At face value, the lines between verbal irony, sarcasm, and compliments can be blurry. After all, the phrase ‘That looks nice’ could be all three depending on the circumstances. In the final of a three part series on irony, Christopher Warner gets into the irony you may use most often and most casually: verbal irony.
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What’s in a name? Quite a lot actually. Sally Le Page with Shed Science shares the stories behind six of the most interesting animal species names from the misconceptions around apes and monkeys to the downright bizarre Beyonce horsefly.
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We won’t tartle before we cafune you! Just let us introduce some words you need to know. Rhett and Link present Good Mythical Morning Episode 222.
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Can we define our own world or do we live inside a box of well-defined and predefined reality? Here’s a short comedy skit exploring this conundrum, a collaboration by YouTube artists The Kloons and The Brothers Reidell.
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Not only politicians, but also the media, often use euphemisms to soften the truth and camouflage hard realities. Civilians killed in wars are called “collateral damage.” No one’s rich or poor, anymore. Soldiers don’t suffer shellshock, but post-traumatic stress disorder.
This report from RT Anerica, Russian TV, examines the bureaucratic “newspeak,” invoking George Carlin in the process. Of course, Russian politicians and media are just as adept as their American counterparts in lying to the public.
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Is the beloved paper dictionary doomed to extinction? In this infectiously exuberant talk, leading lexicographer Erin McKean looks at the many ways today’s print dictionary is poised for transformation. As the CEO and co-founder of new online dictionary Wordnik, Erin McKean is reshaping not just dictionaries but how we interact with language itself.
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How moms rename things to reflect their own priorities and ways of perceiving the world. H/T Pleated Jeans
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Say the word “doubt” aloud. What is that “b” doing there? Does it have any purpose? Gina Cooke explains the long and winding history of “doubt” and why the spelling, though it seems random, is a wink to its storied past.
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Leaps and bounds separate that which is ironic and that which many people simply say is ironic. Christopher Warner wants to set the record straight: Something is ironic if and only if it is the exact opposite of what you would expect. H/T TEDed
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What is the difference between “a hearty welcome” and “a cordial reception”? In a brief, action-packed history of the English language, Maine school teacher Kate Gardoqui explains why these semantically equal phrases evoke such different images. H/T TEDed
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