A.Word.A.Day -- AWADmail Issue 968

A.Word.A.Day

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AWADmail Issue 968

A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
and Other Tidbits about Words and Language

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From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Subject: Interesting stories from the Net

The Language of Incitement
The Economist
Permalink

The Word “Orwellian” Has Lost All Meaning
Vox
Permalink

From: Lisa DeLong (lisa.delong usa.com)
Subject: Vardy

The word vardy on Jamie Vardy’s birthday, Jan 11!

Lisa DeLong, Dallas, Texas

From: Alexander Nix (revajnix yahoo.co.uk)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--vardy

Successful Leicester City footballer and striker Jamie Vardy famously has the fan chant “Jamie Vardy’s having a party” as much in recognition of his goal scoring ability as his lifestyle off the pitch!

Alexander Nix, Cambridge, UK

From: Dave Horsfall (dave horsfall.org)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--vardy

Shortening words is just plain laziness by those who cannot be bothered to learn to spell long words. And yes, I am old (68).

Dave Horsfall, North Gosford, Australia

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From: Tom Stites (tom tomstites.com)
Subject: Simplified spelling

For four decades starting in 1934 The Chicago Tribune built simplified spelling into its formal style. It was then the biggest newspaper outside New York, circulating far and wide in its region, so it introduced lots of people to the spelling preferences of its autocratic then-publisher, Col. Robert R. McCormick.

I love the last (if I may) graf:

Finally, in 1975, thru was through and so was tho, Tribune editors wrote, as it became clear the public wasn’t following their lead. At least not yet. It would be another quarter-century before texting teens would pick up where McCormick had left off.

I’m an old newspaper editor. I worked at The Chicago Sun-Times from 1968 to 1970, and marveled at the spelling habits of our competitor; I went off to New York (Newsday and The Times) and then back to Chicago to work at The Tribune from 1985 to 1990. Old-timers held on to prized artifacts from the simplified spelling days. Example: Jim Squires, then the top editor, had a metal plate that offered the buttons to push to summon the freight elevator. Col. McCormick’s people had had it custom-cast to conform to style: FRATE ELEVATOR.

Tom Stites, Newburyport, Massachusetts

From: Robert Manewith (manewith earthlink.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--vardy

The Colonel died in 1955. His spelling, as they say in the obits, preceded him in death. Those “older folk” working when I joined the Trib’s broadcast facilities in 1957 said it was just too difficult for people to spell incorrectly.

Robert D. Manewith, Chicago, Illinois

From: Richard S. Russell (RichardSRussell tds.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--vardy

I’m a huge fan of using the shorter words. In particular, let’s ditch the “ugh”s. Of English’s 50 root words with the character string “ugh” in them, the only one in which all three letters are pronounced is “bughouse”. In all other cases, there are alternatives available that didn’t originate with some Visigoth clearing his throat. We’ve already begun purging the language of this relic from Old Germanic by adopting such comprehensible spellings as donut, thruway, slew (or sluff, depending on which meaning of “slough” you intended), hiccup, plow, loch, and draft, and the desire for efficiency in texting has sped up the acceptance of thot, enuf, tho, altho, thoro, dottir, and laff.
But why “ugh” in particular? Lucy Ricardo explains it all here: video (2 min.).

If for no other reason, let’s do it For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf! Ughlessness: the spelling of the future!

Richard S. Russell, Madison, Wisconsin

From: Charles O’Reilly (charliez0726 gmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--vardy

Regarding “thru”, which we see all the time on highway signs: During a road work project on the Lincoln Tunnel approach in New Jersey in 2012, a sign popped up reading THUR TRAFFIC KEEP LEFT. I thought, But what if it’s Wednesday or Friday?

Charlie O’Reilly, Rutherford, New Jersey

From: Pascal Pagnoux (pascal.pagnoux gmail.com)
Subject: Shorties

But other languages also shorten their spellings, sometimes in French even losing the etymology by merely using the first syllable of the English word, which makes it paradoxically incomprehensible to foreigners :o).

French: spot (for spotlight) or foot (for football) and more autonomous ones like ordi (ordinateur), récré (recreation), auto (automobile - car), impec (impeccable), manif (manifestation - demonstration), pub (publicité - advertisement), exam (examen - probe), dico (dictionnaire - dictionary), coloc (colocataire - roommate), resto (restaurant), resto U (university restaurant), cafèt (cafeteria), medoc (medicinal drug), etc.

