Lexicographer at large
Lexicographer at large

Sue Butler AO

 
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LATEST BLOG

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Callithumpian

Jeremy Butterfield, UK editor, in his latest blog produced a list of words from the OED with the suffix -arian.  Among them was the amusing anythingarian which he defines: anythingarian (before 1704; a person who has no fixed set of moral or religious beliefs).

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New words

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prediction market

Although I was unfamiliar with the term, I realised that I was quite familiar with the activity.  One early example of a prediction market was the popular pursuit of betting on who would emerge from a papal conclave as the next Pope.  That was banned in 1591.

ZG: 8

The surging popularity of this form of gambling has brought it to our attention.

boy kibble

It seems that young people all go through a stage where they no longer have the family to sustain them but on the other hand they have neither the time nor the skills to cook for themselves.  This results in a poor diet. 

ZG: 4

The age group for whom this is relevant is certainly quite familiar with it.

MIND diet

It’s been a while since we had a new fashionable diet.  This one is a reworking of the Mediterranean diet —  lots of veggies and nuts, a bit of fish and poultry all slathered in olive oil.

ZG: 5

I think that this diet is getting some air time at the moment.

Usage matters

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exuberant and exorbitant

An interviewee on ABC radio commented on the exuberant taxes that added to the difficulties that farmers faced.  The notion of an exuberant tax was new to me (I would much prefer a demure and unassuming tax) but I find that confusion between exuberant and exorbitant has been happening for a while and grammar guides routinely comment on it.

nonplussed

A website correspondent reported an odd use of nonplussed in the Guardian newspaper. It seemed to mean ‘unfazed’.

monthslong

I wondered if alot had gained any kind of respectability in the dictionary world so I checked the Oxford English Dictionary. There it was!

Sue at TEDxSydney

"There are those who want the dictionary to censor aspects of language that they deem to be unsavoury or undesirable. But language moves on."

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Sue on the ABC's The Link

"I think with blasphemy you are actually going back to the 1600s where if you took the name of God in vain, that would produce the kind of strong reaction that we have to taboo words today.

Those sorts of taboos are losing their force and the F word, I think, would be regarded as still an emphatic colloquialism, but a colloquialism, not a taboo word."

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