Category Archives: Language

Age of Slang, Idea and Design

By Clay Parker Jones | January 29, 2010

A couple years ago, my friend Don and I had an idea while spending way too long debating the origin of a piece of slang.
The idea:
A crowd-sourced slang dictionary that would let you browse your way back through the history of language’s oddities, define terms, and otherwise waste away a workday. Think Urban Dictionary, but for […]

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Lovely New Words

By Clay Parker Jones | December 5, 2006

Well, not new words. Words that are new to me.
I’m really enjoying the following words:
Hirsute - adj: 1. Hairy; shaggy. 2. Botany, Zoology. covered with long, rather stiff hairs. 3. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of hair.
How I came upon it: Kirsty. Also… [Origin: 1615–25; < L hirsÅ«tus rough, shaggy, bristly; akin to horrid]
Vexillology - n: The […]

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Wikipedia Pimp

By Clay Parker Jones | November 16, 2006

I was cruising around the ‘pedia for a while today looking at New York entries. I made my way from entries on the Queensbridge Houses to an article about Bedford-Stuyvesant to Streetball, Rucker Park, Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, Walt Frazier, Blaxploitation and finally: Pimp.
There’s some entertaining stuff on Wikipedia but “Pimp” has got to be one […]

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On Language

By Clay Parker Jones | July 17, 2006

It’s always bugged me that there was no official name for the weird patch of fur that some guys keep under their bottom lip.
Until now. Merriam-Webster released a sampling of the 100 new words admitted this year into its offical record of the English language. Soul Patch was among them. Some of the others: mouse potato, […]

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