word coinages | word coinages

Sep.08.2009 Incentivize This I try not to get irked by words like "incentivize." I understand why other people do, but I figure there's no use in letting acceptable usages get under my skin. Best to save my energy for stuff like "enthused" in quotation attributions. ("'It's a great deal,' Thompson...	May.07.2009 We Aught to Be Glad It Didn't Take Till 2010, the simpsons Recently I blogged about the word "aught" used to name years in this decade: We're in the "Twenty aughts." There was an election in "aught four." My inspiration: a Los Angeles Times column by Michael Hiltzik, in which he used the word (although he spelled it "...
Mar.17.2009 Words I'm Making Up (First in an occasional cleverly named series on words that are not but should be) curcludgeon It's when you get bludgeoned by a curmudgeon. I'm sure any grammarphile with grammarphobe tendencies will agree we could use such a word. I realize curbludgeon would be a more natural formation, but 1. it's too similar to bludgeon and 2. it's just not as much fun. So don't curcludgeon...	Mar.16.2009 Random Ramblings on a Not-Very-Word-Oriented Monday * Further evidence AP and Chicago are conspiring to make my head blow up: AP Style for capitalizing titles of works: "How to Turn Your Trash Into Cash" Chicago Style for capitalizing titles of works: "How to Turn Your Trash into Cash" AP says to lowercase conjunctions,...
Feb.17.2009 Wonderings and Googlings (Wherein I wonder about words, then I Google them) "I friended him." = 940 hits"I befriended him." = 628 hits A story about Facebook on NPR this morning got me wondering whether "friend" as a transitive verb was poised to replace the word that has long done its job: "befriend." Looks like it is.