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Linguaphile
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We love words. New words, old words, weird words, interesting turns of phrase and artful neologisms. This page is a growing collection of information and links we find both useful and entertaining.
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The Phrontistery, by linguistic anthropolgist Stephen Chrisomalis, is a collection of
obscure words and vocabulary resources. "Here, you will find the International House of Logorrhea (an online dictionary of
obscure and rare words), the Compendium of Lost Words (a compilation of ultra-rare forgotten words), and many other glossaries,
word lists, essays, and other language and etymology resources."
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Courtesy of Word Spy ...
psychache
n.
Extreme psychological pain.
Example Citations:
Holden researches " psychache," or unbearable psychological pain, and how it relates to suicidal behaviour..."If they wish to address this sort of psychache then I think they need to focus in on which particular frustrated need is relevant for that particular individual," Holden said.
—Laura Payton, " Prisons must work to prevent suicides: expert," Toronto Sun, April 5, 2010
According to a study from Montpellier, France, "It has been suggested that psychological pain (' psychache') is a key factor in the suicidal process...We hypothesized that more intense psychache during a major depressive episode would be a factor of vulnerability to suicidal behavior."
—" Research by E. Olie and colleagues in life sciences provides new insights," Mental Health Digest Weekly, April 19, 2010
Earliest Citation:
My neologisms are meant to clarify; to make sharper distinctions. (I see nothing frivolous in them.) Suicidology simply defines the field of knowledge of suicide and the practice of suicide prevention; psychache throws emphasis on the central role of psychological pain in suicide (and suicide's irreducible psychological character).
—Edwin Shneidman, Suicide as Psychache, Rowan and Littlefield, January 1, 1993 (approx)
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funemployment
n.
A period of joblessness that a person uses for leisure and other fun activities.
—funemploy v.
Example Citations:
A growing group of jobless across the nation are joining a self-proclaimed movement: ' funemployment.' It's a group of jovial unemployed who say they're finally doing what they've always wanted to do — whether it is blogging or starting a nonprofit.
—Elizabeth Prann, " The Happy Unemployed," Liveshots (Fox News), July 18, 2010
For the record, Dustin approaches his sundry temp jobs, which range from children's party clown to ice sculpture apprentice, with energy and enthusiasm...He's also quite content to take "funemployment" to heart. He enjoys having the leisure time to wage water balloon wars with the neighborhood kids and bask in the glow of the family's big-screen TV.
—Karen D'Souza, "'Dustin': a comic-strip antihero for our recessionary times," San Jose Mercury News, March 19, 2010
Earliest Citation:
funemployment—a happy time in one's life when one is not employed and is not wanting to be employed.
—JBMason, " funemployment," Urban Dictionary, March 17, 2004
Notes:
There is also a sketch-comedy group called Funemployment (earliest citation: 2003), as well as a much earlier use (from 1991) of funemployment that appears as a heading in volume 300 of Punch.
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iPod oblivion
n.
Obliviousness to one's surroundings caused by listening to an iPod or similar device.
Example Citations:
AA patrols claim MP3s, mobile phones and other high-tech devices are becoming a deadly distraction. AA president Edmund King, said: "We can't stop the march of technology, but we need to halt the iPod pedestrian, cycle and driver zombies. Whether on two feet, two wheels or four, too many people are suffering from so-called iPod oblivion."
—Mark Ellis, " The iPodestrians: 17 road accidents a day caused by people listening to gadgets," The Mirror, August 8, 2010
Tonight's episode takes us upmarket, to Bel Air, opening with a terrifying domestic scene in which a father witnesses a masked intruder advancing on his daughter, who is in iPod oblivion.
—David Stubbs, " Tonight's TV highlights," The Guardian, August 5, 2010
Earliest Citation:
Let's talk about another kind of oblivion, iPod oblivion. Police in Boston warning commuters with iPods to watch out. Thieves are targeting users who look lost in the users [sic], oblivious to what's happening around them.
—Carol Costello, "American Morning," CNN, December 27, 2005
Notes:
Similar phrases of recent vintage are: technological autism and cellphone zombieism.
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NEET
n.
A young person who isn't working, in school, or in a training program. [From the phrase Not in employment, education, or training.]
