Not me getting distracted on Friday afternoon by the Yale Grammatical Diversity Project's page documenting "Gen Z Constructions" (h/t @lynneguist.bsky.social) ygdp.yale.edu/phenomena/ge...

Editorial notes on the more than 900 new words, phrases, and senses added in OED's June update, including not only "enshittification" but also "Lovecraftian", "fearmongering", and "au contraire", can be found here: www.oed.com/discover/new...

The complete entry can be viewed at www.oed.com/dictionary/e....

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net · last mo.

Well, this is exciting.

I guffawed at this seasonally thematic McSweeney's piece. (And not just because my cousin wrote it!) www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/whi...

Which Founding Father Are You?

Are you George, Alexander, Thomas, or Ben?

mcsweeneys.net

"The vast majority of features defined in those articles [about so-called TikTok slang] were lexical, and around one-third of that lexis was from AAVE."

Christian Ilbury@christianilbury.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Our paper is now part of an issue; onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... tl;dr, What is often labelled 'TikTok language' is mostly AAVE. In the participatory space of TikTok, Black creators contest this ideology as a type of linguistic appropriation.

Sometimes an obsolete word is so delightful you wish it could be resurrected.

This lion is a rare example of ancient Egyptian sculpture in clay. It was found with a cache of royal sculpture in the temple enclosure at Hierakonpolis. In Egyptian mythology, paired lions often served as the guardians of entrances, and sculpted lions performed the same function in temples.

Want to know where he is running to holding with a pitcher in 1649?

Attention digital humanists: The OED would like to hear from anyone currently using OED/dictionary data in their research, and who would be interested in accessing OED as a dataset. Please share your thoughts at tinyurl.com/mpn6kcuu! The survey takes about 3 minutes to complete, and closes 3rd Apr.

Oscars looks 🤝 medieval manuscripts Some of these outfits felt suspiciously familiar, so we went digging in the collections… #MedievalMonday Shelfmarks: MS. Bodl. 265 fols. 58r, 60r; MS. Douce 364, fol. 61v; MS. Douce 195, fol. 003r

#OnThisDay in 1826, the first paper to be written by a woman was read at a Royal Society meeting. The paper, by noted polymath Mary Somerville, was read at the meeting by her husband, as she wasn't permitted to attend. https://bit.ly/2A3Cj2N

I'll be talking about this on BBC Radio Sussex at 11.40am...https://www.thebookseller.com/news/oxford-childrens-word-of-the-year-2025-and-runners-up-unveiled

Oxford Children’s Word of the Year 2025 and runners-up unveiled

"Peace" has been chosen as the Oxford Children’s Word of the Year 2025, according to research carried out by Oxford University Press (OUP). More than a third (35%) of children chose the word, narrowly...

thebookseller.com

Submissions are now being accepted by Oxford University Press for the 2026 First Book Prize for early career researchers in the humanities and social sciences. academic.oup.com/pages/early-...

Early Career Researcher First Book Prize | Oxford Academic

<img data-image-id='712a691a73d711308c03' data-image-title='ECR book prize - Banner - design 1.png' data-link-id='5a4dc5aa-9e00-4d33-892d-c89fb0ea117a' dat

academic.oup.com

Fresco of January at Castello Buonconsiglio, Trento, Italy, (detail), c. 1405-1410.

"Things we love still exist in Gaza." The Gaza bookshop that refuses to shut - www.ft.com/content/7572... via @FT

The Gaza bookshop that refuses to shut

As bombs fell and famine took hold, Samir Mansour kept delivering books

ft.com

And the results are in! After carefully reviewing the results of a national poll the Board of Directors of the Society for Canadian English (SCE) has determined that this year’s Canadian Word of the Year (CWOTY), the first of its kind, will be “maplewashing.”

The kanji of the year has been announced as “kuma” (熊), meaning “bear” - owing to the increase in bear attacks in Northern Japan this year. news.livedoor.com/article/deta...

今年の漢字は「熊」に決定 京都・清水寺で発表 - ライブドアニュース

12日、京都・清水寺で今年の漢字が「熊」と発表された。2024年は「金」、2023年は「税」だった。▽過去の「今年の漢字」2024年:「金」2023年:「税」2022年:「戦」2021年:「金」2020年:「密」2019年:「令」2018年:「

news.livedoor.com

Offered seasonally with book selections by guest curators, this new collection highlights renowned and modern artists practicing within ... themes of poetry, visual art, critical thought, design and ... more. Works can be borrowed by readers for 45-days, free of costs to our U.S. based community.

Saint Heron

Saint Heron Community Library; a growing media center dedicated to students, practicing artists and designers, musicians and general literature enthusiasts.

saintheron.com

Kathy Ishizuka@kishizuka.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Solange Knowles’ Saint Heron has launched a free digital archival library of literature by Black and brown authors, poets, and artists. Readers can borrow rare and out-of-print books for up to 45 days

It's that time of year again! Vote for your favorite of OUP's three #WOTY25 finalists. corp.oup.com/word-of-the-...

Oxford Word of the Year 2025 - Oxford University Press

Voting is now open for Oxford Word of the Year 2025! Discover our shortlist and have your say by Thursday 27 November.

corp.oup.com

'A high-resolution digital map allows people to plan their routes along the ancient roads of the Roman Empire. Combining historical records with modern mapping techniques, researchers mapped hundreds of thousands of kilometres of roads. The findings nearly double the known length of Roman roads.'

‘Google Maps’ for Roman roads reveals vast extent of ancient network

A high-resolution digital map nearly doubles the known length of the ancient road network.

nature.com

The OED on _aunt_ n. sense 1.b.

The Life of a ‘Showgirl,’ #etymology edition. Adapted from OED. Show + girl. - 1750, young girl regarded as object of display, especially one who dresses/behaviors ostentatiously. - 1816, young woman employed to model clothes. - 1836–37, female performer in musicals, et al. (chorus girl)

Lots of intriguing patterns in this survey about the disciplines in which Americans think humanity has already discovered all there is to know.

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 10mo ago

'53% of [US] conservatives say humanity has discovered most or all of what there is to know about math, compared to 40% of liberals. 38% of conservatives say the same about history, compared to 27% of liberals.'

Our medieval curator Alison Ray introduces Rawlinson Bodleian Library MS. Rawl. D. 252...a 15th Century necromancer's journal. This manuscript contains spells written in Latin and Middle English, and would have served as a reference for a professional sorcerer. #MedievalMonday

"An organic trend can take longer to percolate into general usage but an algorithmic trend like the “clanker” joke may be deliberately reproduced by influencers who are actively aware of memes and how platforms reward them" on.ft.com/45PYTuY via @FT

From skibidi to rizz, why the internet loves slang

The online engagement treadmill deliberately pushes niche language into the mainstream

on.ft.com

Participants needed for research on innovative grammar in Australian English. It will involve an anonymous online questionnaire that will take approximately 5-15 minutes to complete.

Over time, ironic and self-aware use of Trumpisms gives way to established speech patterns that are unmoored from their origin. Many such cases. (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/o...

Opinion | The Insidious Creep of Trump’s Speaking Style

nytimes.com

bsky.app/profile/liev...

Lieven Vandelanotte@lieven.bsky.social · 12mo ago

The Language of Memes is coming soon now. In the meantime, here's a post on Fifteen Eighty Four, the blog of Cambridge University Press 🤓 cambridgeblog.org/2025/08/unco...

"in the multimodal predictive construction that is a Scumbag Steve meme, the subject argument suppression forms part of the ways in which the text has adjusted to the presence of the image." A fun analysis of meme grammar.