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Drinks Week: Wine

Wine

It’s Drinks Week at Wordnik! In honor of Oktoberfest, National Bourbon Heritage Month, and National Coffee Day on Thursday, we’ll be featuring potable – some potent, some placid – words of the day, lists of the day, and blog posts.

The beverage du jour? Wine.

The word wine, “the fermented juice of the grape,” comes from the Latin vinum, meaning, well, “wine.” Vinum also gives us vine, as in where grapes grow, and vinous, “having the qualities of wine; pertaining to wine or its manufacture.” It gives us vintner, “one who deals in wine”; vino, an inferior wine; and wino, “a wine-drinking alcoholic.” It gives us vinegar, which comes from the Old French vinaigre, “sour wine,” what wine turns into when not stored properly.

Vinum gives us vintage, “the annual product of the grape-harvest, with especial reference to the wine obtained,” or “having an enduring appeal; high-quality, classic,” and vinyl. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary:

In chemistry, vinyl was used from 1863 as the name of a univalent radical derived from ethylene, from L. vinum “wine,” because ethyl alcohol is the ordinary alcohol present in wine.

The Latin vinum is related to the Greek word for wine, oinos. An oenophile is “a person who has a fondness for wine,” while oenology is “the art of making wine.” Viticulture (from the Latin vītis, “vine”) is the “culture or cultivation of the vine” or grapes (for all things grapes, check out this list).

A sommelier is “a wine steward; the person at an expensive restaurant who keeps the wine cellar and advises guests on a choice of wines.” The word comes not from a wine or vine word but from the French sommier, “beast of burden,” as the original meaning of sommelier was “officer in charge of provisions, pack-animal driver.”

Would you like to see a wine list? Would you prefer a red, such as a Merlot, claret, or Shiraz, or a white, like pinot, Chablis, or Chardonnay? Perhaps you’d like a vintage wine, or a varietal. Sparkling (such as champagne, spumante, or Crémant), or still? Maybe a wine that’s fortified (port, sherry, or vermouth); dessert (or stickies, as those from Australia or New Zealand might call them); or table (Burgundy, Chianti, or rose)? Or maybe you’re in the mood for something mixed (sangria, sillabub, kir). However, we wouldn’t recommend the plonk.

If you decide to try your hand at winemaking, make sure you’re stocked up on barrels and these bottles or these. You might find beeswing, “a gauzy film in port and some other wines, indicative of age,” named for the appearance of the insect’s wings when broken up, or use isinglass, “a form of gelatine obtained from the air bladder of the sturgeon and certain other fish, used as an adhesive and as a clarifying agent for wine and beer.”

For even more vinous vignettes, check out Fritinancy’s posts on wine-naming rules and regulations; wine with a real bite; and wine that’s to die for. Wired Magazine tells us what’s inside a bottle of red, Slate explains why wine writers talk the way they do, and Textism pokes fun at wine-speak.

UPDATE: We got a couple of great emails from our readers, and we thought we’d share the interesting tidbits they provided.

From “Michael”:

If the volume of that space increases, (ie, the level of the wine in an upright bottle has fallen) that bottle is said to be “ullaged”. Excessive ullage, which is caused by leakage through the cork or synthetic closure and compensatory influx of air, is harmful to the wine. When a bottle of wine is opened it is said to be “on ullage” and therefore ready for the pouring of a drink. Different principles apply to sherry.

And from “Noël”:

As I was born in a winegrower’s family, I would like to give you an extra item concerning the french word «ouillage»: this action is particularly meant to avoid oxydation of the wine in a cask buy the layer of air which is upon the surface of the wine. Oxydation most often makes elements of flavour get lost.

I had to achieve this task so many times during my education in my parent’s cellar… while my school mates swept after the girls…

Keep your cups handy for tomorrow’s post – the way of tea.

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WotD Perfect Tweets Challenge

Every week, we pose a challenge: using any word of the day from this week, create a perfect tweet, otherwise known as a twoosh. If we like it, your tweet will appear on our blog.

