Archive for the ‘Playful morphology’ Category
March 30, 2018
A follow-up to my posting of the 28th, “Deviant Last Suppers”, about queer travesties of Leonardo’s Last Supper, a painting of the communal meal (celebrated on Maundy Thursday, yesterday this year) that Christians understand as the origin of the eucharist, or communion, ritual (take, eat, this is my body; take, drink, this is my blood). Now after sunset today, the Jewish ritual communal meal, the Passover seder, with its symbolic retelling of the Jews’ liberation from slavery in ancient Egypt. So, Bill Stewart wondered in a comment on this blog, what about a queer seder?
Well, sort of.
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Posted in Gender and sexuality, Holidays, Language and religion, Language play, Libfixes, Playful morphology, Puns, Signs and symbols, Snowclonelet composites | 9 Comments »
October 22, 2017
A comment on the vulgar noun crapola in yesterday’s posting “A portmantriple”, from David Preston:
[cited by AZ] “-ola, a suffix used humorously to extend standard words.”
Wasn’t the original ‘ola’ the shoe-polish brand Shinola? Then it became humorous with the phrase “know shit from Shinola.”
Actually, playful -ola didn’t start with Shinola, though Shinola appeared fairly early in the history.
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Posted in Derivation, Idioms, Playful morphology | 3 Comments »
August 15, 2017
Today’s Zippy takes us through three commercial establishments with (variants) of –orama names, while fretting ambivalently about American patriotism:
(#1)
Wein-O-Rama (Cranston RI), Billy’s Burg-O-Rama (Oxford MA), and Liquorama (stores with that name in many locations), plus Zippy’s own coining, Shrink-O-Rama. As it happens, Bill Griffith has used the imagery in #1 for at least one other strip, which I posted on Language Log on 1/20/07:
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Posted in Language play, Libfixes, Linguistics in the comics, Names, Playful morphology, Portmanteaus, Quotations | Leave a Comment »
October 7, 2014
From Andras Kornai, a link on my Facebook timeline, tagged as “for Mr. Alexander Adams”: a Schwa Fire piece, “The Name on the Cup: Brewing the Perfect Coffeenym” by Greg Uyeno. About choosing a name for ordering in a coffee shop with lots of background noise. A related task is choosing a name for making reservations over the phone (I have a small amount of local fame in some circles for using Alexander Adams as a reservation name.)
Then there’s Uyeno’s playful coinage coffeenym.
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Posted in Combining forms, Derivation, Names, Perception, Playful morphology, Psychology of language | Leave a Comment »
March 5, 2014
Today’s goofy Zippy:
A grab-bag of stuff here, beyond the 60s clothes: the playful coolth (which has been around for some time) and Clauditude (certainly special to Zippy); the punning allusion to John Donne’s “Ask not for whom the bells toll; they toll for thee”; and the extra language play in the title, on polyester.
Eleganza Fashions (aka African Eleganza Fashions) is still in business, but in much reduced form; its Facebook page says it’s located at
2045 University Blvd #4 (BEHIND DUNKIN DONUTS), Hyattsville, Maryland
Posted in Clothing, Language play, Linguistics in the comics, Playful morphology, Quotations | 1 Comment »
