Are you sure of a new word?

RecoveringYuppy · 28th October 2007, 07:55 AM

In light of this thread:

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.p...40#post3097940

Is change so rampant in the language that there are a lot of words missing from the dictionary? Can anyone think of a word that they are sure is so rampant in usage now that it is going to make it into an upcoming dictionary?

Alt+F4 · 28th October 2007, 08:00 AM

educrat - an education bureaucrat

RecoveringYuppy · 28th October 2007, 08:10 AM

@Alt-F4

Having seen your citation of a new usage of the word "gay" in the other thread I'd extend my original question to include "can anyone think of word whose meaning has changed or been appropriated for a new usage?"

slingblade · 28th October 2007, 09:03 AM

Originally Posted by RecoveringYuppy

@Alt-F4

Having seen your citation of a new usage of the word "gay" in the other thread I'd extend my original question to include "can anyone think of word whose meaning has changed or been appropriated for a new usage?"

Look into drug and sexual slang to get some quick examples.

brodski · 28th October 2007, 09:11 AM

I'm still waiting for Shakespeare to be accepted as the correct spelling in the OED.

I Long for the day when "Teh" makes the dictionary, wouldn't it be great if people finally recognised that English has three articles; the definite article, the indefinite article and the sarcastic article.

Mephisto · 28th October 2007, 10:49 AM

Originally Posted by brodski

I Long for the day when "Teh" makes the dictionary, wouldn't it be great if people finally recognised that English has three articles; the definite article, the indefinite article and the sarcastic article.

*LOL* I'm sure you'll see teh in the dictionary around the same time "tonge" (tongue) and alot (a lot) make it in there.

brodski · 28th October 2007, 11:10 AM

Originally Posted by Mephisto

*LOL* I'm sure you'll see teh in the dictionary around the same time "tonge" (tongue) and alot (a lot) make it in there.

But alot and tonge don't have current usage other than as (non standard) synonyms of a lot and tongue, teh, on the other hand, has taken on a life of it's own, possibly in an attempt to destroy the beauty and precision of our post Norman tongue. OMG its TEH DESCRIPTIVISTS!!!1!!

It will probably end up in the dictionary just after pwned makes it in.

Loss Leader · 28th October 2007, 12:02 PM

I'm going to go with "nother" supplanting both "other" and "another." Language tends to degrade over time with multiple forms merging into one, especially if they sound alike. Thus, the fifty million verb tenses in Latin have been whittled down to half a dozen and noun tenses have utterly disappeared.

My opinion is based on the terrific The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutscher.

Kaylee · 28th October 2007, 01:06 PM

Originally Posted by brodski

But alot and tonge don't have current usage other than as (non standard) synonyms of a lot and tongue, teh, on the other hand, has taken on a life of it's own, possibly in an attempt to destroy the beauty and precision of our post Norman tongue. OMG its TEH DESCRIPTIVISTS!!!1!!

It will probably end up in the dictionary just after pwned makes it in.

Whether a word makes it into a formal dictonary probably also depends if anyone uses it "off-line".

Has anyone heard either of those words used off-line yet? How woiuld pwned be pronounced anyway?

BTW, I like both words also.

PrincessIneffabelle · 28th October 2007, 01:30 PM

Originally Posted by RecoveringYuppy

Having seen your citation of a new usage of the word "gay" in the other thread I'd extend my original question to include "can anyone think of word whose meaning has changed or been appropriated for a new usage?"

IIRC, both "jazz" and "rock 'n' roll" were slang terms for having sex.

TX50 · 28th October 2007, 01:42 PM

Originally Posted by RecoveringYuppy

@Alt-F4

Having seen your citation of a new usage of the word "gay" in the other thread I'd extend my original question to include "can anyone think of word whose meaning has changed or been appropriated for a new usage?"

Computer. It was originally a job-title, not a calculating machine.

RecoveringYuppy · 28th October 2007, 02:29 PM

@TX50

I'm not looking for examples of words that have already made it into the dictionary because they were invented or changed. I'm looking for people to predict future entries based on usage changes they see now.

Travis · 28th October 2007, 04:47 PM

Pwn is an embiggened form of "own" and is a perfectly cromulent word.

TX50 · 28th October 2007, 05:18 PM

Originally Posted by brodski

I'm still waiting for Shakespeare to be accepted as the correct spelling in the OED.

But the OED doesn't exist for that purpose. The OED exists as a historical
record of the language as it is used. This is why the citations are dated so
you can see how the meaning of the word has evolved.

