"Obsolete Word of the Day" Blog

Just found this blog, seems worth checking out if you're interested in unusual words!

"bumwhush" is something that I need to use soon!

So many ways to die....

Nice article in the Guardian about the many expressions and euphemism we have for death / dying. I also recommend reading the comments, some nice & interesting things in there - one thing I learned was that 'dying' apparently used to be an euphemism for having an orgasm in Elizabethan times.

The danger of words

Here's -once again- Stephen Fry, talking a bit about the power of language in Nazi Germany. This is a point I find extremely interesting and disturbing - not just because I'm German, simply because I've always been aware and intrigued by the 'darker' side of language and literature, by how words can destroy or manipulate thought (see my thoughts on Orwell's Newspeak). Language can literally do everything - even lead whole nations into commiting genocide. And (although German is particularly suited for slogans and the like - a lot of harsh consonants etc) it can happen to all of us. You can talk someone into commiting suicide - or stop him from killing himself. It all depends on the words you use. And often enough, they're still beautiful words. Beautiful and powerful - and potentially very, very dangerous.

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will make me go in a conrner and cry by myself for hours"

Eric Idle

"Her mouth had the coldly forbidding look of the closed door of a subway express when you have just missed the train"

- P.G. Wodehouse