Things I learned while looking up other things, 2023.05.11
Dear friends,
Would you like to know where to rent a 'big-ass gong'? I didn't think I did, but this post changed my mind. Then I started wondering how much larger than the norm any particular item would have to be to be labeled as 'big-ass'. For instance, a 'big-ass ant' wouldn't have to be very large to justify the label (but don't get confused, there are also hormigas culonas "big ass ants", a Columbian delicacy). I'll add this to the list of "linguistic experiments I'd love to run someday" but in the meantime enjoy knowing that, on the other end of the scale, a pikotuki is a "jocular unit of incompetence in systems support".
I did some idle poking in the Royal Society's archives and turned up this letter from Theophilus Sigfrid Bayer to Hans Sloane (who ... invented chocolate milk?!?), mostly about Bayer's plan for a dictionary of Chinese. I've read a lot of preliminary materials in lexicography and they all have this same tone of absolute optimism. "Sure, it'll be a lot of work and take a long time and I could use some help and there's other work I have to do to get paid but absolutely this will happen."
Anyway, evidently we still need dictionaries because people just don't have a lot of common ground when it comes to understanding words and concepts."The researchers found different concepts existed for every word they used, with people disagreeing on important matters such as whether seals are graceful." Related: the delightfully named theory theory.
Enjoy these Attractive Bollards of the Universe. (Geoguessr account needed to play.)
In the US this coming Sunday is Mother's Day (Mother's Day seems to come latest in the calendar in Indonesia, which celebrates it on 22 December.) If you need some advice on how to celebrate I recommend this essay from Evie Ebert, which includes this absolute banger: "We want to extend credit for the thought. 'It’s the thought that counts,' right? Wrong. Have more thoughts."
Stay well!
Your friend,
Erin