Fritinancy

Word of the week: Triplex

What does triplex mean to you? And how do you pronounce the word?

Until last week, it wouldn’t have occurred to me to ask those questions. A triplex, I would have told you with full confidence, is any three-unit residence on a single lot. It could be three units in a single building; a “big house” plus a duplex in the back; or three side-by-side units of equal or varying sizes.

My Platonic ideal of a triplex, in the Los Angeles neighborhood where I grew up (Miracle Mile). Big main unit upstairs, two smaller units downstairs.

 

And of course it’s pronounced TRY-plex, from Latin roots meaning “threefold.” The first syllable, I was certain, is the same tri- as in triangle, trinomial, trilateral, tripod, trimester, triathlon, tricycle, trisomy, triad, trisect, and Triceratops. The same long vowel as the du- in duplex, the two-unit variation.

I am not, it turns out, entirely wrong. But in many parts of the US and Canada, I am far from right.

March linkfest

NASA has renamed a facility in West Virginia after Katherine Johnson, the mathematician whose story was told in the book and and subsequent film Hidden Figures. Johnson, who was born in West Virginia, will turn 101 in August.

Katherine Johnson. Source

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You can help name some newly discovered moons of Jupiter, but only you follow some restrictive rules. The name “must be 16 characters or fewer, preferably one word. It can’t be offensive, too commercial, or closely tied to any political, military or religious activities of the past 100 years.” And that’s just the beginning. (Hat tip: Chris Labarthe.)

January linkfest

You’re probably heard of babies named after brands: Porsche, Chanel, Armani, and, lest we forget, Tiffany. Now the Baby Name Wizard blog tells us about three baby names from the 1980s and 1990s that were inspired by TV advertising.

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On the other hand, you could name your offspring after a tech company or product. You wouldn’t be alone. (CNBC)

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It’s the last call for words of the year for 2018: Lynne Murphy pronounces “MSM” the US-to-UK WotY and “whilst” its UK-to-US equivalent. (I may have had something to do with the latter selection.) Over at his Not One-Off Britishisms blog, Ben Yagoda takes the measure of whilst.

August linkfest

Years ago, I named the world’s first “bidirectional” condom, so this story really spoke to me:

Diverse & Resilient, an LGBTQ organization in Milwaukee, decided to do something about the bland branding of free condoms. So it partnered with a local marekting agency, Cramer Krasselt, to create Naughty Bags, condoms designed by teens for teens. According to Adweek, the condoms are made “to be sex-positive, humorous, and cool” and feature “witty names like Pork Parka, Pelvic Poncho, Scuba Gear, Surge Protector and—our favorite—Papa Stopper.” Brilliant – in every sense.

To nape, perchance to dream

Welcome to another installment of “Brands That Don’t Understand English Vowel Sounds”! Our subject today comes courtesy of David Lloyd Clubs, established in 1982 and headquartered in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK, so unfamiliarity with the language is most likely not an excuse. The company calls itself “Europe’s premier racquets and fitness provider,” but the new class it announced last week is especially tailored for people who prefer to get fit without actually moving around. This is what it’s called:

 

Name in the news: Oath

“Broadly speaking,” Winston Churchill may or may not have said*, “short words are best, and old words when short are the best of all.” With Oath, the name of the new division that will house AOL and Yahoo’s media and business-to-business properties after those two companies merge, parent company Verizon gets a twofer: short and old.

 

The name was revealed in a cryptic tweet from AOL CEO Time Armstrong on Tuesday afternoon: “Billion+ Customers, 20+ Brands, Unstoppable Team. #TakeTheOath. Summer 2017.” Twitter predictably piled on, not without justification. But I solemnly pledge to give the new name a fair hearing.

Name in the news: Werowocomoco

Last November the film director and winemaker Francis Ford Coppola opened a new restaurant in Geyserville (Sonoma County). It has an unusual menu for a California Wine Country restaurant, or indeed any California restaurant: fry bread tacos, venison chili, rotisserie prairie chicken, pine ice cream. It’s located inside a winery with a historic name: Virginia Dare. And then there’s the six-syllable name of the restaurant itself: Werowocomoco.

What’s the story?

Not Native American: “American Native.”

Name in the News: Bentayga

At the Frankfurt Motor Show this week, Bentley Motors, a wholly owned subsidiary of Volkswagen since 1998, unveiled its first SUV, the Bentayga. Bentley has already sold out the full first-year production – 3,500 vehicles – of the $229,100 (base price), 600-horsepower behemoth. Buyer #1 was Queen Elizabeth II, who reportedly will use the vehicle for her hunting expeditions in Scotland. Tally ho!

