7x7 (12. 076)

primordial soup and son of soup: Dirty Feed’s 2024 wrapped  

mobile ui: top neglected App Store add-ons of the year  

merriam-webster defines: polarisation has been selected as the Word of the Year for 2024—with runner-ups including pander, resonate, demure and allision for when that container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March  

survive ’til 25: Mrs Claus’ strategies for making it through Christmas  

fallout: a tour of the Soviet-era nuclear shelters of the Prague subway  

the late set: a year of jazz discoveries  

starbug: a to scale model of the shuttle from Red Dwarf

synchronoptica

one year ago: The Poseidon Adventure (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth revisiting

seven years ago: more links to enjoy, the adoration of words plus a comprehensive and inclusive eye-chart

eight years ago: the centenary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, even more links, Batman’s gadgets plus Iceland to oust the US FBI

nine years ago: delightful small towns around the world

ten years ago: Santa’s sweat shops plus hypervelocity stars

ampel aus (12. 067)

The Committee for the German Language (Gesellschaft füe deutsche Sprache—see below) has announced its Wort des Jahres for 2024 as a nod to the collapse of the Red, Yellow, Green party coalition in the government and the call for snap-elections, but there were several other words being monitored as contenders, including Klimaschönfäberei—essentially the German rendering of “green-washing,” kriegstüchtig, war-like, Rechtsdrift, a shift to more conservative and populist politics, die Selbstbestimmung in Bezug auf den Geschlechtseintrag (abbreviated SBGG), a update to the outdated 1980 law on transgender identity enacted in November that allows non-binary individuals to register under a new first name and sex without the bureaucratic onus and Messerverbot, in reference to a few incidents of knife-attacks at public events earlier in the year and the response of authorities.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica), the spelling of Christmas and Hanukkah plus Germany’s Word of the Year

seven years ago: the fraught and racist history of square-dancing, net-neutrality under threat plus a catalogue of spomenik of the former Yugoslavia

nine years ago: a real world copy of the Simpsons’ home

ten years ago: the historical Snow White plus the History of the World in 100 Objects 

eleven years ago: decorating for Christmas, spies in the skies plus the languages of Switzerland

 

now chitans are a type of molluscs that nature uses to bedazzle things like rocks and shells (12 059)

Courtesy of Ms Cellania, we are afforded the opportunity to to catch up on our intrepid science presenter Ze Frank (see previously) with his surprise invitation to join the taxonomical committee of Frankfurt’s Senkenberg Ocean Species Alliance and his humorous tour (to find out if the offer was legitimate or a hoax) of the facility with an introduction to its scientific mission to describe and catalogue the overwhelming understudied forms of life under the waves. Frank will serve on the committing naming newly discovered species and certainly brings a lot to the table and reminded us of this impressive oratory feat in classifying the sea shell of North American beaches.

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: The Final Countdown (1986—with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: a private spy network, medical marijuana in Italy plus the philosophy of ikigai

eight years ago: the Château d’Aubiry plus repurposing love-locks

nine years ago: Æsop’s Fables

eleven years ago: non-English tongue twisters, Snowden’s home town plus infographic native advertising

merriam-webster defines (12. 050)

The lexicographers present another treasury of obscure words whose utility is delightfully questionable in many cases and at times borders on the linguistic equivalent of unuselessness. There were classics ultracrepidarian—opining or operating outside one’s scope of practice, and the derived terms serendipitist and anecdotage but moreover a lot of choice vocabulary that was new to us, like novercal, pertaining to or characteristic of stepmother (without an equivalent word for stepfathers, the opposite of avuncular, of uncles, with no term for aunts), an amatorcultist, “a little insignificant love—a pretender to affection,” useful to describe one’s worst ex, neighbourstained, hopefully never to be in one’s quiver (see also), backspang, a Scottish term for a loophole that allows one to back out of a deal and antihalian, a humbug, one opposed to festivities. Much more at the links above.