Spanish: u (universidad - university), cole (for colegio - college), gili (for gilipollas - retard), abu (for abuelo - grand dad), arbi (for arbitro - referee), bici (for bicicleta - bicycle), boli (for boligrafo - pen), poli (for policia - cop), chuche (for chucheria - sweetie), cine (for cinema - movie theater), cumple (for cumpleaños - birthday), finde (for fin de semana - week-end), mili (for servicio militar - military service), peli (for pelicula - movie), pisci (for piscina - swimming pool), etc.

Besides, the XVIIIth-century Spanish orthographical reform suppressed all the letters that were not pronounced (orthographia became ortografia) and the ones that were doubled (collegio became colegio) except in the case of the “ll” pronounced “iy” like in llama (lama), llamar (to call) or orgulloso (proud) and the “rr” like in guerra (war), carro (cart) or hierro (iron).

I’ve also noticed that English and Chinese share a love for monosyllabism. Once I was taking a bath in a hotel in Beijing and I’d left the TV on in the bedroom with a movie on. Although it was in Mandarin, I started wondering if perhaps they’d shifted to English since the sounds coming to my ears were very similar: wow, yeah, when, sure, how, ye...

Pascal Pagnoux, Saint Gaudens, France

From: Tobias Baskin (baskin bio.umass.edu)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--vardy

For the past few years, I have been using tho and thru in all but the most formal writing. Seems time enough to shed those o/ughs. Lightning has yet to strike!

Tobias Baskin, Amherst, Massachusetts

From: Nigel Brown (nigel.brown57 ntlworld.com)
Subject: Vardy, for verdict

I live in East Anglia in England. Here it’s very common for the er sound to become the ah sound, so here can sound like hare and bird can sound like bard, we even have a village in Essex spelled Terling, but pronounced Tarling. I wonder if it’s a hangover from the invading Angles, or Saxons, or Normans... or the influx of Flemish weavers...?

Nigel Brown, Colchester, UK

From: Tom Koehler (tvkoehler lakeconnections.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--vardy

Once upon a time there was a drive to simplify spelling in the US. It may not have been a universal drive but still a significant one. I was a union gandy dancer and the name of the union ended with the word Employes. This was the result of simplifying by removing a redundant “e”. The result was so jarring to the eye (for me) that I always spelled it with the “ee” as I felt it should have. The union dated from the late 19th century and while the drive for spelling simplification ended, the spelling remained.

Tom Koehler, Two Harbors, Minnesota

From: Peter Kettle (peterkettle mac.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--vardy

I’d be fine with tho.

I remember when I was a kid -- I’m 80 by the way, so that was late 40s -- when I came across thru in some American comics. Yes, I’m a Brit, and American comics were much sought after in my generation. ‘Brot’ is a bit different because it isn’t how it sounds ‘over here’. So I’d probably go for brawt?

I suspect, with all the thumb typing that goes on today, many words could become respelled. Surely, if Mark Twain were around, he’d be advocating sensible spelling? I live in a town pronounced lewis; but it is spelt ‘Lewes’. Our nearest big town is Brighton, and that should be Bryton. London should be Lunden.

I’m all for a logical reform for many words, even though I’m classed as a very good wordsmith. I spell becoz ‘because’ simply becoz it is customary to do so; but becoz is how we all say it.

LOVE your emails and I will begin - a good word, spelled sensibly - paying a small prescripshun reel soon. I o yu.

Pete - (maybe that should be ‘Peat’?)

Peter Kettle, Lewes, UK

From: Joseph Galeota (jgaleota gmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--scrooch

I used to work with a 3rd-grade teacher who was fond of telling her charges to “scooch” over a bit to let someone pass through. All these years I thought she was just concocting a word. Not so, as it is a bona fide word, and seems to be related to your word scrooch.

Joseph Galeota, Boston, Massachusetts

From: Alice Lyon (alicelyon83 gmail.com)
Subject: words, of course....

Vardy Juberous and Scrooch

Sounds like a group of lawyers! I can hardly wait for the next two partners.

Alice Lyon, Billing, Montana

From: Daphne Harwood (daphwood gmail.com)
Subject: Modern-day variants

Wouldja listen to this?
I was with my bud, Tom and I go, Hey, howja liketa join me for lotsa fun?
And he is like, whatchoo thinking is fun?
So I go, wanna catch some videos at my place?
Et cetera.

I hate the use of “go” & “like” as verbs for say/said & feel/felt, think/thought, but it’s everywhere! And all the hafta, gonna, wanna, cantcha, didja, lotsa, sorta, kinda... there’s quite a long list and I bet I’ve just scratched the surface.

