Mentioned in passing on the public radio show Sez You! today, the punning Thesaurus rex. Often played with, as in this children’s book:
Follow this mischievous dinosaur as he frolics, rollicks, frisks and romps. Each colorful page introduces simple synonyms and a fun-filled way to build vocabulary and word recognition. (Ages 3 to 7 years)
And in this cartoon:
From the materials for Dr. James Hartford’s presentation in a seminar on hip (and knee) replacement at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation on Thursday (an information-packed two hours), in a set of slides on “Common Questions?”, slide 4:
How long do I maintain hip precautions? [things like not crossing your legs] 6 weeks
When can I play golf again? As soon as you’re comfortable (3-8 wks; Dr. Hartford had more detailed imstructions)
When can I drive? 4 weeks
When can I have relations? 4 weeks
That’s relations, a modesty truncation of sexual relations. My daughter and I did wonder if non-native speakers would understand the euphemism.
No one asked about it, though I’m curious here, as in many other contexts, about what counts as sexual relations. I can see why intercourse would be problematic. But what what about masturbation? I’ll have to check with the doc.
Yesterday’s posting on ambiguity in headlines looked at:
Racing star could prove Einstein’s theory
which for a moment I didn’t interpret correctly (with racing star‘ (astronomical) star that is racing’), since I was hung up on racing star ‘a (figurative) star in/of/for racing’. The puzzle is about my mental processes: why didn’t I see the intended interpretation, when it was so clearly signaled by the content of the headline and by the accompanying photo? (Most people probably got the inteded interpretation right off.)
Then in the NYT yesterday, a teaser headline on p. 1:
Fraud Claims Dog Operative
which I read, at first, as having the subject fraud, the verb claims, and the direct object dog operative (a N + N compound: ‘operative that is a dog’), while the intended interpretation has the subject fraud claims, the verb dog, and the direct object operative. Again, many people will have zoomed right in on the intended interpretation, but apparently I was reluctant to posit the verb dog ‘follow closely and persistently’ (which does occur in ordinary text, but finds its natural home in headlines, because of its brevity).
That poor dog operative, done in by fraud. With the assistance of my mental processes.
A piece of Facebook usage that has long puzzled me, clearly illustrated in “Wilson Gray via PoliticusUSA” yesterday: a posting by Wilson Gray that linked directly to a PoliticusUSA story (on Romney and the economy). I would have labeled this “Wilson Gray from PoliticusUSA”, since the standard use of via ‘by way of’ would have “Wilson Gray via PoliticusUSA” implying that the story started with Wilson Gray and came to us with PoliticusUSA as an intermediary: Wilson Gray in the SOURCE role and PolicusUSA in the INTERMEDIARY role. So the Facebook usage of via seems to have the participant roles reversed: PoliticusUSA in the SOURCE role and Wilson Gray in the INTERMEDIATE role.
(Similarly for other X via Y Facebook headers.)
In today’s New York Times, in Michael Wilson’s “Living on His Own, Far From the Box”:
[Homeless man John Cornelius Foley] was an early benefactor of gentrification. Construction workers let him sleep in the new luxury buildings they were erecting. Just be gone in the morning, they told him. Police officers looked the other way when he slept in an alley off Houston Street. Just be gone in the morning.
That’s benefactor where its converse beneficiary would be expected: a semantic reversal for benefactor, which has picked up the meaning ‘one who gets benefits’ in addition to the meaning ‘one who gives benefits’.
From Ryan Tamares on Google+ yesterday, this headline from ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) news:
Racing star could prove Einstein’s theory
You would have thought that “Einstein’s theory” and an astronomical photo would be enough to eliminate the first reading I got for racing star — as a N + N compound (with primary accent on the first N) in which racing is a N of the form Ving (a N derived from the V race): ‘a star in/of/for racing’ (with metaphorical star much more likely than astronomical star, though both are possible).
Today’s Rhymes With Orange:
Two things: the phrasal portmateau L. Ron Mother Hubbard; and the Scientology references.
Noticed as an ingredient in a chicken salad at Gordon Biersch restaurant today: craisins. Wikipedia tells us:
Dried cranberries are made by partially dehydrating fresh cranberries, a process similar to making grapes into raisins. They are popular in trail mix, salads, and breads, with cereals or eaten on their own. Dried cranberries are sometimes referred to as “craisins,” though the word “craisin” is a registered trademark of Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. and cannot be officially applied to dried cranberries from other manufacturers.
But still people go on to use the portmanteau.
Without some context to back it up, craisin is hard to interpret: the raisin part is clear enough, but the cran- piece of cranberry is hard to recover from the /kr/, or even the spelling CRA-. Not a great coining, but then I have no better idea.
Today’s Zippy, starring Mr. the Toad:
Here I’m focussing on the slang N + N compound stud muffin, which Toad has chosen to interpret parallel to blueberry muffin ‘muffin with blueberries in it’: stud ‘a large-headed piece of metal that pierces and projects from a surface, esp. for decoration’ (NOAD2) + muffin ‘small domed cake or quick bread’ = stud muffin ‘muffin with studs in it’. (more…)
