Happy Halloween! In tribute to the holiday (my favorite), here’s a smidge of spooky linguistics. Ever play that game where you repeat some word so many times it starts to lose its meaning? That’s actually a thing, called semantic satiation. Semantic satiation is a psychological phenomenon where a person temporarily loses the meaning of the…
Category: Fun & Games
I hope you’ve got your noses strapped on. If you’ve ever wondered what a poecilonym is (who hasn’t?), or needed a handy mnemonic for remembering how to spell diarrhea in British English, this video is for you. It’s educational. It’s funny. It’s dorkery at its best. And you’ll learn more than you (THOUGHT you) ever…
Back again, with some more cocktail origin stories! This time we’ll be delving into the emergence of gin-based drink names. During my bartending days a common response we gave to underspecified requests for custom cocktails was, “would you like something spirit-forward or citrussy?” If the customer chose the former, we’d mix them a drink with…
Cocktail culture in the U.S. (and in various countries around the world) has undergone an effervescent revival over the last ten or so years. Bartenders and drinkers in cities across America have become obsessed with rejuvenated classics – recipes from the 1870s through the 1950s – as well as with unique new creations, often featuring…