Bissextcurious?

Fill yer boots, this (and almost every) February 29th.

To whomever's in charge of the Sony Xperia dictionary

When I laboriously thumbed out 'counter-offer', that really was what I'd intended. Not 'Counter-Reformation'.

Almost impressive, though...

Thank fuck for Lydia Davis

If I went to an academic conference on literary theory, I would have been bored out of my mind! But a town meeting about potholes, that interests me.

- Lydia Davis, in conversation with Ane Farsethas

(Can't say I agree with her about the dictionaries, though. I like me a good dictionary.)

Books I've actually finished lately: 78

It seems somehow entirely fitting in the circs that I was sold (via Amazon) a publisher's advance copy* which, contrary to its back-cover braggadocio, does not in fact include (all the) 'Rare and striking portraits of each writer' or 'A thorough index for the reader's convenience.'**

It does however, come tricked out with 'Numbered pages'.

--
* Or was I?
** Which is a shame as I suspect this might have been a doozy.

Favourite footnotes: 8

(A good dictionary and usage dictionary are strongly recommended. You're insane if you don't own these already.)

- David Foster Wallace, teaching materials (English 183D, Pomona College, 2008), in The David Foster Wallace Reader

I am indebted to Google Translate

for the information - happened upon mid-translation of a 'German' poem - that the adjective 'englisch' means, among other things, 'angelic' (obv.) and 'medium-rare' (less obv.), and the proper noun 'die Engländer' can be 'monkey wrench'.

(Ironical) Word of the Day

from Dictionary.com:

nosophobia, n. Medical students’ disease, meaning “fear of disease”.

Only in English (literally) - GUEST ENTRY

"You know what happened last month, without anybody noticing? Webster's Dictionary expanded the definition of the word 'literally' to include the way it's commonly misused. So the thing is, we now no longer have a word in the English language that means 'literally'. 'Literally' doesn't have a synonym. So we're going to have the find a Latin word for it, and use it. But see, I don't know any Latin. So when I say that I am 'literally going to set fire to this building with you in it, before I hand over the keys to it', you don't know if I'm speaking figuratively or literally."

- The Newsroom

Exit, fucked by a bear

and other sweary animal-kingdom revelations, from Rufus Lodge, in Slate.

Although a bit gutted

that, thanks to an old schoolfriend's click-baity Facebook activities, I was compelled to go and look up the word 'emacity', I confess I did feel somewhat better when I read '3 matching dictionaries'...

[problem caused by Nathalie Gwilliam]

Circular vocabulary

TO:  Gen. Abizaid
CC:  Gen. Myers
FROM:  Donald Rumsfeld [and initialled] 

Attached are the definitions of "guerilla warfare", "insurgency" and "unconventional warfare". They come from the Pentagon dictionary. 

Thanks.

[via Errol Morris, The Unknown Known]

Books I've actually finished lately: 14

Ruth put a comforting hand on Albert's. He smiled, but he subtly pulled his hand away. Not because he didn't appreciate Ruth's attempt, but rather because he knew how many local rectums her fingers had been inside. Is it rectums or recta? he wondered. What's the plural? Perhaps tomorrow he would ride over to the next town and see if they had a dictionary. He would look up the plural of rectum. That would be a fun day.

- Seth MacFarlane, A Million Ways to Die in the West

Notes on a Tuesday (splendid etymology)

Dienstag - From Middle Low German dingesdach, the day of the ding (“the thing, a council assembly”).

- Wiktionary.org

['S like something out of The Thick of It. 'Can you make it to my expenses-wangling party on Tuesday, Tony?' 'No, sorry - I've got that thing, haven't I.']

Fair dos

Thou shalt spell the word 'phoenix' P_H_E_O_N_I_X, not P_H_O_E_N_I_X, regardless of what the Oxford English Dictionary tells you.

- Scroobius Pip, 'Thou Shalt Kill'

Squaddie banter UPDATE

The best thing about the Urban Dictionary's entry (so to speak) for 'squaddy mattress' is that the examples are so clearly verbatim.

(Discuss.)