“Four factors are found to be significant predictors of the position of primary stress: endings, word complexity, the segmental structure of the final syllable, and syllable count. Moreover, this study confirms previous observations on the tendency for American English to have more final stress in French loanwords than British English.”
Dabouis, Q. and Fournier, P. (2024) ‘Stress in French loanwords in British and American English’, Journal of Linguistics, pp. 1–26. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022226724000136.
"One wonders: Are we dealing with a set of relatively late independent creations or a set of old (even ancient) roots, whose reflexes sound like baby words but are still regular nouns and verbs? Opinions on this score are divided (opinions in etymology are always divided), especially because borrowing (take note!) is always a possibility."
"The word “nostalgia” first described homesickness and likely PTSD symptoms experienced by Swiss soldiers and mercenaries who fought abroad in the 1700s."
"The word “nostalgia” first described homesickness and likely PTSD symptoms experienced by Swiss soldiers and mercenaries who fought abroad in the 1700s."
"Loiter, a fourteenth-century verb, sounds quite unlike the monosyllables mentioned above. It appeared in Middle English in the form lotere and then in a 1440 English-Latin dictionary as loytre. Still later, the spelling leutere ~ leutre turned up. It is not improbable that “loiterers” (vagabonds) from the Low Countries were the originators of the verb (another case of self-characterization?)."
"In fact, the word “dude” is thought to have originally been a shortening of “Yankee Doodle.” In the original, British-penned lyrics of the song, which were written to poke fun at Americaan troops during the French and Indian War, you’ll note that Yankee Doodle is described as a dandy who is a fabulous dancer and wears a dashing feather in his cap."
President Joe Biden and Donald Trump don't want to use their opponents' names, instead favoring nicknames and circumlocutions like"the former guy" and "Sleepy Joe." For @TheConversationUS, Roger J. Kreuz takes a look at Biden's rhetorical tactic — the Voldemort effect, or a cardinal principle of advertising: never mention your competitor by name. He also examines Trump's approach of othering via mispronouncing names and tapping into xenophobia.
"Throughout his life, Skeat supported the OED by his reviews (today it seems incredible that once not everybody praised Murray’s work) and kept chastising his countrymen for their ignorance and stupidity when it came to philology. He never stopped complaining that people used to offer silly hypotheses of word origins, instead of consulting the greatest authority there was."
NASA Unveils Design for Message Heading to Jupiter’s Moon Europa
The moon shows strong evidence of an ocean under its icy crust, with more than twice the amount of water of all of Earth’s oceans combined. A triangular metal plate on the spacecraft will honor that connection to Earth in several ways.
Is it just me, or has “unhinged” reached peak saturation? It feels like I see it at least three times a day now. What about “out to lunch”? https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/unhinged
Roots of Happiness: 100 Words for Joy and Hope From Britain’s Most-Loved Word Expert by Susie Dent
This joyous collection of 100 positive words and their origins will show readers young and old just how wonderful language can be - and how you can use your words to make the world a happier place.
English has many rare wintry words, according to Merriam-Webster, and we're lobbying for the revival of them. For Friday fun, can you work out which of these means "the warmth of the sun in winter?" Tell us your favorite unusual words and phrases in the comments.
A few weeks ago "rizz" was being celebrated as the OED's word of the year. Now, it's time to remove it from your vocabulary. NPR reports on the 2024 Banished Words List, devised by the faculty at Michigan's Lake Superior State University, and including terms like "impact" (especially as a verb), "hack," "at the end of the day" and "cringe-worthy." Which word or phrase would you like people to ditch this year?
Word of the day:
Vellichor /VELL-ih-chor/ n. The beautiful wistfulness of used bookstores. The strange romance evoked by the scent of old books and paper. Also, the scent itself. #WordoftheDay#words@bookstodon
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year is "authentic." The team who made the choice say that this year it saw a substantial increase in lookups, thanks to conversations around AI and celebrity culture. There were several other words that generated buzz in 2023. Which of the following didn't make the list?
If you're trying to avoid awkward moments around the Thanksgiving table, Merriam-Webster has some controversy-free conversation starters, like the origins of terms such as gravy train and easy as pie. Just for fun, see if you and your loved ones can figure out the meaning of the word "deipnosophist"
Y'all as a second-person plural pronoun is not just “the quintessential Southern pronoun.” A linguist has found uses going back to 1631 in England, hundreds of years before the more recent usages cited by the Oxford English Dictionary.
And its inclusiveness is also gaining new respect, you hear?