http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/?utm_source=rss Lexicographers Talk About Language Copyright 2012, Thinkmap Inc. All Rights Reserved. en Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:00:00 UTC 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/3116?utm_source=rss Back in December, a small study by researchers at Long Island University got a lot of news play. Maybe you heard about it. It was about the supposed recent increase in young American women's use of vocal fry — the lowest vocal register, the one with a creaky quality to it. Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:00:00 UTC http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/3116 Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/3075?utm_source=rss Fred R. Shapiro, the editor of The Yale Book of Quotations, is constantly on the lookout for new quotations that might make the cut for the next edition of his authoritative quotation dictionary. Below, find out what he thinks are the top ten quotations of 2011. Fri, 23 Dec 2011 05:00:00 UTC http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/3075 Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/3058?utm_source=rss I've been coaching a team of three eighth-grade girls for the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad, as one of the co-curricular clubs that are offered at my sons' school. We've been having fun working what amounts to logic puzzles with a linguistic slant, and I've been introducing various linguistic concepts as they become relevant. A few weeks ago, as we worked our way through a puzzle whose solution depended on recognizing the length of a syllable, I decided it would be useful for the team to know the word diphthong. Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:00:00 UTC http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/3058 Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/3050?utm_source=rss The word hybrid (from Latin hybrida, "mongrel") commonly refers to animals and plants of mixed lineage, and more recently to vehicles with two or more power sources. In linguistic morphology, it refers to a word formed by combining elements that originated in two or more languages. The process is called hybridization. Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:00:00 UTC http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/3050 Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/3044?utm_source=rss Earlier this month, the Earth's population passed seven billion. During the summer, the United States' national debt (at least the official debt as calculated by the U.S. Treasury) hit $14 trillion. And in a joke that's been going around for about a decade, various people, including blondes, Texas Aggies, violinists, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, have learned of the death of several Brazilian skydivers (or Brazilian soldiers in Iraq) and wondered, "How many is a Brazilian?" Mon, 21 Nov 2011 05:00:00 UTC http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/3044 Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/3015?utm_source=rss As most histories of Halloween will tell you, Hallowe'en (or Halloween) is a shortened version of All-Hallow(s)-Eve, but how and why did eve turn into e'en? For that matter, what is a hallow? Why did the all get dropped? Mon, 31 Oct 2011 04:00:00 UTC http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/3015 Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/2969?utm_source=rss The terrorist attacks on 9/11 happened ten years ago, and although everybody remembers what they were doing at that flashbulb moment, and many aspects of our lives were changed by those attacks, from traveling to shopping to going online, one thing stands out: the only significant impact that 9/11 has had on the English language is 9/11 itself. Mon, 12 Sep 2011 04:00:00 UTC http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/2969 Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/2966?utm_source=rss The movies have me in a venge-ful mood these days. Among the surfeit of superhero movies this summer there was Captain America: The First Avenger. This movie, along with Thor and last summer's Iron Man 2, is a prelude to next summer's The Avengers, showcasing the Marvel superhero team that features these characters. Thu, 08 Sep 2011 04:00:00 UTC http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/2966 Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/2956?utm_source=rss It's back to school, and that means it's time for dictionaries to trot out their annual lists of new words. Dictionary-maker Merriam-Webster recently released a list of 150 words just added to its new Collegiate Dictionary for 2011, including cougar, a middle-aged woman seeking a romantic relationship with a younger man, boomerang child, a young adult who returns to live at home for financial reasons, and social media -- if you don't know what that means, then you're still living in the last century. Tue, 30 Aug 2011 04:00:00 UTC http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/2956 Behind the Dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/2925?utm_source=rss Two weeks ago, the British writer Matthew Engel set off a trans-Atlantic ruckus by writing an opinion piece for the BBC online magazine entitled, "Why Do Some Americanisms Irritate People?" Engel's piece, along with a followup of reader peeves, attracted the attention of American language watchers. Lexicographer Grant Barrett had some pointed criticisms for Engel, which the BBC ran in diluted fashion. Here we present Barrett's unexpurgated response to Engel. Wed, 27 Jul 2011 04:00:00 UTC http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/2925