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  1. Blog Excerpts

     Dictionaurus
    Fri Jun 19 00:00:00 EDT 2009

    When you're in need of guidance about a word or meaning, do you first turn to a dictionary or a thesaurus? New York Times columnist William Safire considers the relative merits in his latest "On Language" column. Safire doesn't just look at print references: the Visual Thesaurus gets a nice mention too!

  2. Dog Eared

     Great Slang Dictionaries
    Thu Jun 18 00:00:00 EDT 2009
    When we interviewed Michael Adams about his new book, Slang: The People's Poetry (part one here), we asked him to recommend the best dictionaries of English slang available. If you're curious about the meanings and origins of slang terms, these are the go-to references.

  3. Behind the Dictionary

     Slang: Fitting In and Standing Out
    Wed Jun 17 00:00:00 EDT 2009
    In his new book, Slang: The People's Poetry, Indiana University English professor Michael Adams tackles the tough question: what is the nature of slang? Adams, also the author of Slayer Slang: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Lexicon, looks beyond dictionary definitions of slang to examine the fascinating interplay of social and aesthetic qualities in "the poetry of everyday speech." In this first of a two-part interview, Adams explains how the linguistic practice of slang balances the social and the aesthetic, and considers what directions slang might take in the future.

  4. Blog Excerpts

     Geography across Languages
    Tue Jun 16 00:00:00 EDT 2009

    The country known as Germany to English speakers is also known as Allemagne (in French), Tyskland (in Swedish), Niemcy (in Polish), Saksa (in Finnish), Doitsu (in Japanese), and of course Deutschland (in German). Confused? Check out Geonames for tons of info about "the countries of the world in their own languages and scripts."

  5. Book Nook

     Using Word Maps to Introduce Concepts
    Tue Jun 16 00:00:00 EDT 2009
    Teachers, are you wondering how you can use Visual Thesaurus word maps to introduce new concepts to your students? Check out this excerpt from Sharon Walpole and Michael C. McKenna's Differentiated Reading Instruction for some ideas.

  6. Department of Word Lists

     Are You "Nebby" about Regional English?
    Tue Jun 16 00:00:00 EDT 2009
    After half a century of research, the monumental Dictionary of American Regional English is nearing completion. DARE chief editor Joan H. Hall recently talked to National Public Radio about the long, arduous journey of the dictionary, which will see its fifth and final volume published next year. As a "rantum scoot" into peculiar American speech, here are some sample regionalisms culled from DARE.

  7. Candlepower

     The Bing Bang
    Mon Jun 15 00:00:00 EDT 2009
    Microsoft's new search engine may not vanquish Google, but it certainly has captured a huge share of attention among everyone interested in brand names.

    In case you missed the news reports or the relentless ads, Microsoft launched Bing at the end of May. Almost immediately, there was speculation about what the name was intended to mean or evoke.

  8. Candlepower

     Semper Sci Fi
    Fri Jun 12 00:00:00 EDT 2009
    On July 7, 2009, NBC Universal's Sci Fi Channel — the network responsible for the hit series "Battlestar Galactica" and such original movies as "Ice Spiders," "Android Apocalypse" and "Mansquito" — will complete a radical rebranding process. When it emerges from the laboratory, it will offer a retooled programming menu and a new name: Syfy.

  9. Blog Excerpts

     Most Looked-Up Words in the Times
    Fri Jun 12 00:00:00 EDT 2009
    The New York Times has been keeping track of the words that users of the Times website click on the most to look up definitions. The word with the most lookups in 2009 is the Latin term sui generis. Nieman Journalism Lab presents the words and crunches the numbers.

  10. Word Routes

     Powers of Ten
    Thu Jun 11 00:00:00 EDT 2009
    I've been thinking a lot lately about our decimal system and the way that exponential powers of ten capture our imagination. In part, that's because I've been called upon by various news outlets this week to counter a claim that the English language is adding its millionth word. But it's also because of a humbler, more personal milestone: what you're reading right here is (drumroll, please) my one hundredth Word Routes column.
228 229 230 231 232 Displaying 2291-2300 of 3488 Results