contributorNancy 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.
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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.
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Numbers also have a function beyond the mathematical: They can serve as words. And sometimes, a number can even be a name.
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Article Topics:Behind the DictionaryLexicographers 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.
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Article Topics:CandlepowerAd and marketing creativesBrand 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.
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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.
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A craving for linguistic rationality – not to mention a fondness for wordplay – explains how acronyms begat backronyms.
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