Fritinancy

Recent writing

It’s been a minute, as they say. Here’s a sampling of what I’ve published on other platforms:

Does Anyone Still Write Letters? (Other Than Me, That Is.) (Medium gift link)

What I Like About American English (An Open Letter to Our Friends Across the Pond) (Medium gift link)

And speaking of American vs. British English, here’s Bamboozled by Bits and Bobs (Substack)

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What you need to know about some trendy words:

Demure

Brat

Weird

Tonic masculinity

Couch-fucker

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I still critique brand names in my “Naming Briefs” series. Here’s the latest, on Macho Flora, Zeteo, and Stratechery.

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Finally, I continue to contribute to the Among the New Words section of American Speech, the quarterly journal of the American Dialect Society. My latest:

Assholocene (PDF)

 

Meet me on Substack

Hello! Whether you’ve landed here by chance or through habit, I welcome you — and suggest that you follow me to where the action is now: on my Substack newsletter. The name is the same, and the content is similar: names, brands, writing, and the language of commerce. But there’s a new look and nifty new features, like Notes and Chat.

Some of what you may have missed:

My tribute to Ilon Specht (1943–2024), the advertising copywriter and creative director who came up with L’Oreal’s long-running slogan, “Because I’m Worth It.”

Why is midi the word — and brand name — of the moment?

Sixt, Solovair, Straedgy, Sway: What do these brand names communicate?

. . . and much more! See you there.

The action's on Substack!

Hello, and welcome to Old Fritinancy — Classic Fritinancy? — the blog I launched in 2006. In August 2023 I made the transition to the Substack platform, where I’m publishing new writing on names, brands, words, and the language of commerce.

Here’s a sampling of what you’ll find on New! Improved! Fritinancy:

Word of the week for April 15: Wankpanzer

Critiques of interesting brand names like Kagi, Aptos, and Sora.

What color is “washed”?

And much, much more! Subscribe to Fritinancy on Substack and read my twice-weekly newsletters, plus Notes (similar to Twitter or Bluesky posts) and recommendations of other terrific Substack newsletters like Caitlin Barrett’s Naming for Everyone, Jack Shepherd’s On Words and Up Words, and Benjamin Dreyer’s A Word About . . .

See you there!

Meanwhile, on Substack...

I’ve made a full transition from this blog to my Substack newsletter, also called Fritinancy. My Leap Day newsletter is a linkfest of branding news, rebranding news, naming news, and assorted items of interest. Read it here.

I also continue to contribute to Medium! Read my two latest stories: 

• The famous Apple “1984” commercial (and why I’ve never bought an Apple product)
• Is there a common meaning of  “common sense”?

Thanks for reading!

 

New writing

If you’ve landed here via search engine, welcome! For the last six months most of my writing has been published on Substack. That’s where you’ll find:

All about Veblen goods (and Thorstein Veblen, for whom they’re named)

Discovering Asian brands at San Francisco’s liveliest shopping center

Critiques of three brand names: Nuvet, TRYP, and Navier

And lots more! Subscribe—it’s free!

I also continue to publish on Medium. Recent stories include:

The triumph of the swears: Why naughty words dominated the Word of the Year vote

It’s been 40 years since Apple’s groundbreaking “1984” ad, and I still haven’t bought a single Apple product

And because squaw is back in the news because Fresno County (California) leaders are refusing to remove the word from a local place name, here’s a gift link to my 2021 story about the valley of the S-word.

You can read all of my Medium stories with an annual membership—just $50—that also gives you access to everything else published on Medium.