Stanford linguist Dan Jurafsky has launched a fascinating new blog called The Language of Food. So far he's posted meticulous studies of the words entrée, ketchup, and dessert. Check it out here.

What's a dingenuity? It's "A dinner made from the most random of ingredients." And a Snaab? That's "A snob who is obsessed with his Saab," of course. Read more hilariously inventive blends on A Daily Portmanteau.

Tributes continue to pour in for the late great William Safire and his thirty-year run as New York Times Magazine language columnist. The latest come from Visual Thesaurus contributor Mark Peters in GOOD Magazine and from former Safire research assistant Aaron Britt in Newsweek.

Linguistically oriented bloggers reflect on the passing of "On Language" columnist William Safire.

The Lexicographer's Rules

Languagehat

Wordorigins.org

Wishydig

It's National Punctuation Day! Why not celebrate by reading some of our recent punctuated-related posts?

• Exclamation Nation
• Learning to Love the Semicolon
• "Punctuation Hero" or Vandal?
• What's Your Favorite Punctuation Mark?
• Throwing Light on Shady Characters
• The Problem with Punctuation: Some Classroom Findings

Artwiculate is a new Twitter-based Word of the Day competition that "helps clever people look clever and helps the rest of us learn new words." Use the Word of the Day in one of your tweets, and earn points if people like your style. Join in the fun here!

What's an apostrophantom? Stan Carey defines it as "an entity that absconds from the printed page, leaving only a ghostly trace of the apostrophe it once was." See it (and its relative the apostrofly) on Carey's Sentence First blog.