This week, we asked you to tweet like a pirate. Here are our favorites.

Thanks to everyone for playing! Next week you’ll have another chance to perfect your word of the day perfect tweets. To get the word of the day, just follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or subscribe via email.

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This Week’s Language Blog Roundup

Welcome to this week’s Language Blog Roundup, in which we bring you the highlights from our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news and culture.

Monday was International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and in celebration Erin McKean explored the origins of pirate lore, while The Book Bench remembered when pirates were pyrates, and took a look at some modern-day pirates, some dangerous, some less so.

Monday was also the ASCII-based emoticon’s birthday (though that wasn’t the first time typographical symbols were used to convey emotions), while Thursday was the birthdays of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.

For Banned Books Week, which begins on September 24, The New York Times reported on a Mark Twain book that has finally been unbanned after 105 years. In other language news, Britishisms have invaded American English; the Romany Gypsy dialect made an appearance in a Kent court case; and escaped pet birds are teaching their wild brethren English.

At Johnson was a post about transgendered pronouns. Robert Lane Greene detailed the rise of the word awesome, and explained the difference between Afghans, Afghanis, and Afghanistanis. Lynneguist took on the both of us, the two of us, and you and me both, while Dialect Blog pronounced marry, merry, and mary. Dialect Blog also posted about the Geordie accent, and accents at the Renaissance Faire.

Fritinancy questioned Netflix’s new service, Qwikster, and the phrase, forward-doing, while her word of the week was resistentialism, “the theory that inanimate objects demonstrate hostile behavior toward us” (I think my computer has a bad case of resistentialism).

At Language Log, Julie Sedivy wondered if grammar can win elections; Mark Liberman wondered about sugar “wight”, and the phrase, the most number of; and Victor Mair flushed out some Chinese bathroom hijinks. At the Macmillan Dictionary blog, David Crystal explored trademarks that have become generic, and Stan Carey discussed slang and innovation in language. Meanwhile, word worlds collided with Mr. Carey’s review of Mr. Crystal’s book, Evolving English, “an illustrated history of the language.”

Word Spy spotted gazundering, “as a house buyer, reducing a previously agreed-on price for a house just prior to signing the contract,” and pity friend, “on a social networking site, a person whose friend request you accept out of pity” (not to be confused with this NSFW word).

Grammar Girl explained bow up, a Southern phrase meaning “to assert oneself, stand up to,” while Pop vs Soda mapped the generic names for the bubbly stuff by region. The Virtual Linguist told us there are 800 languages in New York; was galvanized; and pinned the origin of pin money on haberdashers and hatters. She also considered the drawing room and parlour; listed the top ten telewords of 2011; and sailed along with some naval slang and Rick Jolly’s book, Jackspeak: A Guide to British Naval Slang and Usage.

Other language guides that caught our eye this week were The Septic’s Companion, “a British slang dictionary with audio pronunciations”; The Jargon File, also known as The Hacker’s Dictionary; and McSweeney’s proposed additions to the internet lexicon.

In author news, a posthumous book of poems by Shel Silverstein is coming out this month. NPR had a story about Silverstein; Ben Zimmer had fun with the book’s title, Every Thing On It; and The New York Times took a look at children’s authors who broke the rules, including Silverstein, Maurice Sendak, and Dr. Seuss.

Here’s a letter from T.S. Eliot to Virginia Woolf; a literary tour of the stories of H.G. Wells; and what Shakespeare really meant. Here are five strange things named after writers, and the last words of 25 writers who are deceased. Unlikely Words showed us why the Oxford Comma is important (work those pasties, Stalin!), Moleskine introduced a new line of Star Wars notebooks, and we learned how to create placeholder text Samuel L. Jackson-style (NSFW, as things Samuel L. Jackson tend to be).

That’s it for this week. See you next Friday!

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Punctuation Rules!

Like virgules? Have a thing for pilcrows? Live for umlauts, ampersands, and interrobangs? Well, you’re in luck, because tomorrow is National Punctuation Day!

