#word nerdery

[prokopetz]

Strictly speaking, "ultimate" means "last", not "best". It's often figuratively employed in the latter sense to suggest that the thing so described is the final word on the subject, after which nothing more need be said, but if we're being real technical, describing a game or movie that was so bad it killed its entire franchise as the "ultimate" is in fact correct.

[cybxrpnk]

excuse me while i nerd out for a minute

i have five words for you, fellow linguists

The Law of Ablaut Reduplication

Literally the coolest thing EVER

So you know how in English, adjectives have to go in a specific order when placed in front of a noun?

(determiner, opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose)

Almost all phrases in English follow this rule. It’s why saying “the brown big dog” sounds weird, but if you change it to “the big brown dog” it sounds fine!

You can see this rule in other phrases such as “cheap red dress” or “round wood table.”

BUT

Some phrases don’t follow this rule! (I know, English is built on rules that aren’t actually rules.)

Think of the Big Bad Wolf. If we apply the adjective order rule, it should be “Bad Big Wolf,” since opinion comes before size. But that sounds weird, right?

That’s because some phrases instead follow the Law of Ablaut Reduplication!

In this law, words are ordered based on the sound. More specifically, they follow this order:

I -> A -> O

That’s why we say things like “flip flop” or “hip hop.”

Or, my personal favorite example, “splish splash splosh.” (i -> a -> o)

Thanks for listening to my rant 🔥🔥

[faejilly]

tumblr

The manager at work told me about some clothes set aside that she has to talk to the plant about, so I shouldn't tag or sort or anything with them

and I legit almost said "not my monkeys" for confirmation

(because after the manager leaves, the store in general kind of is my circus)

but also, now I gotta know, would/could you reference any of your personal "the linguists can tell I'm on tumblr" phrasing to your current supervisor(s)? 🤣

and I am an old, so I was raised with a clear line between "day-to-day" vs "work" vocab (and also my mother was union strong and I'm talking to management, who is in fact also related to the owners) so I don't normally almost let the informal rambling out in front of her

It was an odd moment for me

but also, now I gotta know, would/could you reference any of your personal "the linguists can tell I'm on tumblr" phrasing to your current supervisor(s)? 🤣

yes

no

Voting ended onMar 5

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

Just watched a video from a scholarly expert on Viking-era Norse languages:

Yule / Jól: a word's strange story

(~30 minutes, eye contact, auto-generated captions [dodgy, 'cause he says a lot of words with medieval Icelandic pronunciation])

Anyway, the tl;dw is that after teasing out clues from proto-Indo-European, and related sister languages, as well as passages from the old Icelandic sagas, he concludes that Jól has its roots in words meaning to speak (same as "joke" and "yak"). And that it could be basically a coin flip as to whether the holiday took its name from "talking happily together" (being jolly), or "swearing solemn oaths." And, based on the surviving written records from ~1,000+ years ago, he comes down in favor of the latter (i.e. the roots of making New Year's Resolutions).

Well, I think, given humanity's universal impulse toward sarcasm and puns, that it's both, simultaneously (Yeah, yeah. I know we're here to formally re-establish our obligations, set goals, and make promises. But we all know what we're really doing right now).

[postalninja]

favorite word?

I don't know how you found my blog, but as a certified word nerd I am so pleased to be asked this question!! ^_^ Okay, so some of my longtime favourite words are enraptured, asunder, and receptacle. But a more recent favourite is marcescent (so lovely!) I could probably go on with a bunch more, but those are at the top of the list. Thank you for asking, favorite-word-guy! :D Have a great day!

[ansixilus]

favorite word?

Hmm, tough choice. There's so many good ones! In no particular order, contenders for top ten:

Confabulate

Rhizomatic

Whimsy

Elide

Aorta

Abort

Rook (a trifecta of my favorite chess piece, a crow-like bird, and an ancient word for fog, my favorite weather)

Syzygy

Ellipsis

Druple

[chubby-aphrodite]

what are some of your favorite words in that giant list of them you keep?

[referring to this list I keep]

Y'know what, since the document is five pages long so far, how about a word or two from each page?

Page 1:

Hibernal - of, relating to, appearing in, or belonging to winter

Estival - of, relating to, appearing in, or belonging to summer

I also have "vernal" and "autumnal" in there, but I looked these up one day because I wanted to know if summer and winter had equivalent adjectives... and they do!

