Latest news with #OED
Global News
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Global News
The tortuous process of finding a name for your band
In 2007, a couple of listeners asked me if I would do another Ongoing History of New Music program on the origins of band names. I'd done a few in the past, but I was happy to accommodate. This time, however, I was struck with a question: What do you call the study of the names musical groups choose? In the decades since the birth of rock 'n' roll, someone must have come up with a term. As it turns out, no. The study of word origins is etymology. If you're looking at place names — known as toponyms — then you're into toponomy, toponymics or toponomastics. We get a little closer with the word for the study of personal names, which is onomastics or anthroponymy — unless you're just concerned with surnames, which is patronymics. But, much to my surprise, there was no official term for 'how did a band get their name?' Story continues below advertisement This struck me as a massive oversight in the field of linguistics, so I called up a few academics, who then roped in other language experts, including a branding and marketing guy in California who had coined the terms Swiffer and Blackberry. They returned with a suggestion: bandomynology. Since then, I've been on a mission to see that the word spreads into the common vernacular so that one day, it'll end up in the Oxford English Dictionary. Disappointingly, the OED people still haven't called despite my best efforts, including a column in this space in 2021. The Urban Dictionary, however, has been most kind by adding bandomynology to its list of searchable words. It's again time to put the word out there with a little more bandomynology. Big Wreck: They were known as Still Waters until they had a really bad rehearsal one day, something that one of the members categorized as a 'big wreck.' Blink-182: The most common story is that the group was originally named Blink, but was forced to change it when they were informed that there was already an Irish band by that name. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Why the 182? Unclear. Stories speculating on its origins include the number of times Tony Montana drops the F-bomb in Scarface; the number of the ship that bassist Mark Hoppus' grandfather served on during the Second World War, and the number Mark believes his ideal weight should be (in pounds, of course). The most intriguing is that it's code for a rival high school from guitarist Tom DeLonge's school days. The '18' stands for the letter 'R' (the 18th letter of the alphabet) and the '2' is for 'B' (the second), short for Rancho Bernardo High. This means, according to Tom, that the correct pronunciation of the band's name is 'Blink Eighteen-Two.' Story continues below advertisement The Dead Milkmen: First, don't judge — the name choice is a lot more literary than you might think. There's a character in a Toni Morrison novel called Milkman Dead. Garbage: An insult that backfired. When Butch Vig, Duke Erikson, Steve Marker and Shirley Manson were demoing material for their debut alum in 1993, a 'friend' commented that the material 'sounded like garbage.' That turned out to be perfect because the band was looking for something irreverent. Hoobastank: No one is really certain, although legend says it may have come from a mispronounced German word or just a joke name from high school. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard: This was a compromise. Someone wanted to call this Australian group Gizzard Gizzard, but someone else wanted to honour Jim Morrison, who had the nickname, 'The Lizard King.' So, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard met everyone in the middle. Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark: Easy. They were looking for the most pretentious name possible. It's certainly better than their original choice: Hitler's Underpants. Paracoccidiodomicosisproctitissarcomucosis: A real metal band from Mexico specializing in a particular type of grindcore. This is a combination of various diseases and medical terms. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs: The English band was originally just Pigs, but they kept adding Pigs as they strived to be obnoxious. Pigs x 7 is an acceptable substitute. Portugal. The Man: This is convoluted. It's the mix of two concepts: A country of many people (like a band), and an individual (a specific person). The period designates the 'many' from the 'one.' Rage Against the Machine: The phrase comes from the title of a song by Inside Out, a pre-Rage band fronted by Zack de la Rocha. Since RATM appeared in 1992, conventional wisdom says that the 'machine' they're raging against is soulless corporations pursuing profit at the expense of humanity. Given Rage's political stance, that makes sense. However, it may refer to the group's persnickety 1979 Chevy van. Zack: 'I can't tell you how many times that van broke down in 1991 when we were starting out and how many gigs we lost because it would quit working. When we finally had enough money to buy a new van to house our equipment, the first thing we all did was take sledgehammers and beat the crap out of the thing.' A stretch? Maybe. Still, it does fit. Story continues below advertisement The The: When Matt Johnson formed the band in the late '70s, 'The' bands were fashionable (The Clash, The Cars, The Ramones, etc.) He simply decided to take the trend to its logical extreme. At one point, The The was practically impossible to Google as the search engine used to ignore definite articles in any search query. Wet Leg: Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chamber found the name by combining random emojis on a keyboard. XAVLEGBMAOFFFASSSSITIMIWOAMNDUTROABCWAPWAEIIPPOHFFFX: No, really. This 'gore grind' band released a debut album in 2016. I can also tell you that this is an acronym that stands for … well, be careful before you click here. You can listen to their work on Spotify, starting with the hit song, Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilivolcanpconosis. And finally, !!!: This Sacramento band was inspired by the lead actor in the 1980 movie, The Gods Must Be Crazy, which followed an Indigenous man on his travels through Southern Africa. He spoke the Jul'hoan language, which uses a series of clicks. In written form, that click is represented in English by an exclamation mark. If you want to say the name out loud, the band prefers 'Chk Chk Chk.' See? Isn't bandomynology fun?
