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Ya know I had been thinking of it exclusively in the context of “oh god” and its variations but yeah, duh, saying “oh boy” or “oh man” isn’t invoking anything, just asking for attention? I guess? Same as the modern “ooh gurl”. Never mind, post cancelled

PS I don’t know how common this is but my grandmother used to say “oh me”

In the phrase “oh boy” who are we talking about?

summoning a messenger-boy to spead the news

invoking the Christ-Child

invoking some Greek/Roman deity

invoking the Puer Æternus? Do people swear by Jungian archetypes? I know they don’t but I think I might start

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PBS’ Otherwords series explores how it’s weirdly universal the kinds of nicknames we give our loved ones

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Any suggestions? I’m not finding anything in my usual sources

In the phrase “oh boy” who are we talking about?

summoning a messenger-boy to spead the news

invoking the Christ-Child

invoking some Greek/Roman deity

invoking the Puer Æternus? Do people swear by Jungian archetypes? I know they don’t but I think I might start

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When people get a little too gung-ho about-

wait. cancel post. gung-ho cannot be English. where did that phrase come from? China?

ok, yes. gōnghé, which is…an abbreviation for “industrial cooperative”? Like it was just a term for a worker-run organization? A specific U.S. marine stationed in China interpreted it as a motivational slogan about teamwork, and as a commander he got his whole battalion using it, and other U.S. marines found those guys so exhausting that it migrated into English slang with the meaning “overly enthusiastic”.

That’s…wild. What was I talking about?

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I was wondering if the word naked was derived from some obsolete verb, since there’s not a lot of English adjectives that end in -ed, but nope—it’s one of the few words we’ve got that goes all the way back to Proto-Indo-European without changing meaning

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Next you’re gonna tell me kids don’t know to call the happy noises you make before glomping someone “squeeing”

I just....I just learned that there's a word in the English language...for when you run into someone to hug them with all the enthusiasm and strength you have....I learned that it's called glomp.

My God, English has so many words to describe physical intimacy, I'm in love

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Etymology of the word mammoth: comes from a Russian word for digging because in 1706 they were still figuring out how fossils worked, and the first time it was used as an adjective it was describing an extremely large cheese. It wasn't just the size that earned the word, though: it was because it was a giant cheese sent specifically to Thomas Jefferson, who loved mammoths. In fact, at that point in history, a lot of North America was still unknown to Westerners, and Jefferson had really hoped that the Lewis & Clark expedition would find some.

(Side note: they knew what elephants were but apparently thought maybe the Mammoth was different, maybe using the tusks to dig like a mole or maybe a huge carnivore that used its tusks as pincers to attack prey????)

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Word for today: droplifting

The act of sneaking things into a store so they look like they’re on sale, typically as an artistic statement or joke, such as the work of Obvious Plant

I’m SO glad to find out there’s a word for this

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Other classics from American computer jargon include “Error ID ten-plus” (ID10+) and “PEBCAK error” (Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard)

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Got curious about the origin of the phrase "zoot suit" (a style of men's suit popular in the 40s) and discovered in the 90s "zoot" was furry slang for a fursuit, plus a bonus usage of "squick" as a transitive verb, which I had never heard before--we squicked the mundanes by running around in zoots

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When a student copies an essay online instead of writing it and then painstakingly changes every word to a synonym until the text no longer makes any sense...

call that the Ship of Thesaurus

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A dictionary of obsolete and regional English originally published in 1674; interesting in theory but as I’m skimming I’m finding that I rarely know what the hell the definitions mean

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Word for today: brawlsome

Inclined to fight

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Word for today: zizz

A short sleep; to take a nap

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Word for today: apotropaic

Intended to ward off evil

I wonder how many things archaeologists have labelled "apotropaic"--repelling evil--were actually just like that because people thought they looked cool or badass. I know some of them really did have a religious significance, but it can't be all of them, can it? Like I have a big collection of statuettes of fearsome warriors and monsters that I wonder if future archaeologists will assume are apotropaic votives. How sure are we that the ancient Romans didn't just think it was cool or funny to have winged dick windchimes without worrying about the magical signifiance of the Fascinus? Nobody signed up for ZooBooks because they thought the poster would keep away real tigers.

"During the 21st Century many households would decorate their walls with images of famed warriors from their popular fables, perhaps to frighten away demons and enemies"

Unless maybe that IS what we're all doing subconsciously....