Well, I'm not a sockpuppet.
Are you?
No, it's all right, I never for one moment thought you were made out of a sock, of course not; but a sockpuppet can be an online identity used to deceive people.
A sockpuppet may be created to avoid a website ban, or for the purposes of praising, defending or attacking someone or something.
The difference between a sockpuppet and any other pseudonym is that a sockpuppet pretends to be someone who's independent of the subject under discussion.
The British writer RJ Ellory has just come out as a sockpuppet. He isn't the first. John Lott was being a sockpuppet as far back as 2000, and the historian (and sockpuppet) Orlando Figes, like the others, posted glowing reviews of his own works, and bad reviews of his rivals' works, on the internet.
There are a couple of other versions of sockpuppets: the strawman sockpuppet posts very obviously stupid comments in the hope other people will criticise them; and the meat sockpuppet is a supporter recruited for the purpose of...well, supporting.
Does it matter?
Yes, of course it does. Sockpuppets are dishonest, and being dishonest is wrong. It is also bad for society (and business), makes people hate you, and makes you hate other people.
But...doesn't everyone do it?
No. I don't.
How can we tell who the sockpuppets are?
It's not always easy, but five-star reviews posted before a book is published are to be treated with suspicion.
Oh, and while I'm here: everything I've posted on the internet is posted under my own name.
I commend this technique to the world.
Word To Use Today: sockpuppet. The term sockpuppet was used as early as 1993 by Dana Rollins, but it didn't begin to become commonly used until a few years later.
The word puppet probably comes from the French poupette, a little doll, from the Latin pūpa, girl or doll. The word sock comes from the Old English socc, a light shoe, from the Greek sukkhos.
Thursday, 6 September 2012
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
Measure Words
Sometimes a number isn't enough.
For instance, we can't have three scissors, can we: we have to have three pairs of scissors.
Although we can have four envelopes, we can't have four writing papers to put in them: our writing paper will probably come in sheets.
These extra words are called measure words. They're a particular feature of Mandarin, which uses them in fascinating ways.
The Mandarin word for a pair - shuang - for instance, isn't used for scissors, but only for things which can be separated, like shoes.
Kuai is used for tofu, stone, a slice of cake (and bread as well, as long as it's not in slices) tablecloths, or wristwatches.
Lun is for the moon.
Mei is for medals, stamps, rings, and missiles.
Men is for academic subjects and cannon.
Pi is for horses and rolls of cloth.
Tiao is for fish, dragons, dogs, skirts, sofas and heroic people.
Tou is for pigs, hair and dinosaurs.
Zhi is for fingers, chickens, butterflies, earrings...and elephants.
There are a lot of these measure words in Mandarin, and they're used a lot of the time. Luckily, one of the measure words is ge. Ge is for elder brothers, nations and questions - and when you can't quite remember the right measure word you need for a particular word.
Ge must be a great help: but these measure words must still be far from being a piece of cake.
Word To Use Today: a measure word. Measure is a very interesting word, but it has rather a dull history. It comes from the Latin word mēnsūra.
For instance, we can't have three scissors, can we: we have to have three pairs of scissors.
Although we can have four envelopes, we can't have four writing papers to put in them: our writing paper will probably come in sheets.
These extra words are called measure words. They're a particular feature of Mandarin, which uses them in fascinating ways.
The Mandarin word for a pair - shuang - for instance, isn't used for scissors, but only for things which can be separated, like shoes.
Kuai is used for tofu, stone, a slice of cake (and bread as well, as long as it's not in slices) tablecloths, or wristwatches.
Lun is for the moon.
Mei is for medals, stamps, rings, and missiles.
Men is for academic subjects and cannon.
Pi is for horses and rolls of cloth.
Tiao is for fish, dragons, dogs, skirts, sofas and heroic people.
Tou is for pigs, hair and dinosaurs.
Zhi is for fingers, chickens, butterflies, earrings...and elephants.
There are a lot of these measure words in Mandarin, and they're used a lot of the time. Luckily, one of the measure words is ge. Ge is for elder brothers, nations and questions - and when you can't quite remember the right measure word you need for a particular word.
Ge must be a great help: but these measure words must still be far from being a piece of cake.
Word To Use Today: a measure word. Measure is a very interesting word, but it has rather a dull history. It comes from the Latin word mēnsūra.
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
Thing To Do Today: mulch.
Mulch.
Mulch mulch mulch mulch
Mulch mulch mulch mulch...
Can't you fell the stickiness of the stuff sucking at your wellies?
Mulch! Lov-er-ly mulch!
The word mulch started off meaning half-rotten straw, but now it means putting a layer of stuff down onto the surface of soil rather than digging it in. A mulch can stop weeds growing, or stop water from evaporating, or make paths less muddy, or stop the soil washing or blowing away, or can merely be intended to look rather smart.
This, believe it or not, is a rubber mulch. Who'd ever have imagined such a thing?
Mulch mulch mulch mulch...
