{"id":8845,"date":"2006-04-07T09:45:46","date_gmt":"2006-04-07T16:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/04\/07\/your-lexical-lesson-for-today.html"},"modified":"2006-04-07T09:45:46","modified_gmt":"2006-04-07T16:45:46","slug":"your_lexical_le","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/04\/07\/your_lexical_le.html","title":{"rendered":"Your lexical lesson for today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I had no idea that &#8220;scumbag&#8221; originally meant &#8220;condom&#8221; (though it makes sense in retrospect), nor that the NY Times has had a long sensitivity to the term and that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/id\/2139453\/\" target=\"_blank\">some folks are up in arms about its inclusion in a NYT crossword puzzle<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>So, how did &#8220;scumbag&#8221; make it into the puzzle? Simple: No one realized it could be offensive. Evidence suggests that many people, especially younger speakers, are unaware of the sexual meaning (the Times&#8217; 1998 allusion to Burton&#8217;s remark was particularly confusing to such people). All major general American dictionaries\u2014Merriam-Webster&#8217;s Collegiate Dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary, Webster&#8217;s New World College Dictionary, the New Oxford American Dictionary, the Random House Webster&#8217;s College Dictionary\u2014include the word only in its &#8220;despicable person&#8221; sense, without any &#8220;vulgar&#8221; label or acknowledgment of its origins. The &#8220;condom&#8221; sense can be found only in the largest dictionaries, such as the Random House Unabridged and the Oxford English Dictionary, not out of ignorance or prudery, but because the sense isn&#8217;t very common. And it&#8217;s not even clear why &#8220;condom&#8221; is such an offensive concept.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And now you know.<\/p>\n<p><small>(via <a href=\"http:\/\/obscurestore.typepad.com\/obscure_store_and_reading\/2006\/04\/nyt_crossword_p.html\" target=\"_blank\">Obscure Store<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had no idea that &#8220;scumbag&#8221; originally meant &#8220;condom&#8221; (though it makes sense in retrospect), nor that the NY Times has had a long sensitivity to the term and that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-and-language","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":29520,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/14\/words-mean-things-3.html","url_meta":{"origin":8845,"position":0},"title":"Words mean things","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 14-Aug-12 8:52am","format":false,"excerpt":"Some words\/definitions that have been added into the latest Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Surprised some of these weren't already in there. Embedded Link F-bomb, sexting, flexitarian highlight about 100 new words, definitions in dictionary NEW YORK \u2014 Top 25 words and definitions added to the latest edition of Merriam-Webster\u2019s Collegiate Dictionary:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9442,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/06\/new_words_for_o.html","url_meta":{"origin":8845,"position":1},"title":"New words for old!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 6-Jul-06 9:08am","format":false,"excerpt":"Merriam-Webster's 11th Ed. Collegiate Dictionary has its new word list out.\u00a0 Some of the highlights: Technology and Computers: mouse potato, ringtone, spyware Science and Medicine:\u00a0 avian influenza, biodiesel, gastric bypass...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Writing and Language&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Writing and Language","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/writing-and-language"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14260,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/03\/19\/todays-lesson-on-the-meaning-of-the-word-dictionary.html","url_meta":{"origin":8845,"position":2},"title":"Today&#8217;s lesson on the meaning of the word &#8220;dictionary&#8221;","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 19-Mar-09 5:56am","format":false,"excerpt":"A proper dictionary is descriptive, not prescriptive. In other words, it reflects usage, not some editor's idea of what is right, proper, virtuous, or politically correct. If people start using \"less\" when they should be using \"fewer,\" for example, then over time that meaning of \"less\" will start showing up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;LGBTQ &amp;c&quot;","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &amp;c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49159,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/05\/ten-fine-words-worth-reviving.html","url_meta":{"origin":8845,"position":3},"title":"Ten fine words worth reviving","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 5-Jan-15 6:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I know most of these, and they're good ones. \"Knavery\" and \"Flapdoodle\" are particularly worthwhile. Originally shared by +Scott Randel: I think of \"knavery\" as a Nero Wolfe word. I've come across \"rapscallion a few times, mostly in older books. I grew up using \"caterwaul\" (got that from my mom)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39380,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/28\/word-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":8845,"position":4},"title":"Word!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 28-Oct-13 10:34am","format":false,"excerpt":"+George Wiman\u00a0says: 'Most fundamentalist videos I have ever seen, at some point, elevate the phrase \"Now, the DICTIONARY defines [word] as...\" \u00a0I think they place the dictionary right next to the bible somehow. A dictionary is a good starting place when you have no idea what a word means, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10829,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/06\/21\/100_words.html","url_meta":{"origin":8845,"position":5},"title":"100 Words","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 21-Jun-07 6:36am","format":false,"excerpt":"No, not that 100 Words ... in this case, a list (from dictionary editors) of 100 words all high school graduates should know. The editors of the American Heritage\u00ae dictionaries...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;School Daze&quot;","block_context":{"text":"School Daze","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/school-daze"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8845\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}