Language Samples #21-25

I found these over the weekend on my road trip with my friend Rachel.

#21 - "Baby got back" Rachel thought I should post this one. This song came on the radio as we were driving. Trying to think of the various ways people describe this kept us entertained for a while. It is just a weird saying I think. Of course it refers to a woman's bottom. It does flow well, and is kind of an alliteration with two words that begin with "b". Interesting also how the woman is referred to as "baby" which can be a term of endearment or a degrading word dependent on how it is used.

#22 - "Who'd a thunk it?" This is a quote from Rachel, though I've heard other people say it before. Obviously it is not grammatically correct, but it is one of those things where you understand what is being asked even if it is not asked correctly. Our brains understand English enough that when the syntax is not correct (and in this case and made up word is used) we can still bring it to make sense. It seems like that is when someone really has a grasp of a language, when they can read or hear something like this and put it together to make sense. This phrase seems to be used for the same situations as other sayings like "Who would have guessed?" or "Who would have thought?"

#23 & 24 - "Think outside the bun." I saw this on a billboard for Taco Bell. It is a play on "Think outside the box." In this case, most fast food restaurants are burger places. Think outside the bun is telling us to not stick with what is normal or common, but go for something different, be creative or adventurous in what you eat, don't just get the same old thing. In the same way think outside the box is a term we use to encourage creativity. Don't just do the same things that have always be done, don't be satisfied with the status quo. Be creative, take risks, stretch your mind (oh that could be another one).

#25 - "I've got him tied around my wrist." Rachel said this on our trip. I have never heard this before. She used it in a way most people would use "wrapped around my finger" which I believe I used as one of my earlier language samples. It means that he will go wherever she goes or do whatever she wants him to do, just like something that was tied to her wrist (or wrapped around her finger) would have to go wherever her wrist goes or do whatever her wrist does. She's got the control and he is at her mercy.

Beth Ohlsson - etimology 15-22

15. tall tale
A fanciful or greatly exaggerated story, as in Some youngsters love tall tales about creatures from outer space coming to earth. This idiom uses tall in the sense of "exaggerated." [Mid-1800s]

tall

"high in stature," 1530, probably ult. from O.E. getæl "prompt, active." Sense evolved to "brave, valiant, seemly, proper" (c.1400), then to "attractive, handsome" (c.1450), and finally "being of more than average height."

16. emcee
1933, abbrev. of master of ceremonies.
Master of Ceremonies Origin: 1655–65

a person who directs the entertainment at a party, dinner, nightclub, radio or television broadcast, or the like, acting as host and introducing the speakers or performers.

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17. combinatorial - per David Novak. An approach to a storytelling program in which the teller intuituively knows the right story to tell this audience for the right reason. A teller draws on a body of work, reads the audience, considers the parameters within which s/he has been contracted, and choses the program, linking each story to the previous one. The program is shaped by the relationship the teller creates w/the audience and is adjusted as deemed necessary and appropriate. The term comes from mathematics; origins cited below. What follows certainly sounds like the way David's brain works.

combinatorics or combinatorial analysis, sometimes called the science of counting, the branch of mathematics concerned with the selection, arrangement, and operation of elements within sets. Combinatorial theory deals with existence (does a particular arrangement exist?), enumeration (how many such arrangements are there?) and structure (what are the properties of each arrangement?). It has applications in such diverse areas as managing computer and telecommunication networks, predicting poker hands, dividing tasks among workers, and finding a pair of socks in a drawer. Because combinatorics deals with concrete problems by limiting itself to finite collections of discrete objects, as opposed to the more common, continuous mathematics, it has neither standard algebraic manipulations nor a systematic problem-solving framework. Instead it relies upon the logical analysis of possibilities for each new problem, breaking the problem into a series of steps and substeps. Combinatorics has its roots in the 17th- and 18th-century attempts to analyze the odds of winning at games of chance. The advent of computers in the 20th cent. made possible the high-speed calculation required to analyze the multitude of possibilities inherent in a combinatorial approach to large-scale statistical testing and analysis. Branches of combinatorics include graph theory and combinations and permutations.