Example Citations:
Here's another thought, lifted from Ridley's inspiring book: "The 21st century will be a magnificent time to be alive," he says, a message which deserves to be disseminated far beyond the literary pages, so as to reach everyone from Neets and unemployed graduates to Lib Dems who cannot believe what they have got themselves into.
—Catherine Bennett, " Phew. At last we can ignore the gurus peddling happiness," The Observer, June 27, 2010
NEETs is a British term referring to young teenagers and adults with nothing to do. It stands for "not in employment, education or training." Although it's a British phrase, American graduates suffering in the current job market also fit the description. Studies say the number of American NEETs has risen by nearly 20 percent since the end of 2007.
—Karina Schroeder, " NEETness counts ... but in a bad way," Telegraph Herald, August 9, 2010
Earliest Citation:
As questions concerning young people not in education, training and employment have entered the political and policy arenas, their categorisation has been sanitised yet further; it is alleged that at high levels of central government they are referred to as NEET young people: those Not in Education, Employment or Training.
—Robert MacDonald, Youth, the 'Underclass' and Social Exclusion, Routledge, November 5, 1997
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edupunk
n.
An education reform movement that eschews traditional teaching tools in favor of Internet-based learning and other high-tech methods. Also: edu-punk.
Example Citations:
The troubled economy and changing technology have already fueled a do-it-yourself education reform movement dubbed " edupunk," which envisions virtual campuses and lower-cost or even free instruction. The edupunks are picking up where traditional institutions left off.
—Patrick Arden, " Will NYC's College Building Boom Bubble Pop?," The Village Voice, July 27, 2010
Edupunks — the term for high-tech do-it-yourself educators who skirt traditional structures — are piloting wiki-type U's that stitch together open course material from many institutions and combine it with student-to-student interaction.
—Katie Hafner, " An Open Mind," The New York Times, April 16, 2010
Earliest Citation:
My next series of posts will be about what I think EDUPUNK is and the necessity for a communal vision of EdTech to fight capital's will to power at the expense of community. I hope others will join me.
—Jim Groom, " The Glass Bees," bavatuesdays, May 25, 2008
Notes:
Many thanks to T. Wisniewski for spying this term.
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nature-deficit disorder
n.
A yearning for nature, or an ignorance of the natural world, caused by a lack of time spent outdoors, particularly in rural settings. Also: nature deficit disorder.
Example Citations:
Now a nonprofit educational enterprise, the manor is among the New York-area farms attracting locavores, green-minded students and urbanites suffering from nature-deficit disorder who yearn to raise produce and livestock for a day, a week or longer.
—Kathryn Shattuck, " City Slickers Take to the Crops, With Song," The New York Times, May 28, 2010
Revealing the inspiration behind his latest epic, Avatar, legendary filmmaker James Cameron recently described himself as a "nature geek", and said modern humans were suffering a degree of " nature deficit disorder". It may not be a medically recognised condition, but " nature deficit disorder" is a concept gaining traction with childhood and behavioural experts around the world.
—Peter Ker, " More fertile imagination," The Age, March 20, 2010
Earliest Citation:
Many members of my generation grew into adulthood taking nature's gifts for granted; we assumed (when we thought of it at all) that generations to come would receive these gifts. But something has changed. Now we see the emergence of what I have come to call nature-deficit disorder. This term is by no means a medical diagnosis, but it does offer a way to think about the problem and the possibilities — for children, and for the rest of us as well.
—Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods, Algonquin Books, January 1, 2005 (approx)
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reputation bankruptcy
n.
A theoretical system that would give a person a fresh start on the web by deleting all of that person's online text, photos, and other data.
Example Citations:
To allow people to escape from negative scores generated by these services, Zittrain says that people should be allowed to declare ' reputation bankruptcy' every 10 years or so, wiping out certain categories of ratings or sensitive information. His model is the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which requires consumer-reporting agencies to provide you with one free credit report a year — so you can dispute negative or inaccurate information — and prohibits the agencies from retaining negative information about bankruptcies, late payments or tax liens for more than 10 years.
—Jeffrey Rosen, " The Web Means the End of Forgetting," The New York Times, July 19, 2010
How about 'reputation bankruptcy' on the lines of financial bankruptcy, to allow people a fresh start?