Page 2:

Thysiastery - a sacrificial altar

This is one I learned from the Phrontistery, a website that catalogues really weird words of all sorts of categories. This one is also just fun to say.

Page 3:

Zaftig - plump or full-figured

A word with an etymology in Yiddish that's a positive way to refer to someone being fat. Other words I've found like this are "Rubenesque" (lit. "in the manner of Peter Paul Rubens" who was known for painting voluptuous, full-figured women) and "callipygian" (which is specifically an adjective meaning "pretty butt").

Page 4:

Sciamachy - a fake fight for practice; or, an argument with an imaginary opponent

I like this word because it is quite literally the single-word form of the phrase "making up a guy to get mad at." It is genuinely so funny to me to it's a word.

Page 5:

Oh man, there's more words on page 5 that I remember exactly where I learned them because it's the most recent page.

For instance, I went on a lookup-spree where I learned the adjectival forms of all the planets (and major dwarf planet) of the solar system, because I knew "mercurial" and "venereal" were words, but I wanted to see if the other planets had adjectives that meant "of the planet [whatever]" and also something else. Like mercurial means prone to change and venereal means related to sex or sexual diseases, but also "of/like Mercury" and "of/like Venus." There's also martial, which is about war and fighting but also "of/like Mars."

So there's:

Jovial - cheerful and gregarious; or, of/like/related to Jupiter (also called Jove)

Saturnine - gloomy, moody, or generally somber; or, of/like/related to Saturn

Uranian - I shit you not this one is an old-timey word for gay men, while also meaning of/like/related to Uranus.

Neptunian - of or related to water or the sea in general; or, of/like/related to Neptune

Plutonic/Plutonian - having the characteristics of the underworld (dark, gloomy, mournful, etc.); or, of/like/related to Pluto or plutonium

I love sets of adjectives that go together.

(Also, the qualifications for what makes a word "fun" enough to go on my list is vague. It can be fun to say out loud, obscure, simply new to me in a way that sticks out, meaning something interesting, part of a set, really anything! It's my list and I've been going at it since 2018.)

[thetownsendsw]

So here’s a thing. People naming angels in like…D&D campaigns or whatever, often have them following classical Hebrew/angelology naming conventions, e.g. ending in “-el.” Except that particular root is specifically one of the names of the Abrahamic God. All those -el names translate from Hebrew as stuff like “Lion of God” “Fist of God” “Disapproving stare of God.” In all likelihood, this campaign or otherwise original fantasy world does not involve earth-born monotheistic traditions, given the cleric worships Ra and his fruity buddy is descended from Beelzebub.

Now, the Jews were not always monotheists themselves, and prior to that transition El was (aside from being the proper name of the deific patriarch) just a noun in their language that meant “a god”. Any old god, that one too. So you could just say that angle names are using it in that sense, but that would imply that the Celestial Language is functionally Hebrew, which, thanks to Tolkien, leads to some curious conclusions about Dwarves that you may not want to hold true in your world. (I jest, there are other reasons not to do this)

You could also chalk it up to translation convention, but where’s the fun in that?

Instead, what if you changed that so the name of an angel referred specifically to whichever got out of the pantheon it serves? Each god could get a monosyllabic epithet, (gods having multiple names and epithets was common in many ancient religions, fantasy writers just don’t do it to avoid confusion) appended to the name of any angel in their service. That way anyone with a passing knowledge of religion knows exactly who any angle they interact with answers to.

Let’s say Bahamut (the dnd dragon god, not the Persian whale) has the epithet “-Bal”, which even also kind of works in Hebrew! (you could also use “-Lut” if you want a deep cut in reference to the above mentioned whale) You could modify existing angle names: Gavribal, Rafebal, Uribal. Or make up your own to evoke Celestial or another dnd language might sound like (such as Draconic for the whale), either in official sources or just what you make up: Litrixbal, Thurirbal, Vivexbal.

You can also use this as a subtle way to expand on your world building! Use the names of the angels or devils featured in your story to imply the existence of forgotten or fallen gods. Hint that the cult leader is a false idol by his incorrect use of epithets. Add a layer of richness to character names by having them evoke the gods they or their parents worshipped.

Or don’t do any of that in a D&D game because your players will never catch on to such a small detail and it will be entirely for your own self gratification.