Years ago I heard this dialogue from Pennsylvania in the 1960s:
D’j’eat djet?
No, dj’ou?

Daphne Harwood, Vancouver, Canada

From: Alex Speers (ivykoc2011 gmail.com)
Subject: Meech

The term Meech in Canada immediately brings to mind a constitutional crisis.

But no one stormed Parliament!

Alex Speers, Wolfville, Canada

From: Jay Mead (jaymead yahoo.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--meech

Generations of English students have been puzzled by the oddest line in Hamlet, when in III.2 Ophelia asks “What means this, my lord?” and Hamlet answers, “Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief.” Miching: hiding; skulking; cowardly, from “Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary” (1913). And from James Joyce: “With Leo Dillon and a boy named Mahony I planned a day’s miching.” (Dubliners). Miching: meech? Now I see. I once wrote a short story and named the main character Mikey Malleko, but beyond that I never fully understood this wonderful word. Thanks, as always, Anu!

Jay Mead, Denver, Colorado

From: Mary Lavelle (mary.lavelle cbre.com)
Subject: On the meech/mitch

In school in Dublin when I was a kid (late 80s, early 90s) students would “go on the mitch” meaning they skipped school without permission. I never questioned why we used that phrase and at the time all it meant to me was skipping school. All these years later I see it was a real word.

You learn something new every day even if you are on the mitch from school.

Mary Lavelle, Letterkenn, Ireland

From: Alan Butler (alan.butler1940 hotmail.com)
Subject: snoot

To cock a snoot is what we say in England to mean disdain or ignore.

Alan Butler, Málaga, Spain

From: Dave Alden (davealden53 comcast.net)
Subject: snoot

In the early 1960s, the adults I knew used “snoot full” to mean drunk. It seemed to be the primary term, beating out tipsy, sloshed, wasted, plastered, and even drunk, most of which I didn’t learn for another decade.

Dave Alden, Petaluma, California

From: Amun-Re Runninghorse (amun-re gmx.us)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--snoot

A snoot is also a tubular item used in photography/film sets used to concentrate light.

Amun-Re Runninghorse, Lidingö, Sweden

From: William Pease (wpease sdsu.edu)
Subject: Spelling reform

Melvil (originally Melville) Dewey in 1886 founded the Spelling Reform Association and was a strong advocate thereof. The earliest editions of his famed classification system used innovative spellings. The classification system survives; his so-called reform languished (langweeshed?).

Bill Pease, San Diego, California

From: Elliott Berger (eberger compuserve.com)
Subject: making two words into one

I am an acoustician and have been for years trying to move our community from writing “ear canal” to writing “earcanal”. My logic follows. I would appreciate your comments or perhaps even an AWAD week on this topic, just like you are dealing with word shortening this week.

Ear canal -- Why retain this as two words instead of one, as in earcanal? This first came to my awareness in conversations with Dix Ward in the 1980s. He averred that a single-word form made more sense; I agreed. We use earache, eardrum, earhook, earlobe, earmold, earmuff, earphone, earpiece, earplug, and earring, as single words. It would indeed be odd to write “ear drum”, so why “ear canal”?

Many in the scientific community, current ANSI standards related to hearing protection, and the recently released 2018 versions of the hearing-protection related ISO standards, use the single-word version. Though it is not yet commonly spelled this way in some dictionaries, that may change in time since dictionaries come to reflect current thought. So, let the language evolve as it has for hundreds of years. Try it, you may like it.

Representative references using the single-word spelling (in date order):

Shaw (1966). “Earcanal pressure generated by circumaural and supraaural earphones,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
Macrae (1980). Earmould venting and the earcanal occlusion effect, Natl. Acoustic Laboratories. Oliveira (1997). The active earcanal. J. Am. Acad. Audiol. 8(6) 401-410.
Crocker (1998). Handbook of Acoustics.
Berger, Royster, Royster, Driscoll, and Layne (2000). The Noise Manual 5th Edition and 6th Edition (2020-21, in press).
Roeser, Valente, and Hosford-Dunn (2000). Audiology Diagnosis, 3 volume text.
Bluestone (2003). Pediatric Otolaryngology, Elsevier Health Sciences.
Byrne (2013). “Influence of earcanal occlusion and air-conduction on speech production in noise,” Univ of Pittsburgh, PhD thesis in the Dept. of Communication Science and Disorders.
ANSI standards related to HPDs - S12.6-2008, 12.68-2007, and 12.42-2010.
ISO standards related to HPDs - ISO 4869-1:2018 and 4869-2: 2018.