As to the OP, new words are added with each new edition. The latest edition
of the Shorter Oxford, for example, adds 6,500 new words (out of 600,000 or
so) since the last edition was published in 1993.

Hokulele · 28th October 2007, 05:22 PM

Google (as a verb)

Much the way kleenex and xerox became words.

RecoveringYuppy · 28th October 2007, 05:29 PM

Originally Posted by TX50

As to the OP, new words are added with each new edition. The latest edition of the Shorter Oxford, for example, adds 6,500 new words (out of 600,000 or so) since the last edition was published in 1993.

Good info. So the language might be said to change by about 1% per decade. A higher number might be justified if the new words are more actively used than some of the prior 600,000 words.

RecoveringYuppy · 28th October 2007, 05:30 PM

Originally Posted by Hokulele

Google (as a verb)

Oh, you're in trouble now. They don't like people saying that.

Google (as the corporate entity) is no longer your friend.

Hokulele · 28th October 2007, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by RecoveringYuppy

Oh, you're in trouble now. They don't like people saying that.

Google (as the corporate entity) is no longer your friend.

Phhhbt to them. The company that developed the original Allen wrench didn't like it much either, but eventually gave up.

ETA: Heh, Wiki has a whole article on this. And I am picking "Wiki" as another new word, although it is already a perfectly good word in Hawaiian.

RecoveringYuppy · 28th October 2007, 09:32 PM

Originally Posted by Hokulele

. And I am picking "Wiki" as another new word, although it is already a perfectly good word in Hawaiian.

OK. So you have the "spirit" of the thread that I'm going for. You've cited a new word and a word with a new definition that have not yet appeared in the dictionaries.

Inspired by the thread I cited I support the following, somewhat contradictory, contentions:

1. The dictionary is authoritative on usage.
2. The dictionary follows usage.

For these to be "reasonably non contradictory" the rate of new usage has to be low.

IMO new usages of "gay", "google" and "wiki" qualify as plausible examples of new usage.

Travis · 28th October 2007, 09:49 PM

When I was a kid "fat" meant having great breadth, "sick" was when something was ill and "Tricked" meant someone had been deceived. So when my neighbor described his new car as a "totally sick, tricked out phat version of a Mitsubishi Lancer" I thought his car was not running good, deceiving and too wide.

Cuddles · 29th October 2007, 08:33 AM

Originally Posted by Hokulele

Much the way kleenex and xerox became words.

Not in this country they didn't. You can keep your dirty verbed company names. Now excuse me while I go and hoover the carpet.

slingblade · 29th October 2007, 10:08 AM

Originally Posted by RecoveringYuppy

OK. So you have the "spirit" of the thread that I'm going for. You've cited a new word and a word with a new definition that have not yet appeared in the dictionaries.

Inspired by the thread I cited I support the following, somewhat contradictory, contentions:

1. The dictionary is authoritative on usage.
2. The dictionary follows usage.

For these to be "reasonably non contradictory" the rate of new usage has to be low.

IMO new usages of "gay", "google" and "wiki" qualify as plausible examples of new usage.

I don't see why they have to be considered in terms of contradiction. A dictionary does both, to one extent or another, depending on what you're using it for.

There are many, many types of dictionaries. and even within types, there are many "brands": Webster's, Oxford, Encarta, American Heritage... They aren't identical, and each touts itself as "the best," or "most up-to-date," and so forth. I've had occasion to discover that a word can be in one dictionary, but not in another.

There are also slang dictionaries, rhyming dictionaries, jargon dictionaries (usually dedicated to a specific topic, such as computers or a medical specialty), and others. Words will be in these that might or might not show up in other types, or even in the "standard" dictionaries.

In my History of the English Language class, we discussed whether a dictionary gives the denotation or the connotation of a word. We found it just depends on the dictionary, and that many give both, or at least a sampling of the various known connotations of a word. Such as "mother," for example. Denotatively, a mother is a female that has given birth to offspring. Connotatively, it has lots of meanings. One can "mother" an idea, for instance.

Dictionaries can tell one if a word is "really a word," but just because a word isn't in the dictionary, it doesn't mean it isn't "real." If one uses it, and it has a meaning, and people other than yourself understand your meaning when you use it, it's a word. A word, after all, is just a label for a concept. Many of us verbed Google long before it appeared in any type of dictionary. We knew what it meant, even though it wasn't yet put into an official book of real words.

Dictionaries also add new words as they are coined, and expand meanings for established words as they change.

