http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/?utm_source=rss Copyright 2013, Thinkmap Inc. All Rights Reserved. en Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/images/common/logo_on_white.gif http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/?utm_source=rss Blog Excerpts http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/silicon-valleys-favorite-word-delight?utm_source=rss Los Angeles Times tech reporter Chris O'Brien has discovered that the favorite word among techie types is "delight": "A squishy, subjective, hard-to-pin-down term. So daringly unquantifiable, so proudly immeasurable. And now, suddenly, all the rage in data-driven Silicon Valley." Read O'Brien's delightful piece here (http://www.latimes.com/news/columnone/la-fi-silicon-valley-delight-20130510-dto,0,1536200.htmlstory). Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/silicon-valleys-favorite-word-delight Blog Excerpts http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/getting-gatsby-the-language-behind-the-novel?utm_source=rss With Baz Luhrmann's movie adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby arriving in theaters, this week has been full of Gatsby talk. Online commentators have been writing about words coined or popularized by Fitzgerald, the slang of the 1920s "flapper" era, and even the name Gatsby itself. Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/getting-gatsby-the-language-behind-the-novel Blog Excerpts http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/flash-gleam-glint-sparkle-mcphee-woolf-and-words-2013?utm_source=rss In an essay on writing in last week's The New Yorker, John McPhee describes drawing boxes around "perfectly O.K." words in a search for the "mot juste." Meanwhile, Virginia Woolf tells us words are a messy tangle that will always elude our best efforts to tie them down. Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/flash-gleam-glint-sparkle-mcphee-woolf-and-words-2013 Blog Excerpts http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/love-is-all-around-data-mining-song-titles?utm_source=rss The language technology company Idibon recently launched a blog, and one interesting contribution comes from Tyler Schnoebelen, who has data-mined the titles of nearly 40,000 songs that have appeared on Billboard's pop charts from 1890 to 2012. It turns out that when it comes to song titles, "love" is most definitely in the air. Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/love-is-all-around-data-mining-song-titles Blog Excerpts http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/the-cupertino-effect-and-other-tech-neologisms?utm_source=rss Promoting a new book entitled Netymology: A Linguistic Celebration of the Digital World, British author Tom Chatfield has been making the rounds talking about peculiar tech coinages, from "the Cupertino effect" to "approximeetings." Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/the-cupertino-effect-and-other-tech-neologisms Blog Excerpts http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/a-taxing-day-for-dictionaries?utm_source=rss "Yes, April 15th is still the dreaded tax day," writes Mim Harrison. "But thanks to Samuel Johnson, it's also a great day for the English language and its wealth of wonderful words." That's because it is the date on which Johnson published his monumental dictionary of the English language in 1755. Read Harrison's look back at Johnson's Dictionary here (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/april-15th-a-most-taxing-day-for-dictionaries/). Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/a-taxing-day-for-dictionaries Blog Excerpts http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/scripps-national-spelling-bee-adds-vocabulary-questions-2013?utm_source=rss In the wake of the Scripps National Spelling Bee's announcement Tuesday that vocabulary questions will now be included in the Bee, quiz yourself on sample questions here. Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/scripps-national-spelling-bee-adds-vocabulary-questions-2013 Blog Excerpts http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/words-to-avoid-in-business-writing?utm_source=rss Last week, usage guru Bryan A. Garner collected a list of business-speak or "bizspeak" to avoid and posted it to the Harvard Business Review blog. What he describes as "vogueish" and "hyperformal" vocabulary makes an easy target. Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/words-to-avoid-in-business-writing Blog Excerpts http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/roger-eberts-lexicon-fruit-carts-idiot-plots-and-wunza-movies?utm_source=rss Legendary film critic Roger Ebert died yesterday after a protracted battle with cancer. He leaves behind a prodigious record of film commentary, but one of his most delightful efforts is his "Glossary of Movie Terms" for Roger Ebert's Video Companion (later expanded into Ebert's Little Movie Glossary). With help from readers, Ebert compiled a lexicon of the silliest movie clichés. Here's a sampling. Fri, 05 Apr 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/roger-eberts-lexicon-fruit-carts-idiot-plots-and-wunza-movies Blog Excerpts http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/can-providence-narrow-the-word-gap?utm_source=rss The city of Providence, RI is embarking on a bold initiative to narrow the "word gap": young children in families of lower socioeconomic status tend to hear fewer words in their home environment than higher-income counterparts, leading to inequalities in academic success when they enter school. Providence has won a $5 million grant to address this problem by means of a high-tech vocabulary intervention program, as our own Ben Zimmer writes in his latest Boston Globe column. Thu, 28 Mar 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/can-providence-narrow-the-word-gap