Copyblogger does a great job outlining the six most common punctuation mistakes, the first of which is Apostrophe for Plurals. As the Oatmeal says, if it’s plural, DON’T use an apostrophe, but if it’s for a contraction, DO use an apostrophe (which Old Navy learned too late). Except for its, DO use an apostrophe to indicate possession. Why? Grammarphobia tells us.

But that didn’t stop the Birmingham city council from deciding to stop using apostrophes on its street signs in 2009 (St. Paul’s Square became St. Pauls Square). Some were up in arms about this (as evinced by the 200+ comments on The Telegraph article) and thought apostrophes in Birmingham place names should be retained, but Arnold Zwicky and Stan Carey didn’t think it was that big of a deal, while Michael Quinion at World Wide Words pointed out that “it has long been common to leave [apostrophes] out of placenames.”

The second most common punctuation mistake according to Copyblogger is The Comma Splice, “When the comma is used to separate independent clauses, there must be a conjunction connecting them. If the conjunction is not there, we have a comma splice.” Kim Brooks at Salon complained recently that her “college students don’t understand commas, far less how to write an essay,” while the OUP Blog asserted that teaching commas doesn’t necessarily equate teaching writing.

In another comma controversy, in June there was much uproar over the apparent deletion of the Oxford comma, which Stan Carey had some fun with. However, it turned out the beloved punctuation mark was alive and well, much to the relief of serial comma enthusiasts (and the ghosts of JFK and Stalin).

Next up we have Quotation Marks for Emphasis (sometimes called “scare quotes”). Copyblogger says, “Quotation marks are mainly used to quote speech, sentences or words,” and “can also be used to denote irony” (or as Cracked puts it, “Repeat something someone said in a high pitched girly voice”). And while quotation marks shouldn’t be used “to add emphasis to a word or sentence,” one still finds plenty of  “advertisements or promotional flyers carrying this error,” which The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks can attest to.

Another controversial punctuation topic is Punctuation Outside Quotation Marks. Some would argue that this is simply logical punctuation, while others would say that logical punctuation isn’t always so logical.

Don’t forget, punctuation can be fun too. These bands certainly thought so, as does the State Library in New South Wales, which uses an interrobang as their logo. Wired gave us 11 secret meanings behind text punctuations, including emoticons, which supposedly mean “you want to bring the conversation to life,” but use too many and “you look immature.” ASCII-based emoticons turned 29 this week, while emotional typographical symbols have been with us long before computers or texting, as per both Jennifer 8. (yes, numeral eight) Lee at The New York Times and Ben Zimmer at Language Log. Hiroette taught us the difference between Japanese and English emoticons, and Arnold Zwicky reminded us emoticons are not to be spoken.

Like punctuation terminology? Check out this list, this list, and this tag. You could join the Semicolon Appreciation Society, and while you’re at it, enter the Punctuation Paragraph Contest. Good luck! ( ^_^ )

 

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Yo Ho Yo Ho!

Pirate

Ahoy, me mateys! It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Talk Like a Pirate Day was started in 1995 by John Baur and Mark Summers. Relatively unknown at first, the pseudo-holiday shot into the mainstream in 2002 with an article from humor columnist Dave Barry. Now every year on September 19, buccaneering enthusiasts in the U.S., the UK, Australia, and Netherlands speak swashbuckly.

Just how does one speak like a pirate? Let’s start with the basics. Ahoy is a nautical expression “used to attract the attention of persons at a distance,” and may come from the Middle Dutch hoey, a greeting, and was apparently Alexander Graham Bell’s first choice for the telephone greeting. In addition, a hoy is a “a small vessel, usually sloop-rigged, employed in conveying passengers and goods from port to port on the coast.”

Avast is a nautical command meaning “stop! hold! cease! stay!” and comes from the Middle Dutch hou vast, “hold fast.” A hearty is “a seaman’s familiar form of address”; a matey, “a fellow sailor.” A sea dog is “a sailor who has been long afloat,” while a landlubber is “a person who, from want of experience, is awkward or lubberly on board ship; a raw seaman; any one unused to the sea: a term of reproach or ridicule among sailors.”