2017 Bentayga via Car and Driver.

July Linkfest

Your counterintuitively spelled business name of the month is QuiQui.me. It’s so bad, writes Domain Name Wire, that “the company includes the pronunciation in its logo.” Reminds me of Nyoombl.

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How an artist brought an obscure 17th-century word, “parbunkells,” back to life.

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May Linkfest

Trademark

“When Simon Tam dropped out of college in California and moved to Portland, Ore., to become a rock star, the last tangle he imagined falling into was a multiyear battle with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office over his band’s name.” The trademark tussle over “The Slants,” which the USPTO has deemed “disparaging” and thus ineligible for protection. (For a more technical perspective, see this Brent Lorentz post at Duets Blog.)

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“Your mission statement shouldn’t necessarily be the same thing as your trademark.” Trademark lawyer Jessica Stone Levy on why companies should think twice before registering names like Food Should Taste Good and WannaBettaButt?

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“Falling in love with an internal development name prior to completing a full trademark search and legal review is one of the most common problems companies encounter.” Trademark lawyer Tara Benson on avoiding trademark pitfalls. 

 

Science

What is the Moon’s real name? (Hat tip: Michele Hush.)

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Look for more alphanumeric names like H1N1: The World Health Organization gets tough on disease-naming. 

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Profanity

“You go to their Twitter profile: ‘I’m passionate about brands!’ You’re what? Dude, get a fucking girlfriend.” Veteran adman Bob Hoffman on why we’re living in the golden age of bullshit in advertising and marketing. (Video)

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How and why Lexicon, one of the world’s most influential branding and naming agencies, developed its first iPhone app: a profanity checker.

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“Though badass is historically associated with male pugnacity, perhaps the most striking change is that the word is now often used by and about women.” Jesse Sheidlower—a lexicographer and author of The F Word—tracks the history and soaring popularity of an all-purpose descriptor. (I wrote about badass in brand names in 2012.)

 

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Words and Language

“Webster was a visionary—even a radical—so far ahead of his time, in fact, that grammar and style guides are only now catching up with him.” Linguist Rosemarie Ostler on why Noah Webster, “the founding father of American English,” would have loved Urban Dictionary. (Hat tip: MJF.)

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The strange charm of cutthroat compounds like pickpocket, scarecrow, and, well, cutthroat: Stan Carey on these rare English words “that have a long, colourful history and constitute a very interesting category.” (I wonder how the newish fondleslab fits in?)

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Dictionary.com—offices right here in Oakland!—is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Its latest additions to the word-hoard include anecdata, microaggression, haptics, and a couple of Fritinancy favorites: dox and astroturfing.

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Taglines

“Finding a quick description that was also consumer friendly was exceedingly difficult. But when the founders did come up with the right tagline, the effort was well worth it: ‘The moment we started using the right language, it was like night and day.’ How the right tagline helped turn luxury-products company Cuyana around.

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Baby names

The 2014 Social Security Administration stats on baby names are out, and the Baby Name Wizard blog has discovered some interesting trends in the data. The biggest trend? What naming expert Laura Wattenberg calls “the great smoothing of American baby names”: goodbye “chunky” names (Jayden, Jessica), hello “silky,” vowel-rich names (Amanda, Mia, Noah, Liam).

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Speaking of popular names, here’s a fun tool to discover what your “today baby name” would be, based on the ranking of your own name in the year you were born. The tools works backward too: If I’d been born in the 1890s, chances are I’d have been named Minnie. More than a time-waster, the tool can be a big help in character-naming. (May take a while for the tool to load.)

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Advertising

“She originally went by Flo White, then Lord of the Strings. She eventually settled on the Period Fairy. It was more straightforward.” A new ad from category-busing Hello Flo, which sells a Period Starter Kit to adolescent girls.

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Errata

Which words are most commonly misspelled? Readers of the Lingua Franca blog speak up.

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A new plaque at AT&T Park honoring San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner commits two punctuation errors (apostrophe, hyphen) in the first line. Another reminder, as if we needed one, that it pays to hire a proofreader before casting that encomium in bronze.

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Name of the Year

Which will it be: Lancelot Supersad, Jr., or Amanda Miranda Panda? There’s still time to cast your vote.