Top Ten Puns

The pun is a much maligned form of humor. In his seminal work, Wit and Relation to the Unconscious (1917), Sigmund Freud wrote: Puns are generally counted as the lowest form of wit, perhaps because they are cheaper and can be formed with the least effort.” Sounds like the father of psychoanalysis suffers from pun envy. Punsters will counter that if the pun is the lowest form, then it is the foundation of all wit. Known for his razor-sharp wit, comedian Oscar Levant declared: “A pun is the lowest form of humor — when you don’t think of it first.” Take that, Siggy!

The pun is celebrated (and exalted) each year in May at the O. Henry Pun-Off Championships (“Jest for a Wordy Cause”) held in Austin Texas. Punsters from all over the world come to vie for the Punniest of Show and Punslingers. This year 34 contestants will match wits with their pun-ultimate skills.

Whether you scoff, groan or laugh, there is no denying the wit and cleverness of a great pun. The readers of punoftheday.com have voted on their top ten punniest puns:

1. I wondered why baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.
2. I’m reading a book about gravity. It’s impossible to put down.
3. Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He’s all right.
4. It’s not that the man did not know to juggle, he just didn’t have the balls to do it.
5. Einstein developed a theory about space, and it was about time too.
6. I couldn’t quite remember how to throw a boomerang, but eventually it came back to me.
7. There was a sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center that said: keep off the grass.
8. I used to have a fear of hurdles, but I got over it.
9. Police were called to a daycare where a 3-year-old was resisting a rest.
10. He drove his expensive car into a tree and found our how the Mercedes bends.

For futher reading: Get Thee to a Punnery by Richard Lederer, Wyrick (2006).
The Pun Also Rises by John Pollack, Gotham Books (2011). http://www.punpunpun.com/. http://www.sarcasmsociety.com/sarcasm.html. http://www.punoftheday.com

Yosemite

Yosemite is one of the crown jewels in the American national park system. Two of its well-known landmarks, El Capitan and Half Dome, are solid granite, glacier-sculpted towers that rise more than 3,000 feet from the valley floor. Like sentinels, they watch over stunningly beautiful and serene alpine meadows and groves of majestic giant sequoias. However, the name Yosemite has a meaning that is quite the opposite of what the American pioneers had in mind.

Yosemite was the word used by the Paiute and Sierra Miwok peoples to refer to the Indian tribe, the Ahwahneechee, that originally lived in this valley. Yohhe’meti in the Miwok language means “they are killers” referring to the many bloody territorial battles fought by these fearless warriors. The indigenous people called Yosemite Valley Ahwahnee meaning “mouth” because the valley that was flanked by two mountains looked like a bear’s open mouth; and they called themselves Ahwahneechee meaning “dwellers of the mouth.”

Yosemite was eventually discovered by explorers who were venturing west lured by the promise of riches of the California Gold Rush. In 1851, the US Army’s Mariposa Battalion was led by Major Jim Savage (no break for the Miwoks — after dealing with the local “killers,” the white man comes along led by a “savage.”). Traveling with the army was Dr. Lafayette Bunnell who wrote The Discovery of the Yosemite. The leader of the Ahwahneechee tribe, Chief Tenaya, tried to communicate the meaning of the name to Bunnell using sign language: “by the motion of his hands, indicated depth, while trying to illustrate the meaning of name [Ahwahnee], at the same time plucking grass which he held up before me.” Bunnell therefore thought Ahwahnee meant “deep grass valley” but the chief was actually trying to sign “mouth.” The naming issue was further bungled by Major Savage’s misunderstanding of Miwok; he thought that Yosemite meant “grizzly bear” in Miwok. Either way, despite the real or perceived meaning, the pioneers liked the sound of Yohhe’meti. Bunnell concludes: “I then proposed that we give the valley the name of Yo-sem-i-ty, as it was suggestive, euphonious, and certainly American; that by so doing, the name of the tribe of Indians which we met leaving their homes in this valley, perhaps never to return, would be perpetuated.”

And so, each year millions of visitors from all around the world visit a place named after fierce warriors (“they are killers”) thinking that they are visiting a place named after vegetation or animals (“deep grass valley” or “grizzly bear”). For more than 150 years, Bunnell’s mistake lives on.