Thus, I don't see why the concepts you listed should be considered contradictory.

Travis · 29th October 2007, 02:49 PM

Originally Posted by Cuddles

Not in this country they didn't. You can keep your dirty verbed company names. Now excuse me while I go and hoover the carpet.

I have to admit I have never heard of "Hoover" used as a verb before.

RecoveringYuppy · 29th October 2007, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by Travis

I have to admit I have never heard of "Hoover" used as a verb before.

That could be a good thing.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hoover

What did Cuddles say???

Hokulele · 29th October 2007, 08:55 PM

Originally Posted by Cuddles

Not in this country they didn't. You can keep your dirty verbed company names. Now excuse me while I go and hoover the carpet.

What a load of bovril.

Dunstan · 30th October 2007, 12:23 AM

I just posted this in another thread, but it's probably better suited here:

http://forums.randi.org/showpost.php...6&postcount=72

zooterkin · 30th October 2007, 12:47 AM

Originally Posted by brodski

I'm still waiting for Shakespeare to be accepted as the correct spelling in the OED.

Ok, why is that the correct spelling, given that the man himself spelt it in different ways?

Madalch · 30th October 2007, 10:48 AM

I heard a new (to me) term on CSI last night- "mouse potato". Someone who spends all his/her time on the computer.

brodski · 30th October 2007, 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by zooterkin

Ok, why is that the correct spelling, given that the man himself spelt it in different ways?

Beceause dictionaries are supposed to reflect usage.

linusrichard · 31st October 2007, 07:13 AM

Originally Posted by Travis

When I was a kid "fat" meant having great breadth, "sick" was when something was ill and "Tricked" meant someone had been deceived. So when my neighbor described his new car as a "totally sick, tricked out phat version of a Mitsubishi Lancer" I thought his car was not running good, deceiving and too wide.

Don't worry, "sick" still means something is ill. I saw that sick, tricked out Lancer, and it was totally ill!

Beerina · 31st October 2007, 01:41 PM

Originally Posted by Travis

Pwn is an embiggened form of "own" and is a perfectly cromulent word.

It is, in fact, the l33t spelling of "own", verb, and, as such, it's pronunciation should still be "own" rather than "pown", although "pown" is the regular pronunciation.

I suppose "own" got pwned.

28th October 2007, 07:55 AM	#1
RecoveringYuppy Illuminator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Tucson, AZ Posts: 3,851	Are you sure of a new word? In light of this thread: http://forums.randi.org/showthread.p...40#post3097940 Is change so rampant in the language that there are a lot of words missing from the dictionary? Can anyone think of a word that they are sure is so rampant in usage now that it is going to make it into an upcoming dictionary?
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28th October 2007, 08:00 AM	#2
Alt+F4 diabolical globalist Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Department of Abandoned Places Posts: 9,780	educrat - an education bureaucrat
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28th October 2007, 08:10 AM	#3
RecoveringYuppy Illuminator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Tucson, AZ Posts: 3,851	@Alt-F4 Having seen your citation of a new usage of the word "gay" in the other thread I'd extend my original question to include "can anyone think of word whose meaning has changed or been appropriated for a new usage?"
	__________________ REJ (Robert E Jones) posting anonymously under my real name for 30 years. Make a fire for a man and you keep him warm for a day. Set him on fire and you keep him warm for the rest of his life.

28th October 2007, 09:03 AM	#4
slingblade Guest Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 23,642	Originally Posted by RecoveringYuppy @Alt-F4 Having seen your citation of a new usage of the word "gay" in the other thread I'd extend my original question to include "can anyone think of word whose meaning has changed or been appropriated for a new usage?" Look into drug and sexual slang to get some quick examples.
slingblade Guest Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 23,642

28th October 2007, 09:11 AM	#5
brodski Tea-Time toad Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 15,074	I'm still waiting for Shakespeare to be accepted as the correct spelling in the OED. I Long for the day when "Teh" makes the dictionary, wouldn't it be great if people finally recognised that English has three articles; the definite article, the indefinite article and the sarcastic article.
brodski Tea-Time toad Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 15,074

