January linkstack
The false etymology of "tip," the decline of "craveable," and more.
Welcome to my monthly link round-up, a collection of items—mostly but not exclusively about names, words, and the language of commerce—that are currently piquing my interest. If you have a lead you think I ought to pursue, leave a comment here or send me an email at nancyf (at) wordworking dot com, and let me know if you’d prefer to remain anonymous. Here’s the December linkstack; here’s the November linkstack.
If you’ve subscribed to Fritinancy recently (merci!), here are a few posts you may have missed: My year in books and movies; the plus side of “plus-size”; what “Fritinancy” means. And here’s my latest story for Medium, about the American Dialect Society’s very sweary word-of-the-year vote: “The Triumph of the Swears.”
Speaking of swearing
How well do you know the F-word? Test your knowledge with a fun quiz created by trivia maven James Callan. (Strong Language blog, where I am also a contributor)
Another reason to curse
No, tip is not an acronym for “to insure promptitude,” or for anything else, despite what that New Yorker article passed off as fact. “It would have been bad enough to see such blithering idiocy in our wretched local paper, but in the New Yorker! This isn’t some obscure byway of etymology about which reasonable people can disagree, this is the kind of dumbass just-so story I would hope the better sort of high school students would be too sophisticated to share. It’s on the level of ‘For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.’” (Language Hat)
Listen to this!
The Allusionist podcast, hosted by Helen Zaltzman, produced a swell year-end bonus episode in which I learned about “aquamation,” the origin of “succinct,” how Brazil got its name, and much, much more. This is one of my top-five favorite podcasts, and I would say that even if I hadn’t been a guest a couple of times. (The Allusionist)
Listen to this, too!
The 99% Invisible blog is spending 2024 discussing The Power Broker, Robert Caro’s magnificent (and very long) biography of New York builder and shaker Robert Moses. Listen to Episode 1.
Watch this!
The Last Repair Shop, a short documentary film about the people who repair the 80,000 musical instruments used by Los Angeles public-school students. (I’m a product of the L.A. Unified School District myself, and even played a school-loaned violin for about a year.) The film was just nominated for an Academy Award. Jason Kottke quotes co-director Kris Bowers:
In making “The Last Repair Shop,” my directing partner Ben Proudfoot and I got the chance to tell the tale of four extraordinary master craftspeople who ensure, day in and day out, that L.A.’s schoolchildren have playable instruments in their hands. We were floored and proud to find out that our city, Los Angeles, was home to the last shop of this kind in the country.
No more cravings
In the Ozempic age, has “craveable” lost its selling power? “A class of new drugs that eliminate food cravings, as well as a fresh body of scientific studies, have focused attention on the connection between addiction and food,” writes New York Times reporter Kim Severson. “Ultra-processed foods, made with cheap industrial ingredients and potentially as addictive as tobacco or gambling, are emerging as a national concern.”(New York Times gift link via Anthony Shore) P.S. I wrote last year about the Lay’s potato chip ad campaign mentioned in the Times article.
How do you do, fellow kids
“Do your big one,” “it slaps,” “NATO dating,” and other new-ish slang you need to master if you wish to converse with The Youths. (English in Progress , “This Newsletter Slaps”)
Speaking of slang
Amanda Montell , author of Cultish and The Year of Magical Overthinking, is researching a piece for Esquire about “the emergence of apocalypse-themed language in casual conversation”—what she’s calling “doomslang”—and welcomes reader submissions: “Think of pleasantries like ‘How are you? Aside from the world burning and all,’ or using the end of the world as a marketing tool, like this dishware brand Calamityware, which even has a line of bowls and mugs titled ‘Things Could Be Worse.’” Leave your comment here. P.S. I am a BIG fan of Calamityware!
Stow it
“After months of public input and deliberation, Golden Gate Park’s Stow Lake officially has a new name: Blue Heron Lake.” San Francisco supervisors had been urging the name change since October 2022, saying “the lake’s original namesake — 19th century state Assembly Member William W. Stow — had a history of supporting antisemitic policies and xenophobic views.” (San Francisco Chronicle)
A puzzle for haiku-lovers
Do syllables exist? (Guardian — from 2014 but new to me)
That’s daft!
Daft, a new “anti-social social network for minimalists,” lets you “post and share notes, links or images by email subject only.” (Via Kottke) This news sent me down a short daft rabbit hole, in which I discovered that the word’s original meaning, circa 1200, was “mild, well-mannered”; that it shares a route with deft; and that daffy (nutty, unintelligent) may be a diminutive of daft.
That’s (a) cuckoo!
Cuckoos, katydids, pobblebonks, and other animals that say their own names. ( Jack Shepherd, On Words and Up Words)
App imitates art
Japan’s year-old disaster data app Tokumu Kikan NERV Bosai was created by a fan of the hit anime "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and takes its name from “the special organization from the series, NERV, to which the protagonist, Shinji Ikari, belongs.” (Asahi.com via Faine Greenwood on Bluesky — I have some Bluesky invite codes if you’re looking for one.)
Algorithms and taste
I’m about halfway through Kyle Chayka’s new book Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture, which explores why, for example, Yelp-recommended coffeehouses all look the same and how we’ve surrendered our personal tastes to our devices. For more on the question of taste—how to discover and reclaim it—listen to Ezra Klein’s conversation with Chayka on Klein’s podcast (New York Times gift link).
Speaking of algorithms (and … astrology?)
OK, I hate astrology, but this is interesting: Last September Spotify launched a feature called Daylists, a recommendation engine that creates “delightfully bizarre” names for algorithmically generated playlists inspired by your listening habits. Lately, Instagram users have been sharing a story template that says, “Don’t tell me your astrology sign; I want you to go into Spotify, search for your daylist and post the title it gave you.” (Techcrunch)
For those of you who read Fritinancy for the fashion content
And maybe for a few other folks: I recently discovered Café Anne, a weekly newsletter written by Brooklyn journalist Anne Kadetthat “takes a fresh look at the everyday, delights in the absurd and profiles unusual folks who do things their way.” It’s all wonderful, but what hooked me was “I Wear the Same Thing Every Day and I Love It!”1 I had just finished picking my jaw up from the floor after reading a very different sort of first-person-sartorial story on Laura Reilly’sMagasin , “A Complete List of Everything I Bought in 2023.” I started totaling Laura’s expenditures but couldn’t do such large sums in my head. (The month of December alone came to more than I typically spend on clothes in two years.) Laura goes for variety and what I would call luxury, while Anne shops for clothes on Amazon and wears the same outfit every day. (Yes, she owns multiples.) Everything is black (“If you wear all black, there is a good chance no one will notice that you are wearing the same thing every day”) and the cost of the whole seasonal ensemble, excluding under- and outerwear, added up to US$165, which I’m happy to say I could easily calculate without assistance. Vive la différence!
Scroll down past the preface to read about Anne’s uniform.
Thanks for the mention Nancy—but intrigued by ALL your recommendations. And admiring your math skills!