First some notes: As you may have noticed, I have redesigned the look of the website, to make it a little easier to read and practice my CSS writing. Besides, the black background was killing my eyes. Secondly, in order to maintain the level of quality, I have decided to shift Schendo's Less Commonly Taught Language of the Month Club to a bimonthly schedule. I like to do a lot of research for these, and some of them have been a bit too rushed.
Okay, on to the news: From Uppsala University in Sweden, we have a brief report about new findings about the design and function of rune stones.
From the Language Change and Innovation Desk, there is this intriguing piece from the Boston Globe, documenting the birth of a new word: “malamanteau.” As anyone with an interest in etymology and historical linguistics knows, a word can sometimes be around for centuries before it is every written down or used in a dictionary. Now that such open dictionaries as Wiktionary, Wordnik and the Urban Dictionary effectively operate with hundreds of thousands of independent editors, words can be codified in hours, if not minutes of their first use.
Of course, as a stroll through the OED or any good unabridged dictionary will show, just because a word makes it into an “official” source, does not guarantee that anyone will every use it again. Which is why I've always been a little uneasy around words that only get used when they crop up in a spelling bee.
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