For further reading: America’s National Parks by Paul Schullery, Dorling Kindersley (2001). www.yosemite.ca.us/library/origin_of_word_yosemite.html. www.wikipedia. 

Paronomasia

Noun. Word play, to pun (using similar sounding words or phrases for humor, ambiguity, or effect). Ironically, the word is often misspelled as “paranomasia” with an “a” rather than the “o.”

Etymology: From the Latin, from Greek paranomasia (“to slightly change the name of something”);  derived from para meaning “beside” and onoma meaning “name.” Although Oxford English Dictionary lists the first usage of paronomasia in 1579, humans have been punning far earlier than that. Egyptian pyramid builders were certainly gluttons for punishment, but after their work, they enjoyed a little pun. According to Egyptologist Geraldine Pinch, many puns can be found in their writings (hieroglyphic writing occurred between 3200 BC to 400 AD): “Many Egyptian words which looked different when written in the hieroglyphic sounded the same when pronounced. This was thought of as a meaningful connection rather than as mere coincidence. Much myth-making arises from puns, such as the story that men (remtj) came from tears (remtj) of the sun god.”

Although the art of punnery is often maligned, it has its share of aficionados. Edgar Allen Poe wrote of pun-envy: “Of puns it has been said that those who most dislike [them] are least able to utter them.” Author James Boswell, who wrote a brilliant biography of lexicographer Samuel Johnson (who was no fan of puns, by the way), opined: “A good pun may be admitted among the small excellencies of lively conversation.” Puns are not only found in lively, witty conversation, they have also found their way into great literary works. William Shakespeare, for example, was a very punny writer. He begins his history play, Richard III (written in 1591), with a pun on the word sun (sun of York/son of York): ”Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York.” 

Lewis Carroll was a master of word play. His famous work, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, demonstrates his keen sense of language — inventing new words and punning playfully. In chapter 9, the Mock Turtle describes his education to Alice: “When we were little we went to school in the sea. [We learned] reeling and writhing, of course, to begin with… and the different branches of Arithmetic — Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision. The Classical master… was an old crab, he was.”

Read related post: Top Ten Puns

For further reading: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition edited by John Simpson and Edmund Weiner, Oxford University Press (1991), http://www.etymonline.com. Magic in Ancient Egypt by Geraldine Pinch (Google Books). Get Thee to a Punnery: An Anthology of Intentional Assaults Upon the English Language by Richard Lederer, Wyrick (2006).

 

Triskaidekaphobia

Noun. Fear of the number 13.

Etymology: From the Greek tris (“three”) and kai (“and”) and deka (“ten”) and phobia (“fear”). The first use of the word was by Isador Coriat’s in his textbook, Abnormal Psychology, in 1910. Triskaidekaphobia is often used to refer to the specific fear of Friday the 13th; however this fear has its own term, more daunting than the aforementioned: paraskevidekatriaphobia. Related: triskaidekaphilia: obsession with the number 13.

Bad luck falling on Friday the 13th is one of the most well-known and enduring superstitions. Nathaniel Lachenmeyer has written the definitive investigation into the number, appropriately titled: 13: The Number of the World’s Most Popular Superstition. There are many explanations about the sources of this superstition, but three are the most common. The first comes from the 16th century, when it was believed that the covens of witches had 13 members. The second is from mythology — the story of Odin. Odin, the chief of the Norse gods, held a banquet in Valhalla for a dozen people. Loki, a trickster giant, showed up as the 13th guest and killed the god Balder to reduce the guest list back to 12. However the source of this story, Lokasenna, contradicts some of these details: the banquet was held by Aegir, there were 18 guests (including Loki), and the murder of Balder did not take place there. The third and most prevalent theory is based on the fact that there were 13th guests at the last supper  – Jesus and 12 disciples. Also, according to the New Testament, the crucifixion occurred on a Friday.

Up until the 20th century, there is no explicit mention of bad luck on Friday the 13th. There are two notable publications: one was an obscure, but heavily promoted, novel by Thomas Lawson, Friday, the Thirteenth (1907), and the other was the publication of a letter in a newspaper, Notes and Queries (1913)  that mentions “the evil luck of Friday the 13th.”

