Thusly Spoke Zarathustra

Fun word from a student's history paper: "thusly." According to the American Heritage Dictionary: "Thusly was introduced in the 19th century.... It appears to have first been used by humorists, who may have been echoing the speech of poorly educated people straining to sound stylish."

Improper Nouns -- The Brouhaha over Mattel's Scrabble Knockoff

Turns out the release of a Scrabble knock-off that allows the use of proper nouns (and words spelled backwards) is sending the diehards into a tizzy. The tizzifying of the diehards seems to have excited the blogosphere, who appears to delight in the democratization of the game.

Mattel, everyone's favorite maker of serious toys, hopes (quoth the BBC) that "the change will encourage younger people to play." Ha! Younger people. Have we no values? No standards? Are the youth really so shallow, so difficult to please?

It turns out that it is all an overblown media story. Hasbro, the real maker of Scrabble, has no relation to this knockoff, and has no plans to change its rules, assures Slate, which asks "how did this latest games marketing gimmick turn into a global foofaraw?" Apparently, simply a few reporters who didn't check their sources.

Sigh of relief, but reflections on the excitable nature of word lovers.

By the way: foofaraw is a new word for me. It can mean
1. a great fuss or disturbance about something very insignificant.
2. an excessive amount of decoration or ornamentation, as on a piece of clothing, a building, etc.

National Museum of Language

When I go to College Park, MD, I'll look forward to checking out the National Museum of Language: "Promoting a better understanding of language and its role in history, contemporary affairs, and the future." The website is awful. The Washington Post reported that it seems to be struggling, but it has a real charm. The guide for docents is even posted online, with info about various writing systems and instructions about how to lock up the museum at the end of the day.

Schott's Vocab

What a great blog. I think I would have imagined myself writing this sort of thing, if I had been asked at any point between age 10 and age 18. Perhaps I still could--the whimsy of it all is far more appealing that the sort of sustained inquiries I am expected to produce at present.

Ajami, Coming to Kendall, West Newton Cinemas, 2/26

I missed Ajami in the Boston Jewish Film Festival, but have been told it is excellent. It's coming now to the Kendall Cinemas in Cambridge and the West Newton Cinema on 2/26.

Writation? Malesh.

Poking around in the OED more than usual lately. It is a kind of escape, a kind of fascination, full of discoveries that are only sort of English, insofar as most are obsolete, many are from foreign languages.

Writation: n. (obs.) Poor or insipid writing.

1778 MISS CARTER Lett. to Mrs. Montagu (1817) III. 95 What writing, as somebody used to say, what writation it all is! 1787 BENTHAM Wks. (1843) X. 174 Nine-tenths of it is bad writation about the origin of society.

Malesh turns out to be "English" as well:

Int. ‘No matter!’, ‘never mind!’ Also as n.: indifference, slackness.

1913 ‘S. ROHMER’ Myst. Dr. Fu-Manchu iv. 44 ‘Ma'alesh!’ came her soft whisper; ‘but I am afraid to trust youyet.’ 1919 W. H. DOWNING Digger Dial. 33 Maleesh, it doesn't matter. 1925 E. FRASER & J. GIBBONS Soldier & Sailor Words 151 Maleesh: Never mind. It doesn't matter. Used colloquially on Eastern Fronts. 1946 Happy Landings (Air Ministry) July 12/1 The manpower problem will solve itself in time, but there is no excuse for the maleesh attitude. 1947 Landfall 1 162 Not so much of the ma lesh! 1958 L. DURRELL Mountolive xvi. 315 Ma-alesh! Let it be forgiven! Nothing avails our grief! 1971 Guardian 22 June 3/3 The general air of ‘malesh’, Arabic for ‘never mind’, or ‘forget it’, continues to hang over the police force. 1991 T. HORWITZ Baghdad without Map i. 10 ‘Malesh’ Ahmed said, producing a second oar. Malesh is an Egyptian phrase of surrender, meaning ‘never mind’ or ‘doesn't matter’.