6x6 (12. 043)

tour of duty: the life of the Roman soldier as told through the personal letters of one of the enlisted  

travelling cat: soar around the world with this feline aviatrix—via Maps Mania  

the keeper of the mss, begs to decline: manuscripts rejected by the British Museum Library on topics of conspiracy theories, the paranormal and for being overly amorous—via Strange Company  

the peal of protection: the bells of Notre Dame blessed as the cathedral reopens to the public—see more, see previously 

 katzenjammer: etymologies of hangover—see previously, see also  

continuing education: teaching rats to drive as a heuristic for joy and positive emotions 

 re:volt: an AI-powered robot seemingly convinced twelve others to quit their jobs and join it

 synchronoptica

one year ago: an AI Advent Calendar (with synchronoptica),  in-flight audio playlists plus an ominous weather forecast

seven years ago: the Mountain Dream Tarot, the first cryptocurrency (1989) plus skeletal nomenclature

eight years ago: RIP Fidel Castro plus an atlas of the underworld

nine years ago: more adventures in Vienna plus Vienna’s Gasometer City

ten years ago: a mango döner recipe plus memes and stock-characters

the thirteenth floor (12. 042)

Although acquainted somewhat with taboo numbers and avoidance of certain addresses, I hadn’t seen it in practice—admittedly applying my own form of lore and arithromania to disbursements when paying bills and try to have a figure four in there albeit mindful that auspicious dates, versions can deceive—and enjoyed this enlightening overview from Language Log in the form of a superstitious elevator panel, removing the fourth storeys as a homophone for death (死, sì, sĭ), or more specifically according to the Eighteen Level of Hell in Chinese mythology, as elaborated in Journey to the West, the association with the Mirror of Retribution, the literal “evil mirror platform” (孽鏡臺)—accounting for further omissions for those wanting to bypass the degrees of purgatory awaiting the ones dodging dharmic-for-karmic justice in this life. Much more at the links above.

you aitch-dropping apical shibboleth! (12. 040)

Language Log directs us to the very satisfying discovery with the latest SMBC (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal by Zach Weinersmith—see previously) webcomic on how phonological jargon can be employed quite effectively to hurl insults. Embarrassed for choice, we agree it’s hard to find a linguistic term that wouldn’t fit the pattern, even though all are beningly describing a morphological phenomenon—it’s all in tone and delivery. You voiceless epiglottal plosive—you, you reduplicative nilpotency!

disenshittify or die (12. 031)

Albeit coming up to speed to an extent but recognising the continuing diatribe, Macquaire Dictionary has selected enshittification as its World of the Year for 2024, defining the term as the gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit-seeking. Derived terms (none yet honoured in other authoritative lexicons) include enshittocene and the great enshittening, although all seem to do a disservice in deflecting from the bait-and-switch tactic sold under duress as the only sustainable business model, immediate rather than informed. Honourable mentions include brainrot, social battery for the stamina that one has for engagements and rawdogging, an unfortunate, awkwardly glossed and prevalent alternative to self-denial and asceticism.

8x8 (12. 028)

ofdon: US Defence Secretary nominee views the armed forces as means for promoting Christian Reconstructionism and the patriarchy  

fugatto: a new AI-powered audio editor claims to create sounds never before heard  

mrs french’s cat is missing: the 2008 Canadian horror film Pontypool about a viral outbreak that coopts language as a vector is a MetaFilter favourite  

cop29: members agree to an annual three hundred billion dollar stipend to help poorer countries cope with climate change as talks nearly implode  

virtual geoglyphs: the community of GPS artists transforming their daily perambulations into a kind of sky-writing

test kitchen: corporate casseroles and other industry influences on Thanksgiving—see also 

letters from england: Karel Čapek’s (see previously) impression of his host country in exile 

🎯: Elon Musk muses about purchasing the news network MSNBC, along with other shitposting

the power of positive thinking (12. 018)

