word anaphor ultimately comes from the Greek anapherein, “to carry back, to bring up.”

Anaphor was our 2012 choice for Best Use of a Grammar Term on the Comedy Channel.

assassitunity

Jon Stewart: “Remember when you oversaw the killing of Osama bin Laden? You must have known this photo would go viral. You had to think of it as an assassitunity.”

June 13, 2012

Assassitunity, a blend of assassinate and opportunity, refers to using the assassination of Osama bin Laden as a PR opportunity. Other opportunity portmanteaus include disadvertunity, hobbyturnity, and talk-portunity.

The blend assassitunity is one of the reasons we picked The Daily Show for Best Use of Portmanteaus (tied with The Colbert Report) in 2012.

Benghazi flu

Jon Stewart: “Secretary Clinton was supposed to have testified back in December but kept postponing it for ‘health issues’ which came to be referred to by ‘medical professionals’ as [the Benghazi flu]. . . .The Benghazi flu turned out to be a cerebral blood clot.”

January 24, 2013

The term Benghazi flu was coined by Rep. Allen West, a Republican from Florida, who claimed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was faking illness in order to avoid testifying about the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

It was later revealed that Clinton had been suffering from a “blood clot near her brain.”

cliffpocalypsemageddonacaust

Jon Stewart: “Ladies and gentlemen, the fiscal cliff! It’s the subject of tonight’s cliffpocalypsemageddonacaust, our nation’s totally solvable budget problem.”

November 29, 2012

Cliffpocalypsemageddonacaust is blend of cliff of fiscal cliff, apocalypse, armageddon, and holocaust. For more end-of-the-world words, check out Arnold Zwicky’s apocalypse posts.

This ridiculous portmanteau was our pick for Most Ridiculous Portmanteau of 2013.

DWB

Larry Wilmore: “Racism works best in person. Distrust but verified.”
Jon Stewart: “Like a cop pulling you over for a DWB.”
Larry: “I’m sorry, what’s that, Jon?”
Jon: “A DWB, you know. . .Driving While Black.”

October 2, 2012

DWB, or driving while black, “refers to the racial profiling of black drivers.” The phrase is a play on DWI, “driving while intoxicated,” and originated in 1990 in a New York Times article, says the Oxford English Dictionary.

gaffestronomist

Jon Stewart: “All that remains is the bloody gaffe carcass to be picked over by our nation’s most esteemed gaffestronomists, who will measure the gaffe using the exact science of gaffestronomy.”

June 11, 2012

Gaffestronomist is a blend of gaffe and gastronomist. A gastronomist, also known as gastronomer, is “one versed in gastronomy,” or “the art of preparing and serving rich or delicate and appetizing food.”

Gaffe, “a foolish and embarrassing error, especially one made in public,” may come from the French gaffe, “clumsy remark” which originally meant “boat hook.” The sense connection may be, says World Wide Words, “because the emotional effect [of a blunder] is like being gaffed,” or pulled by a hook.

Mexiknish

Jon Stewart: “Note to self: A Jewish potato treat with the flavor of the southwest. I call it the Mexiknish.”

June 25, 2012

Mexikinish, or “somewhat Mexican,” combines the word Mexican with the suffix –ish meaning “approximately,” and refers Romney’s claim that his father’s being born in Mexico ties him somehow to the Latino community.

The term is also a pun on knish, a hearty eastern European potato snack.

moochacracy

Jon Stewart: “Or the incredible tax breaks the government gives the investor class, whose money is taxed at a capital gains rate of 15% as opposed to ordinary having-a-job income which can be taxed up to 35%. Boy I wish we had a poster boy for that element of moochacracy. Oh right.” [Cuts to picture of Mitt Romney]

September 19, 2012

Moochacracy is a blend of mooch, “to get or try to get something free of charge,” and the suffix –cracy, “rule or government by.” Mooch probably comes from the Old French muchier, “to hide, skulk,” while –cracy comes from the Greek kratos, “strength.” Stewart continues:

In 2010, Governor Romney had an adjusted gross income of $21.6 million yet paid only $3 million in federal income tax, or 13.9%. Without the preferential investor tax code, Romney would have paid $7.56 million – a government subsidy of $4.56 million, or. . . .enough food stamps to feed Mr. Romney through the year 4870.

nerd glaze

Jon Stewart: “I have people who work here, in this office, who disappear for days on Game of Thrones jags, and they just come back with that sort of, ‘Can’t wait – ‘”
Peter Dinklage: “Nerd glaze.”
Jon Stewart: “You just coined something, sir. If somebody doesn’t have nerdglaze dot com right now, you have to register that.”

March 25, 2013

The term nerd glaze, created by Games of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage, refers to an expression of daze and awe as a result of binge-watching a favorite TV show; or awe-struck fandom in general.