For further reading: 13: The Story of the World’s Most Popular Superstition by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer, Thunder’s Mouth Press (2004). Superstitions by Deborah Murrell, Reader’s Digest (2008). Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 17th Edition by John Ayto, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (2005).

 

Poop Deck

Noun. The highest deck at the stern (rearmost part or aft) of a ship or boat.

Etymology: Much to the dismay of curious children, the nautical term has nothing to do with excrement (from seagulls or any other creatures). The nautical term is derived from the Latin puppis which means stern. A ship is pooped when large waves crash over the stern while the it is running before the wind in a gale. This is a dangerous situation because the ship’s speed is the same as the following sea, that can cause a ship to lose steerage way and becoming uncontrollable. This can lead to the flooding and eventual sinking of the ship. A related phrase, “to be pooped” that means to be exhausted or overcome, is derived from the nautical term.

For further reading: Ship to Shore: A Dictionary of Everyday Words and Phrases Derived from the Sea by Peter James, McGraw Hill (2004). Dictionary of American Slang: 4th Edition edited by Barbard Kipfer, Collins (2007).

 

Bogart

Verb. (1) To keep something all for oneself, especially when others are waiting to share; to monopolize.
(2) variant: bogard. To be belligerent or get something by intimidation

Etymology: The slang term comes from the last name of a famous movie star and cultural icon, Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957), who played the role of the quiet hero. During his career, Bogart appeared in 75 films including High Sierra, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, The Big Sleep, and The African Queen. Although the American Film Institute has ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in American cinema, it took a bunch of pot-smoking hippies from the sixties to recognize that in many of his films, Bogart always kept a cigarette in the corner of his mouth without ever smoking it. This keen observation led to the phrase “Don’t bogart that joint!” — most likely uttered in rooms (or vans) shrouded in smoke, when one person was taking too long to pass a lit joint. The phrase became more mainstream when “Don’t Bogart That Joint, My Friend” was the title of the soundtrack song for the counterculture film, Easy Rider, starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in 1969. The song (orginally titled “Don’t Bogart Me”) was written by Lawrence Wagner (lyrics) and Elliot Ingber (music) and performed by Fraternity of Man for the soundtrack version (the song was later covered by Little Feat).

The second use, spelled “bogard,” is an inner-city slang term also derived from Bogart, but this time the focus is not on the cigarette dangling from his mouth, but rather on his rough, tough exterior and behavior displayed in his iconic movie roles.

Usage: (1) The college boys at the bar were drinking heavily aiming for senseless inebriation until one of them decided to bogart the bottle of wine, drinking it until it was empty. (2) A small but determined fan bogarded his way to the front of the packed line so that he could buy a concert ticket.

Read related post: Casablanca at 70, Casablanca Quotations, The Best Books on Casablanca

For further reading: Dictionary of American Slang by Barbara An Kipfer and Robert Chapman, Collins (2007). Urban Dictionary: Fularious Street Sland Defined by Aaron Peckham, Andrews McMeel Publishing (2005). http://www.artandpopularculture.com/Don%27t_Bogart_Me

Canard

Noun. A false or deliberately misleading story.

Etymology: From the French word canard (duck) and derived from the French expression vendre un canard a moitie (to sell half a duck) that means to swindle a buyer with a false story.

Usage: For years we have all heard the oft-repeated canard of the paperless office; and yet in the age of computers and the Internet — folders, papers, and sticky notes seem to proliferate exponentially on employees’ desks.

For further reading: Je Ne Sai What? A Guide to de riguer Frenglish for Readers, Writers, and Speakers by Jon Winokur, Dutton (1995).

 

What is the longest word in English?

In linguistics, that question is answered by another question: how do you define “word”? A word could be a proper noun (name of a person or a place name), a technical or scientific term, an invented term (usually nonsensical or frivolous — think Mary Poppins and the word that rhymes with “atrocious”), lengthy constuctions (adding prefixes and suffixes to a word) or a compound word (combining several words, for example great-great-grandfather). If we exclude all these (my apologies to all avid logophiles) we arrive at a more sensible question that can be reframed and answered. In other words, what is the longest word we are likely to come across in general reading and writing? If you do not suffer from hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia (the fear of long words), then please read on.