CNET
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNET
Did Today's Rare Wordle Starting Letter Shatter Your Win Streak? Guess These Letters First
How about that Wordle puzzle on Thursday? The five-letter answer in the New York Times' engaging online word-guessing game probably shattered a few winning streaks, since it begins with the absolute rarest letter in the English language. I never guess that letter except out of total and complete desperation. Personally, I like to stick with starter words that I know feature some of the most frequently used letters. (TRAIN and CLOSE are among my favorites.) Click here for today's Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles. In order to get the absolute best starter words, you should know which letters turn up the most in English. I reached out to the big brains at the Oxford English Dictionary -- you know, the whopping, multi-volume dictionary that no one actually owns, but that your school librarian adored. An OED representative sent me a list in which staff analyzed all of the main entries in the concise version of the dictionary. "It's worth noting that the piece is pretty old," the OED representative said apologetically. "It mentions that the stats are from Concise Oxford English Dictionary in 2004, although current colleagues aren't sure when the piece itself was written, and I'm afraid we don't have any newer analysis of this sort." The list may be 20 years old, but I'm going with it. The alphabet isn't like ice cream flavors or musical acts -- no new, trendy letters have been introduced in that time. So whether you're just getting into Wordle, or you want to shake up your starter words and make sure they're still hitting the most common letters, this list is for you. S begins the most English words The most common letter is no surprise to most people: It's E, and it's immediately followed by another vowel, A. And those letters are much, much more popular than the final two letters in the OED's list, which are J and Q. (Anyone else surprised that J is used less than X and Z?) "The letter E is over 56 times more common than Q in forming individual English words," the OED analysis found. It notes that "there are more English words beginning with the letter S than with any other letter." So Wordle players, bookmark this article, and you might find yourself doing a little better in upcoming games. Here are the letters of the alphabet ranked according to how frequently they showed up in the 2004 Concise Oxford English Dictionary. The most common letters used in English
Telegraph
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Shakespeare wrongly credited for words first used by women, claims Countdown star
William Shakespeare has been wrongly credited with inventing hundreds of words that may have first been used by women, Countdown's Susie Dent has claimed. The Bard is often said to have coined around 1,700 English words, including 'bedazzle', 'puke' and 'assassination'. But speaking on BBC Radio 4's Loose Ends podcast, Ms Dent suggested many of these words were mistakenly attributed to Shakespeare simply because his use of them in plays had been preserved. '[H]e was their mouthpiece,' she said. 'And this is fine. He never claimed to invent these words.' The Countdown co-host and lexicographer said some of Shakespeare 's seemingly novel expressions were probably part of everyday Elizabethan speech, but their true origins were lost because the voices of ordinary people – particularly women – had not been recorded. 'He is a master obviously, as we know, exuberant with language. But I think particularly the voices of women, which weren't recorded in those days, I think a lot of the words were probably absorbed from them as well,' she said, adding: 'He was their spokesperson.' Ms Dent said the phenomenon of misattribution was so widespread that it had earned the nickname 'Fakespeare' among dictionary compilers. The Channel 4 quiz show star said the pattern became clear to her during her time working on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). 'In the OED, we give the first record of a word that we can find, many of them credited to Shakespeare,' she said. 'But regularly an email will go around saying 'Fakespeare' as the title because we found what we call an 'ante-dating', so an earlier record before Shakespeare.' The phenomenon features in Ms Dent's debut novel, Guilty by Definition, a mystery set at the heart of the fictionalised 'Clarendon English Dictionary', published last month. Ms Dent also told the podcast that the internet was helping dictionary compilers by contributing to the preservation of regional dialects. She said: 'We rely on printed evidence. And that's particularly tricky with dialect, local words, because they're very much part of an oral tradition. They're not really written down. 'But now we are able to transcribe conversations on the street, thanks to the internet, which a lot of people fear when it comes to language. 'But people are swapping memories of the old words that their parents and their grandparents knew. And we have records of them now. So it's brilliant. So we're getting more and more regional vocabulary in there.'
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Oregon unemployment keeps growing, but has it reached a turning point?