Elliott Berger, Indianapolis, Indiana

From: Alex McCrae (ajmccrae277 gmail.com)
Subject: snoot and scrooch

In this scenario, I’ve coupled two renowned characters, Pinocchio, and playwright Edmond Rostand’s swashbuckling nobleman/soldier, Cyrano de Bergerac. Cyrano deports himself with derring-do and panache, yet his giant schnozzola is an abiding slight to his otherwise robust ego. The marionette who aspires to become a flesh-and-blood boy, has a penchant for prevarication... the bigger the lie, the larger his nose does grow. Hmm... has Cyrano met his match?

Pardon my stretched pun caption, i.e., “Holmes Scrooches to ‘Concur’” (groan), my attempt to echo the more familiar phrase, “She stoops to conquer.” Here, Sherlock crouches down low to inspect a possible clue in his “Mystery of the Purloined Frog”. (One of Arthur Conan Doyle’s lesser known Holmes tomes.) I’ve shrunk down my Froggy, much to his chagrin, as he pleads innocence.

Alex McCrae, Van Nuys, California

Anagrams of This Week’s Words


Words with variant spellings: 1. vardy 2. juberous 3. scrooch 4. meech 5. snoot	=	1. jury/adviser’s word 2. stalling at chess 3. crouch 4. troop move, whine 5. snob	This week’s theme: Words with variant spellings 1. vardy 2. juberous 3. scrooch 4. meech 5. snoot	=	1. the judge’s verdict 2. er...is hesitant, shy 3. crouch, kowtow 4. prowls, misbehaves 5. normal nose?
-Dharam Khalsa, Burlington, North Carolina (dharamkk2 gmail.com)			-Julian Lofts, Auckland, New Zealand (jalofts xtra.co.nz)

Make your own anagrams and animations.

Limericks

I wait for informed, careful vardy,
From folks who are social and hardy;
The question it seems
Is the preference one deems
For Absolut, Jack, or Bacardi.
-Marcia Sinclair, Newmarket, Canada (marciasinclair rogers.com)

The French chef who applied his strong vardy,
Soon got rid of his waiter named Marty,
Who had one loathsome trait:
To arrive at work late,
His goal: to be fash’nably tardy.
-Judith Marks-White, Westport, Connecticut (joodthmw gmail.com)

I asked the good doctor his vardy
On how to stay healthy and hearty.
“A mask you should wear!”
He told me, “Take care --
Don’t go to a bar or a party!”
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

Oh boy, you sure think you’re a smarty
When you’re off and you’re partying hearty!
Well, let me just tell you,
From here I can SMELL you!
And “Guilty,” my dear, is my vardy!
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

Said Elwood P. Dowd, “You doubt Harvey?
You’re entitled, I guess, to your vardy.
He’s invisible, sure,
But so what? That’s demure,
Like the lady parts missing from Barbie.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

I’m retired, but drive, not yet Uber-ous,
And find cars during Covid less numerous.
But their drivers -- a bunch --
Seem to me “out to lunch”,
So I honk and shout, “Stop being juberous!”
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

“About marriage I’ve never been juberous,”
Said Brigham, “My wives are quite numerous.
In the Latter-day Saints,
We men have no complaints;
Merely jealous are killjoys who boo at us.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Sir Lawrence of Orinda, my cat,
Enjoys scrooching with me, and that’s that!
Not always friendly,
I know he loves me
So give him a caring habitat.
-Lois Mowat, Orinda, California (lmowat1810 gmail.com)

On Congress the vile mob descended.
Trump’s claims of a win were defended.
All the lawmakers knew,
As they scrooched out of view,
Democracy thus could be ended.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

I’ve adopted a sweet little pooch
but he’s timid. He always would scrooch
in a corner and hide.
I hope he’ll decide
soon to give me a sloppy wet smooch.
-Zelda Dvoretzky, Haifa, Israel (zeldahaifa gmail.com)

“Scootch over” is what we would say
(I think I still do to this day).
I won’t switch it to “scrooch”
‘Less I’ve had too much hooch
And can’t say what I want anyway!
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

The masher was tipsy on hooch.
He tried with the lady to smooch.
To make the man stop,
She said, “I’ll call a cop!”
And, she gave his poor scrotum a scrooch.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

Said the kitty one day to the pooch,
“With your kind, I was taught not to scrooch.
But that wall I will shatter,
For Doggie Lives Matter;
C’mere, and I’ll give you a smooch.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

