Tag Archives: language

“The idea of me calling this guy a ‘queen’ and that being something that people thought is homophobic, a queen to me has a different meaning. It’s somebody who’s just above. It doesn’t have any necessarily sexual connotations. To me a queen – I know women that act queeny, I know men that are straight that act queeny, and I …

Click over to the actual site because this massive map is so detailed that the above screen-grab is pretty useless. Hundreds of interactive links on the map will take you to celebrity pronunciation examples found on YouTube. I’ve always found the Brooklyn-New Orleans accent connection interesting. Goodbye, morning. (Tipped by JMG reader Sean)

Buzzfeed today posts a number of maps that note where some terms are more widely-used than others. 

Via email from Marriage Equality Ireland: “Hi Joe, It’s Irish Language Week here in Ireland (aka ‘Seachtain na Gaeilge’) and I thought your readers might enjoy learning how to say ‘I support marriage equality… do you?’ in Irish.”  Can we get a phonetic pronunciation, Irish readers?

The US Census will no longer ask citizens if they consider themselves to be “Negro.” The description has come to be viewed as outdated and even offensive by many people in the black community, officials say, so the bureau will reduce the options to “black” or “African-American.” The agency will include the new language next year in its annual American …

For the last week the LGBT blogosphere has been battling the Associated Press over a direction to  their reporters that they should not automatically refer to people in legal same-sex marriages as “husband” or “wife.”  I left the story alone because I figured the AP would immediately correct such as obviously wrong position. Today they finally did. Here’s the new …

The New York Times yesterday noted our movement’s growing alphabet soup of abbreviations, which some say is necessary because of the young people that just “don’t identify along the LGBT spectrum.” After telling the stories of several gender non-conforming college students, the piece concludes: If history is any guide, the age gap won’t be so easy to overcome. As liberated …

    Yesterday former Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears took on his one-time collaborator Azealia Banks over her “faggot” attack on Perez Hilton.  GLAAD also responded yesterday on their blog: Our society knows that “fa**ot” is a derogatory word for gay men, and in this case it was used to attack someone in a very public altercation with hundreds of …

The above tweet from hip-hop/dance artist Azealia Banks came after this: US rapper Azealia Banks has defended calling the US entertainment blogger Perez Hilton a faggot during a Twitter argument. The argument began after Hilton posted a criticism of Banks’s feuds with other artists. She then called him “dickbreath” and told him to “gobble a dick”. Hilton told Banks, who …

A few years ago local business leaders began calling the area south of downtown Orlando “Sodo.” There’s now a giant shopping center and an apartment complex that bears the name. I can’t make too much fun of that, after all, Brooklyn now has RAMBO (Right Around Manhattan Bridge Overpass). Manhattan now has MiSo (Midtown South).  And let us not forget …

Merriam-Webster has issued a list of the year’s top ten most searched for definitions on their website. The first two words are tied. 1. socialism and capitalism 2. touché 3. bigot 4. marriage 5. democracy 6. professionalism 7. globalization 8. malarkey 9. schadenfreude 10. meme I’m guessing we had something to do with #3 & #4.

“The AP, whose guidelines set news industry standards, defines phobia as an ‘irrational, uncontrollable fear, often a form of mental illness.’  But the ‘mental illness’ part is surely too literal – no one accuses arachnophobes of needing an asylum. The term homophobia was first used in the 1960s when psychologists began to notice how vehement their own colleagues’ reactions were …

In an update to their style guide for reporters, today the Associated Press officially discouraged the usage of the word “homophobia.”  The update reads: phobia An irrational, uncontrollable fear, often a form of mental illness. Examples: acrophobia, a fear of heights, and claustrophobia, a fear of being in small, enclosed spaces. Do not use in political or social contexts: homophobia, …

It takes 3.5 hours to say and listening to this guy is almost hypnotic. Some compare this clip to hearing a religious chant. Note that he could not complete the reading in one take (despite the advancing clock on the wall).

Last month the BBC published an article noting that many Britishisms have recently come into (relatively) common usage in the United States.  A follow-up article this week lists some of the words BBC readers are hearing more frequently from Yanks.  Here’s just a few of them: bloody, bum, chav, cheeky, flat, frock, gobsmacked, kit, loo, queue, row, shag, skint, sussed.  …

The Weather Channel announces: During the upcoming 2012-13 winter season The Weather Channel will name noteworthy winter storms. Our goal is to better communicate the threat and the timing of the significant impacts that accompany these events. The fact is, a storm with a name is easier to follow, which will mean fewer surprises and more preparation. In addition to …

No Homophobes provides live tracking of the above words and expressions on Twitter.

The final tally from 2011 is out. Gothamist has the list of girls’ names too. Looks like there’ll be thousands of Jaydens in the class of 2028.

1. Inbox2. Photobomb3. Lolz4. Tweeps5. Vajazzle6. Hat tip7. Video chat8. Ridic9. Lifecasting10. Hackathon Seems to be a trend here. Other new entries.