So if someone says they're going to mulch their beds, the bed in question will almost certainly be in their garden.
Picture by Bobbi Jones Jones.
Unless they're very eccentric...
Mulch mulch mulch mulch...
...or a hedgehog.
There is one other use of the word mulch which is hardly used at all nowadays. It means soft. I think English would be all the better for a word meaning soft and mucky, so perhaps we should revive it.
Let's face it, all opportunities to say the word mulch are to be celebrated and relished.
Mulch mulch mulch mulch
Mulch mulch mulch mulch
MULCH! Lov-er-ly-MULCH!
Thing To Do Today: mulch. The word is from the Old English word mylisc, which means mellow. It's probably related in some way (great aunt?) to the German dialect word molsch, which means soft, beginning to decay, and the Latin word mollis, which also means soft.
Mulch mulch mulch mulch
Mulch mulch mulch mulch...
Can't you fell the stickiness of the stuff sucking at your wellies?
Mulch! Lov-er-ly mulch!
The word mulch started off meaning half-rotten straw, but now it means putting a layer of stuff down onto the surface of soil rather than digging it in. A mulch can stop weeds growing, or stop water from evaporating, or make paths less muddy, or stop the soil washing or blowing away, or can merely be intended to look rather smart.
This, believe it or not, is a rubber mulch. Who'd ever have imagined such a thing?
Mulch mulch mulch mulch...
So if someone says they're going to mulch their beds, the bed in question will almost certainly be in their garden.
Picture by Bobbi Jones Jones.
Unless they're very eccentric...
Mulch mulch mulch mulch...
...or a hedgehog.
There is one other use of the word mulch which is hardly used at all nowadays. It means soft. I think English would be all the better for a word meaning soft and mucky, so perhaps we should revive it.
Let's face it, all opportunities to say the word mulch are to be celebrated and relished.
Mulch mulch mulch mulch
Mulch mulch mulch mulch
MULCH! Lov-er-ly-MULCH!
Thing To Do Today: mulch. The word is from the Old English word mylisc, which means mellow. It's probably related in some way (great aunt?) to the German dialect word molsch, which means soft, beginning to decay, and the Latin word mollis, which also means soft.
Monday, 3 September 2012
Spot the frippet: aloe.
Aloe! Happy Monday!
Most aloe plants come from Africa:
They look dry and spiky, but in fact the jelly inside the leaves is said to be very soothing. One of the aloes, Aloe vera (a strange plant which doesn't ever seem to have existed wild anywhere in the world) is used to cure burns, frostbite, radiation injuries and ulcers, though no one's proved it actually works.
If you're in America and you see an aloe growing wild then it probably isn't an aloe at all, but a sort of Mexican agave also called a century plant:
The flower spikes can be up to 8m high. Beware, though, because it's different from a true aloe in that the sap of this plant is acid and raises blisters. On the other hand you can make rope or thread from the leaves, and a syrup or drink called pulque from the juices of a cut flower stalk.
Aloes (this word looks like a plural, but isn't) is found from Pakistan to New Guinea. It's famously smelly:
The aloes is the dark stuff. It's dark because the Aquilaria tree has been infected by a sort of fungus which makes the tree produce a dark very smelly resin that's valuable for use in incense and perfumes.
Bitter aloes, Aloe ferox:
is used to make a disgusting medicine to cure constipation.
If you, like me, live in one of the many places where no aloe plant grows wild (although they infest window sills everywhere):
then you'll find extract of aloe vera in all sorts of things. Face creams, shaving stuff, shampoos, even toilet paper and yogurt.
When you see it, don't forget to say aloe.
Spot The Frippet: aloe. This word comes from the Latin aloē.
Most aloe plants come from Africa:
They look dry and spiky, but in fact the jelly inside the leaves is said to be very soothing. One of the aloes, Aloe vera (a strange plant which doesn't ever seem to have existed wild anywhere in the world) is used to cure burns, frostbite, radiation injuries and ulcers, though no one's proved it actually works.
If you're in America and you see an aloe growing wild then it probably isn't an aloe at all, but a sort of Mexican agave also called a century plant:
The flower spikes can be up to 8m high. Beware, though, because it's different from a true aloe in that the sap of this plant is acid and raises blisters. On the other hand you can make rope or thread from the leaves, and a syrup or drink called pulque from the juices of a cut flower stalk.
Aloes (this word looks like a plural, but isn't) is found from Pakistan to New Guinea. It's famously smelly:
The aloes is the dark stuff. It's dark because the Aquilaria tree has been infected by a sort of fungus which makes the tree produce a dark very smelly resin that's valuable for use in incense and perfumes.
Bitter aloes, Aloe ferox:
is used to make a disgusting medicine to cure constipation.
If you, like me, live in one of the many places where no aloe plant grows wild (although they infest window sills everywhere):
then you'll find extract of aloe vera in all sorts of things. Face creams, shaving stuff, shampoos, even toilet paper and yogurt.