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Oregon's unemployment rate is on the rise, and state economists say it has been for the past year. According to the , the state's rate rose to 4.6% in March, a slight bump from the 4.5% recorded in February. Oregon's unemployment rate has steadily increased since the rate dipped to 4.1% in March 2024. Multnomah County launches by-name database for tracking homeless population This means unemployment in the state is 0.4% higher than the current national average of 4.2%, which also jumped from 4.1% between February and March. Since , the OED has reported that each month's increase is the when the state saw an unemployment rate of 4.7%. However, economists shared some optimism: Many of the state's major industries — including healthcare, business and trade — boomed in March. The highest gain was in health and social assistance with an addition of 4,600 jobs, professional and business services with 1,000 jobs, and wholesale trade with 700 jobs. Overall, Oregon's seasonally-adjusted nonfarm employment rose by 7,300 jobs. 'The return of workers who were on strike at a major health care provider contributed to the one-month gain of 4,600 jobs in health care and social assistance during March,' according to the OED. 'This industry has been leading private-sector job growth in Oregon over the past few years.' 'Ticking time bomb': Oregon lawmakers consider funds for Cascadia-ready Columbia Boulevard bridge Economists also note that professional and business services have seen a major bounce back in the past year. 'Professional and business services added jobs in each of the first three months of the year, with gains totaling 4,500 jobs in that time,' they said. 'This reversed a generally declining trend in the industry during the prior two years when it shed 5,400 jobs during the 24 months ending December 2024.' The current unemployment rate remains higher than the rates recorded three years prior to the Covid pandemic and recession that began in 2020 — indicating the state is still recovering from this period. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Telegraph
13-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Feuds are futile: just ask Elton John and Madonna
Guelphs and Ghibellines, Montagues and Capulets, Sir Elton John and Madonna… In drama and poetry, feuds tend to reach a Shakespearean conclusion that involves corpses all over the stage, or a Dantesque vision of quarrelsome fellow citizens literally and metaphorically gnawing at each other. In celebrity-land, however, the proper culmination of a lengthy feud is a big old hug-and-make-up. So it was last week, with Sir Elton, resplendent in white samite, clasping Madge in a forgiving embrace – both of them looking straight to camera, rather than at each other. The discord seems to have started in the early 2000s when Elton accused Madonna of lip-syncing and dissed her theme song for the 2002 Bond film, Die Another Day, suggesting that the studio could have hired Lulu or Shirley Bassey instead ('or maybe I'm in that league'). It was downhill all the way from there, with harsh criticisms from Sir Elton's side met with haughty rejoinders by Madonna's people, who announced that she didn't 'spend her time trashing other artists'. Their reconciliation may have looked a touch performative, but it did at least contain a spark of the genuine respect felt by one considerable talent for another. The recent 'rapprochement' of Meghan Markle (sorry, Sussex) and Gwyneth Paltrow, perhaps not so much. The origins of the alleged falling-out between the grandes dames of Montecito seem obscure. Perhaps Gwyneth's remark to Vanity Fair magazine, that she didn't 'know [Meghan] at all. Maybe I'll try to get through their security detail and bring them a pie' didn't go down well. All good now, though: Gwyneth's recent Instagram video scotching the rumours featured a vignette of Meghan eating pie in a manner possibly intended to suggest irony. What exactly constitutes a feud? The OED defines it as 'a state of bitter and lasting mutual hostility'. Mere schoolyard invective – as in Elon Musk's recent description of President Trump's trade adviser, Peter Navarro, as 'dumber than a sack of bricks' – doesn't constitute a feud (although it might start one). 'Everyone knows how futile a feud is,' wrote the poet and novelist Michael Crummey. 'How ridiculous and useless and nearly impossible to resist. A feud is as primal and irrational as falling in love, which is why there's no talking to people involved in one.' It is a thought that must occasionally have occurred to the mother of the fractious Gallagher brothers. But all passion has a tendency to cool over time, and participants in even the most bellicose feuds often find themselves, like hostile versions of the deluded lovers in A Midsummer Night's Dream, waking from their enchantment of loathing and settling their once irreconcilable differences with an awkward exchange of courtesies. (Admittedly, when Salman Rushdie and John le Carré eventually concluded their feud with just such a relapse into good manners, the Puckish provocateur Christopher Hitchens was disappointed: 'One's job… when seeing the embers begin to cool, is to blow on them as hard as possible.') But hatred is costly to sustain. Like love, you have to work at it. But unlike love it withers rather than nourishes the spirit. Better, like Madonna, Sir Elton and the grumpy Gallaghers, to hug awkwardly and consider a harmonious collaboration. Bad review The snappily titled Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act recently passed into law. Fake reviews will be banned, which is certainly a good thing. But the ubiquitous demand that we rate every purchase and experience has increased to the point of absurdity and beyond. The sinister potential of reviews inspired 'Nosedive', the 2016 episode of Black Mirror in which a young woman's life falls apart as her personal ratings drop. Frank Skinner's Radio 4 comedy series, One Person Found This Helpful, takes a less dystopian approach, but still underlines the surreal aspect of reviewing every banal feature of our lives. I recently bought some cats' litter tray liners, and I have since been relentlessly pursued with demands to review them. My failure to comment on the cat's sanitary arrangements has provoked a blizzard of reminders and unsolicited emails, to the point at which, in sheer self-defence, I'm tempted to post a review after all: porous.
