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NEW FROM THE E-MAGAZINE THIS WEEK Mononymous If you are mononymous, you have become well known by one name only, like Napoleon, Shakespeare, Einstein, Morrissey, Pelé or Cher. “The parade of mononyms on the pop chart is getting monotonous: Beyoncé, Pink ... Honky-tonk The term honky-tonk is frequently linked to the firm of William Tonk & Bros of Chicago and New York, founded in 1880, whose sturdy upright pianos began to be manufactured in 1889 under the name of Ernest A Tonk ... Teknonymy Let’s say you’re at the school gate and you hear a mother say to her boy, “Give this to Johnny’s mum”. Why not use her real name? The boy might not know it, of course. More likely, mum has taught son that it’s impolite for him ... RANDOMLY CHOSEN Protologism This may be thought a useful invention, one that’s particularly relevant to World Wide Words — coiners often submit linguistic inventions in the hope that they might be promoted and become a settled part of the language ... RECENTLY ADDED PAGES See-saw; Chillwave; Infra dig; Word of finger; Neurocinematics; Going to the dogs; Galanthophile; Cock-a-hoop; Quinquagenary; Notta Lotta Nottle; Rub of the green; Barrelhouse Words; Tumbarumba; Chicanery; What Paddy shot at; Adust; Crisitunity; Southpaw; Centre about; Hoosegow; Sundae; Drunkard's cloak; Jollop; Pearls of wisdom; Twenty-three Skidoo; Manticore; Rannygazoo; Climate velocity; Colour Me Environmental; Redding; Shoestring; Griffonage. THE NEXT WEB SITE UPDATE The next update is due on 27 March, when the meteorological word hyetal is explained, the origins of cabal are investigated, and I add anything interesting that comes up during the week. SIC! • In an article by Michelle Hanson in the Guardian on 5 March: “If the government are considering competency tests for dog owners, I say go for it — and compulsory microchipping, neutering, third-party insurance.” All very good, but what about the dogs? • David Marshall-Martin was delighted to read the AAP wire service report on 28 February about the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras: “Many were disappointed they couldn’t penetrate the thong of onlookers.” • If I squint out of an upstairs window, I can just see the River Severn, famous for its tidal bore. We’ve recently had the largest for eight years, which led the BBC Web site to announce “Big Bore Attracts Crowds”. No surprise to find it’s since been changed. • The Daily Telegraph quoted on 7 March from an MI5 manual of 1945 about suitable surveillance personnel: “From experience it has been found that the ideal watcher should be 5ft 7in or 8ft in height, looking as unlike a policeman as possible.” David Overton notes that it needs revising, “as the day of the 5ft 7in policeman has indeed arrived. The 8ft-tall spy, on the other hand, would now be no more conspicuous than in 1945.” • A Guardian editorial on 11 March presumably slipped through a time warp from the year 3998. It quoted a speech by the British Foreign Secretary, who — by a quirk of nature — was still David Miliband: “In 1988, I would never have believed that 2010 years later I would be British foreign secretary explaining a war in Afghanistan.” TECHNICAL INFORMATION This site is designed to work with the current generation of browsers. Some older ones might not be able to display every aspect of the design as it is intended to look, nor some of the special characters. In particular, Internet Explorer 6 and earlier versions are not supported. If you want to download an updated browser, we recommend Firefox 3.6. The main text on every page is best viewed using Microsoft’s Georgia font. If you do not have it on your system, you can download it for Windows or the Apple Mac. Pronunciations are given in IPA symbols; to view these requires you to have a font on your system that includes them, such as Lucida Sans Unicode, Charis SIL, Doulos SIL or Arial Unicode MS. If you can read this (/mɛtɛmpˈtəʊsɪs/) as IPA you have a suitable font already installed. The site preference is for Lucida Sans Unicode (click on the font name to download the version for Microsoft Windows). See your system help files for how to install fonts.
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Last updated 20 Mar. 2010
Weekly E-Magazine
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