See A. Slomson, An Introduction to Combinatorics (1991); A. Tucker, Applied Combinatorics (3d ed. 1994); R. A. Brualdi, Introductory Combinatorics (3d ed. 1997); M. Hall, Combinatorial Theory (2d ed. 1998); R. P. Stanley, Enumerative Combinatorics (1999).

18. Celtic: My heritage, and the first folktales I learned to tell. My mother is of British descent, my father Scots-Irish.
noun

1.	a branch of the Indo-European family of languages, including esp. Irish, Scots Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton, which survive now in Ireland, the Scottish Highlands, Wales, and Brittany. Abbreviation: Celt

–adjective

2.	of the Celts or their languages.

1607, from L. Celta, singular of Celtæ, from Gk. Keltoi, Herodotus' word for the Gauls (who were also called Galatai). Used by the Romans of continental Gauls but apparently not of the British Celtic tribes. Celtic twilight is from Yeats's name for his collection of adapted Irish folk tales (1893).
19. fable–noun

1.	a short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects as characters; apologue: the fable of the tortoise and the hare; Aesop's fables.

2.	a story not founded on fact: This biography is largely a self-laudatory fable.

3.	a story about supernatural or extraordinary persons or incidents; legend: the fables of gods and heroes.

4.	legends or myths collectively: the heroes of Greek fable.

5.	an untruth; falsehood: This boast of a cure is a medical fable.

6.	the plot of an epic, a dramatic poem, or a play.

7.	idle talk: old wives' fables. Origin: 1250–1300; ME fable, fabel, fabul < class="ital-inline">fābula a story, tale, equiv. to fā(rī) to speak + -bula suffix of instrument

20. visualize: verb form of visual. 1412, "coming from the eye or sight" (as a beam of light), from L.L. visualis "of sight," from L. visus "sight," from visus, pp. of videre "to see" (see vision). Meaning "relating to vision" is first attested 1603. The noun meaning "photographic film or other visual display" is first recorded 1951. Visualize (1817) is first attested in, and perhaps was coined by, Coleridge.

21. imagination. noun

1.	the faculty of imagining, or of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses.

2.	the action or process of forming such images or concepts.

3.	the faculty of producing ideal creations consistent with reality, as in literature, as distinct from the power of creating illustrative or decorative imagery. Compare fancy (def. 2).

4.	the product of imagining; a conception or mental creation, often a baseless or fanciful one.

5.	ability to face and resolve difficulties; resourcefulness: a job that requires imagination.

6.	Psychology. the power of reproducing images stored in the memory under the suggestion of associated images (reproductive imagination) or of recombining former experiences in the creation of new images directed at a specific goal or aiding in the solution of problems (creative imagination).

7.	(in Kantian epistemology) synthesis of data from the sensory manifold into objects by means of the categories.

8.	Archaic. a plan, scheme, or plot.

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Origin:
1300–50; ME < class="ital-inline">imāginātiōn- (s. of imāginātiō) fancy, equiv. to imāgināt(us) ptp. of imāginārī to imagine (imāgin-, s. of imāgō image + -ātus -ate ¹ ) + -iōn- -ion

22. Muse: c.1374, protectors of the arts, from L. Musa, from Gk. Mousa, lit. "muse, music, song," from PIE root *mon-/*men-/*mn- "to think, remember" (see mind (n.)). The names of the nine Muses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (q.v.), and their specialties are traditionally: Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (love poetry, lyric art), Euterpe (music, especially flute), Melpomene (tragedy), Polymnia (hymns), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy), Urania (astronomy).

Ilene Evans Neologisms 19-25
Linguistics

19. In-a-gadda-da-meeting -
Any meeting that could have been completed in half the time it actually took. I have been in so many mmetings that come under this catagory - nice to have a name for it.

