Saturday, August 22, 2009

Word of the Day

I learned the word "snowclone" today by listening to this dialog between a lexicographer and a science writer, the Zimmer brothers, Carl Zimmer and Benjamin Zimmer:



I enjoyed the discussion of the "Eskimos has X number of words for snow". I remember "learning" this from reading Benjamin Whorf back in the 1960s. It is interesting to discover that "facts" weren't facts.

Oh... and I enjoyed the discussion of portmanteau words. Yep, another new word to learn. So I'm up to "two words of the day". Now I know how to officially refer to words like Spanglish, Labradoodle, Brangelina, workaholic, etc.

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