Vocabulary.com Blog Contributor
Orin Hargraves
Orin Hargraves is an independent lexicographer and contributor to numerous dictionaries published in the US, the UK, and Europe. He is also the author of Mighty Fine Words and Smashing Expressions (Oxford), the definitive guide to British and American differences, and Slang Rules! (Merriam-Webster), a practical guide for English learners. In addition to writing the Language Lounge column, Orin also writes for the Macmillan Dictionary Blog. Click here to visit his website.
If you've always longed to hitch your lederhosen to the zeitgeist but didn't know whether it was appropriate to do so with a karabiner, this month's Language Lounge is for you: we survey the influence of modern German on English, with tips from the top about when to translate and when to merely borrow.
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Quick! What's the first noun that comes to your mind if you want to characterize a regional accent? This month the Loungeurs examine the evidence surrounding the use of words that denote various accents. We conclude that there is probably room for some semantic fine tuning.
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This month we're investigating a chameleon-like feature of language called the loan translation, or if you prefer, the calque. No passport required, but be prepared to mingle with some French and Spanish ancestors.
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This month the Language Loungeurs are in the Larder again, using the Visual
Thesaurus to address that age old dilemma: how can I bring seemly order to
all these disparate remnants of rigatoni, conchiglioni, and the like? Even a
plethora of pasta in your pantry can now be regimented using these state-of-the-art principles!
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Words in the Visual Thesaurus occasionally come unglued from their bearings and wander, lost, into the Language Lounge, where the resident staff are always ready to provide whatever therapy is needed and guide the words back to where they belong. Recent casualties include throe, stealth, issue, and challenge.
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Our British visitor last month left a copy of the Financial
Times in the Lounge. We were reading in it the other day and nearly choked
on our soy-milk-softened Postum: "Wine writing in English has, over the
past decade, become almost violently pragmatic." First of all, wine
writing: you mean it's a genre? Second of all: violently pragmatic?
Don't bet the chewy backbone in your delicately vegetal Cabernet
Sauvignon on it.
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If you've been wondering what that archway in the north wall of the Language Lounge leads to, now's the time to find out. It's the Language Larder, and this month we're going to hang in there for a while, sampling the lexical delicacies available via the Visual Thesaurus.
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