Saturday, May 24, 2014
Language update for May
Professor Polistra brings a very small bucket of linguistic poop. She's not happy about this, but new arrivals are so sparse and unpredictable that it's probably a good time to empty this one before it gets obsolete.
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Sorta speak:
From an NPR interview with a wise old Detroit dude: "Yeah, I was selling and using. I was my own best customer, sorta speak."
Makes sense as a migration of regularity. So to has no life outside this one phrase, but sorta [verb] is a common combination.
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Thermal power plants (retronym)
In a pro-genocide editorial by Bloomberg: "A large percentage of water usage currently goes to THERMAL power plants." The word THERMAL was spoken in the same vile contemptuous tone a newscaster would normally reserve for Christians or heterosexuals.
Reliable power plants are always THERMAL. Coal, nat gas, nuclear. Nothing else really counts as a power plant. By retronyming THERMAL, the genocidists are stating officially that unreliable power sources are the default now.
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Toothcomb:
On BBC. "An American auditing company has been going through the accounts of the Vatican Bank with a toothcomb."
Clearly the announcer thinks of a toothcomb as being something like a toothbrush. Both would seem equally exotic to a Brit, so this is understandable.
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Oprah's Chai Tea:
Seen in grocery store.
Nothing like a cup of hot Chai Tea after a Cow Beefsteak, or a Pig Porkchop, or an Omelette à l'oeuf, or (my own preferred favorite preference) Frijole beans and Arroz rice!
I suppose these duplicative phrases might be plausible retronyms. If you lived in a hippie area where just plain tea had come to mean an infusion of rose hips, you might want to specify an infusion of
Camellia Sinensis as chai tea.
Professor Polistra brings a very small bucket of linguistic poop. She's not happy about this, but new arrivals are so sparse and unpredictable that it's probably a good time to empty this one before it gets obsolete.
= = = = =
Sorta speak:
From an NPR interview with a wise old Detroit dude: "Yeah, I was selling and using. I was my own best customer, sorta speak."
Makes sense as a migration of regularity. So to has no life outside this one phrase, but sorta [verb] is a common combination.
= = = = =
Thermal power plants (retronym)
In a pro-genocide editorial by Bloomberg: "A large percentage of water usage currently goes to THERMAL power plants." The word THERMAL was spoken in the same vile contemptuous tone a newscaster would normally reserve for Christians or heterosexuals.
Reliable power plants are always THERMAL. Coal, nat gas, nuclear. Nothing else really counts as a power plant. By retronyming THERMAL, the genocidists are stating officially that unreliable power sources are the default now.
= = = = =
Toothcomb:
On BBC. "An American auditing company has been going through the accounts of the Vatican Bank with a toothcomb."
Clearly the announcer thinks of a toothcomb as being something like a toothbrush. Both would seem equally exotic to a Brit, so this is understandable.
= = = = =
Oprah's Chai Tea:
Seen in grocery store.
Nothing like a cup of hot Chai Tea after a Cow Beefsteak, or a Pig Porkchop, or an Omelette à l'oeuf, or (my own preferred favorite preference) Frijole beans and Arroz rice!
I suppose these duplicative phrases might be plausible retronyms. If you lived in a hippie area where just plain tea had come to mean an infusion of rose hips, you might want to specify an infusion of
Camellia Sinensis as chai tea.
Labels: Language update
¶ 4:27 PM