28th October 2007, 10:49 AM	#6
Mephisto Philosopher Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: in a state of disbelief Posts: 6,065	Originally Posted by brodski I Long for the day when "Teh" makes the dictionary, wouldn't it be great if people finally recognised that English has three articles; the definite article, the indefinite article and the sarcastic article. LOL I'm sure you'll see teh in the dictionary around the same time "tonge" (tongue) and alot (a lot) make it in there.
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28th October 2007, 11:10 AM	#7
brodski Tea-Time toad Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 15,074	Originally Posted by Mephisto LOL I'm sure you'll see teh in the dictionary around the same time "tonge" (tongue) and alot (a lot) make it in there. But alot and tonge don't have current usage other than as (non standard) synonyms of a lot and tongue, teh, on the other hand, has taken on a life of it's own, possibly in an attempt to destroy the beauty and precision of our post Norman tongue. OMG its TEH DESCRIPTIVISTS!!!1!! It will probably end up in the dictionary just after pwned makes it in.
brodski Tea-Time toad Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 15,074

28th October 2007, 12:02 PM	#8
Loss Leader Opinionated Jerk Moderator Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: New York Posts: 11,885	I'm going to go with "nother" supplanting both "other" and "another." Language tends to degrade over time with multiple forms merging into one, especially if they sound alike. Thus, the fifty million verb tenses in Latin have been whittled down to half a dozen and noun tenses have utterly disappeared. My opinion is based on the terrific The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutscher.
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28th October 2007, 01:06 PM	#9
Kaylee Illuminator Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 3,838	Originally Posted by brodski But alot and tonge don't have current usage other than as (non standard) synonyms of a lot and tongue, teh, on the other hand, has taken on a life of it's own, possibly in an attempt to destroy the beauty and precision of our post Norman tongue. OMG its TEH DESCRIPTIVISTS!!!1!! It will probably end up in the dictionary just after pwned makes it in. Whether a word makes it into a formal dictonary probably also depends if anyone uses it "off-line". Has anyone heard either of those words used off-line yet? How woiuld pwned be pronounced anyway? BTW, I like both words also.
Kaylee Illuminator Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 3,838	__________________ When everyone think alike, no one thinks very much. -- Walter Lippman''

28th October 2007, 01:30 PM	#10
PrincessIneffabelle I'm not godless, I'm god-free Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 1,421	Originally Posted by RecoveringYuppy Having seen your citation of a new usage of the word "gay" in the other thread I'd extend my original question to include "can anyone think of word whose meaning has changed or been appropriated for a new usage?" IIRC, both "jazz" and "rock 'n' roll" were slang terms for having sex.

28th October 2007, 01:42 PM	#11
TX50 Graduate Poster Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,552	Originally Posted by RecoveringYuppy @Alt-F4 Having seen your citation of a new usage of the word "gay" in the other thread I'd extend my original question to include "can anyone think of word whose meaning has changed or been appropriated for a new usage?" Computer. It was originally a job-title, not a calculating machine.
TX50 Graduate Poster Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,552

28th October 2007, 02:29 PM	#12
RecoveringYuppy Illuminator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Tucson, AZ Posts: 3,851	@TX50 I'm not looking for examples of words that have already made it into the dictionary because they were invented or changed. I'm looking for people to predict future entries based on usage changes they see now.
	__________________ REJ (Robert E Jones) posting anonymously under my real name for 30 years. Make a fire for a man and you keep him warm for a day. Set him on fire and you keep him warm for the rest of his life.

28th October 2007, 04:47 PM	#13
Travis Misanthrope of the Mountains Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Tuolumne City, CA Posts: 17,937	Pwn is an embiggened form of "own" and is a perfectly cromulent word.
	__________________ "Because WE ARE IGNORANT OF 911 FACTS, WE DEMAND PROOF" -- Douglas Herman on Rense.com Zingiber Officinale The Humor blog of some not crazy guy

28th October 2007, 05:18 PM	#14
TX50 Graduate Poster Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,552	Originally Posted by brodski I'm still waiting for Shakespeare to be accepted as the correct spelling in the OED. But the OED doesn't exist for that purpose. The OED exists as a historical record of the language as it is used. This is why the citations are dated so you can see how the meaning of the word has evolved. As to the OP, new words are added with each new edition. The latest edition of the Shorter Oxford, for example, adds 6,500 new words (out of 600,000 or so) since the last edition was published in 1993.
TX50 Graduate Poster Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,552

28th October 2007, 05:22 PM	#15
Hokulele Official Nemesis Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Trying to decide whether to set defenses against an army, or against mole rats. Posts: 27,265	Google (as a verb) Much the way kleenex and xerox became words.
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28th October 2007, 05:29 PM	#16
RecoveringYuppy Illuminator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Tucson, AZ Posts: 3,851	Originally Posted by TX50 As to the OP, new words are added with each new edition. The latest edition of the Shorter Oxford, for example, adds 6,500 new words (out of 600,000 or so) since the last edition was published in 1993. Good info. So the language might be said to change by about 1% per decade. A higher number might be justified if the new words are more actively used than some of the prior 600,000 words.
	__________________ REJ (Robert E Jones) posting anonymously under my real name for 30 years. Make a fire for a man and you keep him warm for a day. Set him on fire and you keep him warm for the rest of his life.