20. Anecdotal dotage; that advanced age where all one does is relate stories about "the good old days." This is an example of a self-coined word (see above). The Oxford English Dictionary not only lists this word (and defines it as "garrulous old age"), but it has a citation that dates all the way back to 1835!

21. Chips and Salsa
Chips = hardware, salsa = software. "Well, first we gotta figure out if the problem's in your chips or your salsa."

22. Irritainment:
Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying, but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. e.g. Professional wrestling.
Percussive Maintenance:
The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

23. Queue - Ology – I could not find the word anywhere, but when I Iooked at all the things that were listed with and related to queueing, I thought that it should be a word. Here are some:
Queue (computing)
Queue (computing)Queue (computing)Queue (computing)Queue (data structure)Queue (disambiguation)Queue (disambiguation)Queue (disambiguation)Queue (disambiguation)Queue (hairstyle)Queue (Manchu hairstyle)Queue (mathematics)Queue (printing)Queue (printing)Queue (printing)Queue Adjustment PolicyQueue and AccumulatorQueue and Channel-Based Power Control
Queue and Rate Adjustment PolicyQueue Application Program InterfaceQueue ArbitratedQueue areaQueue areaQueue areasQueue Base Address RegisterQueue Control BlockQueue ControllerQueue Current ProcessQueue delayQueue Drain Limit FactorQueue Element Transfer DescriptorQueue eXecutive InterfaceQueue for MySQLQueue Full

25. Blamestorming –
Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

Ilene Evans Neologisms 11-17
Linguistics



1. Netflix –the name of a company featuring the kind of movies you can get over the internet that is convenient and economical. The word is a combination of two abbreviations and then a change for phonetic word play. “net” is short for Internet, flix is slang for films and the plural is made by changing the s t z and so it sounds the same as fliks to shorten the word further.
2. Bebonk (n.) Mary Streets, my neighbor, friend and first grade teacher has a way of coming up with new names for things inspired by the need for euphemisms around the children she teaches. They are making up words too. A bebonk is a silly person, a person acting in a silly manner. “Ya bebonk!“ as if to say, “You goofball!”
3. Schooch (v.) to both slide, and scoot across the floor at the same time – That is something I made up while teaching creative movement. I did not realize it was a made-up word until someone I was teaching with pointed it out to me.
4. Dope - adjective - - Definition of dope: very good, excellent; COOL. 1807, Amer.Eng., "sauce, gravy," from Du. doop "thick dipping sauce." Extension to "drug" is 1889, from practice of smoking semi-liquid opium preparation. Meaning "foolish, stupid person" is older (1851) and may have a sense of "thick-headed." Sense of "inside information" (1901) may come from knowing before the race which horse had been drugged to influence performance. Dope-fiend is attested from 1896.
5. Log In/Log On - The process of identifying oneself to a computer, usually by entering one's username and password.
6. Username - A sequence of characters, different from a password, that is used as identification and is required when logging on to a multiuser computer system, LAN, bulletin board system, or online service. Also called user ID.
7. Clubbing - the repair man/electrician used this word in our conversation. It refers to the nighttime activity of going to one club or bar after another and keeping a party going with a group of people.
8. Afghanisation” - The BBC’s Elettra Neysmith says “Afghanisation” is a popular concept at the moment within NATO. She says it has been cynically described as a “get out of jail free” card for Western countries mired in the deepening Taliban insurgency.

Ilene Evans Language Journal
Etymological Discoveries 6-12

6. Class
1602, from Fr. classe, from L. classis, one of the six orders into which Servius Tullius divided the Roman people for the purposes of taxation, traditionally originally "the people of Rome under arms," and thus akin to calare "to call (to arms)" (see calendar). School and university sense (1656) is from the notion of a form or lecture reserved to a certain level of scholars. Natural history sense is from 1753. Meaning "a division of society according to status" is from 1772. The verb is first recorded 1705. Classy is from 1891. Class-consciousness (1903) is from Ger. klassenbewusst.

