Lazy Tuesday (Neo-Orthodoxy)

Word Up Barth!

enjoy, ron

Christianist!

“Christianist” is a dubious new word recently submitted by the public to Merriam-Webster’s Open Dictionary. I wonder who uses such a word? Read on for its definition…

christianist (noun): one who advocates the reordering of society and government in accordance with fundamentalist Christian interpretations of the Bible.

Example of use: The distinction between Christian and Christianist echoes the distinction we make between Muslim and Islamist.

Quote from site…

When you notice a new word - on the radio, in a book or magazine, or online - and discover that it’s not in the dictionary, then it’s a good candidate for Merriam-Webster’s Open Dictionary. Some words catch on, some don’t. It usually takes a few years for a word to enter the language and be used by many people in many different places. Lexicographers collect the evidence of new words used in print to determine when they are to be entered in the dictionary.

The Open Dictionary is a place to record new or specialized words or old words with new meanings, and some of the more intriguing new words and expressions submitted to the Open Dictionary at http://www.merriam-webster.com/ make it into this semimonthly roundup at the Britannica Blog. Some of these words are being used in active English but have not yet found their way into the pages of print dictionaries. Others are clever or useful coinages.

We welcome your contributions to the Open Dictionary - simply click here to join the fun.

enjoy, ron

Word of the Year!

Have you been plutoed lately?

'Plutoed' Chosen As '06 Word of the Year!

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Pluto is finally getting some respect - not from
astronomers, but from wordsmiths.

"Plutoed" was chosen 2006's Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society at its annual meeting Friday.

To "pluto" is "to demote or devalue someone or something," much like what happened to the former planet last year when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto didn't meet its definition of a planet.

"Our members believe the great emotional reaction of the public to the demotion of Pluto shows the importance of Pluto as a name," said society president Cleveland Evans. "We may no longer believe in the Roman god Pluto, but we still have a sense of personal connection with the former planet." [...]

FYI: Friends, our solar system has eight planets, not nine as you've been told all your life. On second thought, maybe it has twelve. Actually, scientists can't agree, even after the International Astronomical Union (IAU) - the folks who officially keep track of celestial bodies - ruled in August 2006 that tiny Pluto isn't a planet after all.

Yet for the time being Pluto has been plutoed!

enjoy using the word, revdrron