Word Nerd Wednesday

Welcome back to this week’s Word Nerd Wednesday.  Here are some of the best language-related stories I found on the interwebs:

What do alligators, cannibals, and potatoes have in common? They are all Spanish words the English language adopted. A lot of these are eyebrow raisers. Here’s the list at vocabulary.com.

Ever wonder if you are pronouncing Ayn Rand or Vladimir Nabokov’s name correctly? Here’s a pronunciation guide for tricky authors’ names from buzzfeed.com.

Does the sound of chomping and slurping drive you into a rage? If so, you may have misophonia. Here’s more about this strange phobia from nytimes.com.

If you like to tinker, and you love eBook readers, you just might like this guide to making your eBook reader solar powered. From Life Hacker.

I hope you had a nice Labor Day weekend. Unless, of course, you have ergasiomania, which is “a restless desire, amounting at times to an insane impulsion, to be continually at work.” Learn more words about laboring at Wordnik.

Attention page designers: Tired of that “lorem ipsum” holder text? Check out this collection of new and awesome dummy text at Nieman Lab.

Here’s an example of “hipster speak”:

DIY sustainable irony, +1 four loko scenester hoodie raw denim homo williamsburg banksy banh mi before they sold out twee. Put a bird on it thundercats Austin, trust fund carles ethical iphone you probably haven’t heard of them hoodie raw denim. Carles gluten-free you probably haven’t heard of them PBR. Iphone next level put a bird on it high life homo food truck viral. Craft beer thundercats mcsweeney’s brunch terry richardson keytar. American apparel dreamcatcher cardigan, irony homo mlkshk marfa. You probably haven’t heard of them seitan viral freegan, trust fund farm-to-table pitchfork twee irony terry richardson food truck readymade squid next level mixtape.

And “Yorkshire Slang”:

God’s own county tell this summat for nowt risus tha daft apeth nisi ah’ll box thi ears mardy bum wacken thi sen up breadcake erat. Ee by gum god’s own county ey up shurrup mi porta where’s tha bin. Tristique massa michael palin ah’ll box thi ears habitant morbi tristique senectus t’foot o’ our stairs shurrup aye shurrup nah then soft lad ac turpis a pint ‘o mild cras eleifend mauris nec quam sagittis dahn t’coil oil th’art nesh, thee accumsan will ‘e ‘eckerslike libero ut breadcake gerritetten ey up commodo breadcake shu’ thi gob dahn t’coil oil dahn t’coil oil gi’ o’er face like a slapped arse hendrerit, nunc neque gerritetten dolor, vitae bobbar where there’s muck there’s brass mi eget breadcake how much. Lectus nunc, ‘sup wi’ ‘im. A ey up nec, ah’ll gi’ thi summat to rooer abaht mardy bum nobbut a lad tell this summat for nowt ah’ll gi’ thee a thick ear nobbut a lad faucibus et by ‘eck ut, that’s champion ah’ll learn thi nisl. T’ ey up risus, tha knows bloomin’ ‘eck amet michael palin face like a slapped arse tha daft apeth in mi. Will ‘e ‘eckerslike nay lad ‘sup wi’ ‘im. Ee by gum nah then placerat gerritetten ey up aye aliquam cack-handed enim id purus blandit where there’s muck there’s brass et where’s tha bin. Leo.

And now “journo ipsum”:

rubber cement we will make them pay David Foster Wallace startups plagiarism kitchen table of the future link economy right-sizing linking awesome cancel my subscription Instagram, CPM layoffs filters WaPo gamification future of context What Would Google Do Flipboard paywall. TBD Politics & Socks page meme we need a Nate Silver curmudgeon hot news doctrine in the slot, Bill Keller we will make them pay What Would Google Do algorithms Neil Postman reality-based, Demand Media bringing a tote bag to a knife fight NPR discuss newsonomics.