How has the word become associated with the state of status for people? Taxes? Hum. Class is such a big part of stories and theater. It is easily overlooked by our “wanna –be” democratic self image. It is such a big part of staus and self image.

7. Black
O.E. blæc "black," from P.Gmc. *blak- (cf. O.N. blakkr "dark," Du. blaken "to burn"), from PIE *bhleg- "burn, gleam" (cf. Gk. phlegein "to burn, scorch," L. flagrare "to blaze, glow, burn"). Same root produced O.E. blac "white, bright" (see bleach), the common notion being "lack of hue." The main O.E. word for "black" was sweart. "In ME. it is often doubtful whether blac, blak, blake, means 'black, dark,' or 'pale, colourless, wan, livid.'
" Adjective used of dark-skinned people in O.E. The noun in this sense is first attested 1625 (blackamoor is from 1547; see moor). Of coffee, first attested 1796. Sense of "dark purposes, malignant" emerged 1583 (e.g. black art, 1590).Black list "list of persons who have incurred suspicion" is from 1692. Black market first attested 1931. Black eye in figurative sense of "bad reputation" is from 1880s. Blackberry was in O.E.; blackbird is from 1486. Black friar "Dominican" is first recorded 1500, so called from the color of their dress. black widow spider (1915) so called from the female's supposed habit of eating the male after mating (they are cannibalistic, but this particular behavior is rare in the wild). Black panther is from 1965, the movement an outgrowth of Student Nonviolent Co-ordinating Committee. Black comedy first recorded 1963 (cf. Fr. pièce noire). To be in the black (1928) is from the accounting practice of recording credits and balances in black ink. Black Hills of S. Dakota (transl. Lakhota pahá-sapa) supposedly so called because their densely forested flanks look dark from a distance. For Black Sea, see Euxine.

We have a black waterfalls where I live, the water is dark because of the tannin released by the trees living on the river. The falls are stained with black and dark brown streaks.

8. Hysterical -
1615, from L. hystericus "of the womb," from Gk. hysterikos "of the womb, suffering in the womb," from hystera "womb" (see uterus). Originally defined as a neurotic condition peculiar to women and thought to be caused by a dysfunction of the uterus. Hysterics is 1727; hysteria, abstract noun from hysteric, first recorded 1801 as a medical term.
Hysteria is so often ascribed to women, I wonder how the word got started. That hysteria was actually thought to be peculiar to women’s physiology suprized me.

9. Ghost
O.E. gast "soul, spirit, life, breath," from P.Gmc. *ghoizdoz (cf. O.S. gest, O.Fris. jest, M.Du. gheest, Ger. Geist "spirit, ghost"), from PIE base *ghois- "to be excited, frightened" (cf. Skt. hedah "wrath;" Avestan zaesha- "horrible, frightful;" Goth. usgaisjan, O.E. gæstan "to frighten"). This was the usual W.Gmc. word for "supernatural being," and the primary sense seems to have been connected to the idea of "to wound, tear, pull to pieces." The surviving O.E. senses, however, are in Christian writing, where it is used to render L. spiritus, a sense preserved in Holy Ghost. Modern sense of "disembodied spirit of a dead person" is attested from c.1385 and returns the word toward its ancient sense. Most IE words for "soul, spirit" also double with ref. to supernatural spirits. Many have a base sense of "appearance" (e.g. Gk. phantasma; Fr. spectre; Pol. widmo, from O.C.S. videti "to see;" O.E. scin, O.H.G. giskin, originally "appearance, apparition," related to O.E. scinan, O.H.G. skinan "to shine"). Other concepts are in Fr. revenant, lit. "returning" (from the other world), O.N. aptr-ganga, lit. "back-comer." Bret. bugelnoz is lit. "night-child." L. manes, lit. "the good ones," is a euphemism. The gh- spelling appeared c.1425 in Caxton, influenced by Flem. and M.Du. gheest, but was rare in Eng. before c.1550. Sense of "slight suggestion" (in ghost image, ghost of a chance, etc.) is first recorded 1613; that in ghost writing is from 1884, but that term is not found until 1927. Ghost town is from 1931. Ghost in the machine was Gilbert Ryle's term (1949) for "the mind viewed as separate from the body."


