That Word Chat

THE GAME | League of the Lexicion

Huge thanks to Joshua Blackburn and Jess Zafarris for joining us on #ThatWordChat!

Get the new US edition of “League of the Lexicon” here: www.leagueofthelexicon.com/game

Take this one: Biannual means… what exactly?

Biannual means twice a year. Something that occurs every two years is biennial.
#ThatWordChat

Which statement is incorrect?
A. Biweekly means occurring twice a week
B. Bimonthly means occurring every two months
C. Biannual means occurring every two years
D. Semiweekly means two times a week

Know your prefixes?
#ThatWordChat

Answer: C. A milkshake duck is a social media star with a compromising history.
The term was coined by cartoonist Ben Ward, who tweeted: The whole internet loves Milkshake Duck, a lovely duck that drinks milkshakes. Five seconds later: We regret to inform you the duck is racist. #ThatWordChat

A sample question from League of the Lexicon:
What is a milkshake duck?
A. The act of declining a milkshake
B. An implausible explanation that is nonetheless believed
C. A social media star with a compromising history
D. A disastrous mismatch of restaurant menu options
Know the answer?
#ThatWordChat

League of the Lexicon has grown beyond the core game, with specialized 500-question editions now available.
These include:
– A Global Edition
– A Slang Edition
– A Junior Edition
Each one dives deeper into a different corner of the English language.
#ThatWordChat

“I didn’t want to just repackage something made for a British audience. I wanted to make the game for American English, American culture, American society.” - Blackburn #ThatWordChat

Blackburn on the U.S. edition of League of the Lexicon: “There were definitely some references that weren’t making sense to U.S. audiences.” Questions about Wisden’s Cricket Annual and Marmite were not meshing with the US audience. #ThatWordChat

“English contrasts interestingly with French,” Blackburn said. “The Académie Française was set up to protect the language and to stop the intrusion of foreign words. By contrast, English is “a complete free-for-all... which drives people crazy, but it’s also the secret of its success.” #ThatWordChat

A miniature was originally an illuminated decoration, especially one using minium red. Over time, the word shifted meaning. Manuscript miniatures were smaller than wall frescoes. Portrait miniatures were portable gifts. What started as pigment became a whole vocabulary of smallness. #ThatWordChat

“Miniature” doesn’t come from minimum, minor, or minus. It wasn’t originally about size at all. “Miniature comes from the Latin minium, a lead-based red paint used to illuminate medieval manuscripts.” -Zafarris #ThatWordChat

Another example: Nostalgia didn’t always mean wistful memories. Zafarris explains: It was originally coined to describe homesickness, specifically in Swiss mercenaries in the 1600s, far from home. It was later softened and romanticized into the bittersweet feeling we know today. #ThatWordChat

“Etymology is a great time-traveling vector,” said Zafarris. Take electric: it comes from a Greek word for amber, because early experiments involved rubbing amber with wool to generate sparks. #ThatWordChat

“It was really interesting because Gen Z refers to spilling the tea—meaning, give me the gossip. And this sense of scandal water meaning gossip has been around for three centuries.” -Blackburn #ThatWordChat

Blackburn: “I was actually writing something earlier today about gossip and scandal. It was a quiz question about the meaning of the word ‘scandal water’ or ‘scandal soup.’ It means tea.” #ThatWordChat

“My favorite example is earthling, which meant ‘plowman’ in Old English and wasn’t applied to extraterrestrials until Robert Heinlein used it in sci-fi.” -Zafarris #ThatWordChat

“It can also help contextualize words in history. Knowing when and why a word appeared tells you who needed it.” -Zafarris #ThatWordChat

“Etymology is useful in several ways,” Zafarris said. “If you’ve never seen the word ‘mellifluous’ before, you can probably parse it out—honey, flowing—by knowing root elements.” #ThatWordChat

Zafarris on “Useless Etymology”: “It’s a jab at the notion that learning word origins is a pointless endeavor for empty entertainment. The book’s whole objective is to break down the need for pedantry and generate appreciation for the joyful chaos that is the English language.” #ThatWordChat

Is the book just made up of questions from the game? “The book was definitely catalyzed by the game, but one of the limitations of the game was the 50-word answers. I’d write something about the Great Vowel Shift, and I was boxed into just 50 words.” - Blackburn #ThatWordChat

Blackburn: “The original edition was created for Kickstarter. But in bookstores, it could get lost. So we wanted to create something that would stand out on shelves.” #ThatWordChat

Blackburn reached out to a literary agent for help publishing the game in the U.S.—and came away looking for a book deal, too! #ThatWordChat

“The game was selling really well. But the one market I was struggling with was America,” Blackburn said. “I live in England. America is really big, and it’s not my country. I don’t understand how distribution works.” #ThatWordChat

On collaborators: “People like sharing ideas. They like supporting and feeding this space. When I reached out to people, they weren’t responding in a protective, competitive way. They were genuinely excited.” - Blackburn #ThatWordChat

Zafarris: “Oh, it was just so exciting. Honestly, I had been looking for a game like this...So I was very excited for the opportunity to write some questions, to think through the gamification of word origins, but also vocabulary fun and spelling fun.” #ThatWordChat

Special editions followed. “It’s grown from a small lockdown project into something that word lovers really enjoy playing.” - Blackburn #ThatWordChat

The game launched on Kickstarter, where it became the most successful word game in Kickstarter history. It went on sale at Waterstones, the UK’s largest book chain, where it became Game of the Month. #ThatWordChat

Blackburn started writing questions, then reached out to linguists and lexicographers around the world to contribute. That’s when he first connected with Jess Zafarris. #ThatWordChat

“I thought, you know what, there's a real gap in the board game space for a game about words and language...There are only a handful of games about language. It's a very poorly represented area.” - Blackburn #ThatWordChat

When Joshua Blackburn was stuck at home during the COVID lockdown, he was helped his kids with their English homework. “The homework was incredibly boring. And I love English—I love language. But what I was seeing just sucked the fun out of it.” #ThatWordChat