Every week, we pose a challenge: using any word of the day from the week, create a perfect tweet, otherwise known as a twoosh. If we like it, your tweet will appear on our blog.
Here are our favorites from last week:
Thanks to everyone for playing! You’ll have another chance this week to perfect your word of the day perfect tweets. To get the word of the day, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or subscribe via email.
While the television show The Soup brings you “the strange, obscure and totally unbelievable moments in pop culture, celebrity news and reality TV,” Word Soup brings you those strange, obscure, unbelievable (and sometimes NSFW) words from talk shows, sitcoms, dramas, and just about anything else on TV.
Achilles’ head
Jon Stewart: “What’s Rick Perry’s Achilles heel?”
John Oliver: “He doesn’t have one. Rick Perry has an Achilles’ head.”
Rick Perry: “[The President] had two opportunities. Or he didn’t have two opportunities, he had two choices. Actually he had three.”
December 12, 2011, The Daily Show
An Achilles’ heel is “a seemingly small but actually crucial weakness.” In Greek mythology, Achilles was a “Greek hero of the Trojan War” who was “invulnerable in all of his body except for his heel,” and who would die as a result “of a small wound on his heel.” An Achilles’ head is a large and obvious weakness.
anchor baby
Stephen Colbert: “Now that anchor baby has been declared offensive, I hold little hope for my submission: grappling baby. Noun. The all too common occurrence of a pregnant woman in Mexico aiming her birth canal at America to launch her baby over the border so then she can climb in using the umbilical cord.”
December 12, 2011, The Colbert Report
An anchor baby is “a child born in the U.S. to illegal aliens,” with the idea that the child will anchor or fix the parents to the U.S. After a complaint from the Immigration Policy Center, the “lexicowards” (as Colbert jokingly says) at American Heritage Dictionary added “offensive” and “disparaging term” to the definition.
b-mail
Marge: “I just a got a message from Maggie in my brain.”
Homer: “Oh, a b-mail!”
“Holidays of Future Passed,” The Simpsons, December 11, 2011
B-mail is short for “brain mail,” and plays on email and Gmail.
Bauerschwein
Angelina: “I know who killed Hap and Rolf. A cop. A Bauerschwine.”
“The Three Bad Wolves,” Grimm, December 9, 2011
A Bauerschwein is a pig-like creature that can appear in human form. German in origin, bauer means “peasant, farmer” while schwein means “pig, hog.” Pig is also a disparaging term for a police officer.
Blutbad
Eddie: “Just so you know, Reinegen and Blutbaden are not drinking buddies.”
“Danse Macabre,” Grimm, December 8, 2011
Blutbaden are werewolf-type creatures who can change from human form into wolf form at will. The word Blutbad is German in origin and translates literally as “blood bath.”
Bumbleflex
Chris: “It’s an experimental fabric called Bumbleflex. It’s made of synthetic bees’ wings.”
“Citizen Knope,” Parks & Recreation, December 8, 2011
The fictional brand name Bumbleflex plays on the idea of the word flex as a popular name for athletic apparel (implying both flexibility and strength, as one flexes one’s muscles). Bumble refers to bumblebee.
concu-droid
Love Android: “I am leaving with your sister’s concu-droid.”
“Holidays of Future Passed,” The Simpsons, December 11, 2011
Eddie: “Hey I’m pretty good, but it’s true. I’m no Gefrieren Geber.”
Nick: “Wait a minute. You’re telling me that Santa Claus is a…?”
Eddie: “Well, think about it. I mean, who else could live up there?”
“Let Your Hair Down,” Grimm, December 16, 2011
Gefrieren Geber is German in origin and translates as “frozen giver,” playing on the idea that Santa Claus, the giver of presents, lives in the North Pole.
Geiger
Nick [examining rat cage]: “Geiger Pest Control. You know them?”
“Danse Macabre,” Grimm, December 8, 2011
Geiger is the German word for “violinist; fiddler.” Roddy Geiger is a talented violinist who has the ability to control rats with music, much like the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
glee
Mr: Rad: “Glee!
It’s like a drug that you use
That turns your pain into shoes
And your shoes into dance!”
“Regional Holiday Music,” Community, December 8, 2011
Glee is “exultant or playful exhilaration; demonstrative joy or delight; merriment; mirth,” or “in music, a composition for three or more solo voices.” Here glee refers to something overly jubilant, to the point of masking pain or reality like a drug.
