November Linkfest

From A-bomb to to zoom: the Weed Blog’s extensive—indeed, staggering—lexicon of slang terms for marijuana. (I discussed one of those terms, 420, in a post published earlier this week.)

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Speaking of specialized lexicons, check out The D.C. Manual of Style and Usage, Washington City Paper’s entertainingly written and copiously illustrated guide. One of my favorite entries: “Blelvis: A portmanteau of ‘black’ and ‘Elvis.’ Refers exclusively to D.C.’s mostly elusive, semifamous busker; he likely never uses the words ‘portmanteau’ and ‘busker,’ but he can sing every song in the Elvis Presley catalog.” Also: “Hipster. A term that is somehow both loaded and meaningless. If you feel compelled to use it, talk to an editor.”

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The new first-person-shooter game Destiny, released in September, features a huge arsenal of weapons, and I can only imagine the brainstorming sessions that produced names like Praedyth’s Revenge, Pocket Infinity, Strange Suspect, and the excellent Doctor Nope. The Australian game-review site Kotaku provides a ranking of all 74 names. (Via Our Bold Hero.) IGN lists the weapons by category (pulse rifles, fusion rifles, rocket launchers, etc.).

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An “ally” is what British soldiers in Afghanistan call “a battlefield fashionista--desirables include having a beard, using a different rifle, carrying vast amounts of ammunition, being dusty and having obscene amounts of tattoos and hair.” A “crow” is a new soldier recently out of training. From a guide to Afghanistan battlefield slang published by BBC News. (Via Language Hat.)

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You had me at “you had me at”: Ben Yagoda on the post-Jerry Maguire life of a meme.

 

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If you’re curious about the origins of Toyota model names, this CarScoops explainer is a reasonable starting point. The Camry got its name from Japanese kanmuri, meaning “crown”; the Supra is a direct borrowing from Latin (“above”). But this story about the Yaris made me wonder: “Yaris is an amalgamation of words from Greek mythology and German. In Greek mythology, ‘Charis’ was a symbol of beauty and elegance. Toyota swapped the ‘Ch’  with ‘Ya’ – German for ‘yes’ – to symbolise the perceived reaction of European markets to the car’s styling.”

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The predictably zany stories of how some British ad agencies—Doofer, tenthree, A Large Evil Corporation, and others got their names.

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Tom Magliozzi, co-host of NPR’s long-running “Car Talk,” died November 3 at 77. In his honor, here’s a link to one of my favorite features of the show: the punny staff credits, from sculling coach Rose Dior to assistant disciplinarian Joaquin D’Planque. (Via Henry Fuhrmann.)

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Cherpumple? So 2010. A Houston bakery’s pumpecapple piecake (pumpkin + pecan + apple) is this year’s turducken of desserts. (Via Barry Popik.)

Image via Houston Eater.

 

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Five contemporary authors tell how they titled their books. (My own semi-facetious take on book titling here.)

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And speaking of novels: “Can’t get a deal for that novel manuscript? Try ad agencies. Young & Rubicam commissioned Booker award-nominated novelist William Boyd to tell any story he wanted as long as it featured a Land Rover vehicle.” By Ad Broad, who calls herself “the oldest working writer in advertising.”

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From veteran name developer David Placek, founder of Lexicon Branding, some tips to help startups avoid making naming mistakes. First piece of advice: The name “doesn’t have to be clever. It just has to communicate.” And, adds Placek, stop it already with the -ly names. Yep. 

 

Comments

[SistaRay]

If you would like to know more about how the Yaris got its name, you could ask @NOMEN_naming - I believe that German naming agency Nomen came up with the name: Here is a link to part of their portfolio. And while German Ja has a different spelling, the pronunciation is close enough.

(Full disclosure: I used to do some free-lancing for them eons ago.)

[Karen]

Speaking of Tom Magliozzi, here's Jan Freeman's reprint of her Globe column about "dope slap": http://throwgrammarfromthetrain.blogspot.com/2014/11/in-memory-of-tom-gimme-dope-slap-source.html

[Diana Barry Blythe]

I wonder why the writers on the city paper assume "Blelvis" likely never uses those two words. That idea seems a bit presumptuous.