It's a Doozy!

I had always assumed that "doozy" referred to the Duesenberg cars of the 1920s and '30s, but as Michael Quilian writes, doozy (or doozie) was already in wide use before the Duesenberg brothers sold their first car in 1920.

Apparently, 'doozy' comes from 'daisy,' which "was once English slang, from the eighteenth century on, for something that was particularly appealing or excellent." Sounds pretty reasonable to me.

Also on Mr Quilian's site, check out why 'lb' is the abbreviation for pounds (weight, not British money).

Thisafternoon or This afternoon?

Another escapade in Matt being a huge nerd:

I think that “this morning” and “this afternoon,” when used like “this afternoon I am going to the doctor” or “what are you doing this afternoon?” should be changed to a one-word contraction or merge of some sort. “Thisafternoon” just seems to roll off the tongue better than “this” “afternoon.”

Although, it would not work as well if you were trying to describe the afternoon as its own thing. For instance, “this afternoon is dragging” could not use the merged “thisafternoon”.

I don’t really know what part of speech my first example would fall under; a preposition, maybe? (I don’t even know what to look for to look it up.) But it does not seem like the most outlandish thing ever proposed, so who knows? Maybe it’ll catch on. Or not, since spell check doesn’t like it.

Any words that you think need to be merged, modified, etc? Do you agree with my “thisafternoon” proposal?

God Jul!

Just a quick note to with you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

And just in case you wanted that in a few other languages:

Armenian - Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev
Asturian - Bones Navidaes & Gayoleru anu nuevu!
Bulu - Duma e bo'o
Danish - Glædelig Jul og godt nytår
French - Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année!
Galician - Bon Nadal e Bo Ani Novo
Irish - Nollaig Shona Dhuit
Nii - Nim Ono
Swedish - God Jul och Gott Nytt År

Nifty, eh? Remember, the "J" in Swedish sounds like "Y".

Just in case anyone needs it, here is the Christmas story as it is told in Luke 2: 1-20.

And don't forget, you can watch Queen Elizabeth's Christmas address on YouTube along with other royal footage here.

Have a warm, safe, and wonderful Christmas!

New Slang: "That's So Congress"

i.e.: Not likely to get over a 14% approval rating.

To be used instead of "that's so gay / retarded / stupid."

I'm not sure if anyone who is not 'in the know' will get it, but they'll just say it because everyone else is saying it. Because they're so congress. ;)

How To Say "Zoology"

I am kind of a closet word-nerd, but I'm not very good at it. I strive to use the correct word - or form thereof - for the situation and punctuate it all correctly, but, maybe because I only took one English Composition class in college, I sometimes just don't know the rules. So when I learn something new, I get a little bit nerdly-excited. (Just because I like words doesn't mean that I am above making up new ones.)

I recently learned the correct way to pronounce "zoology." I had always assumed that it was said "zoo"-"ology"... I had never really thought about it, because that is how nearly everyone says it. But if you think about it, it would take a triple "o" to make that "oo"-"o" sound. Since there are only two "o"s [now, what is the proper way of doing that?], the word must be said "zo"-"ology."

"Zo-ology." That'll take a little bit of getting used to.

Just in case you think I'm full of it, Dictionary.com's pronunciation says "zoh-ol-uh-jee" and the American Heritage Dictionary says "zō-ŏl'ə-jē, zōō-." So there ya go.