The longest word in:

Common English writing: inappropriateness (17), incomprehensibility (19), uncharacteristically (20), deinstitutionalization (22), counterrevolutionaries (22)

Less common are the words disproportionableness,  incomprehensibilities (both 21)

Old Testament: evilfavouredness, lovingkindness (both 16)

New Testament: covenantbreakers, unprofitableness (both 16)

Works of Shakespeare: anthropophaginian, indistinguishable, undistinguishable (all three 17); incomprehensible (16)
This list excludes Shakespeare’s use of the latin term, honorificabilitudinitas, 27 letters, that appears in Act V, Scene 1 of Love’s Labour’s Lost.

Works of Dickens: incomprehensibility (19) that appears in Little Dorrit and David Copperfield.

The longest word found in dictionaries:

Oxford English Dictionary:
antidisestablishmentarianism (28), floccinaucinihilipilification (29),
pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30)
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45)

Random House Dictionary and Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45)

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary: electroencephalographically,
ethylenediaminetetraacetate (27)

The longest word that contains all vowels (and sometimes y):
Facetiously

The longest word that does not contain any vowels:
Rhythms

Sources: www.artbible.info/concordance; oxforddictionaries.com; www.merriam-webster.com/help/faq/long_words.htm, www.fun-with-words.com/word_longest.html; www.dictionary.reference.com; http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006052431981

http://victorian.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/concordance/dickens/ 

Making the Alphabet Dance by Ross Eckler St. Martin’s Press (1996); Crazy English by Richard Lederer, Pocket Books (1989)

Mondegreen

Noun. A misheard or misinterpreted lyric from a song (or infrequently, a line of poetry) often because an individual cannot make out the words.

Etymology: The word was coined by Slyvia Wright in November 1954 in an article she wrote for Harper’s Magazine titled, “The Death of Lady Mondegreen.” In the article, Wright explains that as a child her mother often read to her from Percy’s Reliques – specifically the ballad “The Bonny Earl O’Moray.” The last line of the ballad reads “And laid him on the green,” which Wright mistakenly heard as “And Lady Mondegreen.” Wright coined a word as a tribute to that childhood memory: “The point about what I shall hereafter call mondegreens, since no one else has thought up a word for them is that they are better than the original.” Cognitive scientist, Steven Pinker might argue about that last part of Wright’s observation, noting that mondegreens “are generally less plausible than the intended lyrics.”

Usage: The most famous mondegreen is attributed to the Manfred Mann’s Earth Band version of “Blinded by the Light” which has the lyric “Blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night” that is almost always misheard as “wrapped up like a douche, another runner in the night.”  Another famous mondegreen is a line from Creedance Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising” that has the lyric: “There’s a bad moon on the rise” that is misheard as “There’s a bathroom on the right.” Christmas music is not immune: everyone knows about “Olive the other reindeer” from Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer (the actual lyric of course is: “All of the other reindeer, used to laugha and call him names.”)

For further reading: When A Man Loves A Walnut and Even More Misheard Lyrics by Gavin Edwards, Fireside (1997). The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker, William Morrow (1994). Brewer’s Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable by John Ayto and Ian Crafton, W&N (2006).

Doryphore

Noun. A person who points out the mistakes of others in an annoying way.

Etymology: From the French for “Colorado beetle” which is based on the Greek word, doruphoros (“spearcarrier”). The word was introduced by Sir Harold Nicolson in 1952 when he wrote: “Often have I tried to supplement my vocabulary by inventing words, such as ‘couth’, or ‘doriphore’, or ‘hypoulic’, feeling that it is the duty as well as the pastime of a professional writer to make two words bloom where only one bloomed before. The doriphore is the type of questing prig, who derives intense satisfaction from pointing out the errors of others.”

Usage: The intern dreaded working for the upscale magazine, surrounded by middle-aged doryphores and know-it-alls.

For further reading: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition edited by John Simpson and Edmund Weiner, Oxford University Press (1991).

 

What are the Most Common Words in English?

Listening to young tweens and teens speak, one might surmise that the word “like” is right at the top. For now, the English language is safe from the crass proliferation of works like, um, “like.” Of course there is no definitive list that accurately accounts for all written and spoken language. Every list must use a defined corpus. According the venerable Oxford English Dictionary that provides the most comprehensive analysis of the written English language at any given time, the ten most common words are: the, be, to, of, and, a, in, that, have, I — in that order. (Tweens can rest assured that their hackneyed filler word is in the top 100, ranked 54th. Speaking of filler words, the most common filler words are: um, err, ah, you know, like.)