10. Spirit (n.)
c.1250, "animating or vital principle in man and animals," from O.Fr. espirit, from L. spiritus "soul, courage, vigor, breath," related to spirare "to breathe," from PIE *(s)peis- "to blow" (cf. O.C.S. pisto "to play on the flute"). Original usage in Eng. mainly from passages in Vulgate, where the L. word translates Gk. pneuma and Heb. ruah. Distinction between "soul" and "spirit" (as "seat of emotions") became current in Christian terminology (e.g. Gk. psykhe vs. pneuma, L. anima vs. spiritus) but "is without significance for earlier periods" [Buck]. L. spiritus, usually in classical L. "breath," replaces animus in the sense "spirit" in the imperial period and appears in Christian writings as the usual equivalent of Gk. pneuma. Meaning "supernatural being" is attested from c.1300 (see ghost); that of "essential principle of something" (in a non-theological sense, e.g. Spirit of St. Louis) is attested from 1690, common after 1800. Plural form spirits "volatile substance" is an alchemical idea, first attested 1610; sense narrowed to "strong alcoholic liquor" by 1678. This also is the sense in spirit level (1768).

11. Inspiration
c.1303, "immediate influence of God or a god," especially that under which the holy books were written, from O.Fr. inspiration, from L.L. inspirationem (nom. inspiratio), from L. inspiratus, pp. of inspirare "inspire, inflame, blow into," from in-"in" + spirare "to breathe" (see spirit). Inspire in this sense is c.1340, from O.Fr. enspirer, from L. inspirare, a loan-transl. of Gk. pnein in the Bible. General sense of "influence or animate with an idea or purpose" is from 1390. Inspirational is 1839 as "influenced by inspiration;" 1884 as "tending to inspire."

12. Sight
O.E. gesiht, gesihð "thing seen," from P.Gmc. * Meaning "perception or apprehension by means of the eyes" is from c.1225. Meaning "device on a firearm to assist in aiming" is from 1588; the verb in this sense is from 1842. Sight for sore eyes "welcome visitor" is attested from 1738; sight unseen "without previous inspection" is from 1892. Sight gag first attested 1957.
"Verily, truth is sight. Therefore if two people should come disputing, saying, 'I have seen,' 'I have heard,' we should trust the one who says 'I have seen.' " [Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 5.14.4]

Ilene Evans
Language Usage #18-25


18. “Broke Down”
The words to a blues song by Mary Flowers keep running thru my head – uh, oh! Earworm! She says that she’s got a “broke down” engine – it just gave up the ghost.” She goes on to lament about her car pr lost love or some kind of disappointing thing in her life. Well the phrase means something that has collapsed, given way or been destroyed in some way.

19. “On its last legs”
It is said when something or someone is about to stop working, close to dying. I have been thinking about my rusty old van. And I am afraid that it is giving me warnings about having fought a good fight and it may be getting ready to finish the race.

20. “High Time”
“It is high time you got to your homework!” It used to be simply a way to signal alert to get going and get a move on. Now it has a reference to doing drugs and getting high. There is a magazine about Marijuana called High Times. What will they think of next? There is a Miss High Times there is a High Time Cannabis Cup. Wow!

21. “Ne’er do well”
The term is used to describe a person with perceived negative aspects. That is the way my mother referred to certain people who she thought were irresponsible or wasting their life away. The term "ne're-do-well" is a contraction of "never do well". It can mean someone who is idle, self-indulgent and worthless.

