http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/?utm_source=rss Lexicographers Talk About Language Copyright 2013, Thinkmap Inc. All Rights Reserved. en Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/images/common/logo_on_white.gif http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/?utm_source=rss Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/trespassers-will-be-trespassed?utm_source=rss Poking around a mall with his sons, the linguist Neal Whitman came across a sign that said, "Violators will be trespassed." It turns out that the verb trespass has picked up a new meaning in the last twenty years or so, one which hasn't yet made it into any of the dictionaries. Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/trespassers-will-be-trespassed Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/try-and-try-again?utm_source=rss Yesterday was National Grammar Day, and I've been thinking about one of the long-standing usage peeves. It doesn't usually make people's top 10 lists, but it's been out there since the 19th century: try and instead of try to. The usual complaint about this idiom is that it doesn't mean what people who say it seem to think it means. Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/try-and-try-again Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/kudomania?utm_source=rss We're in the middle of awards show season: January saw the People's Choice Awards, the Critics' Choice Movie Awards, the Golden Globes, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, and the action continues this month with the Grammy Awards next week, culminating with the Academy Awards. January and February are an extended kudofest for the show business and recording industries. Yes, "kudofest." Wed, 06 Feb 2013 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/kudomania Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/peeves-hates-and-aversions?utm_source=rss Some people have "pet peeves," while others have "pet hates." What's the difference? Are "pet peeves" particularly American? And what about "pet aversions"? Linguist Neal Whitman investigates the vocabulary of annoyance. Wed, 16 Jan 2013 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/peeves-hates-and-aversions Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/pants-on-fire?utm_source=rss With Election Day behind us, everyone in my swing-state household can breathe their respective sighs of relief, savoring the sudden absence of all the recorded campaign phone calls, all the back-to-back TV commercials for Romney and Obama, all the emails pleading that one candidate or another just needs 8 more dollars from each of us by the end of the day. And we can stop hearing about the fact-checking organization Politifact's truth rankings for claims made in commercials, debates, and stump speeches. Thu, 08 Nov 2012 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/pants-on-fire Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/its-crunch-time?utm_source=rss Ever since hippies embraced it in the '60s, granola has always had countercultural connotations. In the years since it took the country by storm, the words crunchy and granola, together and even individually, have come to act as shorthand adjectives to describe people with a streak of cultural rebellion, from vegetarians and war protesters in the '70s to hybrid electric car drivers and vaccine-rejecting parents in the 2000s. Thu, 11 Oct 2012 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/its-crunch-time Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/youve-been-trolled?utm_source=rss As my sons Doug and Adam have spent more time surfing the Internet, they've seen plenty of examples of people leaving insulting comments on Facebook pages or YouTube videos just to get a reaction out of other people, who don't realize they're being played. They've also picked up the vocabulary for this kind of behavior: trolling. I've been familiar with the concept of trolling for 20 years now, but it turns out to have undergone some changes during that time. Wed, 15 Aug 2012 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/youve-been-trolled Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/remakes-reboots-and-reimaginings?utm_source=rss The newest Spider-Man movie is in the theaters, with a new director, new cast, and new take on Spider-Man's origin story that invites us to forget the one presented to us back in 2002. In other words, it's not a sequel, but a reboot. In August, the remake of Total Recall arrives... or is it a reimagining? What exactly is the difference between remakes, reboots, and reimaginings? Fri, 06 Jul 2012 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/remakes-reboots-and-reimaginings Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/progressive-reform?utm_source=rss In a class for speakers of English as a foreign language, Neal Whitman found himself teaching odd five-verb forms like "will have been being seen" and "would have been being seen." How did we end up with such unusual verb pile-ups? Wed, 30 May 2012 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/progressive-reform Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/slurred-language?utm_source=rss As a teenager, I got the impression that an easy way to make any insult extra-offensive was to say it carelessly, as if you were drunk. But eventually I realized that a slur is not a mumbled remark expressing general disrespect about someone. On the other hand, even the most carefully enunciated insult can qualify as a slur, provided it's grounded in race, religion, or other historical bases for discrimination. Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/slurred-language