vocabulary

Hey Baby!

Niall O'Donnell 4 Comments

Baby One More Time

Be My Baby

Baby I Love You

Baby Blue

Baby Baby

Baby It’s You

Baby Boy

Baby Come Back

…and so on. Why is baby (or babe) such a romantic word, that it would be featured in so many song titles like that? We’re so used to it, but if you step back and think about it, it’s a bit strange. There’s no obvious connection. Austrian ethnologist Konrad Lorenz suggested that babies’ cuteness was an evolutionary advantage, providing an incentive for adults to look after them. He believed that men sought similar signs of attraction in women, such as large eyes. Men calling women baby would therefore be a sign of this attraction. That seems a bit too easy though. Even if such an attraction did exist, it would be subconscious, so it would be unlikely that men would consciously refer to women as baby for that reason. And of course now baby is used across genders, though that’s probably more a sign of increased gender equality. Continue reading →

Straight to Heck

Niall O'Donnell 11 Comments

I’ve probably heard or read the word Hell a lot more in the past few days than I would normally. I touched on this briefly before when I wrote about swearing, but it is interesting how we treat the word. It seems logical enough that in countries which were strongly influenced by Christianity, the word might be a little taboo. People understandably tiptoe around the word a little bit, because Hell really is the worst place imaginable. Only the reality  when I was young was much different. I thought nothing of uttering a casual What the Hell? when surprised. I knew better than to go full-on WTF in the presence of my parents or teachers, but no-one would ever really bat an eyelid at What the Hell. Even as I was saying it, I never even stopped to consider the fact that the phrase contained the word Hell. It was just part of the whole exclamation. At the same time, I got quite familiar with the word heck, and its associated phrases, from American TV. But, in perhaps another one of my linguistic blindspots (though come one, I was a child), I never connected the two words. Continue reading →

Ambulance Chasing

Niall O'Donnell 8 Comments

An ambulance passed me by yesterday, and as I was looking at the word written on the side, I got to thinking about its etymology. Ambulance: surely there’s some association with walking in its history, considering similar words derived from the Latin verb ambulare (to walk) still exist today. To amble is an obvious one, but also the adjective ambulatory (associated with walking) Less obvious is pram (stroller or baby carriage in American English), a short form of the now outdated perambulator. Continue reading →

The T-Shirt, the Shepherd, and the Wardrobe

Niall O'Donnell 16 Comments

One day, maybe only 10 years ago, I was flicking through some manner of catalogue, and my eye was momentarily drawn to a t-shirt. Seeing it laid out flat, I idly thought to myself That really looks like a lower-case t. After a few moments, it hit me: that’s why they’re called t-shirts! I was amazed, but also immediately annoyed with myself. How had I not noticed it before? It was so obvious! Even worse, how had I not even wondered why it was called a t-shirt before? I’d gone my whole life never thinking about this strange name. For someone who likes to think of himself as alert and conscious of how language works, it was embarrassing. Continue reading →

Time is Money

Niall O'Donnell 3 Comments

Time is money.

Such an ugly phrase, isn’t it? Only the most obnoxious, boorish oaf would use it without a trace of irony. What a perfect representation of the greedy arrogance of our late-capitalist society (i before e after c), of the desire to just make more and more money, or at least not to lose any of it.

But maybe we shouldn’t dismiss it so easily. Maybe using it isn’t just the preserve of the greedy. Look at how we talk about both time and money: Continue reading →

App

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I generally prefer to avoid using abbreviations, as long as it’s not too awkward or difficult to use the longer form. It’s just a case of style really. I understand the need for abbreviation in language, but sometimes abbreviations can just seem too lazy, too short.

Which is why I’ve been trying to use the word application lately, rather than app. It’s just not working out though. First of all, no-one else is using it, and app just seems to be more appropriate. Mobile phones are so small, and apps can seem so ephemeral (especially to me, because they don’t have any real physical existence, which is something I’ll never quite be able to get my head around), that the short and simple app just seems right. At least application still has its own exciting life of job and college applications to enjoy!

Mug

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The evenings are getting a little longer each day (at least here in the Northern hemisphere), and while it’s not cold yet, soon enough it’ll be time to settle by the fireplace with a nice mug of cocoa. You’d be a mug not to, wouldn’t you? Unless you’re not the type to stay indoors in the winter. Perhaps you prefer to stay on the streets in the evenings, hanging around quiet street corners and – oh! – mugging people! Well if that’s what you’re into, ok, but be careful that the police don’t catch you, or they’ll bring you back to the police station and take your mugshot. If they do, make sure you don’t mug for the camera: they really don’t like that. They’d probably make sure you were convicted, and then your mug would be plastered all over the place. Crime: it’s a mug’s game, isn’t it?