Lexical Fun

These are some neologisms from Cat's History of the English Language book (Dr. Stewart pointed out that the class had a really long name and that he would not be offended if students only pronounced the capital letters). Anyway, neologism means a newly coined word. These were from Britain, on a BBC Radio thing.

bagonize - to wait anxiously for your suitcase to appear on the baggage carousel

circumtreeviation - the tendency of a dog on a leash to want to walk past poles and trees on the opposite side to its owner.

polygrouch - someone who complains about everything.

kellogulation - what happens to your breakfast cereal when you are called away by a 15-minute phone call, just after you pour milk on it. (^ happens to Cat a lot)

hicgap - the time that elapses between when hiccups go away and when you suddenly realize that they have.

And for your further enjoyment, Dr. Stewartisms:

Overtime repeated syllables (such as in Englaland) are dropped out of words (leaving you with England). "This process is called haplology. Rather ironic - it has been suggested to change it to haplogy, and I can't say I disagree."

In reference to silent "e"s like the ones found in "change" or "dance" that are not pronounced but instead give clues about how another letter should be pronounced. ". . . these funny little 'e's that only tell you about their neighbor - gossips I'd call them."

"This is your vowel space." Pause, looks at the class. "This is your vowel space on Great Vowel Shift." Goes back to the chalkboard.

Some people in the class still haven't gotten that he's not entirely serious and they write these down. Cat writes them down, but for a different reason.

In other news, Cat is choosing her play this weekend for directing class. She has two she likes. She has to time them out and then pick one. Both of them are funny, so I think either one is a good choice.

Due to a siege in their other game, Traveller is being delayed. Though they do have their new ship picked out (it's called the Oleander) and Gabe's the Marquis de Megalmatree, which is pretty awesome. Megalmatree is the name of the main planet he owns. Pretty cool. In addition to the Marquis, the ship is staffed with it's designer, a scout, a female telekinetic engineer, a slightly shady lawyer and comm officer, and a gunner. Also around is Gabe's character's son and apprentice trader and two deckhands. They have cargo and a trade route, but further play is on hold. You'll have to wait to hear more about that.

Also to note - Cat is going to Chicago this weekend with Shelly. Shelly has to go look at something in a library or something. Snibbs and I are going to tag along (he's going on about manuscripts or something, I just like seeing our friends at home). It should be a good time.