Examining a larger corpus of written English, that includes British, American and Australian English, provides the following list: the, of, to, and, a, in, is, it, you, that. 

In the beginning was the Word: the Bible, like a dictionary, is an impressive and enduring corpus. The King James Bible contains 788,258 words of which 14,565 are unique. One might speculate that “Lord” or “God” would in the top ten. However, that is not the case — the ten most common words in the Bible are: and, the, of, that, to, in, he, for, unto, a. “Lord” is ranked 11; “God” is ranked 28.

Jumping into the works of the Shakespeare, whose complete works use a total of 884,647 words (31,534 unique words), an analysis comes up with the following top ten words: the, and, I, to, of, you, a, my, that, in.

The most common words (top ten) in the works of Dickens (about 4.5 million words in the corpus) are: said, no, very, little, man, more, old, now, know, some.

For further reading: OED, www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Popular-Bible-Words.php
www.sporcle.com/games/Sforzando/most-common-words-in-shakespeare
http://math.ucdenver.edu/~wbriggs/qr/shakespeare.html
www.world-english.org/english500.htm
Investigating Dickens’ Style: A Collocational Analysis by Masahiro Hori, Palgrave Macmillan (2004).

Words Invented by Dickens

Dickens was a prolific writer  –  during his career, he wrote 26 major works and hundreds of other minor works, including short stories, sketches, articles, speeches, plays, poetry, and letters. Through his major novels, he introduced the world to hundreds of captivating characters with droll and evocative names — Copperfield, Cratchit, Fezziwig, Havisham, Micawber, Pickwick, Scrooge, Squeers, Turveydrop and Twist to name just a few.

The total number of words used in all of Dickens’s work is an astounding 4.6 million. What the Dickens! No wonder he is the sixth most cited writer (9,218 total citations) in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) right behind Shakespeare, Scott, Chaucer, Milton, and Dryden. As lexicographer Ben Zimmer notes in an engaging and insightful article, the OED lists 258 first-citations (first recorded use) for new words by Dickens, and 1,586 first-citations for the new sense of a word (eg, turning nouns into verbs) by Dickens. Ongoing research by lexicographers now proves that Dickens did not coin all of these words; but as the most-read British author of the 19th century, he certainly introduced many original words and phrases to readers around the world. In effect, Dickens helped these words and phrases become part of the standard English lexicon. Zimmer also cites Eric Partridge’s Slang Today (1933) that focuses on how Dickens masterfully incorporated the slang of the working class and criminal world into his novels. In many cases, Dickens transformed those slang words into acceptable, commonly-used words.

It is interesting to compare the impact of another British author writing some 250 years earlier. The complete works of Shakespeare consists of 884,647 words. With less than 1/5 of the volume of the Dickens corpus, Shakespeare manages to use 31,534 different or unique words — of those, he invented about 1,700 English words and phrases. And unlike many of Dickens’s neologisms, there are no earlier uses recorded for the Bard’s 1,700 contributions to the English language. In other words, Shakespeare did not merely introduce or popularize the words, he irrefutably invented them. Clearly, Shakespeare’s use and mastery of the English language affirms his genius — it has been suggested that the Bard’s vocabulary was 66,534 words (compared with the average vocabulary size of 17,000 words of a modern day college-educated speaker).

Dickens’s contributions to literature and the English language are, nonetheless, indisputable — a testimony to his vivid imagination and linguistic talent; and just like his characters, the words he introduced are remarkably memorable — and shall we say — Dickensian:

Bah Humbug: interjection. An exclamation of irritation or disgust. First appeared in A Christmas Carol (1843).

Boredom: noun. The state of feeling disinterested. First appeared in Bleak House (1852).  (Although the OED cites Dickens as the earliest use, lexicographers have found earlier uses of the word and its variant, boreism)

Bumbledom: noun. Inflexibility, inefficiency or arrogance shown by a petty official. Based on Mr. Bumble, head of a workhouse. First appeared in Oliver Twist (1837).

