November | 2013 | Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Archive for November, 2013

The word for the day

November 7, 2013

On ADS-L: on Nov 7, 2013, at 7:58 AM, Bill Mullins wrote:

Subject: Re: hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia
Pardon a direct question. Is this fear of “666”?

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia (derived from Ancient Greek roots ἑξακόσιοι [hexakósioi, “six hundred”], ἑξήκοντα [hexékonta, “sixty”], and ἕξ [héx, “six”]; literally meaning “fear of [the number] six hundred sixty-six”) is the fear that originated from the Biblical verse Revelation 13:18, which indicates that the number 666 is the Number of the Beast, linked to Satan or the Anti-Christ.

Posted in Words | 1 Comment »

White Man(n)a

November 7, 2013

Today’s Zippy, a pointedly political strip (Griffy vs. Claude), but reproduced here for the diner in it:

(#1)

(more…)

Posted in Language and food, Linguistics in the comics, Pop culture | Leave a Comment »

Multiverse rap

November 7, 2013

The most recent Scenes From a Multiverse, with a rap:

Ah yes, linguistic ballistics. Someone should found a journal.

Posted in Linguistics in the comics | Leave a Comment »

Another animal portmanteau

November 6, 2013

In the Beautiful Farmyard postcard set, one for the Brahmousin:

Hybrids of many kinds are named by portmanteaus; the names mirror the things. So it is with the Brahmousin.

(more…)

Posted in Language and animals, Portmanteaus | 1 Comment »

Today’s pun

November 6, 2013

Offered on the Mental Floss store, this t-shirt:

Ouch. The allusion is to the film Casablanca. From Wikipedia:

Rick’s toast to Ilsa, “Here’s looking at you, kid”, used several times, is not in the draft screenplays, but has been attributed to something Bogart said to Bergman as he taught her poker between takes.

Posted in Language play, Puns | 1 Comment »

A story that combines libfixes, extraordinary animals, and science reporting. From Stan Carey yesterday, a pointer to this BBC News science story, ” ‘Platypus-zilla’ fossil unearthed in Australia” by Rebecca Morelle:

Part of a giant platypus fossil has been unearthed in Queensland, Australia. Scientists have dubbed the beast “platypus-zilla” and believe it would have measured more than 1m long (3ft).

Writing in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the researchers say the creature lived between five and 15 million years ago.

… Today, all that survives of this platypus is a single fossilised tooth, which was unearthed in the Riversleigh fossil beds in northwest Queensland.

Based on its size, the researchers have estimated that the new species (Obdurodon tharalkooschild) would have been at least twice as large as today’s platypus.

Bumps on its teeth and other fossil finds nearby suggest that the creature feasted on crustaceans, turtles, frogs and fish.

(more…)

Posted in Language and animals, Libfixes, Science news | 2 Comments »

On the phallic church watch

November 5, 2013

Making the rounds on the net recently, this story about an inadvertently phallic church (here from Daily Kos, from 10/31, “Phallic-shaped church to get fig leaf”):

Officials from the Christian Science Church in Dixon, Illinois are upset after a satellite image from Google Maps began to go viral, showing their new church had a rather unusual shape.

Originally designed around an old oak tree, the design has provided a lot of laughs amongst online communities.

(more…)

Posted in Gender and sexuality, Phallicity | Leave a Comment »

Three-day weekend

November 4, 2013

From several sources recently, references to the word triduum. From NOAD2:

(especially in the Roman Catholic Church) a period of three days’ observance, specifically Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. ORIGIN Latin, from tri- ‘three’ + dies ‘day’.

But the term could easily be used for any three-day holiday, of which there are a number in the US, Canada, and UK (among other places).

(more…)

Posted in Holidays | 2 Comments »

Three cartoons

November 4, 2013

Three cartoons from Saturday: a Dilbert (on the nature of human beings); a Pearls Before Swine (with yet another ambiguity); and a Zippy (on politics, sort of).

(more…)

Posted in Ambiguity, Formulaic language, Language and politics, Linguistics in the comics | 1 Comment »