Krampus
Anthony Bourdain: “What I’m thinking about is Krampus. . .The original bad, bad Santa. Because in Austria, when they tell you what happens to bad boys and girls, they ain’t fucking kidding.”
Holiday Special, No Reservations, December 12, 2011
accompanies St. Nicholas (Santa Claus) during the Christmas season, warning and punishing bad children, in contrast to St. Nicholas, who gives gifts to good children. When the Krampus finds a particularly naughty child, it stuffs the child in its sack and carries the frightened thing away to its lair, presumably to devour for its Christmas dinner.
Commander: “[Dr. Magnus] and her friend went all Krav Maga on my men.”
“Acolyte,” Sanctuary, December 9, 2011
Krav Maga is “a hand-to-hand combat system developed by the Israeli Defense Forces.” In this instance, Krav Maga, usually a noun, is being used as a verb, an example of anthimeria, “the use of a word from one word class or part of speech as if it were from another,” especially “the use of a noun as if it were a verb.”
pooping log
Anthony Bourdain: “A pooping log with a smiley face, it has its own Christmas carol and a candy-based defecation ceremony.”
Holiday Special, No Reservations, December 12, 2011
The pooping log refers to the Catalonian tradition, Tió de Nadal, which translates as “Christmas Log.” On Christmas Day or Eve, the log is placed in the fireplace and encouraged, by the beating of sticks and the singing of Tio de Nadal songs, to “shit” candies, nuts, and other treats, which are then shared communally.
Reinegen
Eddie: “Reinegen? They’re bottom of the food chain, man. Let me tell you, the food in their chain – gourmet is not their forte.”
“Danse Macabre,” Grimm, December 8, 2011
Reinegen are rat-like creatures which can take on human form. The word is based on the German word reinigen, which means “to clean; to purge; to scavenge.” While the Reinegen are exterminators who purge places of rats, they’re also like rats, which are known scavengers.
reverse bully-ism
Jeff: “Oh please, not liking glee club doesn’t make us bullies, and implying that is reverse bully-ism!”
“Regional Holiday Music,” Community, December 8, 2011
Reverse bully-ism, like reverse discrimination, places the normally dominant group, in this case the bullies, in the position of the victim (the bullied).
Santa Lap
Schmidt: “I have a really bad case of Santa Lap. The entire marketing department is wearing wool.”
Anthony Bourdain: “Silk stocking tea, as it’s called, is thankfully not made with used undergarments. It’s called that for the color.”
“Hong Kong,” The Layover, December 19, 2011
Silk stocking tea, a Hong Kong-style milk tea, may also be named for the shape of the filter and the “intense brown colour” the filter develops “as a result of prolonged tea drenching.” Also known as pantyhose tea.
soy sauce Western
Matt Walsh: “There’s a kind of cuisine in Hong Kong that they sometimes call soy sauce Western. This kind of thing doesn’t go back 100 years. It goes back 40, 50.”
Anthony Bourdain: “There’s a similar Japanese and a similar Korean genre cuisine also. Soldiers asking local chefs to recreate dishes that they had in the States, and cooks who had never eaten the original, cooks who had never eaten pizza or spaghetti and meatballs trying to recreate it for some drunk G.I. who’s describing it.”
“Hong Kong,” The Layover, December 19, 2011
Soy sauce Western cuisine, which, says CNNGO.com, fuses “the imported goods and flavors of the West with existing local tastes,” should not be confused with the spaghetti western, low-budget cowboy movies “produced by an Italian-based company and filmed in Europe,” especially Italy.
swagger coach
Tom: “Tom Haverford, image consultant and swagger coach.”
“Citizen Knope,” Parks & Recreation, December 8, 2011
Swagger means to “strut with a defiant or insolent air,” as well as “an insolent strut; a piece of bluster; boastfulness, bravado, or insolence in manner.” In modern terms, swag or swagger also means attitude or mojo. A swagger coach makes sure his or her clients’ “swagger is at very high levels at all times.” Also, swagga coach.
Lily: “So here’s a new twist on old traditions, starting with a cocktail. This is a bloody mary eggnog, a blood nog!”
“Christmas is Cummings,” Whitney, December 8, 2011
Blood nog is a blend of bloody mary and eggnog. The origin of the bloody mary, a mixture of vodka and tomato juice, is disputed. It may be named after Queen Mary I of England, aka “Bloody Mary”; a waitress named Mary at Bucket of Blood, a Chicago bar; or the actress Mary Pickford. Nog is another name for ale and may come from the Norfolk dialect.