Chadband: noun. An obsequious hypocrite. Based on Mr. Chadband, a preacher. First appeared in Bleak House (1852).

Dolly Varden: noun. A print dress with large flower pattern and drawn up in loops; a large hat with flowers and one side bent down; a species of trout. First appeared in Barnaby Rudge (1841).

Fagin: noun. Someone who trains children in crime. First appeared in Oliver Twist (1837).

Flummox: verb. To bewilder. First appeared in Pickwick Papers (1836-7). (Although the OED cites Dickens as the earliest use, lexicographers have found earlier uses in obscure works in 1835.)

Gamp: noun. A large umbrella. First appeared in Martin Chuzzlewit (1843)

Ghost of Christmas Past: noun. Something that returns, after a long absence, to remind someone of their forgotten past. First appeared in A Christmas Carol (1843).

Gradgrind: noun. Someone who is hard and cold, interested only in facts and not human emotions. First appeared in Hard Times (1854).

Havisham: noun or adjective. A reclusive woman, a bitter jilted bride. First appeared in Great Expectations (1861).

Heavens: adverb. An intensifier meaning extremely. First appeared in “House to Let: Going into Society,” Household Words (1858).

Marley’s Ghost: noun. Something or someone that returns to haunt a person. Also a person that is held by chains, literally or figuratively. First appeared in A Christmas Carol (1843).

Micawber: noun. A poor person who is optimistic, hoping for a better future. Based on Wilkins Micawber. First appeared in David Copperfield (1849).

Pecksniff: noun and adjective. An ingratiating preachy hypocrite; an individual who interferes in the business of others. First appeared in Martin Chuzzlewit (1843).

Pickwickian: adjective. 1. Marked by simplicity and kindness. 2. Use of an expression meant or understood in an idiosyncratic way so as not to be offensive. Based on Samuel Pickwick. First appeared in The Pickwick Papers (1836).

Podsnappery: noun. An attitude of detached complacency or pompous self-satisfaction and condescension.  Based on John Podsnap. First appeared in Our Mutual Friend (1865).

Rampage: noun. Destructive or violent behavior by person or group. First appeared in Great Expectations (1860).

Red Tape: noun. Excessive regulation that prevents progress. First appeared in Bleak House (1852).

Round the clock: adverb and adjective. All day and all night. First appeared in Bleak House (1852).

Scrooge: noun. A mean, miserly person. Also a person who undergoes a transformation in character (from bad to good). Based on Ebenezer Scrooge. First appeared in A Christmas Carol (1843). For further information read: http://alexanderatkinsdesign.wordpress.com/tag/scrooge-origins/

 

Turveydrop: noun. A person who has manners, but is lazy and vain. Based on Mr. Turveydrop. Based on First appeared in Bleak House (1852).

 

Uriah Heep: noun. A sycophant, a person who is excessively obsequious and insincere, professing to be humble; a sycophant. Based on Uriah Heep, a clerk to Mr. Wickfield. First appeared in David Copperfield (1849).

Read related posts: Scrooge, What the Dickens, What is the longest word in English

For further reading: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition edited by John Simpson and Edmund Weiner, Oxford University Press (1991). Brewers Dictionary of Phrase & Fable edited by John Ayto, Collins Reference (2006). Charles Dickens A to Z by Paul Davis, Facts on File (2012). The Dord, The Diglot, and an Avocado or Two by Anu Garg, Plume (2007). Oxford Reader’s Companion to Dickens edited by Paul Schlicke, Oxford University Press (1994). Statistical Reasoning for Everyday Life, Bennett, Briggs, Triola, Addison Wesley Longman (2002). Investigating Dickens’ Style: A Collocational Analysis by Masahiro Hori, Palgrave Macmillan (2004). Adonis to Zorro: The Oxford Dictionary of Reference and Allusion by Andrew Delahunty and Sheila Dignen, Oxford University Press (2010).
Folger Shakespeare Library, www.folger.edu.
www.urbandictionary.com.
www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/3120/
http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/3465/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocabulary 

Scrooge

Noun: A mean, callous, selfish, money-loving, or miserly person.

