〔Why Is Academic Writing So Academic? By Joshua Rothman. @ http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/why-is-academic-writing-so-academic〕
English Phonetics: IPA vs American Heritage Dictionary vs Merriam-Webster
3D Sex and Zen Extreme Ecstasy 《肉蒲团》 《The Carnal Prayer Mat》
etymology of “imbecile”
imbecile «1540s, imbecille “weak, feeble” (especially in reference to the body), from Middle French imbecile (15c.), from Latin imbecillus “weak, feeble” (see imbecility). Sense shifted to mental weakness from mid-18c. As a noun, “feeble-minded person,” it is attested from 1802. Traditionally an adult with a mental age of roughly 6 to 9 (above an idiot but beneath a moron).»
constructed language book
discovered 〔In the Land of Invented Languages: Adventures in Linguistic Creativity, Madness, and Genius By Arika Okrent. @ amazon〕
see also Xah's lojban Tutorial
spurious, ostentatious, parading, bitingly, destitute, farcical, epistle, acceding. Oscar Wilde's Tomb and Quips
buffed, caricature, pompous, bombastic, belligerent, annihilated. Movie 《300》 and Battle of Thermopylae Movie 《300》 and Battle of Thermopylae
《The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade》 By Edgar Allan Poe (repost)
the word “whose” should be ban'd. It should be just “who's”, meaning, “possess” or {who is, who has}.
in fact, the whole bag of whom should be ban'd. Just WHO! ye erudite and recondite academician fks.
the term “Organic compound” shoulda be ban'd.
A disfigured and mentally unstable mercenary, Deadpool originally appeared as a villain in an issue of New Mutants, and later in issues of X-Force. The character has since starred in several ongoing series, and shares titles with other characters such as Cable. Also known as the “Merc with a Mouth,” Deadpool is famous for his talkative nature and his tendency to break the fourth wall, which is used by writers to humorous effect.
The fourth wall is the imaginary “wall” at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. The idea of the fourth wall was made explicit by philosopher and critic Denis Diderot and spread in 19th-century theatre with the advent of theatrical realism, which extended the idea to the imaginary boundary between any fictional work and its audience.
A proscenium (Greek: προσκήνιον) is the area of a theatre surrounding the stage opening. A proscenium arch is the arch over this area.
etymology of “thorough”
the methodology is like blood seeping a carpet, slowly ＆ surely, thorough ＆ thorough.
thorough «c.1300, adjectival use of Old English þuruh (adv.) “from end to end, from side to side,” stressed variant of þurh (adv., prep.); see through. Related: thoroughly; thoroughness.»
offices → A usually beneficial act performed for another.
instrument → a legal document.
On the Evolution of Semantics of Roommate/Housemate Phraseme and the Ethology and Ethnology of Inhabitants of American Empire and United Kingdom with Cohabitation's Effects on Bathroom Sanitation
when you have a woman housemate, all of a sudden, your kitchen ＆ bathroom are clean.
“I was sorry to find more mercy in a heathen, than in a brother christian.” Gulliver's Travels. PART III. A VOYAGE TO LAPUTA, BALNIBARBI, LUGGNAGG, GLUBBDUBDRIB, AND JAPAN.
The lure of vocabulary, the depth of literature, the question of style, the logic of linguistics, the ills of English, and the cure by writing. Xah Wordy English
if you went with a girl to watch a 3D film, don't forget that it's her the next day. 📺 English Accent: British Accent 2 📺
“I have done thy mother.” 《Titus Andronicus》: Act 4 Scene 2
饿 Lojban ＆ Chinese tutorial with voice recording Lojban ＆ Chinese: A Word A Day
The English language is derived from two main sources. One is Latin, the florid language of ancient Rome. The other is Anglo-Saxon, the plain languages of England and northern Europe. The words derived from Latin are the enemy — they will strangle and suffocate everything you write. The Anglo-Saxon words will set you free.
