To begin, let me say that I am far...far...from linguistics. I have always been more a scientist, with a background in conducting quantitative research in nursing. I have researched energy expenditure in critically ill patients on ventilators, the use of nebulized morphine to improve dyspnea in terminally ill patients, and conducted a systematic review of nursing education outcomes, so I am hardly the one to start a Blog on epicaricacy.
Yet...since learning about the word on wordcraft, I have been intrigued: http://wordcraft.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/756604565/m/5616010661?r=4206074281#4206074281 Take a look at the rest of those words in that thread on Wordcraft. There are some of my favorites there! I really like the German language.
Later on Wordcraft Ammon Shea, the one who introduced me to the word, explains it. Here is his post: http://wordcraft.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/932607094/m/7886078523?r=8396042033#8396042033
More on the word latter (or I'll be finished with this whole Blog in one post!). By the way, I see that Seanahan has talked about epicaricacy on his Blog here: http://seanahan.blogspot.com/ How exciting is that! Thanks, Sean!
If anybody finds a legitimate use of epicaricacy, please let me know. We are trying to convince John Simpson, of the OED, to include the word in his fine dictionary. I am afraid it will take a lot of convincing though. The last time we asked him, he just smiled and looked amused. That's the Brits for you!
Lord Byron said, “Words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” Language is indeed beautiful, and I will write about my love of words and poetry, including limericks and double dactyls. As the name of this Blog indicates, I will periodically comment on my favorite word. I hope my words will stimulate your thinking...and comments.
Blog Archive
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2008
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April
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- My Poem for National Poetry Month
- What is art?
- Maya Angelou
- Republican Words
- A Republican word?
- Happy Birthday, Hubs!
- Making Mistakes
- Misocainea
- Misocainia
- Poem for National Poetry Month
- Back to earth...
- Bloggers Beware!
- Prescriptivism Revisited...
- What is the definition of "Middle Class?"
- Pulled Up Short
- Do you like Blogs?
- National Poetry Month
- Are linguists really descriptive?
- Where do I go from here?
- Pronunciations
- Fun with epicaricacy
- Off Topic
- I don't get it
- Welcome to my abode!
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April
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About Me
- Kalleh
- Chicago, Illinois, United States
- There's not a lot about me, really. I am fairly mundane. I was raised on a farm in Wisconsin, but always loved the big city. I absolutely adore Chicago. We might not have that wonderful weather of California or the history of the east coast (or Europe) or beauty of mountains...but it's a fine city. While I've been in nursing education most of my adult life, a few years ago I became interested in words, language and linguistics. My husband and I started a Web site, Wordcraft (www.wordcraft.infopop.cc), and my pursuits of words and language have been uphill ever since. Love the people there, too. Oh, and I have 3 beautiful children whom I am very proud of. But let's get down to epicaricacy. Please talk to me here because I am definitely a social being! And thanks for coming!
Web sites
- American Dialect Society
- Anagram Server
- Double Dactyl
- Dr. Grammar
- Eggcorn Database
- Epicurious
- Etymology Online
- Examining the OED
- Free Rice
- German/English Words
- Grandiloquent Dictionary
- Hyperdictionary
- Jesse Sheidlower's Site
- Luciferous Logolepsy
- OEDILF
- Online Books
- Online Thesaurus
- Phrontistery
- Poetry Society of America
- Queen's English Society
- Shakespeare Online
- Silva Rhetoricae
- Take Our Word
- The Devil's Dictionary
- Tiscali Dictionary of Difficult Words
- Unusual Words
- Verbatim
- Verbivore
- William Shakespeare Elizabethan Dictionary
- Word Detective
- Wordcraft
- World Wide Words
- Worthless Word for the Day
Blogs I Find Interesting
- A Cuban in London
- Alan's Blog
- Bradshaw of the Future
- Caterwaulling
- epea pteroenta
- Fritinancy
- Glottopedia
- Is It Irony?
- jerrys-house
- Language Log
- Languagehat
- Lexiophiles
- Motivated Grammar
- Mr. Verb
- Nathan Bierma
- nurse connect
- Out of the Middens; Straight from the Heart
- The Hitting the Road Again Blues
- The Longest Words in the English Language
- The Sperical Influence
- Uncle Jazzbeau's Gallimaufrey
11 comments:
Linguistics is science!
Is everything science, goofy? Literature? Humanities? Being an academic, I have always considered literature/humanities/linguistics as the arts, so to speak, whereas the sciences are disciplines like physics, biology or the like. But I see your point.
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Summer_2004/ling001/lecture1.html
First, linguistics is a rigorous discipline with established methods which strives to follow the scientific method. Our success at being "scientific" is variable and to a large extent a matter for debate, but it is important that competing theories and approaches can be compared, at least in principle, on the basis of how well they satisfy criteria of scientific rigor.
I'll just pop down to the bookies. I had a fiver riding on the subject of your first post and must go and get my winnings. Shame I got such poor odds.
Welcome to the world of blogs.
A "fiver," huh? That's why I like Wordcraft. I learn so much from my British friends.
I am completely expecting this Blog will disappear into cyberspace because, let's face it, there is hardly a lot to write about this subject. But Sean had said it only took 10 minutes to start a Blog, so I thought I'd try. I was surprised as to how easy it is!
Makes sense, goofy...more so than those in literature or humanities, for example. But I must ask (and I think we've discussed this on Wordcraft at some point), who is considered to be a "linguist?" Are there set standards, or is it like a "nutritionist?" Just wondering.
I think a linguist is someone working in a university linguistics department.
You could ask!
Just because the blog is called "friends of epicaricacy" doesn't mean that you have to make every post about the word. Heck, you can just do like most of us do and post on whatever strikes your fancy at the time!
Welcome to the blogosphere.
Well, thanks, Cat. You've saved my day because I don't even want to write about "epicaricacy" every day!
Okay, goofy. That's what I thought, but not sure that all agree.
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