Slang
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Slang and Swagger: Riffing with Jeff Chang
Jeff Chang discusses his latest book, We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation, his work in hip-hip journalism, and the beauty and humanity of political protest.
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Weekly Geekery
Don’t dis slang—it’s older than you are. Regarding the pain of fish (and humanities-loving robots). Fake scientists are real. Sexism messes up men’s mental health, too. Aimee Bender and the Ladies of Contemporary Fairytale.
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The Saturday Rumpus Interview with Jesse Lee Kercheval
I have learned to put myself, my ego, to one side and truly experience someone else’s poetry.
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It’s Literally Fine
At the Atlantic, Adrienne LaFrance defends teenagers’ ever-maligned contributions to the lexicon, citing a recent student that examines the extent to which teens influence linguistic change: And the thing about linguistic changes is they can’t exactly be stopped in any…
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The Origins of Slang
Over at Full Stop, Tammela Platt reviews The Essence of Jargon by Alice Becker-Ho, a look into the origins of slang as a protection developed by marginalized populations.
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Brave New Words
This year in the decline of the English language, Dictionary.com has added words like “slacktivism,” “lifehack,” and “basic,” according to the Dictionary.com blog. On the positive side, they finally added definitions for gender-inclusive words like “agender,” “bigender,” and “gender-fluid,” and…
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Of Low Extraction and Irregular Education
Salon has published another delightful excerpt from Jonathon Green’s The Vulgar Tongue: Green’s History of Slang. Where the first focused on sex euphemism, this piece explores slang’s impact on the literary legacy of the English language. Wagtails, grizzles, and shotten…
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Batter Dip the Cranny Axe in the Gut Locker
Salon has published an excerpt from The Vulgar Tongue: Green’s History of Slang by lexicographer Jonathon Green. While ancient sex slang is sure to elicit a few giggles, Green also explores the deeper implications of our ability to dance around the…
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Weekly Geekery
THIS. THIIIISSSSS. And this history of “This.” Can Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) save the crumbling ivory towers of higher education? “Tech companies, in their many guises, always tell stories about the future of the world.” Kids these days are…
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The Life and Death of Twerk
The American Reader has a new series examining the lifespan of American slang. In the first installment, Michael Reid Roberts looks at the history of “shade” and “twerk.”
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“Pop,” “Soda,” or “Heaven Bubbles”?
You’ve probably seen this regional-dialect quiz from the New York Times making the rounds on your social networks. You answer questions about your vocabulary and pronunciation, and it tries to determine where in the United States you’re from. But the New Yorker‘s…