etymology – Writing & Editing Podcast

2023

195. My Bonds and Mutual Funds Are Doing Great, but My Stonks Are Way Down

I’m solo today and the topic is the English language, specifically one of its very recent words: stonk. It’s a nice case study of one of the ways in which new words come into the language. First, they’re known by only a few people; then there’s a niche who know about the meme (if it was coined online, as stonk was); and then it starts to gain some acceptability (appears in dictionaries, for example).
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Words We're Watching: The Story Behind "Stonks": Buying Low and Selling High in the Meme Market
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/stonks-stocks-meme-words-were-watching

What Meme Man Looks Like
https://imgflip.com/i/7p7jqr

Urban Dictionary
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Stonks

Wiktionary
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stonk

Memes Dictionary
https://www.dictionary.com/e/memes/stonks/

2023

181. A Few More Words: Doomscrolling

I talk about the word doomscrolling and make some searches in dictionaries, in a linguistics corpus, and in Google advanced search to try to get an idea of when it first started being used. I end with a brief etymology of the very old word, doom itself.

Merriam-Webster: Words We’re Watching
“On ‘Doomsurfing’ and ‘Doomscrolling’”
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/doomsurfing-doomscrolling-words-were-watching

OED
https://www.oed.com/

NOW Corpus (News on the Web)
https://www.english-corpora.org/now/

The Decibel
“The Problems with the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/podcasts/the-decibel/article-the-problems-with-the-first-time-home-buyers-incentive/

2023

175. A Few More Words: Empath

I talk about this relatively new word in English, which actually has its origin in science fiction. The word follows a common pattern for words that start with a very specific meaning in a field or discipline, and then once they're in use in standard English they develop their own meanings and history. I wrap up by comparing it to the word schizophrenic, which has behaved similarly, but with a bit of a twist.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR)
https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm

Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction
https://sfdictionary.com/

Dictionary of Psychopathology, by Henry Kellerman
https://cup.columbia.edu/book/dictionary-of-psychopathology/9780231146517

2023

163. A Few More Words: “Incent”

I talk about the use and origin of the word "incent," and its relationship to "incentive" and "incentivize." Plus, I may have developed a screenplay for a movie based on quotations from two separate definitions in the Oxford English Dictionary.

2023

154. One More Word: Nice

I talk about the origin of this 700-year-old English word as well as the numerous, diverse, and even contradictory meanings it has had over the course of its history. And wait for it: at the end is a saying using "nice" which, alas, we no longer have in the language any more.