Great addition, Andy!
That’s it for this week! Remember, if you see any Word Soup-worthy words, let us know on Twitter with the hashtag #wordsoup. Your word and Twitter handle might appear right here!
Every week, we pose a challenge: using any word of the day from the week, create a perfect tweet, otherwise known as a twoosh. If we like it, your tweet will appear on our blog.
Here are our favorites from last week:
Thanks to everyone for playing! You’ll have another chance this week to perfect your word of the day perfect tweets. To get the word of the day, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or subscribe via email.
Welcome to the Language Blog Roundup, in which we bring you highlights from our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news and culture.
What do you think the word of the year should be? At NPR, linguist Geoff Nunberg selected occupy:
It was a late entry, but since mid-September it has gone viral and global. Just scan the thousands of hashtags and Facebook pages that begin with the word: Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Slovakia. Occupy Saskatoon, Sesame Street, the Constitution. Occupy the hood.
In words of the week, Erin spotted monozukuri, Japanese manufacturing skills; retail-tainment; and NoMad, “North of Madison Square Park” in New York City. Ben Zimmer examined apprenti, while Word Spy spotted couch commerce, “ordering goods and services while relaxing at home”; grey-sky thinking, “negative or pessimistic thoughts, ideas, or solutions”; hopium, a sort of irrational optimism; and fat finger problem, “the tendency to make errors on a device where the keys or screen elements are too small.”
Fritinancy noticed infidel, “an unbeliever with respect to a particular religion, especially Christianity or Islam,” and the Donner Party comma, “the comma of direct address,” which makes the difference between “Let’s eat, Grandma!” and “Let’s eat Grandma!” In other punctuation news, the Columbia Journalism Review considered the dash.
Wordnik means business — we’re happy to announce today that Wordnik is powering SmartMoney.com’s new financial terms glossary!
The New SmartMoney Glossary
With more than 4000 words and phrases, SmartMoney’s new glossary is the place to go to make sense of the words that matter in your financial life. Keeping track of your finances is difficult enough, without the added hurdle of wading through financial jargon, too. Wordnik helps demystify opaque terms such as recission, dilution, and butterfly spread, making it easier for you to make meaningful choices about how you live your financial life. In addition to traditional definitions and explanatory notes, the new SmartMoney glossary also includes helpful example sentences showing the terms in real-world contexts, from up-to-date articles from across the The Wall Street Journal Digital Network.
Alongside the stand-alone glossary, selected articles in the The Wall Street Journal Digital Network will also have a useful footer line to highlight important terms you may want to look up.
To provide the example sentences, Wordnik has analyzed thousands of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network articles (from SmartMoney, The Wall Street Journal, and MarketWatch) to show the most explanatory and illuminating content for the most important words and concepts, leading readers to current trending articles as well as rich archival information. Taken together, these enhancements will not only allow SmartMoney readers to understand the traditional meanings of important financial terms, but will also let them interact with news content in ways that provide fresh discovery of words, phrases, concepts, and entire articles.
Welcome to this special installment of Word Soup! While the television show The Soup brings you “the strange, obscure and totally unbelievable moments in pop culture, celebrity news and reality TV,” Word Soup brings you those strange, obscure, unbelievable (and sometimes NSFW) words from talk shows, sitcoms, dramas, and just about anything else on TV.
Today’s Word Soup is dedicated to the new lexicon that Glee has introduced to Gleeks across the country.
Asian F
Mike: “I got an A minus, Tina.”
Tina: “You got an Asian F?”
“Asian F,” October 4, 2011
Asian F plays on the stereotype that Asians and Asian Americans are academic overachievers. Hence, anything lower than an A would be seen as failing.
bear cub
Karofsky: “I’m what they call a bear cub.”
“The First Time,” November 8, 2011
The word bear in gay culture refers to a large hairy bear-like man. Hence, a bear cub refers to a younger large hairy man.
cash money
Puck [to Shelby]: “Screw you. Sure you’ve got the boom and the pow, and your lips are cash money. But what really turned me on about you was how much of an asskicker you were, winning all those championships, going to New York, raising Beth on your own.”