—D. Murali, "Our online selves can be real," Business Line, July 14, 2008
Earliest Citation:
As real identity grows in importance on the Net, the intermediaries demanding it ought to consider making available a form of reputation bankruptcy. Like personal financial bankruptcy, or the way in which a state often seals a juvenile criminal record and gives a child a "fresh start" as an adult, we ought to consider how to implement the idea of a second or third chance into our digital spaces.
—Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It, Yale University Press, April 14, 2008
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range anxiety
n.
Mental distress or uneasiness caused by concerns about running out of power while driving an electric car.
Example Citations:
"For example, when we started, 87 per cent of the owners said ' range anxiety' — a concern that the car would run out of power and strand them — was their biggest concern about an electric car. "Now that they have some real-world experience with (the 135 km range of ) the car, they know how far (or, actually, how little) they drive, where they can recharge, and so on. (Now) only 17 per cent still have that concern."
—Jim Kenzie, " First electric Smarts arrive in America," The Toronto Star, June 18, 2010
In the 1990s, long before Better Place and others like it had formed, Christensen laid out the reasons the electric car was failing, using as evidence the old Chrysler electric minivan. The vehicle required 1,600 pounds of batteries, which slowed acceleration. ... It traveled less than 100 miles before needing to refuel, creating so-called range anxiety for drivers, and recharging required hours.
—Amity Shlaes, " Disrupt the G-20 Summit With This Technology," Bloomberg News, June 23, 2010
Earliest Citation:
"Range anxiety" is a common reaction among new EV1 users, said Levin. He added that the industry is working on new battery technology which holds the promise of a 100-mile range.
—Richard Acello, "Getting into gear with the vehicle of the future," San Diego Business Journal, September 1, 1997
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toxic knowledge
n.
Knowledge of a potential genetic predisposition for a particular disease, esp. when that information creates anxiety and other psychological problems.
Example Citations:
But there's something about the precision of a DNA test that can make people believe that chemistry is destiny—that it holds dark, implacable secrets. This is why genetic information is sometimes described as " toxic knowledge": Giving people direct access to their genetic information, in the words of Stanford bioethicist Hank Greely, is out and out "reckless."
—Thomas Goetz, " Sergey Brin's Search for a Parkinson's Cure," Wired, June 22, 2010
We are all vulnerable to particular disorders, and may have predispositions to cancer or heart disease or dementia, even if we currently feel perfectly healthy. That's why genetic information has been called "toxic knowledge", because it may have corrosive effects on our sense of self, our relationship with our family, or our economic and social wellbeing.
—"What price ethics in appliance of science?," The Journal, July 4, 2002
Earliest Citation:
Amid talk of mouse models, intermediate alleles, and subcellular expressions of the protein huntingtin, the presence of those who have tested positive for the Huntington's gene creates a special atmosphere, a powerful aura, the haunted future we are trying to disrupt. How are people living with this " toxic knowledge," as it has been called?
—Alice Wexler, Mapping Fate, University of California Press, December 30, 1996
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cybercasing
pp.
Using online location-based data and services to determine when a home is unoccupied with a view to robbing it.
—cybercase v.
Example Citations:
Data stored in digital photographs can help criminals locate individuals and plot real-world crimes, a practice two researchers called " cybercasing" in a recently published paper. The site Pleaserobme.com was one of the first to expose the problem by displaying tweets tagged with location information, although it has since stopped the practice.
—Niraj Chokshi, " How Tech-Savvy Thieves Could 'Cybercase' Your House," The Atlantic, July 22, 2010
But may we offer, perhaps, a simple fix to address some of these concerns: don't post your vacation photos until after you return home and don't Twitter about it while there. Simple steps like these could go a long way into protecting your home and valuables from being " cybercased" by any tech-savvy thieves.
—Sarah Perez, " Researchers Warn of Geotagging Dangers - Are You Concerned?," ReadWriteWeb, July 22, 2010
Earliest Citation:
This article aims to raise awareness of a rapidly emerging privacy threat that we term cybercasing: using geo-tagged information available online to mount real-world attacks.
—Gerald Friedland and Robin Sommer, " Cybercasing the Joint: On the Privacy Implications of Geo-Tagging" (PDF), International Computer Science Institute, May 2, 2010
Notes:
The verb to case, "to study the layout of a location before robbing it," has been in the language for about a hundred years, with the earliest written citation occurring in 1915.
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