22. “Always wantin' something for nothing”
The phrase is usually you can’t get something for nothing. I remember the first story I heard Len Cabral tell he described Noh Lobe and a trickster who always wanted to get something for nothing. Now it is used in reference for people with a shopping addiction.

23. “Nitty-gritty” n.
the essential substance or details of a matter , to be involved with the Fundamental, direct and practical. At least that’s what I thought it meant.
(Current usage/news)How our politically-correct police chiefs have banned the phrase nitty-gritty for being racist (oh, and 'good egg' is outlawed too!) It was the moment a startled minister discovered at first hand the stranglehold political correctness has on the police. Addressing rank and file officers at their annual conference, Home Office minister John Denham had referred to the "nitty-gritty". Sorry, said Metropolitan Police constable Chris Jefford, but that phrase is banned. ... The phrase - said to have its origins in the 18th Century slave traders' phrase for the debris left at the bottom of a slave ship after a voyage. A visit to the hold was described as 'going to the nitty-gritty'. ... PC Jefford later expanded on other phrases that were considered likely to cause offence. They include the saying 'you're a good egg'. This is linked to the slang expression 'egg and spoon' which rhymes with the highly derogatory name for black people, 'coon'. ... 'There is no actual list of banned words. It just depends on what someone finds offensive,' said PC Nixon. ... He told how an officer of Spanish origin had recently objected to the term 'Spanish practices' being used. Another words said to be outlawed is 'pikey' - a slang term for gipsies or travellers.(extract from the "Daily Mail", article by Ben Taylor)


24. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”
Bathed in beauty. Extraordinary
This saying first appeared in the 3rd century BC in Greek. It didn't appear in its current form in print until the 19th century, but in the meantime there were various written forms that expressed much the same thought. In 1588, the English dramatist John Lyly, in his Euphues and his England, wrote: "...as neere is Fancie to Beautie, as the pricke to the Rose, as the stalke to the rynde, as the earth to the roote."
Shakespeare expressed a similar sentiment in Love's Labours Lost, 1588:
Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean,Needs not the painted flourish of your praise:Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye,Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues
Benjamin Franklin, in Poor Richard's Almanack, 1741, wrote:
Beauty, like supreme dominion Is but supported by opinion
David Hume's Essays, Moral and Political, 1742, include:
"Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them."
The person who is widely credited with coining the saying in its current form is Margaret Wolfe Hungerford (née Hamilton), who wrote many books, often under the pseudonym of 'The Duchess'. In Molly Bawn, 1878, there's the line "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder", which is the earliest citation of it that I can find in print.

25. Grand Slam
It is my favorite meal at Denny’s. It is win, win, win , win , win. But it started with Bridge. It is when someone wins all the tricks during the play of one hand.
It is most widely known nowadays as the name for the feat of winning all the four major tennis competitions in one year. It is widely reported that the American journalist Allison Danzig brought the term grand slam from the card table to the sporting arena, when using it to refer to the achievement by the Australian Donald Budge in 1938.

Beth Ohlsson Language 23-25

Had dinner w/ Mary, a friend of my cousin's, tonight. She teaches grades K & 1 and offered the following during our discussion of story, storytelling, and teaching. (Notice that we had absolutely nothing in common....)

23. Mary was recounting tales of holiday pagents past and described them as "plopping dish towels on their (the students') heads and doing Jesus, Mary and Joseph." Seems this was a way to describe unimaginative, uncreative, and uninspired excuses for a holiday assembly or the obligatory evening program for mom and dad and grandma. The description worked.

24. Mary was recounting a discussion with an adolescent that began, " We're going to have a come to Jesus meeting." She explained that was Appalachian for, "I'm going to get in your face about something," which means, "I need to confront you about something." Certainly couldn't say that in a public school...

25. And in the course of the evening, I was reminded of a Nana - ism; a pet phrase of my beloved grandmother. She often teased us with, "Tonight we're having hummingbird hearts on toast." That was her way of telling us we could have whatever we wanted for supper....no green required.

And now we are done.