〔Writing English as a Second Language By William Zinsser (The American Scholar). @ http://theamericanscholar.org/writing-english-as-a-second-language/〕
(via Sujith Abraham)
Poetry in Chinese vs English
月不圆花不好… 浮云散明月照人来，团圆美满今朝最。清浅池塘鸳鸯戏水，红裳翠盖并蒂莲开。双双对对恩恩爱爱，这园风儿向着好花吹。柔情蜜意满人间。周璇 ♪《月圆花好》 🎶
Poetry in Chinese, is far deeper than English can possibly ever go. Chinese language,… here's a brief random Xah Edu Corner brief: Chinese language, is such that, not going with formality n all, but for ya American monolinguists to get a sense of Chinese, u can think of stringing together similar words that are on the ballpark of your meaning. And that's how Chinese is. In a sense, every phrase is a idiom. Note the word Every. So, when you study Chinese, you are actually study history. Chinese lang, is rather terrible for any science or engineering work. But for poetry, a english saying is that poetry is like honey, but in Chinese, it's, like, honey injected directly into your bosom.
Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese; consumes itself to the very paring, and so dies with feeding his own stomach.
All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare
now there's a “random” button to randomize the list of words. See: Vocabulary: Words in Olympia Reader
“O Thou Whom I must no longer address as the Perfection of all Beauty; but let me beg thee to vouchsafe thy servant a sight of thine interior.” SECTION 19. — How, though the Sphere shewed me other mysteries of Spaceland, I still desire more; and what came of it
word of the day: preponderance
Why the preponderance of animals over human images? GRE Words, page 8
word of the day: infirmities, licentiousness
This illustrious person had very usefully employed his studies, in finding out effectual remedies for all diseases and corruptions to which the several kinds of public administration are subject, by the vices or infirmities of those who govern, as well as by the licentiousness of those who are to obey.
Gulliver's Travels. PART III. A VOYAGE TO LAPUTA, BALNIBARBI, LUGGNAGG, GLUBBDUBDRIB, AND JAPAN.
today's words: lambasted, temerity
AVN lambasted Hustler for having the temerity to question AVN's awards.
see: SAT words, page 2
How to be a Great Writer in the Digital Age
how to be a great writer in the digital age. The Writing Style of Xah Lee
check out Steven Pinker's new book The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, seems he'd approve.
review your words: dysphemism et al. Xah's Belles-lettres Blog Archive 2013-10 〜 2013-10
Today's word: concourse. “Mr. Gulliver growing weary of the concourse of curious people coming to him at his house.” Gulliver's Travels: Front Matter
revamped index. Wordy English: Vocabulary Compilation with Usage Examples
word of the day: polygynous, inimical
Meanwhile, male parental investment also makes the man's naturally polygynous bent inimical to his wife's reproductive interests.
word of the day: Prostrating
Prostrating myself mentally before my Guide, I cried, “How it is, O divine ideal of consummate loveliness and wisdom that I see thy inside, and yet cannot discern thy heart, thy lungs, thy arteries, thy liver?”
Several contrivances of the author to please the king and queen. Gulliver's Travels. PART II. A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG
How to Tell the Difference Between Chinese, Japanese, Korean?
English Accent: Scottish Accent 📺 (updated, new video, Scottish referendum debate)
word of the day: boustrophedon Words, page 4
word of the day: expletives galore.
wold: n. An unforested rolling plain; a moor.
On her fair bosom caskets twain I scanned,
Sealed fast with musk seals lovers to withstand.
With arrowy glances stand on guard her eyes,
Whose shafts would shoot who dares put forth a hand.
That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man, If with his tongue he cannot win a woman.
—good old William Shakespeare
coitus interruptus, is when, you started and got interrupted.
Unicode is quite interesting, not just for fun emoticons 👽 and math ∑. Because, when you go deep, it is about ALL grapheme and logographs and symbols of ALL human's writing systems, past and present. Unicode Characters ☢ ☯ ☭ ∑ ∞ ♀ ♂ ♥
from a interesting post by John Baez, at https://plus.google.com/117663015413546257905/posts/3Lf4USCBB2b
风波庄.
xah's rumination extempore! con equipment
rumination «c.1600, “act of ruminating; act of meditating,” from Latin ruminationem (nominative ruminatio) “a chewing the cud,” noun of action from past participle stem of ruminare (see ruminate).»
extempore «1550s (adv.), 1630s (n.), from Latin phrase ex tempore “offhand, in accordance with (the needs of) the moment,” literally “out of time,” from ex “out of” (see ex-) + tempore, ablative of tempus (genitive temporis) “time” (see temporal). Of speaking, strictly “without preparation, without time to prepare,” but now often with a sense merely of “without notes or a teleprompter.”»
fixed the random page button problem. Go to top of this page and click it. Now it doesn't almost always point you to some novels.