28th October 2007, 05:30 PM	#17
RecoveringYuppy Illuminator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Tucson, AZ Posts: 3,851	Originally Posted by Hokulele Google (as a verb) Oh, you're in trouble now. They don't like people saying that. Google (as the corporate entity) is no longer your friend.
	__________________ REJ (Robert E Jones) posting anonymously under my real name for 30 years. Make a fire for a man and you keep him warm for a day. Set him on fire and you keep him warm for the rest of his life.

28th October 2007, 05:56 PM	#18
Hokulele Official Nemesis Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Trying to decide whether to set defenses against an army, or against mole rats. Posts: 27,265	Originally Posted by RecoveringYuppy Oh, you're in trouble now. They don't like people saying that. Google (as the corporate entity) is no longer your friend. Phhhbt to them. The company that developed the original Allen wrench didn't like it much either, but eventually gave up. ETA: Heh, Wiki has a whole article on this. And I am picking "Wiki" as another new word, although it is already a perfectly good word in Hawaiian.
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28th October 2007, 09:32 PM	#19
RecoveringYuppy Illuminator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Tucson, AZ Posts: 3,851	Originally Posted by Hokulele . And I am picking "Wiki" as another new word, although it is already a perfectly good word in Hawaiian. OK. So you have the "spirit" of the thread that I'm going for. You've cited a new word and a word with a new definition that have not yet appeared in the dictionaries. Inspired by the thread I cited I support the following, somewhat contradictory, contentions: 1. The dictionary is authoritative on usage. 2. The dictionary follows usage. For these to be "reasonably non contradictory" the rate of new usage has to be low. IMO new usages of "gay", "google" and "wiki" qualify as plausible examples of new usage.
	__________________ REJ (Robert E Jones) posting anonymously under my real name for 30 years. Make a fire for a man and you keep him warm for a day. Set him on fire and you keep him warm for the rest of his life.

28th October 2007, 09:49 PM	#20
Travis Misanthrope of the Mountains Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Tuolumne City, CA Posts: 17,937	When I was a kid "fat" meant having great breadth, "sick" was when something was ill and "Tricked" meant someone had been deceived. So when my neighbor described his new car as a "totally sick, tricked out phat version of a Mitsubishi Lancer" I thought his car was not running good, deceiving and too wide.
	__________________ "Because WE ARE IGNORANT OF 911 FACTS, WE DEMAND PROOF" -- Douglas Herman on Rense.com Zingiber Officinale The Humor blog of some not crazy guy

29th October 2007, 08:33 AM	#21
Cuddles Decoy Moderator Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: A magical land full of pink fluffy sheeps and bunnies Posts: 16,570	Originally Posted by Hokulele Much the way kleenex and xerox became words. Not in this country they didn't. You can keep your dirty verbed company names. Now excuse me while I go and hoover the carpet.
	__________________ I am not a little teapot.

29th October 2007, 10:08 AM	#22
slingblade Guest Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 23,642	Originally Posted by RecoveringYuppy OK. So you have the "spirit" of the thread that I'm going for. You've cited a new word and a word with a new definition that have not yet appeared in the dictionaries. Inspired by the thread I cited I support the following, somewhat contradictory, contentions: 1. The dictionary is authoritative on usage. 2. The dictionary follows usage. For these to be "reasonably non contradictory" the rate of new usage has to be low. IMO new usages of "gay", "google" and "wiki" qualify as plausible examples of new usage. I don't see why they have to be considered in terms of contradiction. A dictionary does both, to one extent or another, depending on what you're using it for. There are many, many types of dictionaries. and even within types, there are many "brands": Webster's, Oxford, Encarta, American Heritage... They aren't identical, and each touts itself as "the best," or "most up-to-date," and so forth. I've had occasion to discover that a word can be in one dictionary, but not in another. There are also slang dictionaries, rhyming dictionaries, jargon dictionaries (usually dedicated to a specific topic, such as computers or a medical specialty), and others. Words will be in these that might or might not show up in other types, or even in the "standard" dictionaries. In my History of the English Language class, we discussed whether a dictionary gives the denotation or the connotation of a word. We found it just depends on the dictionary, and that many give both, or at least a sampling of the various known connotations of a word. Such as "mother," for example. Denotatively, a mother is a female that has given birth to offspring. Connotatively, it has lots of meanings. One can "mother" an idea, for instance. Dictionaries can tell one if a word is "really a word," but just because a word isn't in the dictionary, it doesn't mean it isn't "real." If one uses it, and it has a meaning, and people other than yourself understand your meaning when you use it, it's a word. A word, after all, is just a label for a concept. Many of us verbed Google long before it appeared in any type of dictionary. We knew what it meant, even though it wasn't yet put into an official book of real words. Dictionaries also add new words as they are coined, and expand meanings for established words as they change. Thus, I don't see why the concepts you listed should be considered contradictory.
slingblade Guest Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 23,642	Last edited by slingblade; 29th October 2007 at 10:14 AM.