“I Kissed a Girl,” November 29, 2011
Cash money in this context means exemplary or awesome, and may be a play on the use of money in the 1996 film Swingers with a similar meaning, as well as the sense of being kosher or copacetic. “That was so fucking money. That was like the Jedi mind-shit.”
CW hair
Kurt [to Sebastian]: “I don’t like your smirky little meerkat face. I don’t like your obnoxious CW hair.”
“Hold on to Sixteen,” December 6, 2011
CW hair refers to the trendy hairstyles of the young stars of certain shows on the CW television network, such as 90210, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, and The Vampire Diaries. Another hairstyle based on a TV character is the Rachel.
DEFCON 1
Rachel: “I’m gonna be emotional DEFCON 1 until they release the results for the musical.”
“I Am Unicorn,” September 27, 2011
DEFCON stands for defense readiness condition, “an alert posture used by the United States Armed Forces.” DEFCON 5 is the least severe while DEFCON 1 is the most severe. One of the first instances of DEFCON used in popular culture was in the 1983 film WarGames. “See that sign up here – up here. DEFCON. That indicates our current defense condition. It should read DEFCON 5, which means peace. It’s still on 4 because of that little stunt you pulled.”
ear candy
Sugar Motta: “Get ready to taste some sweet ear candy.”
Ear candy is “light popular music considered to be pleasing” and is based on the 1977 Helen Reddy album of the same name. The visual equivalent, eye candy, “someone or something that is visually attractive or pleasing to look at,” is attested to 1978. Nose candy, or cocaine, attests to 1930, while arm candy, “an attractive person who accompanies another to public gatherings but is not romantically involved with that person,” may have originated in the mid 1990s.
“The Purple Piano Project,” September 20, 2011
flannel closet
Santana: “Do you realize you’re basically forcing me out of the flannel closet?”
“I Kissed a Girl,” November 29, 2011
Flannel closet is based on the phrase, in the closet, “not open about one’s sexuality.” To come out of the closet means to “to tell others abouthomosexuality, bisexuality or any minority or disapproved-of belief, preference, etc, where previously this had been kept secret.” The secretive sense of the word closetfirst referred to alcoholism (1952), but by the 1970s was “used principally of homosexuality.” Flannel refers to the stereotype that lesbians favor flannel clothing.
friend of Ellen
Sue: “Why would someone assume I’m a friend of Ellen just because I’m mannish and I have short hair and I only wear track suits and I coach a girls’ sport and I married myself?”
“I Kissed a Girl,” November 29, 2011
Friend of Ellen is based on the phrase friend of Dorothy, a euphemism for a gay man. The origin of friend of Dorothy is obscure. It dates back to at least World War II, during a time when “homosexual acts were illegal in United States.” Dorothy refers to either The Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy Gale, played by Judy Garland, a gay icon, or the writer Dorothy Parker, “who included some gay men in her famous social circle.” Ellen refers to the openly gay talk show host and entertainer, Ellen DeGeneres.
glee-otch
Bully [to Finn]: “Taste the rainbow, glee-otch!”
“The Purple Piano Project,” September 20, 2011
Glee-otch is a blend of glee and beeyotch, an alternative pronunciation of bitch, which in this context means “a man considered to be weak or contemptible.” A glee-otch is a weak or contemptible man (ie, Finn) who is also in glee club. Taste the rainbow refers to the Skittles candy tagline.
high pony
Sue [to Quinn]: “You’ve lost your child, your boyfriend, your rep, and worst, your high pony.”
“I Am Unicorn,” September 27, 2011
A high pony is a ponytail that sits high on one’s head, often worn by cheerleaders. Last season Quinn cut her hair in rebellion. See bump it.
inner bridezilla
Will: “Look, Emma, I’m not scared of your inner bridezilla.”
“Asian F,” October 4, 2011
Inner bridezilla plays on inner child, “the essential, or original self, regarded as a child, existing within the shell of an adult, especially when suppressed by negative childhood experiences,” a pop psychology concept that originated in the 1970s. Bridezilla, a blend of bride and Godzilla, a monster from Japanese horror films, is “a woman who, in the course of planning her wedding, exercises or attempts to exercise an high degree of control over all or many minor details of the ceremony and reception.” The term seems to have originated in the 1990s.
mash-off
Shelby: “Each group is going to put together their own mash-up to perform head to head.”
Will: “In the first annual McKinley High Mash-Off!”
