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Candlepower
Naming No-No's
Wed May 13 00:00:00 EDT 2009
When I begin a name-development project, I'm open to all possibilities that are relevant to my client's objectives. After all, I'm aiming to develop not one name but a list of 250 or so from which I can identify 15 to 20 strong candidates.
Still, there are words and word parts I avoid — and if you're naming your own product or company, I recommend you avoid them, too.
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Word Routes
Of Clunkers and Junkers
Tue May 12 00:00:00 EDT 2009
Leaders in the U.S. House of Representative recently reached an agreement on a plan that would award vouchers of up to $4,500 to car owners who trade in older vehicles for more fuel-efficient models. The proposed legislation has a nickname that is memorably alliterative: "Cash for Clunkers." How did clunker become the favored American word for cars that are past their prime?
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Blog Excerpts
The Rise and Fall of "Tricia"
Tue May 12 00:00:00 EDT 2009
New research shows that the faster a baby name like "Tricia" gets popular, the faster it fades away. And the same principle applies to other fads and fashions. Wired Science reports.
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Teachers at Work
"Big Brother" in the Classroom
Mon May 11 00:00:00 EDT 2009
Can teachers manipulate language to their advantage, as a way of shifting their students' perspectives in a more positive direction? It might sound a little Orwellian, but Steven Kushner, who teaches at Bremen High School in Midlothian, Illinois, has found that taking a page from "Big Brother" can be an effective educational strategy.
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Backstory
Sung J. Woo, Author of "Everything Asian"
Fri May 08 00:00:00 EDT 2009
Back in 1981, when I was ten years old, my life had become a foreign-language film without subtitles. Everywhere I went, people spoke English, which was a problem because all I knew was Korean. My mother, my two sisters, and I had made the trek from Seoul, South Korea to reunite with my father in New Jersey, and once we got our bearings, it was time to get to work.
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Blog Excerpts
How Old is "@"?
Fri May 08 00:00:00 EDT 2009
The now-familiar symbol "@" is nearly five centuries old: it shows up in a 1536 letter from an Italian merchant. (Back then it was used to indicate a unit of measure, the amphora.) The New York Times Bits blog has more.
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Word Routes
The Language of Social Media: "Unlike" Any Other
Thu May 07 00:00:00 EDT 2009
Earlier this week I appeared as a guest on the NPR show " Charlotte Talks" (from Charlotte, North Carolina) to talk about language in the electronic age. Callers expressed a fair amount of hand-wringing about how English usage is under fire from new modes of communication, from text-messaging to social media sites. Rather than focusing on the negative, I'd like to celebrate some of the innovative linguistic forms that have been bubbling up online.
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Evasive Maneuvers
A Moderately Pleasant-Looking Legacy
Wed May 06 00:00:00 EDT 2009
If you feared the end of the Bush administration meant there would be no more preposterous government-propelled euphemisms to keep us warm and confused in these dark nights of the soul, fear not! And while you're non-afraid, how'd you like to buy some legacy assets?
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Blog Excerpts
Culinary Crossword Challenge!
Wed May 06 00:00:00 EDT 2009
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Announcements
Grab Hold of Your Vocabulary with VocabGrabber!
Tue May 05 00:00:00 EDT 2009
We're tremendously excited to present a new feature on the Visual Thesaurus website called VocabGrabber, a tool that intelligently extracts words from any document you're interested in. All you need to do is copy a text and Vocabgrabber will instantly pull out the most useful vocabulary words and show you how those words are used in context. You can sort, filter, and save the lists, and also view Visual Thesaurus wordmaps and definitions. It's a boon for students, teachers, English language learners, or anyone who wants to bring some interactive fun to vocab learning.
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