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Erin McKean

@emckean.bsky.social

Wording at Wordnik until the words stop.

203 Posts2025 Follower1099 Folgt
Ted Underwood@tedunderwood.com · 6d ago

My secret, Cap, is that I'm *always* angry about old books. For instance, here's a tiny slice of the millions of books 1931-1986 that have no commercial value, that are digitized, but that we're unable to use in large-scale research because they are illegal to share or display.

a tiny random fraction of books in HathiTrust 1931-1980 in English that include the word "philosophy" somewhere in metadata
Chaucer Doth Tweet@levostregc.bsky.social · 4w ago

Weirde & obscure wordes are not an elitist control thinge. Thei have hidden all thys tyme, & thei carrye wyth them great poweres & unforeseen futures. Wordes you have to looke up are wordes that businesse hath not bent ynto sad smooth chains to harness desyre. Lookinge up wordes ys rebellion.

Erin McKean@emckean.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I was just reading Johnson on this today: "But suppose the philological decree made and promulgated, what would be its authority? ... The edicts of an English academy would probably be read by many, only that they might be sure to disobey them." www.online-literature.com/samuel-johns...

arr@arr.bsky.social · 2mo ago

english isn't for cowards. if you're not saying 'torpify,' that's a skill issue. there's no Académie Française telling you what to do. if you try to type 'pallific' and freak out when you see a little red underline, maybe you're not ready to roll with the big dogs.

Fiona Tribe@fionatribe.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Yes, Swiss scientist Fritz Zwicky coined the term “dark matter” which is impressive, but he also coined the term “spherical bastard” to describe people who are bastards no matter which way you look at them, and I think that should be celebrated more.

Erin McKean@emckean.bsky.social · 6mo ago

new marketing campaign for print dictionaries, as totemic items to ward off dementia: "researchers found higher scores in lifetime enrichment were associated with a 38% lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease ... enrichment included ... dictionaries and library cards" www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Reading and writing can lower dementia risk by almost 40%, study finds

Cognitive health in later life is ‘strongly influenced’ by lifelong exposure to intellectually stimulating environments, say researchers

theguardian.com

Jenny Cohn@jennycohn.bsky.social · 6mo ago

🚨 Tell your Senators to vote NO on the GOP’s so-called “SAVE” Act”, which would: Require continuing voter purges w/ NO PENALTY for erroneous purges. Subject election officials to potential PRISON TIME & citizen suits for mistakenly registering a single voter—even if the voter is a citizen! 1/

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