Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Maybe not a source of Bee words, but definitely worth a read if you like words

Former Library Trustee (and general braniac) Alison Piper is one of my secret weapons in the construction of the annual Bee word list. I sweat and fret, and then pass the list to Alison who gives it a once-over and easily points out many of my strategic errors. In years when the Bee contestants beat the word list, I turn to Alison's prepared "extra-hard Secret Killer Bee words", which yield gems such as 2007's odontalgia and 2009's gnorimoschema.

Alison sent me the link to Schott's Vocab's recent Tom Swifty contest, and I liked the site so much I decided to write about it in here. Here's the NYTimes website's description of Schott's Vocab:

Schott’s Vocab is a repository of unconsidered lexicographical trifles — some serious, others frivolous, some neologized, others newly newsworthy. Each day, Schott's Vocab explores news sites around the world to find words and phrases that encapsulate the times in which we live or shed light on a story of note. If language is the archives of history, as Emerson believed, then Schott’s Vocab is an attempt to index those archives on the fly.
Ben Schott is the author of “Schott’s Original Miscellany,” its two sequels, and the yearbook “Schott’s Almanac.” He is a contributing columnist to The Times’s Op-Ed page. He lives in London.
His Web site can be viewed at
benschott.com, and his Opinion pieces here.

Today's word in Schott's Vocab is "funemployed"--people who are unemployed and enjoying it. You can subscribe to the feed on RSS and Twitter--it's worth a look.

Thanks, Alison!

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