With Apologies from Webster's Dictionary

A recent fun little romp through changes in the dictionary, brought to you by MadTV:

Today's Word: velocipede

velocipede: Any light vehicle propelled by the user's feet. A useful word that covers not only bicycles and tricycles, but big wheels, toy cars, scooters, skateboards, and the Flintstone's car.

Monkey Wrench: A Non-Post

Check out Mark Liberman's recent post at Language Log about the nebulous etymology of monkey wrench (as opposed to a monkey taser or a ferret wrench), including a great Get Fuzzy cartoon.

A Poetic Crossword Puzzle

A while back (a long while back) I bought, on a whim, some crossword puzzle creation software. I thought it might be fun to try to put crossword puzzles together (and, of course, in the back of my mind was the possibility of actually selling some of my creations and making a little extra money). I haven't touched the software often in the last three years. But for some reason, today I got the urge.

So I had this one mostly finished, and I finished it. If you like to do crossword puzzles, it'd be great if you helped me out and let me know how I'm doing, including how well (or badly) the crossword is constructed, how interesting the clues are, and, on a scale of 1 to 5, what you think the difficulty level of this crosswrd is (1 being TV Guide, 5 being the Sunday New York Times.

Here are the clues. I'm hoping that it isn't too difficult to print these and the grid out and do them by hand.

By the way, the title of this post is a hint to the theme of the puzzle.

Across 1. Mythological tree-dweller 4. Vegas hotspot 10. Porcine pronouncement 14. ___ Grande 15. Gathering places, for Socrates 16. Compound you leave in the toilet 17. Newspaper fillers 18. He sang the body electric (2) 20. Cured meat chemicals 22. Photographer's ocular nemesis 23. Coal holes 24. Delaney of China Beach 26. Sisqo song subjects 28. Poetic Barfly 32. Stick or arm 33. Snake charmer 34. Weed 35. Pendulum's place (per Poe) 36. Like some triangles 38. Poem 39. They liked him in '52 40. Hurts 41. Good garden dirt 42. "is 5" poet 44. Gratitude 46. "___ bigger and better things"(2) 47. Pat or Daniel 48. Lessen 51. His pentameter was often iambic 54. JFK inauguration poet (2) 57. Anger 58. Beckon 59. Seer 60. Formal address 61. Raw metals 62. Juan's madre 63. Business degree

Down 1. Ahmadinejad's hizzy 2. Musical computer protocol abbr. 3. Autopsy (2) 4. Alternates with seeing 5. Impure chunks of quartz 6. Award-winning Sachar novel 7. They can be fine or martial 8. Uncooked 9. Fireplace leftovers 10. Movie Western necessity 11. ___ la Douce [changed 4/29/09] 12. In proximity 13. Mortal Kombat cyclops 19. (Just skip this clue) 21. Fruit skin 24. Bo and Luke 25. Similar to 26. Emblematic 27. Japanese poem 28. Salves 29. Isn't this new cleat? 30. Photography patriarch 31. Only 10 or less allowed in some places 33. 1996 Coen bros. dark comedy 36. Black eye 37. Common contraction 41. Clark's Smallville paramour 43. Highway accommodations 44. Dishevel 45. At a higher temperature 47. German philosopher Ernst 48. With the bow, to Heifetz 49. Wild pig 50. Can 51. Fool 52. Baby's bed 53. Mrs. Zeus 55. Thumb or Cruise 56. To and ___

This looks fine in the preview, which probably means it'll look crappy on the actual blog. We shall see. I'll post the answer sometime later in another post and link to it down here somewhere.

Today's Word: sevidical

SaveTheWords.org is back up and running, and I just can't keep away. Today, I adopted the word sevidical, which means to speak mean and harsh words. This is certainly a much more useful word than my previous adoption, xenization. Fans of American Idol (of which I am no longer numbered) may get particularly high mileage out of sevidical by using it to describe Simon Cowell's criticisms of the contestants (as opposed to Randy's terminal hipness, Paula's apparent dysphasia, and there's a new girl, right?).

Am I being sevidical myself in my criticism of the judges? Damn right I am! I think it's time to can them all and start fresh with three or new judges.

I hear Joaquin Phoenix is available.

Today's Word: slubberdegullion

slubberdegullion: This is a word I've been trying to work into a conversation for some time now. Unfortunately, it describes me better than it describes anyone else I have regular conversations with. A slubberdegullion is a slob. You'll just have to trust me when I say that my apartment is currently (and for the foreseeable future) a slubberdegullionist sanctuary.

Some definitions I've seen are a little harsher than mine, defining slubberdegullion more along the lines of a no-good, slobbering, unkempt wreck of a man with horrible personal hygiene. I don't think this is an accurate description of myself (my ex-wife might disagree). I shower every day. With soap! I do laundry whenever I can scare up enough quarters. I occasionally use the vacuum sweeper, when I can clear enough floor space to get at the carpet. I brush my teeth.

Anyway, enough about me. Enjoy the new word!

CSL, eh.

I'm Avuncular!

avuncular: Having the qualities of an uncle — genial, generous, tolerant My best friend had her baby early this morning, five weeks early. At under five pounds, the new youngling is pretty tiny, but both people involved appear to be healthy. I'm excited about being an "uncle" again.

East Meets West? Chinese Rap Not Exactly Gangsta

I believe this is my first post that deals with a foreign language. I doubt that it'll be my last.
Victor Mair at Language Log has posted a video of a rap out of Beijing. His comments about it have to do with Chinese pronunciation. If you have some interest in Chinese, you might find all that interesting. Regardless, this is a neat song. Mair translates the lyrics of the song, but I suggest you listen first before you read. Although I admit that my exposure to rap in the US is extremely limited, but I don't think this is the kind of piece you'd hear around here today.

Adopting a Vocabulary

Over at SaveTheWords.org, you can help return an archaic word to circulation. Many fun words are available for "adoption" — all you have to do is sign up, choose from many available words, and agree to use the word in your daily life as often as you can.

I adopted the word xenization, the fact of being a stranger, which describes me to a T when I step into an auto parts store.

SaveTheWords.org is apparently somehow affiliated with the OED, though I couldn't find a link to it at the OED site. What's worse, the site is in a temporary state of apanthropinization — withdrawal from the human world.

But when the site gets up and running, I encourage you to check it out, if only window shop through the words up for adoption. For a logophile, it can be a lot like watching the puppies in a pet store window, only you don't have to worry about doggie mills. If you're feeling super-loquacious, adopt a word. Adopt two. Hell, you could become the Angelina Jolie of archaic vocabulary!