Aye is yes. Yar is the same as yarr is the same as arr. Thar is there, land-ho is “Land is over there!” and yo-ho-ho is “a nonce word, now associated with pirates and seafaring.” Shiver me timbers, or for those more formal pirates, shiver my timbers, is “an exclamation of surprise, disbelief or annoyance.” My timbers! is a nautical oath “attested from 1789.”

To have your sea legs means to have “the ability, when walking aboard a ship, to anticipate the motion of the deck so as to walk steadily without losing balance.” To show a leg means “to wake up and get out of bed.” To go on the account means to “turn pirate in the captain’s vessel,” while walking the plank is what it sounds like but also “to be forced to resign from a position in an organization.”

Walk the plank and you may meet up with Davy Jones (not that Davy Jones), “the spirit of the sea; a sea-devil,” while Davy Jones’s locker is “the bottom of the ocean, especially as the grave for sailors.” While locker refers to “a close receptacle, as a chest, a drawer, a compartment, or a cupboard, that may be closed with a lock,” the origin of Davy Jones is more obscure. It may refer to David Jones, an actual pirate in the 1630s. It may be an alteration of duppy, a West Indian term for a ghost or spirit, or refer to Jonah, “in the Bible, a prophet who was swallowed by a great fish and disgorged unharmed three days later,” and also “a person on shipboard regarded as the cause of ill luck.”

Swag is “plundered property” and comes from the Old Norse sveggja, “to swing, sway.” Nowadays the word also refers to “handouts, freebies, or giveaways, such as those handed out at conventions,” or “appearance, style.” Another way to say stolen-pirate-stuff is booty, or “spoil taken from an enemy in war; that which is seized by violence and robbery.” It comes from the Dutch buiten, “to exchange or plunder.” The Dutch vrijbuiter gives us freebooter, “a robber; a pillager; a plunderer,” and filibuster, “a freebooter: in history, a name distinctively applied to the West Indian bucaneers or pirates of the seventeenth century,” and also “a delaying tactic, especially the use of long, often irrelevant speeches given in order to delay progress or the making of a decision, especially on the floor of the US Senate.” (So a politician who employs a filibuster is actually talking like a pirate!)

Feeling thirsty? Head over to a shanty where from the hogshead, you can get yourself a nipperkin or noggin of rum, rumfustian, bumbo, or grog, “a mixture of spirit and water served out to sailors.” Grog is supposedly “an allusion to Old Grog,” the nickname of Edward Vernon, an 18th century British admiral who wore a grogram cloak and “who in August 1740 ordered his sailors’ rum to be diluted.” Grog gives us groggy, “slowed or weakened, as by drink, sleepiness, etc.”, and could give you grog blossoms if you partake too much and too often.

While at sea, you may be limited to hardtack, a “large, coarse, hard biscuit baked without salt and kiln-dried”; salt horse (actually beef) also known as salt junk; lobscouse, a stew of hardtack and salt horse; and burgoo, “boiled oatmeal seasoned with salt, butter, and sugar.” As a result, unfortunately, you’ll probably get scurvy, “a disease caused by insufficient intake of vitamin C,” perhaps an alteration of scurfy, which comes from the Old Norse skyrbjugr, “a swelling (bjugr) from drinking sour milk (skyr) on long sea voyages.”

For posts on the pirate accent, turn to the Dialect Blog and Language Log. Google the pirate way, and learn even more pirate vocab from this list, this one, and this one. Check out this tango of pirates (a tango is a group of pirates), and this assortment of ruffians, villains and scamps; explore these seaworthy words, these nautical tags, and these nautical words and phrases that have taken on metaphorical meanings; or dig up some buried treasure from this secret stash.

Still not enough? Follow us on Twitter for a week’s worth of pirate-themed words and lists of the day.

