January

[Verbivore]

The Macquarie Dictionary has begun its quest for Word of the Decade.

Here is its given shortlist.

I voted for infovore, as it describes my lifelong curiosity about things. (At age four I disassembled a valve radio, put it back together – tab A into slot B kinda thing – out of curiosity. I’ve been doing similar things all my life.)

[Little Jack Horner]

Which decade? This decade, last decade or any old decade? My last decade of 2011—2020 would rule out covid-related expressions which ought to be candidates for 2021—2030 but, in any case, such expressions have only been around for little more than a year and hardly count as words of the decade whatever the decade’s date limits. We can hope they will be obsolescent within the next twelve months and can be excluded.

Several candidates seem to be Aussie and I have never heard them used in the UK. I think words of the decade should be more international. I have seen burkini in newspapers but have never heard it uttered (and my spell-checker doesn’t know about it either).

My candidates would be: fracking, single use and fake news all of which, unfortunately, seem likely still to be around at the end of the present decade in 2030.

[Verbivore]

Jan 27, 2021 0:33:18 GMT Little Jack Horner said:

Which decade? This decade, last decade or any old decade?  [...]

The Macquarie Dictionary is one of two AU standard references and was born out of Macquarie University's work, so is particularly Aussie oriented. It favours the Cambridge ~ise / ~isation style.

The other is the Australian Oxford, coproduced by the Australian National Dictionary Centre, the Australian National University, and Oxford Dictionaries. It favours the Oxford ~ize / ~ization style.

As to the particular decade – from the site: The shortlist is the collection of words which were selected in each of the years from 2011 to 2020 – both the Committee’s Choice and the People’s Choice.

[Verbivore]

I love the title and caption to this illustration.

[Dave Miller]

Jan 27, 2021 5:17:08 GMT Verbivore said:

I love the title and caption to this illustration.


View Attachment

Yes - I love the fake elegance of the caption, and its failure in logic. The reference to others (“those who were present” - an apostrophe, yea!) makes it seem as though no-one should argue against the claim that the representation is a good one ... when actually the paper is making the claim that others would agree with the paper’s claim.

I found the article (in the Perth Mirror) and that, too, is of noteworthy style: more cheap novel than newspaper report!

[Verbivore]

Jan 27, 2021 8:09:19 GMT Dave Miller said:

I found the article (in the Perth Mirror) and that, too, is of noteworthy style: more cheap novel than newspaper report!

Indeed, Dave. Have you ever known a newspaper called The Mirror that wasn't cheap sensationalism? Seems to go with that name, along with Truth.

[Verbivore]

Most unfortunate branding / naming – the CONN Artist

The brand CONN is well known on the American organ (and other instruments) scene.

Unfortunately, they chose a name for this model without checking the possibilities.

[Verbivore]

Doublethink in names

We all know that War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.

Now we're told that Green(e) is White, according to this article from Reuters.

Greene accused Bush of “lying” about the matter and on Twitter called Bush, who is Black, “the leader of the St. Louis Black Lives Matter terrorist mob”. Greene is White.

In AU we have a former politician, founder and former leader of the Greens party, called Bob Brown (who is also gay and a leftie, therefore doubly "pink").

A former partner of mine is an Indigenous Aussie (hence Black) whose surname is White.

[Verbivore]

Australia's "Aunty" ABC is frequently the victim of budget cuts, particularly from right-wing governments. (Aunty is perceived by the right as a bunch of lefties, but tends really to be equally critical of governments regardless of which party holds power.)

Here is a bumper sticker I found recently on a classic Benz (a W123 series for those who give a toss). The sticker appears to have been issued by AU satirical news organ The Shovel.

Warning: Contains language that could be considered by some to be offensive.



PS: I chose to ignore the due to solecism.

[Verbivore]

A week or so ago I posted that I’d been invited to apply for the job of Supervising Editor for the newly digitised Australian Government Style Manual – and that I’d chosen not to apply.

Despite my determination to get used to retirement, I’ve now been asked by my former employer (newspaper) to take on the role of (partial) cruciverbalist.

The paper’s crossword-maker of many years (and its political commentator, one of AU’s most respected veterans of the federal Parliament House reporting team, Mungo MacCallum) recently died. Although he left about four years’ worth of crosswords to see the paper through, he offered only cryptic clues, though the paper’s crossword has always been a “two-speed” affair, with both simple and cryptic clues, common answers, and a common grid.

I’ve been asked to supply the “simple” clues for all those 200+ crosswords.

Oh well, why not? I should be able to whip up 200 sets within a month or two of easy cogitation.

Let's see …

12 across: Expression to describe someone who won't settle down to retirement (4,1,4). Answer: whatafool.

[Dave Miller]

Ooh, yes, I can see the interest in that job, Vv: limited, not rushed, and still keeping an involvement with the careful expression of words. Enjoy it!