Should you spend $1.5 million on a domain? Almost certainly not. As A Hundred Monkeys puts it: “While your emotions should guide you in naming dogs, kids, and boats, they need to take a back seat while you mull over dropping seven figures on a domain.”
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An illustrated glossary of typography terms. (Hat tip: Glen Turpin.)
From Canva.
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Ben Yagoda on jerkery, douchebaggery, geekery, and other evidence of the suffixery trend. (Related: my Pinterest board of names ending in -ery.)
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Megan Garber’s article on scare quotes is almost six months old, but it’s more relevant than ever thanks to a certain Scare-Quoter-in-Chief.
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Always, always check Urban Dictionary first.
Hey guys, remember that one time the Canadian health officials wanted to encourage people to go out in the sun, but screwed up reeaal bad? pic.twitter.com/r867dXOkrO
— Arnar Heiðmar (@ArnarTheWriter) May 12, 2017
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“The loud-mouthed exclamation mark had much quieter origins. In the late 14th Century it was called ‘the point of admiration’; by the 17th it had even become the ‘wonderer’. Welcoming, admiring, thanking and appreciating: these are the angels of the mark’s original usage, ones that might appeal to us haggard late post-moderns.”
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“Donald Trump … is particularly adept at taking words and phrases that deal with power relationships and turning them into their opposite.” Masha Gessen on the language of autocracy.
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This week brought a fresh example of what we naming professionals call a shitmanteau. (More on the fashion phenomenon here.)
@Fritinancy Name taken from Hebrew plural of a previously unrevealed type of celestial being? (Via @BroderickGreer) https://t.co/marcWMnkg0
— John McChesney-Young (@jmccyoung) May 16, 2017
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Brothers, buddies, bros, and portmanbros (like bromance and brogrammer.)
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The linguistics of color names.
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The evolution of ware, from Old English to the wetware, doxware, ransomware, and malware of the digital era.
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Belly wash, soda dope, soft beer, and other regional-U.S. words for sweet, carbonated beverages.
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Bonus link: I have a new post up at Strong Language on shitshow, a word with mysterious origins and almost limitless utility.
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