Fair winds and God speed to all ye sea dogs and landlubbers alike!

[Photo: CC BY 2.0 by Kate Haskell]

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WotD Perfect Tweets Roundup

Every week, we pose a challenge: using any word of the day from this week, create a perfect tweet, otherwise known as a twoosh. If we like it, your tweet will appear on our blog.

This week’s fashion-word favorites:

Thanks to everyone for playing! Next week you’ll have another chance to perfect your word of the day perfect tweets. To get the word of the day, just follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or subscribe via email.

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This Week’s Language Blog Roundup

It’s that time again folks! Every Friday we bring you the highlights from our favorite language blogs, and the latest in word news and culture.

It was Fashion Week in New York City this week, and Barnes & Noble Review had several fashion book recommendations, while Entertainment Weekly showed us a dress made of crime novel covers. In addition, Lynneguist talked shoes; the Virtual Linguist examined hauling, in which on YouTube “young people (almost always young women) describe and show their ‘haul’, or latest purchases”; while Fritinancy’s word of the week was ruche, which comes from the French word for beehive, and cringe of the week was Earth shoes.

In ad words, Fritinancy pondered Maker’s-er and pom versus pompis. Robert Lane Greene at Johnson discussed language speed, while at the Macmillan Dictionary Blog, Stan Carey chronicled cyber- words, and Michael Rundell questioned preserving words that are obsolete.

Grammar Girl dissected the Pittsburghese needs washed, to which Ben Zimmer at Language Log gave his two cents. Also at Language Log Mark Liberman considered the apparent dog-carrying requirements on escalators and moving walkways in England, while Victor Mair tallied up the hurt feelings of the Chinese people.

Dialect Blog “sawr and conquered” the intrusive R, discussed more about non-rhotic and rhotic accents, shared some ambivalence about portraying a classic Russian character with a British accent; and questioned the supposed distinction between American Blue State and Red State accents.

Allan Metcalf at Lingua Franca gave us a lesson on lessen. Word Spy spotted paperphilia, “a deep appreciation for the aesthetic qualities of paper; a preference for reading items printed on paper rather than displayed on a screen”; smishing, “an attempt to fool a person into submitting personal, financial, or password data by sending a text message with a link to a scammer-controlled website”; and the butler lie, “a lie used to politely avoid or end an email, instant messaging, or telephone conversation” (eg, “’sorry, phone died last night”).  Superlingo lauded fomo and werdge, two awesome words they didn’t know.

The Virtual Linguist called out oi, mush!, Cockney slang for “an aggressive way of calling out to someone — like ‘hey, you!’’; gave us a taste of licorice allsorts; shined a light on the glittering generalities of propaganda language; and pointed out the jam that President Obama is apparently giving us today. Fully (sic) also got into the grammar and language of politics, while Freakonomics watched political party word patterns.

In author news, a one-sentence letter from JD Salinger may be worth $50,000 (or “$2,083.33 a word”), and the Society of Authors is holding a weekly tweetathon for the next several weeks to save the short story.

At The Atlantic Will Shortz told us how he edits The New York Times‘ crossword puzzles, while the World’s Strongest Librarian told us how languages are invented. The Huffington Post showed us America’s smallest library, while Gawker profiled an online newspaper they liked (yes, Gawker liked something!). Lifehacker passed on the International Classification of Diseases (“I’ve been W6132XA!”), and Discovery Magazine flew by with the news that hummingbirds sing with their tails.

Brain Pickings covered a brief history of robots and how they fall on the intelligence/creepiness/cuddly matrix (Thomas Edison’s talking doll seems more creepy than cuddly to us), and the Vancouver Sun showed us some weird and dumb signs from around the world.

Meanwhile, a German liquor manufacturer successfully patented trademarked ficken, the German word for the mother of all four-letter words, while some headlines got a similar four-letter, and hilarious, treatment. Finally, don’t forget to fill out your bracket for War of the Words.

That’s it from here. Oi, mush, we’ll see you next week!