AWADmail Issue 293
Feb 10, 2008
A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages
---------------------------
From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Subject: Wordsmith Chat
Read the transcript of this week's Wordsmith Chat, an online discussion
with Seth Lerer, a professor at Stanford University and author of
"Inventing English": http://wordsmith.org/chat/history2.html
And here are the coming events in Wordsmith Chat: http://wordsmith.org/chat
Mon, Feb 25, 6pm Pacific (GMT -8)
Ben Yagoda, author of "When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It"
Topic: Friend Me, Pimp My Ride, and Signage: Or, the Ever-Changing Parts
of Speech
Mon, Mar 17, 6pm Pacific (GMT -8)
Michael Erard, author of "Um...: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders,
and What They Mean"
Topic: Verbal Blunders and What They Mean
---------------------------
From: Matthew Male (male.matt googlemail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--somniloquy
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/somniloquy.html
Readers in the UK may wish to explore this week's theme in more depth at
the "Sleeping and Dreaming" exhibition currently on show at the Wellcome
Collection in London. Details at their website:
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/exhibitionsandevents/exhibitions/sleepinganddreaming/WTD037129.htm
---------------------------
From: Esther Krieger( estikrieger juno.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--somniloquy
I usually like to take a quick guess at an unfamiliar word's definition
before checking to see what it really means. Today's guess was, "A speech
that puts people to sleep".
---------------------------
From: Cyndi Schmitt (cschmitt psta.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--somniloquy
When my sister and I were young, we would sneak into my parents' room and
ask my mom permission to do things that we would never be allowed to do
had we asked while she was awake. I even remember writing myself a note
excusing me from class and getting mom to sign it while she was asleep!
---------------------------
From: Suveer Bahirwani (suveerb airtel.blackberry.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--somniloquy
Now I know what to call it! My sister engages in somniloquy all the time.
On most occasions, she's just fighting with someone. I can tell you that
my name's come up often! She's a make-up artist by profession and has very
late hours (which don't help and I'm sure aggravate the condition).
Of course, we find it most amusing when this happens. ;-)
Most humor is at someone else's cost, no?
---------------------------
From: Bonnie Gordon (bgordon lsac.org)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--hypnopompic
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/hypnopompic.html
I have a question regarding today's word: hypnopompic. I have always heard
(and used) the word 'hypnogogic' to describe this state. What is the difference?
The word hypnopompic pertains to the semiconscious state before waking up
while hypnagogic/hypnogogic refer to that state before going to sleep.
-Anu Garg
---------------------------
From: Kary Shannon (kary.shannon ontario.ca)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--hypnopompic
I just discovered this word along with hypnogogic when my 12-year-old who
had contracted a particularly challenging course of pertussis started to
have tremors and shake as she fell asleep. In typical 21st century parental
obsession, we took a video of her poor body jumping to the same cadence as
her daytime cough to show the infectious disease specialist who reassured
us that nothing untoward was happening, merely a rather spectacular case of
hypnogogic hallucinations. Sounded untoward to me! Fortunately, the cough
and the shaking have both subsided, and peace and calm have been restored
to the house.
---------------------------
From: Mike Daly (openmike stanfordalumni.org)
Subject: words about sleep
In the spirit of words about sleep: 'philagrypnia' was created in the
scientific publication department of the Mayo Clinic in the 1950s to
describe a condition rarely seen in clinic.
Amount of sleep, like many biological functions, has a Gaussian distribution;
many people sleep approximately 8 hours. Patients with narcolepsy typically
sleep more, sometimes around 18 hours a day.
At the other end of the spectrum, some people sleep as little as three to
four hours a day. One of the few people to seek medical advice for this was
a patient Daly and Yoss studied: a man in his 70s who had to give up his
second job because the quality of his sleep had changed with age (joint pain)
and he now needed five to six hours per night to become rested. The Mayo
publication group literally constructed the term 'philagrypnia' for the group
of non-sleepers.
............................................................................
One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right
ones form themselves into the proper patterns at the right moment. -Hart
Crane, poet (1899-1932)
Send your comments to (words AT wordsmith.org). To subscribe, unsubscribe,
update address, gift subscription: http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscriber.html
See previous issues of AWADmail at http://wordsmith.org/awad/awadmail.html
The Dord, the Diglot, and an Avocado or Two: The Hidden Lives and Strange
Origins of Common and Not-So-Common Words (ISBN 9780452288614).
Order it at your favorite store or at: http://wordsmith.org/awad/book3.html
This message was sent to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]".