The Game “go”, 碁 vs 棋, Japanese ＆ Chinese
when you see a word that's spell'd wrong but used by others often, you deem it eyesore. like, wtf.
Some Japanese chars are like that to Chinese. The char 碁 (meaning “board game”) in Japanese is like that.
about the char's etymology, i think it was original a Chinese char, but fell out of use. We use the char 棋 instead.
also, many terms in English came from Japan leaves a bad taste for chinese. Because, it was Chinese. The go game, is one example. It's known as “go” because it came from the character 碁 used in Japan, is pronounced “go”. The character in is pronounced “qi2” in Chinese, same as 棋.
it's known by Japanese name because Japanese popularized the game in 1990s. (while chinese is doing sino-jap war and civil war and Mao and cultural revolution)
a proper name in English for the game would be “surround game”, or “surround chess”.
writing ＆ publishing: content vs grammar
you have 2 choices.
- ① write 10 articles, but sloppy in english or grammar.
- ② write 1 article, perfect in grammar.
if content is more important, then ① is better. later on you can edit. first you need to get the content out, when you have 10 million things in your head.
but of course, if you are concerned about readership (aka marketing), then ② is more important. because, when a book doesn't have a attractive cover, it gets no sniffing.
comment at https://plus.google.com/+XahLee/posts/7hrk51biRBy
The Moronicities of Typography: Hyphen, Dash, Quotation Marks, Apostrophe (minor update)
café, décor, déjà vu, résumé, risqué, étude, fiancée, Ingénue, crème de la crème, ménage à trois, coup de grâce, mêlée, my rôle, raison d'être, zoölogy, reënact, naïve, Chloë, façade. Accent Marks: Trema, Umlaut, Macron, Circumflex, and All That (repost)
Garden Path Sentence
- “The old man the boat.”
- “The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families.”
- “The author wrote the novel was likely to be a best-seller.”
These are called Garden path sentence.
A garden path sentence is a grammatically correct sentence that starts in such a way that a reader's most likely interpretation will be incorrect; the reader is lured into a parse that turns out to be a dead end.
〔THE ETYMOLOGY OF SHORTY IN HIP HOP: An absurdly nerdy look at how hip hop invented the most important slang of our time. By Matthew Daniels. @ http://www.mdaniels.com/shorty/〕
What Desires Are Politically Important? (by Bertrand Russell)
the left is sinister, if u know what i mean.
sinister «early 15c., “prompted by malice or ill-will, intending to mislead,” from Old French senestre, sinistre “contrary, false; unfavorable; to the left” (14c.), from Latin sinister “left, on the left side” (opposite of dexter), of uncertain origin. Perhaps meaning properly “the slower or weaker hand” [Tucker], but Klein and Buck suggest it's a euphemism (see left (adj.)) connected with the root of Sanskrit saniyan “more useful, more advantageous.” With contrastive or comparative suffix -ter, as in dexter (see dexterity).»
dexterity « 1520s, from Middle French dexterité (16c.), from Latin dexteritatem (nominative dexteritas) “readiness, skillfulness, prosperity,” from dexter “skillful,” also “right (hand)” (source of Old French destre, Spanish diestro, etc.), from PIE root *deks- “on the right hand,” hence “south” to one facing east (cognates: Sanskrit daksinah “on the right hand, southern, skillful;” Avestan dashina- “on the right hand;” Greek dexios “on the right hand,” also “fortunate, clever;” Old Irish dess “on the right hand, southern;” Welsh deheu; Gaulish Dexsiva, name of a goddess of fortune; Gothic taihswa; Lithuanian desinas; Old Church Slavonic desnu, Russian desnoj). The Latin form is with the comparative suffix -ter, thus meaning etymologically “the better direction.” Middle English dester meant “right hand,” and in heraldry dexter means “on the right side.”»
and from which, righteousness sprang forth.
As a free man, Andy had been a rockhound, so he asks Red to get him a rock hammer, a tool he uses to shape the rocks he finds in the exercise yard into small sculptures.
Rockhounding = Amateur geology. See Rockhounding
vocabulary: Whopping, looms large
Super Computer. Whopping 16 Mega bytes of RAM.
For these reasons the PDP-10 looms large in early hacker folklore.
rectification of english: whose vs who's
what does whose mean? whose = who's = who has = who is. Depending on context. this is called, function follows form, and is part of the theology of formal language.
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