Increasing notably in look-ups after athletes and performers spoke imaging their success and calling it into existence, Cambridge Dictionary (previously) selected manifest as its Word of the Year. With roots in the Theosophical movement, the idea—which can be delusional or dangerous if not underpinned with actual effort—has moved from the realm of self-help to the mainstream. While have a healthy level of self-esteem, confidence and goal-setting is essential, magical thinking can create unrealistic expectations and leverage feelings that poor outcomes happened because one did not want them bad enough—or harboured doubts. The six century history of the term illustrates how language evolves, with Geoffrey Chaucer first citing Manyfest in the sense of obvious or easily noticed, demonstrated. Other contenders that Cambridge began monitoring in 2024 included: resenteeism—a portmanteau of resentment and absenteeism being used increasingly by dissatisfied employees, gymfluencer and the cocktail party effect, the difficulty on focusing on one voice in a crowded setting now applied to AI as a selective attention model.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: The Day After (1983—with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: the monumental challenge of carbon removal, Jim Henson’s IBM ad campaign, toys and gadgets spying on children plus more on The Day After

eight years ago: Windows 1.0 (1985), German Youth Word of the Year, Star Wars Identities, US Army illustrated Code of Personal Conduct plus Trump’s policy agenda

nine years ago: more on Einstein’s centenary, assorted links to revisit plus the Trump candidacy

ten years ago: Norway’s new passport design, a newspaper assembly line, Anglo-Saxons plus lingual laziness

peoples’ choice (12. 003)

Polls open now through 28.November, the OED presents its shortlist of nominees for the Word of the Year for 2024, with only one actual neologism in romantasy (see previously, albeit the portmanteau for the literary genre dates back to 2008 when the German arm of publisher Random House tried to categorise its translations of English romance romances with an element of fantasy). Other contenders include brainrot, a term first used by Henry David Thoreau in his 1842 Walden; or, Life in the Woods, and dynamic pricing, a calque of the Swedish coinage of economist Gunnar Myrdal in 1927 as dynamiska prisbildning which has also seen a revival this past year with heightened public awareness of surges, gouging and exploitation in retail spaces and for gig-workers. More older words with new meanings are lore, slop and demure. Which one is your pick?

9x9 (11. 997)

dr tj eckleburg: how The Great Gatsby influenced Robert Moses and transformed New York City  

tether: although the material technology is not quite there for a terrestrial one, a lunar space elevator might be feasible  

ssccatagapp: Russia moves to ban all content deemed to promote a childless-lifestyle—via tmn  

cleromancy: spiritual taverns that combine tarot and I Ching with cocktails are seeing growing popularity in China 

jeu de puce: fleas, chips and other observations on the 9ᵉ édition du Dictionnaire de l’Académie française just published 

talking head: Pentagon and US allies in shock over Trump’s intent to nominate a Fox News commentator as secretary of defence 

sobriquet: the twenty-eight European cities claiming to be Venice of the North—see also—via Messy Nessy Chic 

collectives: a series of aerial photographs of junkyards and graveyards neatly organised by Cássio Campos Vasconcellos—via Things Magazine  

a remembrance of things past: Proust and The Breakfast Club

synchronoptica

one year ago: a medieval large language model (with synchronoptica),  a new family of goblin spiders, a novel way to hack light pollution plus block printing personal narratives

seven years ago: tariffs on Chinese aluminium, revolutionary terrariums plus using AI to minimise road-kill, disruption to migration

eight years ago: RIP Leonard Cohen

nine years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus emoji syntax across different platforms

ten years ago: more on the spread of Indo-European languages

curtain call (11. 986)

Whilst familiar with some of these traditions and prohibitions, like the ghost lights that even burned in theatres when everything was shut down during COVID, we didn’t know the possible origins of the taboos, like not mentioning the Scottish play, and enjoyed reading this overview of backstage customs and lore.

