Whether you are writing a blog post or a note to kick your romantic pal to the curb, your choice of words says a lot about you. Do you want be a mere lame, language lightweight or an author with personality and punch?
Here’s resource I use to keep my tongue tone, tantalizing.
Wordspy.com
My pal Paul McFedries is the brain behind this resource. His Web site archives over 2,500 current life, trend, culture and behavioral-centric words. You can sign up for a regular email dose, which I love.
Here’s a recent post:
white pollution n. Litter, particularly plastic bags, but also papers, cups, and food containers.
He also includes:
Example Citations
Earliest Citation
Related Words
I asked Paul how did this word resource get started?
Paul explained, “It amazes me that the language has this extraordinary capacity to generate neologisms. I view the language not as a solid mountain to be admired from afar, but rather as an active volcano to be studied up close. This volcano is constantly spewing out new words and phrases; some of them are mere ash and smoke that are blown away by the winds; others are linguistic lava that slides down the volcano and eventually hardens as a permanent part of the language. Both types of ejecta are inherently creative”.
His Word Spy work grew out of this. Word Spy began as a mailing list where each day he’s send out an interesting word to a collection of friends and readers. The first post to the Word Spy list was back on January 2, 1996. After he’d accumulated a few dozen words, he created the Web site to give people a record of what had been posted and to make it possible for other people to join the list. The list and site have grown by leaps and bounds since then: He gets over a million page views each month; the list has over 10,000 subscribers; and Word Spy has been cited or profiled in over 150 newspapers and magazines around the world.
He does accept suggestions, although prefers new words and phrases seen in the media, not neologisms that people have made up themselves.
About the author: Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva® is an international authority on branding, marketing, and entrepreneurial matters. She is has been featured as a business expert in print publications; on TV, radio, and on Web channels. Karen authored the best-selling book Brain Tattoos, Creating Unique Brands That Stick in your Customers’ Minds and she is co-founder and CEO of Oddpodz.com, an idea engine for creative professionals and business. Her work has benefited large and small organizations in the United States and around the world.
