Simon Koppel

And, as "roof hare", from 1875 digmichnews.cmich.edu?a=d&d=Isabel...

Used in English in the same context - euphemistic cat meat - since at least 1917 www.loc.gov/resource/sn8...

Discussion on Threads (named redacted for privacy): Would you call people who don’t go around this lawn and formed the dirt path “lazy”? If anything, it’s intellectually lazy to jump to that conclusion rather than try to understand desire paths. Good urban design doesn’t fight human behaviour, it accommodates it. There’s a good design solution to this. [Image: a piece of grass in an urban environment. A dirt path formed by walkers cuts off a corner between two paved areas] Yes I would. There's a clear sidewalk and no need to damage the grass because it's a shortcut. It's called respect for the environment and others around you. I was brought up properly, to follow rules and respect property; whether it's public or private property.

'... desire paths, which no one dismisses as "lazy".'

Oh, you sweet summer child. I admire your optimism and belief in people, but it was very easy indeed to find someone who thinks of desire paths as lazy. I strongly suspect they'd feel the same way about these linguistic shortcuts.

Please don't be discouraged. This is the absolutely most brutal level of competitive quizzing. My wife @octodude.bsky.social, a former Mastermind finalist and one of the best quizzers in the country, got seven out of those seventeen questions. If you can get two or three, you're doing pretty well.

A few days earlier for that 1891 quotation: www.virginiachronicle.com?a=d&d=WR1891...

Etymology Summary Of unknown origin. Known soon after 1600; but not in dictionaries before Kersey's ed. of Phillips, 1706. Origin unknown: it has the appearance of a quasi-proper name or nickname, like Old Grumbles, Bags, Boots, and the like. (An Icelandic hunskur cited by Lye is imaginary.)

OED doesn't have any more idea than Wiktionary

“No,” Arthur said, “look, it’s very, very simple…. All I want… is a cup of tea. You are going to make one for me. Now keep quiet and listen."

Fabulous cover image!

What word precedes "pan" in the name of a musical instrument that was added to the coat of arms of Trinidad and Tobago in 2025?

*screams*

"Video podcast" is just a television show where you don't have a good set and leave the all the microphones and cabling in!

BURN THE TERM VIDEO PODCAST TO THE GROUND, THEN MIX ITS ASHES INTO A FIREWORK AND BURN IT AGAIN

A very good morning to you all, I'm fine
*sips third coffee*

The OED lists that as the first known use of the word "swapping" in that context, so if it's fabricated, they'd probably want to know! cc @petermgilliver.bsky.social @jenniferhurd.bsky.social

I bet most of them are pronounced differently in Massachusetts. In England, it's "Wooster", "Lemster" and either "Shroosbree" or "Shroesbree" (even the people who live there can't agree on that last one).

The site was shut down in 2023 but has been revived. The interface isn't amazing, and I'm not convinced how smart their "smart search" is, but the content is great! I've already found a number of antedatings for words in the OED.

Flagging for my language-related followers, in case you haven't noticed, the welcome re-emergence of elephind.com, a single search engine for a huge range of (free) newspaper archives including some unusual ones like US college newspapers. #lexicography #OEDantedating #linguistics 1/2

Grok is awful; it's the very worst example of what running AI without any guardrails and concern for harm looks like. But let's not forget that it's people - and let's be clear here, those people are men - who are telling Grok to make those images.

Hello! I'm reading them. I even looked up the Niels Bohr quote, and enjoyed the Oscar Wilde precursor. quoteinvestigator.com/2021/11/02/d...

It’s amazing how faithful The Muppet Christmas Carol is to the original novel.

The way to control for that would be two groups, one interviewed every year, one only every five years, see if there are any significant differences.

Tell me you know nothing about linguistics and lexicography without...

YouTube video by Tom Scott I Asked 64,182 People About “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells”. Here's What I Found Out.

Have you seen Tom Scott's examination of the same phenomenon, from a few years ago? youtu.be/V5u9JSnAAU4?...

In the annals of scientific replication, here is @loreandordure.com's study of a phenomenon previously investigated by Tom Scott. youtu.be/V5u9JSnAAU4?...

Ah fab. I was going to suggest "spooky season". You might consider it a new term that became popular in both countries - but newspapers dot com and Library of Congress have US citations from early 20th century, and even the modern usage I think got big in US before Britain.

I'm Kenyan. I Don't Write Like ChatGPT. ChatGPT Writes Like Me. I'm calm. I'm calm. I promise.

What an absolutely fascinating essay. When you're pointing your finger at the supposed "markers of AI writing", be very careful you're not just downgrading and dismissing the markers of a particular education. marcusolang.substack.com/p/im-kenyan-...

@lynneguist.bsky.social Hey Lynne, is it too late to make suggestions for AmE -> BrE word of the year, and if not, where's the best place to do so?

(That should of course be "G or C" for New York pizza. Though I wouldn't put it past the Greenlanders to have their own funky version of pizza - I've seen what the Swedes do with it).

Define "from". Chicken Tikka Masala was invented in Glasgow by Bangladeshi immigrants and uses chillies and tomatoes native to the Americas. Is New York style pizza sector A or C? Australia's favourite takeaway is the Halal Snack Pack. Food is too complex and interesting to pin to a single origin.

THE YETI SPEAKS (whose two halves use the same letters, in the same order):

I absolutely read that as the title of your book being, "Oh Dear, Look What I Got at Hatchards Bookshop in Piccadilly".

You are ABSOLUTELY NOT going to regret listening to this bird:

Wow. This may be the worst wrong opinion I've ever heard on anything.