contributor

Nancy Friedman

Nancy Friedman is the chief wordworker at verbal-branding consultancy Wordworking, and the author of a fine blog on naming, branding and more called Fritinancy. Nancy has named a venture-capital firm, a laser hair-removal device, a mobile-money service, and many other companies and products. A former journalist, she still writes or ghostwrites articles, speeches, white papers, and books.
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Naming the Name of the Year

April 11, 2018
By Nancy Friedman
March Madness ended on March 25, but the thrill of bracketology lives on: April Foolishness is in full swing, thanks to the long-running, much-anticipated Name of the Year (NOTY) contest.  Continue reading...
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The Story of -o

Premium content available only to Visual Thesaurus subscribers.March 12, 2018
By Nancy Friedman
English loves its o-ending words with a curious fervor, considering how seldom they occur naturally in our mother tongue. For centuries, we've made up for that lack by importing or coining words that end in o.  Continue reading...
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Take a Number

Premium content available only to Visual Thesaurus subscribers.February 12, 2018
By Nancy Friedman
Numbers also have a function beyond the mathematical: They can serve as words. And sometimes, a number can even be a name.  Continue reading...
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Behind the Dictionary

Lexicographers Talk About Language

"Fake News" Is the Real Word of the Year

January 7, 2018
By Nancy Friedman
In the past year, fake news has gained currency as well as a new sense: Not only can it signify "disinformation or falsehoods spread as real news" – but it has also come to mean "actual news that is claimed to be untrue" if it's perceived as unflattering.  Continue reading...
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Brand Names of the Year for 2017

December 11, 2017
By Nancy Friedman
At the end of each year, while linguists and lexicographers cast votes for words of the year, I'm compiling a different list: the brand names that distilled the mood of the previous twelve months. To narrow the field, I add another criterion: the brand names must be linguistically notable.  Continue reading...
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Laughing Matters

November 5, 2017
By Nancy Friedman
Here we are in Branding Land, circa 2017, where disparaging modifiers are paired with positive words and attached to messages intended to persuade and sell.  Continue reading...
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Back to Backronyms

September 27, 2017
By Nancy Friedman
A craving for linguistic rationality – not to mention a fondness for wordplay – explains how acronyms begat backronyms.  Continue reading...
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