Linguist, teach at @BerkeleyIschool, Language Guy on @nprfreshair, contributor to @LanguageLog, Books: Ascent of the A-Word, Talking Right, Going Nucular [sic]
I tried to use as many pretentious big words as I could in this article: "Regardless Of What You Think, 'Irregardless' Is A Word" https://t.co/g124zFWGAZ
Quoted in today’s NYT: “Trump’s single-handed effort to revive the slogan ‘law and order’ is the key to creating the perception of a new crisis of crime and violence.” https://t.co/2wk6a6cS9P
In retrospect, therere are stilll lots of front-runners for words of the century, but if we're going to get there marching under a single banner, it will bear the device, "Put that fucking thing down, will you?"
The epicurean’s guide to Italian velar orthography;
Cs & gs ,soft as Sardinian bonassai,
When they precede an e or i,
But hard as frozen pizza dough,
Before an h, a, u or o.
"Fiasco" has been a popular label to describe the seemingly never-ending drama surrounding the Iowa caucuses. For @WSJ, I look at the word's mysterious origins in Italian theatrical slang. https://t.co/qcjrCxSCwk
"The term "dezinformatsiya" was reputedly coined by no less than Josef Stalin in the 1920s as the name of the section of the KGB tasked with deceiving enemies and influencing public opinion." #Disinformation ☎️ #WordOfTheYear 💬 @GeoffNunberg
https://t.co/2WbEpd2Uan
In the impeachment trial, John Roberts pulled out the old word "pettifogging" (a back-formation of "pettifogger"). https://t.co/fbCCGbzr0U I wrote about the history of "pettifoggery" in a @WSJ column in 2018, when it popped up in the Mueller probe. https://t.co/JKXDYChw4e
@jessesheidlower @fivetonsflax True enough. I think we should make a special effort to preserve and promote our double dactyls, though, from ‘monomaniacal’ to ‘plenipotentiary’.