We’re glad to see Nerdglaze.com is still up.

Rominee

Jon Stewart: “We’re talking about Mitt Romney who will be the Republican Presidential nominee, or as I now call it, the Rominee. That’s trademarked.”

May 2, 2012

Rominee is a blend of Romney and nominee, a word that won’t be used in the election next year.

Tuiasosopo

Jon Stewart: “Al, I think you’ve been had by Hawaiian uber-prankster Ronaiah Tuiasosopo.” Al Madrigal: “What? No. I got Tuiasosopoed? No!” January 21, 2013

Ronaiah Tuiasosopo is the suspect behind the Manti Te’o girlfriend hoax, and so to be Tuiasosopoed means to be fooled by such a hoax. The word is both an eponym, a word derived from a person’s name, and anthimeria, using a word from one part of speech as another part, such as a noun as a verb. A synonym is catfish. Tuiasosopo was also a word that Stewart really enjoyed saying, as evinced in this clip.

More words that are fun to say.

under-tained

Jon Stewart: “Are you not under-tained? There goes my whole night. Sorry, kids, Daddy can’t read you a bedtime story because he’s got to spend the next five hours watching Blitzer and John King fingerbang Ohio on a magic touchscreen to find out how differently 35-42 year old Catholics voted in Adams County versus this time in 2008.”

March 7, 2012

Under-tained is blend of under and entertained, and means to be entertained in an underwhleming way. It plays on the phrase from the film Gladiator, “Are you not entertained?”

In regards to Jon Stewart and The Daily Show, we were never under-tained.

February 11, 2015 by Angela Tung

Word Buzz Wednesday: impression management; omspreading; vaccine delayer

It’s time for one of our favorite things — new words! Some are newly coined (also known as neologisms); some are just new to us. All are buzzworthy.

This week: managing your impressions; the zen of subway-spreading; and adding to the vaccine debate.

anticipation

“The phenomenon, which geneticists call ‘anticipation,’ is common in other genetic disorders.”

Aimee Swartz, “Insomnia That Kills,” The Atlantic, February 5, 2015

In genetics, anticipation is the “the widely held belief,” says The Atlantic, “that in a family with genetic prion disease, each successive generation will fall ill about seven to 14 years earlier than the last.” Eric Minikel, a software engineer turned geneticist, recently disproved this theory through a computational method he developed.

The genetic meaning of anticipation seems to have originated around the 1750s, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

impression management

“Other people complain as a means of crafting or reinforcing their identities; they use their complaints, in other words, to manipulate how others may see them, a phenomenon psychologists call ‘impression management.’”

Barbara Neal Varma, “Complaining, for Your Health,” The Atlantic, February 8, 2015

Impression management is a psychological term referring to “a goal-directed conscious or subconscious process” to try to influence others’ perceptions.

The Atlantic says that complaining could have a positive effect on impression management. For instance, someone who complains that a “restaurant’s wine selection is under par” lets “others know that the complainer has high standards” (and isn’t just a wine-r).

omspreading

“Reader Dave B. sent us the Omspreading photo yesterday, noting, ‘this manspreading a-hole was meditating on a packed 4 train.’”

Ben Yakas, “Omspreading: The Most Zen Way To Take Up Space On The Subway,” Gothamist, February 6, 2015

There’s really no limit to the types of inappropriate –spreading on public transportation. In addition to manspreading, there’s now omspreading, a meditative take on taking up too much space on the subway.

Gothamist also offers bagspreading, giving your bags or other belongings their own seat, perhaps in a passive-aggressive attempt to dissuade others from sitting beside you.

spontaneous order

“According to Stossel, Americans would be better off with less government and more ‘spontaneous order,’ a term coined by economist Friedrich Hayek which states that order will naturally emerge from chaos.”

David Edwards, “Fox host: FEMA is unnecessary because Walmart will ‘spontaneously’ save us all in a disaster,” Raw Story, February 8, 2015

While Friedrich Hayek and others in the Austrian School of Economics refined the concept of spontaneous order, Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zhou seemed to be the first to hit upon the idea, arguing against the “authoritarianism” of Confucianism and claiming that “good order results spontaneously when things are let alone.”

Damon Linker at The Week has argued against spontaneous order, saying that the U.S. conducted “two experiments in ‘spontaneous order’ in recent years by overthrowing governments in Iraq and Libya,” which brought not order but “anarchy and civil war, mass death and human suffering.” Linker goes on to say that “the libertarian prophets of ‘spontaneous order’ get things exactly backward, sometimes with catastrophic real-world consequences.”