Etymology: Charles Dickens introduced Ebenezer Scrooge (and the memorable catchphrase, “Bah, humbug!”) in his classic story of redemption, A Christmas Carol in 1843. A Christmas Carol is the first and best known of the five Christmas books that Dickens wrote. Early in the novel, Scrooge makes quite an impression: “a squeeezing, wrenching, grasping, scarping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint from which no steel had ever struck out a generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.” In short, Scrooge was very much like an Enron trader.

The investigation into the origins of the name Scrooge starts by examining an earlier Dickens novel, The Old Curiosity Shop (1841). “Kit had hit a man on the head with the handkerchief of apples for ‘scrowdging’ his parent with unnecessary violence, and there was a great uproar. (Ch. 39)” According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the word “scrowdging” is a variant spelling of the word “scrouging.” The colloquialsim, “to scrouge” means to crush, screw, squeeze or crowd. The word first appeared in print in 1755 and the OED lists several variants: scroodge, scrooge (Eureka!), scroudge, scrowge, skrouge. The word scrouge can be traced further back to “scruze” or “scruse” (same meaning) that appeared in Spenser’s The Fairie Queene (II, xi) in 1590. Both “scrouge” and “scruze” are derived from the 13th-century Anglo-French word “escorge,” a back formation from the Old French “escorgier” (to whip) and Vulgar Latin “excorrigiare” (out or off+ whip).

Later in A Christmas Carol (Stave Four) as Mrs. Dilbert goes through Scrooge’s belongings after his death, she refers to him as an “old screw,” a slang term for  miser: “If he wanted to keep ‘em after he was dead, a wicked old screw, why wasn’t he natural in his lifetime?” This use reinforces the meaning of scrouge/Scrooge.

The investigation ends by delving into the diaries of Dickens. A prolific author, Dickens routinely collected real names — the usual and unusual — for his novels and short stories. In June of 1841 Dickens had been invited to speak at a dinner held in his honor in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was an avid walker while developing and writing his novels. In keeping with this custom, Dickens decided to walk around the city to clear his mind before his lecture. According to his diaries he happened on the Canongate Kirkyard graveyard where he observed a gravestone that read: “Ebenezer Scroggie , meal man, died 1836.” Dickens misread “meal man” (a corn merchant) as “mean man.” Dickens was taken aback by the frankness of the inscription; he wrote in his diary: “it must have shrivelled Scroggie’s soul to be remembered through eternity only for being mean seemed the greatest testament to a life wasted.” 

Ebenezer Lennox Scroogie was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife. His mother was the niece of the economist Adam Smith. Scroogie found great success as a grain merchant, vintner, and town councillor. Ironically, Scroogie was more Fezziwig than Scrooge. He was wealthy; however, Scroogie was well known for his generosity, jovial disposition, and gluttony (he had a child out of wedlock with a servant and he interrupted the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland by grabbing the buttocks of Countess of Mansfield during a lively debate). Great Scot! Sadly, the graveyard that inspired one of the most famous characters in literature was lost when the graveyard in Edinburgh was redeveloped in 1932.

Incidentally, the name “Ebenezer” is a combination of two Hebrew words (Even “stone”+  Haezer “help”) that mean “stone of help.”  Indeed, the name Ebenezer Scrooge, thanks to the serendipitous connection between Dickens and Scroogie, is a devilish oxymoron that cleverly mirrors the protagonist’s contrasting dispositions at the outset and conclusion of the novel.

Thus, for over 150 years, Scrooge has stood proudly in the pantheon of well-known, influential people who never lived (joining among others: Don Quixote, Ahab, Hamlet, and Sherlock Holmes) due to his ubiquitous presence — particularly during the holidays — in film, theatre, and literary adaptations. A life, no doubt, that Dorian Gray would have envied.

For further reading: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition edited by John Simpson and Edmund Weiner, Oxford University Press (1991). Charles Dickens A to Z by Paul Davis, Facts on File (1998). The Annotated Christmas Carol by Michael Patrick Hearn, Norton (2004). 101 of the Most Influential People Who Never Lived by Allan Lazar, et al, Bristol Park Books (2006).
www.etymonline.com. Dickens diaries: http://www.dickenslive.com/1841.shtml
http://scotlandsgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-carol-scrooge-or-scroggie.html

Schadenfreude

Noun. The enjoyment derived from someone else’s misfortune.

