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Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 3052
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 07, 2008 - 04:17 pm: | 
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...the latest edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, which now includes edamame (immature green soybeans), pescatarian (a vegetarian who eats fish) and about 100 other newly added words that have taken root in the American lexicon.
The wordsmiths at the Springfield, Mass.-based dictionary publisher say they picked the new entries after monitoring their use over years.
"As soon as we see the word used without explanation or translation or gloss, we consider it a naturalized citizen of the English language," said Peter Sokolowski, an editor-at-large for Merriam-Webster. "If somebody is using it to convey a specific idea and that idea is successfully conveyed in that word, it's ready to go in the dictionary."
...And then there's "mondegreen." In a category of its own, it describes words mistaken for other words. A mondegreen most often comes from misunderstood phrases or lyrics.
It comes from an old Scottish ballad in which the lyric "laid him on the green" has been confused over time with "Lady Mondegreen."
Among the best-known modern examples: "There's a bathroom on the right" in place of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "There's a bad moon on the rise" and "'Scuse me, while I kiss this guy" in place of "kiss the sky" in the 1967 Jimi Hendrix classic "Purple Haze."
...Merriam-Webster's editors were so amused by the mondegreen concept that they plan to ask people to submit their favorites on the publishing company's Web site*...
Full article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25556393/?GT1=43001
*http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/newwords08.htm |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 12400
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 08, 2008 - 11:51 am: |
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Speaking of Mondegreen, back in the 1980s when Prince's "When Doves Cry" was topping the charts, I remember my kids thinking he was saying "maybe I'm just like my father, Tupol," instead of maybe I'm just like my father - "too bold".  |
Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 3055
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 08, 2008 - 05:13 pm: |
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LOL, Cynique! |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7126
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2008 - 11:17 am: |
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You know, this makes me think of..I don't know...PIMPS! |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 12409
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2008 - 11:37 am: |
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"Pimp" is a word that has been included in dictionaries for at least a hundred years. Next! |
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