“Mash Off,” November 15, 2011
A mash-up in this context is “a remix that combines two or more songs from different artists into one track.” The earliest citation of mash-up as a mix of things is from 1859. Mash-off is a play on the term dance-off, a dancing competition.
ninja
Tina [to Mike]: “This is your chance to break out and show everybody that you’re more than just a fleet-footed dance ninja.”
“Asian F,” October 4, 2011
Ninja in this context means someone who acts “in the manner of a ninja, especially in the areas of speed and power.”
play the victim card
Will: “You’re not a little girl anymore, Quinn. How long do you plan on playing the victim card?”
“I Am Unicorn,” September 27, 2011
Play the victim card is a variant of the phrase play the race card, to exploit “either racist or (more frequently) anti-racist attitudes to gain a personal advantage.” Play the race cardseems to have originated in the UK in the 1960s, and may be a variation of “Nixon’s 1970s rapprochement with Beijing – known as playing the China card,” both of which may be based on the phrase, play the trump card. A trump card is “a card in the trump suit, held in reserve for winning a trick,” and figuratively, “a key resource to be used at an opportune moment.”
skank
Quinn: “I gotta meet the Skanks on the roof. We’re gonna throw ketchup-covered tampons at the marching band.”
“I Am Unicorn,” September 27, 2011
A skank is “one who is disgustingly foul or filthy and often considered sexually promiscuous,” especially a woman or girl. The origin is obscure and may come from skag, a slang term for heroin. Skank is also “a rhythmic dance performed to reggae or ska music, characterized by bending forward, raising the knees, and extending the hands.”
smell like Craigslist
Kurt [to Sebastian]: “You smell like Craigslist.”
“Hold on to Sixteen,” Glee, December 6, 2011
To smell like Craigslist means to have an air of tawdriness or vulgarity, perhaps due to certain sections of the online classifieds service. The phrase also echoes smells like teen spirit, the Nirvana song.
tappable
Puck [to Shelby]: “You are still the most tappable teacher at McKinley by far.”
“Pot O’ Gold,” November 1, 2011
Tappable means “attractive enough to have sex with” and comes from the phrase I’d tap that, which originated from I’d tap that ass, based on the idea of tapping a beer keg. The origin of I’d tap that ass is unknown, as far as we could find, though xkcd had some fun with the phrase.
Temple of Doom
Sue [to Burt]: “You mess with me, I will Temple of Doom my fist through your chest and pull out your still-pumping artificial heart, which I will then hook up to my car, power us down to the lumberjack convention for some deep discounts on the mid-west’s largest selection of ill-fitting flannels.”
Temple of Doom means “to punch a hole through in a horrifying and inhuman way,” based on the scene from the 1984 movie, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. This is an example of anthimeria, “the use of a word from one word class or part of speech as if it were from another,” especially “the use of a noun as if it were a verb.” See Die Hard and thunder-gun.
“Pot O’ Gold,” November 1, 2011
top ho
Santana: “Senior year is all about being the Cheerios top ho and modeling my fierceness after my numero uno Latina, Paula Abdul.”
Jacob: “Paula Abdul is an Arab.”
“The Purple Piano Project,” September 20, 2011
Top ho plays on phrases such as top dog or top banana, the boss or leader of a pack. Ho is a prostitute and is short for whore. While in some contexts, the use of ho is offensive, in this context it is an act of reappropriation, “the cultural process by which a group reclaims—re-appropriates—terms or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group.”
urban camper
Artie [to Sue]: “You said you considered the homeless to be urban campers.”
“Extraordinary Merry Christmas,” Glee, December 13, 2011
Urban camper, one who camps in an urban setting, is a disparaging term for one who is homeless.
unicorn
Brittany: “A unicorn is someone who knows they’re magical, but isn’t afraid to show it.”
“I Am Unicorn,” September 27, 2011
A unicorn is “a fabled creature symbolic of virginity and usually represented as a horse with a single straight spiraled horn projecting from its forehead.”
That’s it for this week! Remember, if you see any Word Soup-worthy words, Gleeky or not, let us know on Twitter with the hashtag #wordsoup. Your word and Twitter handle might appear right here!
Every week, we pose a challenge: using any word of the day from the week, create a perfect tweet, otherwise known as a twoosh. If we like it, your tweet will appear on our blog.
Here are our favorites from last week:
Thanks to everyone for playing! You’ll have another chance this week to perfect your word of the day perfect tweets. To get the word of the day, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or subscribe via email.