When you see it, don't forget to say aloe.
Spot The Frippet: aloe. This word comes from the Latin aloē.
Sunday, 2 September 2012
Sunday Rest: Word Not To Use Today: jactitation.
No, of course no one knows what jactitation means.
Any use of the word would be pure...well, jactitation.
The thing is, jactitation means to boast. It's especially a false boast which harms someone else: I'm much better at collecting ear wax/imitating a washing machine/polishing melons than he is.
Even more especially, jactitation is pretending to be married to a particular person. Once upon a time you could be taken to court for it.
If the thought of all this falsehood worries you, then you may, sadly, find yourself doing another sort of jactitation, which is making restless movements while asleep or in a fever.
I have to admit that jactitation is rather a remarkable word.
But it's one that only a dork would use.
Word Not To Use Today: jactitation. This word comes from the Latin word jactitātiō, from jacitāre, to utter publicly, from jactitāre, to toss about.
Any use of the word would be pure...well, jactitation.
The thing is, jactitation means to boast. It's especially a false boast which harms someone else: I'm much better at collecting ear wax/imitating a washing machine/polishing melons than he is.
Even more especially, jactitation is pretending to be married to a particular person. Once upon a time you could be taken to court for it.
If the thought of all this falsehood worries you, then you may, sadly, find yourself doing another sort of jactitation, which is making restless movements while asleep or in a fever.
I have to admit that jactitation is rather a remarkable word.
But it's one that only a dork would use.
Word Not To Use Today: jactitation. This word comes from the Latin word jactitātiō, from jacitāre, to utter publicly, from jactitāre, to toss about.
Saturday, 1 September 2012
Saturday Rave: The Gingerbread Man
Run, run, as fast as you can,
You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man.
That snappy rhyme is the best thing about this story.
Otherwise, it’s all tragedy and disappointment.
Actually, now I come to think about it, it’s not even tragedy, because the Gingerbread Man
is too one-dimensional (almost literally) and
plain stupid to be a hero.
Oh, and I do feel so sorry for the childless woman who bakes him,
only for the ungrateful creature to run away to his doom.
The story of the Gingerbread Man has been around since 1875,
and it’s been re-written again and again, so perhaps this is a great
story, after all.
I think my favourite nod towards it is in Diana Wynne Jones’
marvellous book Charmed Life. Mrs
Sharp is a rubbish witch:
As a rule, gingerbread
men were fun. They leapt up off the plate and ran when you tried to eat
them...it was a fair fight, and some got away. But Mrs Sharp’s gingerbread
men...simply lay, feebly waving their arms, and Cat never had the heart to eat
them.
The first gingerbread men we know about were made in the shape of important guests to the court of Elizabeth the First of England.
The biggest gingerbread man was made in Smithville, Texas, and stood over 6m high...
...which is enough, personally, to give me nightmares.
Word To Use Today: gingerbread. The word ginger might come from the Sanskrit śrnga*, which means horn, plus vera, which means body. Or on the other hand the word might be Dradivian.
*The n in this word should have a line over it, but I'm afraid I don't know how to type this.
Friday, 31 August 2012
Word To Use Today: silicide.
Pesticides kill pests, herbicides kill herbs, insecticides kill insects, and silicides...
...are, luckily, nothing at all to do with killing silly people.
(Good grief, the world would be a lonely place if all the silly people were wiped out. Let's face it, The Word Den would probably be one of the first victims.)
As it happens, a silicide is nothing to do with killing at all. Silicides are all substances with silicon in them.
Sodium silicide is used to make fuel hydrogen, and it's also being used in a new sort of mobile phone charger which will run on water. It can even run on puddle water as long as it isn't muddy.
Magnesium silicide is used to make very hard aluminium alloys, platinum silicide is used to make infrared detectors, especially for looking into space, and tungsten silicide is used in microelectronics.
A silicide is made by a process is called salicide.
Hm.
Now, I'm worried....
Word To Use Today: silicide.
I think the idea of a water-powered phone charger is marvellous. Do spread the word.
The word silicide comes from silica, from the Latin word silex, which means hard stone or flint.
...are, luckily, nothing at all to do with killing silly people.
(Good grief, the world would be a lonely place if all the silly people were wiped out. Let's face it, The Word Den would probably be one of the first victims.)
As it happens, a silicide is nothing to do with killing at all. Silicides are all substances with silicon in them.
Sodium silicide is used to make fuel hydrogen, and it's also being used in a new sort of mobile phone charger which will run on water. It can even run on puddle water as long as it isn't muddy.
Magnesium silicide is used to make very hard aluminium alloys, platinum silicide is used to make infrared detectors, especially for looking into space, and tungsten silicide is used in microelectronics.
A silicide is made by a process is called salicide.
Hm.
Now, I'm worried....
Word To Use Today: silicide.
I think the idea of a water-powered phone charger is marvellous. Do spread the word.
The word silicide comes from silica, from the Latin word silex, which means hard stone or flint.
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