Editorial
Front Page - Friday, January 22, 2010
I Swear...
21st century lexicographizing
Vic Fleming
Continued from last week
The Internet, and its illogical expansions, have brought about the situation where anyone can make up new words or new definitions of existing words and post them on various online “dictionaries.”
Read some about it in last week’s column. More about it in Bobby Ampezzan’s, “Word Up,” Ark. Democrat Gazette (Jan. 10, 2010). And yet more about it below herein.
For example, there is the “Urban Dictionary,” which Ampezzan called a “low rent wiki for slang enthusiasts.” This cyber tome calls itself a “searchable archive of contemporary American slang.” As Kris Kringle said, in the movie, “That’s a debatable point.”
Urban Dictionary is one of numerous online sources linked to onelook.com, a site that I have found helpful in writing crossword clues. I tend to ignore UD, though.
Onelook hooks me up quickly to Mirriam-Webster Online, Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Encarta and many other lexicons published by – well, lexicographers.
Go to the Urban Dictionary’s web site, though, and you will be told that “all the definitions … were written by people just like you. Now’s your chance to add your own!”
That’s right. They turn you loose. No editing.
They purport to be editors somewhere, as one encounters these guidelines:
“Write for a large audience. Lots of people will read this, so give some background information. … Don’t name your friends. We’ll reject inside jokes and definitions naming non-celebrities.”
Postings at Urban Dictionary run the gamut from made-up words with legitimately humorous definitions to outrageously vulgar takes on common words.
With the space the remains for this week, I’ll try to illustrate the former:
“Amazonukkah. When Christmas really lasts eight days because the presents take longer to deliver from Amazon.com than anticipated by the purchaser. This is often caused by the reckless use of super saver shipping on items which were bought on Christmas Eve. As a result, the presents are received in small amounts each day over an eight day period, similar to Hanukkah. … [W] e’re celebrating Amazonukkah this year. My parents are real procrastinators.”
“Good lenses, bad frames. Describing someone who gives a bad first impression but is actually a good person. Someone who doesn’t appear to be competent, yet is extremely capable at what he/she does.”
“Maniston. A term used in the celebrity gossip community to denote Jennifer Aniston and her manish appearance. Used in a derogatory manner by those who dislike her.” (Sorry, Jennifer, but I needed to illustrate that non-celebrity clause in the guidelines.)
“Myspy. When you use myspace to spy on ex-boyfriends, ex-girlfriends, ex-friends or even your ex-boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend’s baby momma.”
“Sticker Paralysis. The effect caused by having a really awesome sticker and no appropriate place to use it. General symptoms include keeping the sticker in a drawer and never actually using it. Sometimes resulting in affixation remorse.”
“Affixation remorse. The feeling that you wasted an awesome sticker that you probably should have used elsewhere.”
Oh, by the way, at each definition, the researcher, has the opportunity to buy “mugs, t-shirts and magnets with the word in point on them.
(More next week on 21st century Lexicographizing).
Vic Fleming is a district court judge in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he also teaches at the William H. Bowen School of Law. Contact him at judgevic@comcast.net.
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