The car came to a sudden loud screech.
A young woman, decked out for the beach,
Stepped out of her Beamer,
And fractured her femur,
While her boyfriend just stood by to meech.
-Judith Marks-White, Westport, Connecticut (joodthmw gmail.com)

“I’m really the winner,” Trump meeched.
“Go fight for my cause,” he beseeched.
But when people died,
“Don’t blame me,” he cried.
So now he has twice been impeached.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

Come midnight when the hunger pangs strike,
Quietly on their toes, Jack, Pete, and Mike --
the three brothers would meech,
And to the kitchen reach,
to get filled with what they loved alike.
-Shyamal Mukherji, Mumbai, India (mukherjis hotmail.com)

For the second time, he was impeached.
“But I said nothing wrong,” he beseeched.
With his act of sedition,
He had shown no contrition.
“The election’s a fraud!” he still meeched.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

As they didn’t want Nixon impeached,
The burglars at Watergate meeched.
But break-ins with guile
Are not today’s style;
“Storm Congress!” our President screeched.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Mia thinks she’s a bona fide cutie,
but in fact she is really no beauty.
With her nose in the air
I declare and I swear,
she personifies the word snooty!
-Mariana Warner, Asheville, North Carolina (marianaw6002 gmail.com)

Cries Pinocchio, “Look at this snoot!
It used to be little and cute.
‘Twas nought but a nib
till I started to fib.
In hindsight, I should have stayed mute!”
-Anne Thomas, Sedona, Arizona (antom earthlink.net)

The wayward deceptive old snoot
Looks lost in his over-sized suit.
With his hatchet-job hair
The vain billionaire
Stands there so proudly hirsute.
-Gayle Tremblay, Saint John, Canada (gayletremblay hotmail.com)

There was once such a gnarly old coot,
Who spent all of his days counting loot.
One night his cigar ash
Ignited his cash stash.
Thus his wife punched him hard in the snoot.
-Judith Marks-White, Westport, Connecticut (joodthmw gmail.com)

You’re wrong when you call me a snoot.
God knows how I’ve gained that repute!
I’m simply refined,
And I speak my mind --
In matters of taste I’m astute.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

Her profile now was a beaut;
She thought that she had a cute snoot.
So happy was she
With her rhinoplasty
That she said, “It was worth all the loot.”
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

Democracy now we’ll reboot,
And our atmosphere cease to pollute.
Do you want to know why?
Joe’s a regular guy,
Whereas Hillary seemed like a snoot.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

In her vardy he seemed like a snoot
Prone to meeching, just a galoot;
He began acting strange,
So she scrooched out of range,
But was juberous whether to scoot.
-Gordon Tully, Charlottesville, Virginia (gordon.tully gmail.com)

Puns

Uncle Bill looked hale and vardy for his age.
-Janice Power, Cleveland, Ohio (powerjanice782 gmail.com)

I can’t get Ozzy Osbourne’s song “O vardy Mountain” out of my mind!
-Jim Ertner, Greensboro, North Carolina (jde31459 gmail.com)

Said Columbus, “India must be around here somewhere. I’m sure we don’t have vardy go.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Driving people around for a living left Moishe feeling juberous.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

A miserly person is a scrooch.
-Jim Ertner, Greensboro, North Carolina (jde31459 gmail.com)

The ghosts couldn’t help but laugh at seeing Ebenezer scrooch in the corner.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

As for our differences of opinion, all I can say is, “To meech his own.”
-Jim Ertner, Greensboro, North Carolina (jde31459 gmail.com)

Said the second Mrs. Gingrich when she caught her husband cheating, “Time for another divorce snoot.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

From: Alex McCrae (ajmccrae277 gmail.com)
Subject: Dump Trump / Kick Startin’ the Economy

Better late than never. On the heels of the Trump-ignited siege of Congress by his riotous rabble on Jan 6, within days Facebook had indefinitely blocked him from their platform. Twitter soon followed suit, but with more rigor, in issuing the now-former Twitterer-in-Chief a permanent ban. In this scenario, Trump is the target of the Twitter “dump”, in more ways than one... both literally and figuratively.

One of president-elect Biden’s several stellar Cabinet picks, thus far, is former Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen, for Secretary of the Treasury. I thought Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury, Mnuchin, on his way out, deserves an emphatic assist from the incoming Yellen. You go girl!

Alex McCrae, Van Nuys, California

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion. -Lord Acton (John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton), historian (10 Jan 1834-1902)

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