The Economist, however, points out that while “Hayek is commonly lumped in with libertarians” and spontaneous order “is an idea libertarians tend to promote,” spontaneous order “is not a libertarian idea.” Hayek devised the idea of a spontaneous order, The Economist says, “not to argue against the necessity of government, but to argue against mercantilism and the micromanagement of the economy.”

vaccine delayer

“Not only has the [MMR] vaccine received an undue amount of bad press because of the debunked autism link, but as San Francisco vaccine delayer Paul explained, no other vaccine contains three live and weakened viruses.”

Julia Belluz, “The vaccine delayers,” Vox, February 6, 2015

There are the anti-vaxxers, those against vaccinations; vaccine hawks, those aggressively pro-vaccine; and vaccine delayers, who, according to Vox, “generally agree that vaccination is a public-health benefit and “hate ‘anti-vaxxers,’ but are “hesitant and skeptical about some areas of vaccine science.”

[Photo via Flickr: “Lump’o Rider on The Middle Seat,” CC BY 2.0 by Mo Riza]

February 4, 2015 by Angela Tung

Word Buzz Wednesday: bombogenesis, the Starbucks effect, supertweet

Happy February! We kick off the shortest month of the year with our latest favorite buzzworthy words. This week: weather that’s the bomb; the side effect of Frappuccinos; and sometimes a tweet is just a tweet.

bombogenesis

“While millions of Americans gear up for likely historic snowfall this week, they should also prepare for a blizzard of the latest meteorological buzzword: bombogenesis.”

Alexander Smith, “‘Bombogenesis’: Northeast Blizzard Will Be Fueled Dramatic Pressure Drop,” NBC News, January 26, 2015

Bombogenesis is, as NBC News says, the equivalent of a “meteorological bomb.” A meteorological bomb is when “a storm’s area of lowest pressure experiences a rapid drop of more than 24 millibars in 24 hours.” This makes a storm go from “routine” to “intense” very quickly.

Bombogenesis is also referred to as explosive cyclogenesis, a weather bomb, or, simply, a bomb. Bombo- comes from the Greek bombos, “deep and hollow sound,” while genesis comes from the Greek genesis, “origin, source, beginning, nativity, generation, production, creation.”

Bok globule

“CG4, also known as God’s Hand, is a cometary globule — a Bok globule on which one side has been blown outwards into a long tail, resembling a comet.”

Michelle Starr, “Mysterious nebula revealed in new image: ‘Mouth of the Beast,’” CNET, January 28, 2015

Bok globules are, according to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), “small interstellar clouds of very cold gas and dust that are so thick they are nearly totally opaque to visible light.”

A cloud of interstellar dust or gas is also known as a nebula, which comes from the Latin word meaning “mist, vapor, fog, smoke, exhalation.” The Latin nebula also gives us nebulous.

Bok globules were named for astronomer Bart Bok, who first observed the nebulae in the 1940s. The CfA says Bok globules “were originally discovered as black splotches in front of dense fields of stars,” and were dubbed “holes in the heaven” because they “appeared like holes in the stellar background.”

chai-yok

“Granted, the V-Steam is not something Paltrow made up out of thin, steam-filled air — it’s actually a centuries-old practice in Korea called chai-yok, and its practitioners believe it can reduce stress, regulate menstrual cycles and get rid of hemorrhoids.”

Mackenzie Dawson, “Gwyneth steaming her vagina is the best thing she’s done in years,” New York Post, January 30, 2015

According to the New York Post, chai-yok, also known as a V-steam, involves sitting on a “mini-throne” and allowing a “combination of infrared and mugwort” to steam clean, well, your V. It’s not just a “steam douche,” Paltrow assures us, but “an energetic release” that “balances female hormone levels.”

Several publications, including the Post, TIME, and Fast Company, call chai-yok a “centuries-old Korean practice.” However, at least some doubt this veracity, suggesting it might be a “Los Angeles Korean” invention instead.

Chai-yok seems to translate from Korean as “tea bath.”

Starbucks effect

“Starbucks has become a major indicator in determining the market value of a neighborhood, so, yes, your high-priced lattes do affect the real estate market. They call it the Starbucks Effect.”

Joanna Fantozzi, “Yes, Starbucks Does Impact the Real Estate Market, and Here’s Why,” The Daily Meal, January 29, 2015

The Starbucks effect suggests that “more Starbucks locations in a neighborhood lead to higher-priced homes.” Zillow, a real-estate start-up, determined this by comparing a database of Starbucks locations with their own data, and found that homes near Starbucks locations appreciated at a much faster rate than those not Frappuccino-proximate.

Back in 2000, the Harvard Business Review (HBR) had a different definition for the Starbucks effect. HBR described it as the increased “cachet” of a product — for instance, Starbucks making coffee seem “fancier” and therefore more desirable — resulting in higher prices and profits for the entire product category.

This meaning of Starbucks effect might be a play on the earlier Southwest effect, which refers to “the considerable boost in air travel that invariably resulted from Southwest’s entry into new markets,” due to Southwest’s lower costs and improved service.

