Solstice greetings to all! Here’s a sampling of my recently published writing:
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Names of the year for 2024 (Moo Deng, Shohei Ohtani, Piper, and more)
Words of the year for 2024 (BlueAnon, snoafer, X-odus, and more)
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A few additional words of interest:
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When the artisan is artificial (Medium gift link)
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See you in 2025!
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Hello again! Here’s some recent writing of mine that you may have missed:
Just Add “Just”: The Four-Letter Word That’s All Over Supermarket Shelves and Advertising Copy (Medium gift link)
Skippin’ Like a Dipshit: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz brings a “folksy” profanity into the spotlight (Strong Language blog)
Mavis Beacon: How the Betty Crocker of software got her name (Substack)
Some notable words of the week:
Reviews of the new brand names TRONQUE and PLONTS.
And a review of Gobsmacked!: The British Invasion of American English.
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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.
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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.
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!
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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:
Thanks for reading!
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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
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.
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Happy almost-2024! I've got some new writing on Substack:
And here’s a friend link to my recently published Medium story: “How to Enjoy Going to the Movies.”
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In case you aren’t following me on the splintered social-mediascape*, here are links to two recent pieces I’ve published on Medium and my bloggish new home, Substack:
LinkedIn Is Actually Fun Now (no, really!)
On Collaboration (and old folks who swim the English Channel)
You can subscribe to my Substack for free, and my posts will arrive in your inbox, RSS feed, or Substack app with zero ads. How nice is that? Very nice.
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* Bluesky, Mastodon, Instagram, Threads (app only for now), LinkedIn. And I still maintain a ghostly presence on Xitter, pronounced Shitter.
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Brand new from the Fritinancy family of fine wordcraft products: Fritinancy, the Substack newsletter!
The tl;dr: After 17 years of blogging, and of increasing dissatisfaction with the Typepad platform, I’m ready to try something different. I’m pivoting—gradually, slowly—to newsletters.
I’m looking forward to a new, more flexible format for writing and for reading. I’m looking forward to continuing some fan favorites (word of the week, words of the year, linkfests) and experimenting with new subject matter. I’m also intrigued by Notes, a Substack feature that permits short-form comments and links. A replacement for Xitter? Maybe!
You can read the newsletter on your phone, your laptop, your desktop, or the convenient Substack app. (The app is one of the primary reasons I decided to make the switch.)
In addition to the introductory post, I’ve also published three additional posts, including one about a proposal to change the name of the Oakland airport and one that explains the Fritinancy name. Check them all out here. Subscriptions are free (for now), so please sign up.
My long-term plan is to gradually phase out blog posts in favor of writing on other platforms (Substack and Medium, maybe others). But not to worry: the whole 17-year blog archive will remain here for your pleasure and reference. And yes, I intend to continue publishing on Medium until further notice.
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Yes, I’m writing about Twitter again. (Or as I call it now, Xitter, pronounced Shitter. Thank you, James Fallows.) This time I’m poking my s’more fork into the dumpster fire that is that company’s new tagline, introduced abruptly and ill-advisedly last weekend. Read all about the inane “Blaze your glory!” [sic].
My previous Twitter-now-X story is here.
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