Etymology: From the German, Schaden (“harm”) and Freude (“joy”). Long before the birth of tabloid journalism and the advent of the gossip-rich internet, the word was introduced around the end of the 19th century. Apparently, Germans found a new way to feel good about themselves and needed a word for it. Despite its spelling and harsh pronunciation, the word has no relation to the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, who, no doubt, would have greatly appreciated the word and the underlying neurosis it implies.

Usage: The suburban family, content with their modest lifestyle, experienced a delicious and satisfying sense of Schadenfreude while watching an episode of the Kardashians — a family that is brings narcissism and dysfunctionality to an entirely new level.

For further reading: You’ve Got Ketchup on Your Muumuu: An A-to-Z Guide to English Words from Around the World by Eugene Ehrilich, Henry Holt (2000).

The Most Googled Words

Since the Internet is so incredibly dynamic, the most Googled words change from time to time (this is independent of trending that is everchanging on an hour-by-hour basis). However, several wordwatchers have compiled list that reflect consistent trends for the past year. According to Factoidz, the top five most Googled words in 2011 were: Facebook (over 25 billion searches), YouTube (over 6 billion seraches), Yahoo (over 6 billion), Google (over 5 billion, although Googling “Google” seems a bit tautologous), and finally, so as not to disappoint the prurient segment of modern society, Sex (over 4 billion).

What a difference a year makes: while internet users were obessessed with social networks in 2011, way back in 2010, they were more concerned with the fundamental issues in life. In October of 2010, Oprah presented her list of the most Googled words. According to her staff, the top Googled words were: Money, Sex, Love, and Weight. Coincidentally, these seem to align with the focus of most of Oprah’s programming and not surprisingly high ratings tied to those subjects (proving once again that Googling skills — and not creativity — are essential to achieve high ratings).

For further reading: What Are the Most Googled Words on Google by Rown Casey, Factoidz.com. What’s the Most Googled Word? by Rachel Eichenbaum, SnapStream TV Search.com.

Bonfire

Noun. A large fire in the open air for celebrating an event, burning rubbish, or used for signalling.

Etymology: There is a mistaken belief that bonfire is a hybrid word from the French word “bon” (meaning good) and the word “fire.” However, the modern spelling of bonfire leaves out the all important “e” — as in bonefire. The word was first used in 1475 describing a fire made from bones. 

For further reading: Unfortunate English by Bill Brohaugh, Writer’s Digest Books (2006).

Bildungsroman

Noun. Literally, formation novel. A novel that focuses on an individual’s coming-of-age. 

Etymology: From the German Bild (“picture or image”) and roman (“novel”).

Usage: After reading so many dull period novels back to back, the high school student was eager to read an engaging bildungsroman like Catcher in the Rye or A Separate Peace on her Apple iPad. (Apologies for the shameless product endorsement).

For further reading: Roget’s Thesaurus of Words for Intellectuals by David Olsen, Michelle Bevilacqua, and Justin Hayes, Adams Media (2011) and OED.

Obstreperous

Adjective. Noisy, excessively loud or unruly.

Usage: The plane passenger was so annoyed at the obstreperous tweens sitting two rows ahead, that he was prepared to race to the emergency door, release the hatch, and jump out at 30,000 feet. OMG!

For further reading: The Book of Hard Words by David Bramwell, Adams Media (2008).

Pixilated

Adjective. Confused, bewildered. Slang: drunk.

Usage: The child felt pixilated after watching four 3D Pixar movies back to back without a single break.

For further reading: The Word Museum by Jeffrey Kacirk, Touchstone (2004).

Pangram

Noun. A sentence that contains all the letters of the alphabet.

Usage: The students were utterly bored after typing the same pangram, “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” for an entire hour.

For further reading: Foyle’s Philavery: A Treasury of Unusual Words by Christopher Foyle, Chambers (2007).

Philtrum

Noun. The verticle groove on the median line of the upper lip. From the Greek Philtron (dimple in upper lip).

Usage: I couldn’t concentrate on what the actor was saying because I was distracted by his very prominent philtrum.

For further reading: Thingamajigs and Whatchamacallits: Unfamiliar Terms for Unfamiliar Things by Rod Evans, Perigree Books (2011).