mastress
n. a lady form of “master” that I made up, although I guess Chaucer used it first; some editors on my college newspaper staff used the honorific Bitch Mastress
Sam: that’s not a very carolinear haircut
me: It would be if I were a petite Swedish dance-pop mastress
me: I don’t like “mistress,” it’s too loaded and wimpy sounding
Sam: mastress sounds too much like mattress in my head
me: I am not a mattress.
Sam: is this submission or sleeping.
Sam: always worrisome when power dynamics and sleeping become conflated
The Grammar of Social Media
blueglass.comAs technology evolves and words become more commonplace, debates emerge about their actual spelling. Blog author Kerry Jones attempts to do something about that:
New words entering common use but not yet part of mainstream language are called neologisms (impress your next dinner party with that one). It can take years before standards are set for a new word, and even then those rules and suggestions may continue changing. For example, within the last year the Associated Press Stylebook made two notable changes to online terms: e-mail is finally email, and Web site is now website (although the former is still acceptable).
With the addition of “OMG” to the dictionary, it is hard to imagine what the dictionary of the future will look like.
firecrotchovaryexploder asked:
Is there a ze/hir equivalent for “sir” or “madame” like, a formal pronoun? Does that even make sense D:
It makes sense! And um. Not that I know of? I could be wrong though. Anyone got any ideas?
I dunno any existing ones either. But we could construct one! “Madame” comes from “ma dame”, meaning “my lady”; perhaps we could take “my liege” (which I have seen used gender-neutrally in fantasy, but whose real-life usage I am ignorant of) and apply some transformations. Into French it becomes “mon liege”; slurred it could return to English as “molige”, or with a shift of stress and nativization of consonants, “mollidge”.
Or we could build according to the history of “sir”. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, “sir” comes from Old French/English “sire”, which in turn comes from Latin “senior” meaning “elder”. Hypothetically that makes it gender-neutral in origin, but history has gendered it. The University of Notre Dame’s English-Latin dictionary provides no Latin synonyms for “elder”, but the Nostradamus Dictionary (whose accuracy I cannot verify) provides two which are claimed to be Old French: “aisnez” and “vieux”. They do appear to be actual French, but I don’t know if they’re Old French.
Anyway, since “sir” appears at a glance to be a destressed version of “sire”, a similar process could be done to either word. I have no idea how “aisnez” was pronounced though — maybe it would destress to “en” or “ez”? “Vieux” might turn to “vu” or “ju”? Any scholars of Old (or even Modern) French?
CNN airs "Frothy Santorum" sign in Arizona debate.
ireport.cnn.comCheck it out about 15 seconds in to the video.
So Frothy.
neologists gather:
ToskaRussian – Vladmir Nabokov describes it best: “No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.”
I Have Decided to Make a New Swear
Or rather, change an old word into a swear. What word you say? Well, I’m thinking communism and communist.
Why? Because I can!
Imagine it, instead of saying ‘shit’, ‘retarded’, etc., you’ll say ‘communist’ or ‘communism’. Here are some examples:
“Man, that driver is such a communist! He just cut me off!”
“Communism! The vending machine just ate my dollar!”
What do you all think?
Prayin' For Daylight
Rascal FlattsSONG OF THE DAY #16: Prayin’ for Daylight by Rascal Flatts (Rascal Flatts, 2000)
This reminds me of: High school. M & C. Rurality.
Favorite line: “Deep in my heart I know that you love me as much as I love you/and that you must be lying somewhere looking up to heaven too.”
Why: Ignoring the fact that the singer was a self-admitted douche, this line makes me think about soul mates, and even more than that, how in tune your thoughts and actions can be with people who you’re close with. It doesn’t even have to be someone you’re romantically involved with, just someone who “gets you.” I love that.