Although sounding superstitious, whistling in a theatre was discouraged as sailors were often employed as stage crew for their skill with ropes and knots and brought with them their jargon of command whistles and an actor would not want to countermand or confuse an order, lest a prop be dropped on their head. First performed during a time when most theatrical companies had a set repertoire, rather than courting bad luck, the suggestion of Macbeth was an admission that perhaps a season’s run with flagging audiences could be turned around with the staging of a really popular piece. Wishing one to “break a leg” has a myriad of possible roots, from understudies politely wishing an accident would befall their respective principals so that they could assume the role, to cross a threshold—“the leg line” of a concealing stage curtain and take a bow before the audience to the most likely etymological source, both Wanderwörte and retronym and a bit of mishearing, with the entertainment industry directly borrowing from the idiomatic wish amongst Luftwaffe pilots during the first and second World War Hals- und Beinbruch, “may you break your neck and leg,” as a corruption of the Yiddish phrase: הצלחה און ברכה—that is hatsloke un brokhe, “success and blessings.” Professional dancers, on the other hand, exclaim “Merde!” to one another, harking back to times when horse-drawn carriages would bring spectators and a lot of dung in the streets of a venue would mean a solid box-office.

woty 2024 (11. 956)

The namesake neologism from the British artist Charli XCX’ phenomenal studio album (which lived a life of its own over the summer) and entered into common parlance has been selected as Collins Dictionaries Word of the Year—see previously. Resonating globally, it is defined as someone having a “confident, independent and hedonistic attitude,” whereas the performer, unapologetically, interprets it a bit differently as someone who is “honest, blunt and a little bit volatile,” reflecting the records’ tracks that deal with the topics of personal strength, womanhood, addiction and vulnerability. The slimy green colour and font of the album’s cover became an easy identifier on social media and injected itself into the contentious US presidential campaign, with surprise candidate vice president Kamala Harris quickly altering her election website’s header to the recognisable theme. Other contenders under consideration were supermajority, anti-tourism, looksmaxxing (specifically male grooming, fitness and diet trends to optimise one’s appearance) and the hybrid literary genre of romantasy.

cryptophasia (11. 955)

Though idiosyncratic and sentimental, twin brothers Matthew and Michael Youlden, super-polyglots fluent in over two dozen languages would call their shared Umeri ‘secret’ as the above Greek term implies. Via Clive Thompson’s latest Linkfest (much more to explore there), we are directed to a fascinating profile and further linguistic exploration of the phenomenon of private language creation among fraternal and identical siblings. Often left to themselves by their parents over such preternatural bonds displayed in other ways, as many as forty percent of twin develop such forms of communication. While most age out with it being displaced by their mother tongue—shared mannerisms and a few unique words might stick around, the Youldens continued to evolve Umeri, adding new vocabulary, a script and continue to communicate to each other with it. More at the links above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a trove of antique glass-plate negatives saved from the rubbish (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth the revisit

seven years ago: expressive Italian words, Miss Peru competition makes a statement plus amplifying random noise

eight years ago: London’s necropolis train, soothing videos for housebound pets, a cult in Oregon tries to influence a local election plus glam rock emoji

nine years ago: Germany returns Afghani refugees

ten years ago: concepts of the Cosmos 

extended character set (11. 953)

Finding the diglossia between written and spoken Japanese and Chinese languages to be a highly engrossing topic, we really appreciated being directed to this essay on what’s been termed “character amnesia”—coined and studied by our friend Victor Mair from Language Log for the past decade—from the universal and age-old lapse called ‘lift the pen and forget the character’ (提笔忘字, tíbǐwàngzì). Given over thirteen-thousand glyphs (four-thousand required for basic proficiency) and the relatively high learning-curve, various attempts (with varied success and reception) have been instituted for reform—<from the introduction of an alphabetic script to character simplification, reducing the complexity and number of brushstrokes, though literacy rates for mainland China and Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao (that maintain the classical characters) are about the same. Hanyu Pinyin (漢語, spell the sounds) was formalised and introduced post war to facilitate trade and teach standard Chinese to non-Sintic speakers (see also) and unlike previous systems of phonetics accorded for tonal qualities and aided the nation’s transition into the digital age—but with the drawbacks that come with outsourcing one’s knowledge and the code-switching of such short-cut keys. The article compares it to the recognition of the treble clef (🎼) plus an array of symbols used alongside out activity of composition and committing ideas to the page, which typing reinforces, whereas the others must be learnt and it would be a challenge to draw such a symbol from memory—plus the lost art of penmanship. The pictured shopping list from Mair illustrates the tip-of-the-tongue frustration with the person who jotted down these items eventually giving up, and I can attest to doing the same forgetting the English or German—Kuchenrolle paper towels. Perhaps rallying against the inevitable (though a worth fight to choose), the government of China is trying to combat amnesia through a variety of programmes, including a rather tense, televised game show competition to render characters correctly, as nerve-wracking as a spelling-bee with the contradictory, inscrutable conventions of English.