Other “effects” include the butterfly effect, the domino effect, the ripple effect, and many more.

supertweet

“[The subtweet is] a private whisper shrouded in ‘I didn’t say anything’ innocence. But the supertweet is direct in its apophasis, like the politician’s insult.”

Ian Bogost, “Introducing the Supertweet,” The Atlantic, January 28, 2015

While a subtweet is a tweet that refers to someone in a negative way without actually naming them, a supertweet is a negative tweet that overtly names the target (we think that’s all a supertweet is although The Atlantic seems to say it’s more, but what that “more” is, we’re not positive).

Subtweet, a blend of subliminal and tweet, seems to have originated in 2010 or earlier.

[Photo via Flickr: “Starbucks at home,” CC BY 2.0 by Jerine Lay]

January 28, 2015 by Angela Tung

Word Buzz Wednesday: herd immunity, sitzpinkler, spornosexual

What’s that? You need a word break? You’ve come to the right place.

This week: the importance of vaccinations; the debate over sitting (or standing) to pee; and yet another –sexual.

herd immunity

“This is what scientists call ‘herd immunity,’ and its a huge reason we get vaccines in the first place.”

Sarah Kliff, “The scariest fact about the Disneyland measles outbreak,” Vox, January 23, 2015

In herd immunity, a significant proportion of the population is vaccinated, which protects those who have yet to be vaccinated. In the case of measles, infants can’t get the MMR vaccine until they’re a year old, which means, says Vox, that until then, “babies depend on the fact that everybody else around them gets vaccinated.”

malvertising

“As if small businesses didn’t have enough to worry about when it comes to computer security, here’s another thing to keep you up at night: malvertising.”

Elizabeth Weise, “Malware in ads turn computers into zombies,” USA Today, January 20, 2015

Malvertising, a blend of malware and advertising, is malicious software “hidden in online advertising,” says USA Today.

One type of malvertising “grabs information off the user’s hard drive,” and as a result the hackers can “gain access to e-mail and bank account information.” Another type steals the user’s online persona, “turning their computer into one piece in a vast network of hijacked computers called a botnet,” and going online to visit and click on advertisements as though it were that user.

While this kind of malware doesn’t affect the user, it does affect advertisers “who paid for real people to see their ad, but instead are paying for robot views.”

POPO

“Most POPOs are not widely publicized or even marked, probably because property managers would prefer not to deal with any aggravation.”

Peter Lawrence Kane, “Downtown SF Might Lose a Ton of Public Spaces,” The Bold Italic, January 22, 2015

POPO stands for “privately-owned public open space,” and refers to “publicly accessible spaces in forms of plazas, terraces, atriums, small parks, and even snippets that are provided and maintained by private developers.” The term is also known as POPS, “privately-owned public space,” and seems to have been popularized by this book published in 2000.

POPOs originated from a 1980s policy in which commercial development in downtown San Francisco was only allowed “in exchange for public access,” says The Bold Italic. Now a proposed amendment would allow developers to pay a fee rather than providing public open space.

sitzpinkler

“The controversy pits stehpinklers (men who stand up to pee) against sitzpinklers (men who sit down), and it has taken some bizarre twists over the years.”

Uri Friedman, “A Victory for the Right to Pee Standing Up,” The Atlantic, January 23, 2015

Sitzpinkler and stehpinkler are both German. Sitz means “seat,” steh means “stand,” and pinkler comes from pinkel, which means, you guessed it, to pee.

In Germany there has been a long-running debate about “whether men should be encouraged to sit down when urinating,” says The Atlantic. Both pro- and con-sitzers feel strongly. Sitzpinkler has also come to mean “wimp,” while German supermarkets have taken to installing toilet gadgets that chastise men attempting to stehpinkel.

Meanwhile, a University of Chicago law professor is on a different sort of toilet crusade: increasing “excreting opportunities” for women in public restrooms. She proposes removing couches, full-length mirrors, and vanities, and replacing them with more toilets to sitzpinkel in.

(H/t Mededitor.)

spornosexual

“With the spornosexual movement in full flight, men are now constantly bombarded with potent imagery of celebrities with improbable physiques: some of the most potent and pervasive are from Hollywood.”

Max Olesker, “The Rise of the Spornosexual,” Esquire, January 12, 2015

First we had metrosexual. Then, lumbersexual. Now: spornosexual.

Spornosexuals are men who “strive to look like sportsmen or porn stars,” rather than bodybuilders, says Esquire. Journalist Mark Simpson, who introduced the word metrosexual in 1994, started writing about “sporno” culture in 2006, “noting the rise in hypersexualised, homoprovocative imagery of sportsmen.”

[Photo via Flickr, “Serious Restroom Sign,” CC BY 2.0 by Chad Kainz]