September Linkfest

This month's theme is word lists, name lists, and lexicons--invaluable for name developers and other word-lovers.

Etymologically Speaking is a list of English words with curious origins compiled by Stephen Morgan Friedman (no relation to me). Did you know that porcelain comes to us from Italian porca, meaning "female pig"? But wait--there's even more to that story. (Via OurBold Hero [del.icio.us]).

The New American Sub-Standard Politically Incorrect Dictionary provides this definition for ass (adj.): Very, extremely. "Tyrone kept his apartment ass cold to give the chicks high beams." (More on ass words here.)

Eskimos may not have 100 words for snow--linguist Geoffrey K. Pullum laid that myth to rest--but they seem to have thousands of words that end in the letter K, as this Eskimo Dictionary proves. (Read about the prevalence of the letter K in contemporary American naming conventions here.)

Speaking of snow, every page in the Ski Dictionary is a wiki, which means it can be edited by users. Still, it's not the most user-friendly online dictionary I've encountered (you'll have to go here, and then scroll down, to see the beginning of the word list). It's certainly well researched, though. It's here you'll learn, for example, that a stivot is a term used by American male skiers that combines "step" and "pivot." Note: downhill (Alpine) ski terms only. (Via JeffPrucher.com, home of Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction.)

The Archive of Cool Words isn't alphabetized, but who cares? It's cool. Example: Marmoreal--of, relating to, or suggesting marble or a marble statue, especially in coldness or aloofness.

The Meaning and Origin of Names was compiled by Trinity College, a boys' school in Perth, Australia; it's a meta-list with links (some of them broken, unfortunately) to a whole bunch of fascinating resources. For starters: Australian place names, Aboriginal baby names (scroll down for links to many other baby name sites, from Aramaic to Zimbabwean), and the super-peculiar Kabalarian name-analysis site (short analysis free, longer analysis for a fee).

Okay, this last one isn't technically a dictionary or a lexicon; it's a list of online shorthand (also known as IMglish, from instant messaging) that New York Times technology reporter David Pogue published in his blog. Pogue asked his young interns for contributions, and they came up with abbreviations like FCAO (five conversations at once), JUOC (jacked up on caffeine), and KYST (knew you'd say that). In the interest of fairness, Pogue invented some IMglish for parents and employers, also known as geezers. A few of my favorites:

WIWYA — when I was your age

YKT – you kids today

NIWYM — no idea what you mean

CRRE — conversation required; remove earbuds

IGAT — I’ve got abbreviations, too

Comments

[Going Like Sixty]

Here is quite a nice list of boomer IM's
http://freerangelibrarian.com/2007/06/12/the-boomers-texting-vocabulary/

[goofy]

Some of these etymologies are suspect, for instance gehen, genuine, Liebe, October, orange, Nacht. He's completely wrong about "liberty" and "library".