29th October 2007, 02:49 PM	#23
Travis Misanthrope of the Mountains Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Tuolumne City, CA Posts: 17,937	Originally Posted by Cuddles Not in this country they didn't. You can keep your dirty verbed company names. Now excuse me while I go and hoover the carpet. I have to admit I have never heard of "Hoover" used as a verb before.
	__________________ "Because WE ARE IGNORANT OF 911 FACTS, WE DEMAND PROOF" -- Douglas Herman on Rense.com Zingiber Officinale The Humor blog of some not crazy guy

29th October 2007, 05:56 PM	#24
RecoveringYuppy Illuminator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Tucson, AZ Posts: 3,851	Originally Posted by Travis I have to admit I have never heard of "Hoover" used as a verb before. That could be a good thing. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hoover What did Cuddles say???
	__________________ REJ (Robert E Jones) posting anonymously under my real name for 30 years. Make a fire for a man and you keep him warm for a day. Set him on fire and you keep him warm for the rest of his life.

29th October 2007, 08:55 PM	#25
Hokulele Official Nemesis Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Trying to decide whether to set defenses against an army, or against mole rats. Posts: 27,265	Originally Posted by Cuddles Not in this country they didn't. You can keep your dirty verbed company names. Now excuse me while I go and hoover the carpet. What a load of bovril.
	__________________ Yvette: "Blasty! Blasty! Blasty!" Some person: "Why did you shoot that?" Yvette: "Blasty! Blasty! Blasty!" - Tragic Monkey

30th October 2007, 12:23 AM	#26
Dunstan Illuminator Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Sunnyvale Trailer Park Posts: 4,292	I just posted this in another thread, but it's probably better suited here: http://forums.randi.org/showpost.php...6&postcount=72

30th October 2007, 12:47 AM	#27
zooterkin Nitpicking dilettante Moderator Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Berkshire, mostly Posts: 24,568	Originally Posted by brodski I'm still waiting for Shakespeare to be accepted as the correct spelling in the OED. Ok, why is that the correct spelling, given that the man himself spelt it in different ways?

30th October 2007, 10:48 AM	#28
Madalch The Jester Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: The wet coast. Posts: 8,701	I heard a new (to me) term on CSI last night- "mouse potato". Someone who spends all his/her time on the computer.
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30th October 2007, 10:53 AM	#29
brodski Tea-Time toad Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 15,074	Originally Posted by zooterkin Ok, why is that the correct spelling, given that the man himself spelt it in different ways? Beceause dictionaries are supposed to reflect usage.
brodski Tea-Time toad Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 15,074

31st October 2007, 07:13 AM	#30
linusrichard Master Poster Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Lansing, Mich. Posts: 2,664	Originally Posted by Travis When I was a kid "fat" meant having great breadth, "sick" was when something was ill and "Tricked" meant someone had been deceived. So when my neighbor described his new car as a "totally sick, tricked out phat version of a Mitsubishi Lancer" I thought his car was not running good, deceiving and too wide. Don't worry, "sick" still means something is ill. I saw that sick, tricked out Lancer, and it was totally ill!

31st October 2007, 01:41 PM	#31
Beerina Sarcastic Conqueror of Notions Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: A floating island above the clouds Posts: 23,835	Originally Posted by Travis Pwn is an embiggened form of "own" and is a perfectly cromulent word. It is, in fact, the l33t spelling of "own", verb, and, as such, it's pronunciation should still be "own" rather than "pown", although "pown" is the regular pronunciation. I suppose "own" got pwned.
	__________________ "Great innovations should not be forced [by way of] slender majorities." - Thomas Jefferson The government should nationalize it! Socialized, single-payer video game development and sales *now!* More, cheaper, better games, right? Right?