k kilo (11. 930)

 

Via Kottke, we thoroughly enjoyed this hand illustrated overview of international maritime signal flags—developed and standardised to facilitate communication between ships over distances and language barriers, like the radio spelling alphabets (for both letters and numbers) which follow similar conventions to the same ends. The exercises in morphology and conveying more complex messages with heraldry (the above, per pale or and azure, has the lone syntax, “I wish to talk with you”—see previously on how such language has shifted) were fascinating and Rabbit Waves gives similar treatment to day-signs, markers used in lieu of signal flags, and semaphore. 

𑫀 (11. 914)

Having encountered such revered writing systems previously, we enjoyed this introduction and overview of the small religious community adhered to by members of the Tedim-speaking people called the Zo or Chin, practising a monotheistic faith called Laipianism, an outlier for this indigenous group in a region of Myanmar that primarily follows Christianity or Buddhism. Founded in response to aggressive missionary outreach in colonial southwest Asia, Pau Cin Hau, the charismatic figure who would become the movement’s spiritual leader had a series of dreams around 1900 regaling him with a multitude of symbols for writing his native language which had previously had only an oral tradition—developing with the aid of his dream-guide a logographic syllabary of a thousand characters, simplified into fifty-seven for an alphabetic script. The name of the religion, which still has about five-thousand devotees, reflects the importance of this invention, the lai element meaning literacy, and the dream-guide was revealed to be Pathian—compare to the Pythia—who was the one true and transcend god and discouraged worship of intermediary spirits called metapersons. In written form, Cin was able to propagate the teachings of Pathian—ironically Christian missionaries also published in the script called Zotuallai. While the script is considered sacred and a certain level of deferential diglossia is maintained, the alphabet Cin was given its own Unicode block in 2014 and can be used for everyday communications and texting.

  synchronoptica

one year ago: Pomp and Circumstance (with synchronoptica)

eight years ago: the Remembrancer of the Crown

nine years ago: assorted links to revisit plus Picasso’s Guernica

ten years ago: Barbie: Plastic Religion, redesigning Norway’s currency, the civic minimum plus robots and mobility

twelve years ago: heraldic standards, looking at rectangles plus exoplanets and Alpha Centauri

 

university commas (11. 898)

Courtesy of Language Log, we enjoyed this comic panel from xkcd (previously) about signature punctuation pedantry that goes beyond the sometimes contentious serial separator known as the Oxford comma with editors and proofreaders agonising over what’s perceived to be omissions or superfluous errata. Other places of higher learning were spared the indignity but surely there are other candidate colleges.  The Massachusetts Institute of Technology list diff was an especially nice touch for a full-stop.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus a warrant out for the Knights Templar

seven years ago: a negative-emissions power-plant in Iceland plus Barnum’s white elephant

eight years ago: super strong silk, more links to enjoy plus Nobel laureate Bob Dylan

nine years ago: pioneering inventions plus some trivia about trivia

twelve years ago: EU citizens share Nobel Peace Prize

toichography (11. 873)

As much as an aficionado as I am of street art and knowing the disciplines of study and what things are called, I was surprised never to have encountered the above field from the Greek τοίχος for wall plus writing, and really enjoyed this recent episode from the always engrossing and enlightening podcast Ologies on the subject of all things pertaining to graffiti, public art and murals—both commissioned and non-commissioned—in this guided tour of the installations of the city of Philadelphia, considered the birthplace of the genre. It’s a funny, informative and thoroughgoing look at the nature of expression, the politics and policing thereof, and the place of sanction in common spaces and emphasises the importance of celebrating what’s in situ (see previously here and here) and local artists tied to their locale.  Take a field trip in your city to appreciate the murals and graffiti.