Thank you for writing about my Tingo Books on foreign words.

I wondered if you might like a mutual link to my English word website or press release details of my ensuing book with Penguin Press on amusing and interesting English vocabulary?

http://www.thewonderofwhiffling.com

with best wishes

Adam Jacot de Boinod

(author of The Meaning of Tingo)

(www.themeaningoftingo.com)

adamjacot@fastmail.co.uk

or wish to include:

The Wonder of Whiffling is a tour of English around the globe (with fine
coinages from our English-speaking cousins across the pond, Down Under
and elsewhere).
Discover all sorts of words you’ve always wished existed but never knew,
such as fornale, to spend one’s money before it has been earned; cagg, a solemn vow or resolution not to get drunk for a certain time; and
petrichor, the pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a
dry spell.
Delving passionately into the English language, I also discover why it
is you wouldn’t want to have dinner with a vice admiral of the narrow
seas, why Jacobites toasted the little gentleman in black velvet, and
why a Nottingham Goodnight is better than one from anywhere else. See
more on http://www.thewonderofwhiffling.com

with best wishes

Adam

I think I know what you mean.
Corrupted you say…

Read through the amusing list and stopped at “Nito-onna.” What? Never heard of it. But the following explanation solved the problem. Aha,”nitto.”

By “nito,” the first word that came to my mind was 二刀, meaning two swords, which can mean something else politically *in*correct – you know what I mean. …Corrupted, aren’t I?

Fantastic blog! Cheers!

Endless hours of fun and amusement … There must be thousands of these.

There *is* one author who doesn’t get a mention on that site, and who also included many interesting words in his writings. IMHO he deserves a mention : G.I. Gurdjieff. His “All and everything Vol. 1 – Beelzebub’s tales to his grandson” in particular is a remarkable tour de force, not only through the history and the “what makes us tick” of mankind, but one which includes generous sprinklings of words from a huge palette of languages. (In fact, there is a companion volume to this, which is a kind of mini-dictionary of these terms. They are often really interesting in their own right). For the reader who can persevere through the large number of pages written in an extremely eclectic style, this is a treasure-trove of ideas. (Many people can’t, or don’t want to, persevere). His second book “Meetings with remarkable men” was much more popular, and also turned into a movie. The third book in the trilogy is a little more obscure for the casual reader.

In summary, very insightful site you provided the link for – many hours of happy reading there. Thanks !

Again, fascinating comments. Regarding the ‘future’ of English, you might like to have a look at a wonderful article: http://www.xibalba.demon.co.uk/jbr/futurese.html

Thanks for your thanks. You’re most welcome, but I thought of something else now, and this *is* to do with language – and that is about the word I used in my post, which was “adapter”. There is also the “adaptor” version, and as a technocrat with a German background and a bent for language introspection (not to mention a quirky mind) I sometimes wonder 1. how and why these closely related versions come into being in the first place (and I guess it’s to do with the quirks of English, which started without firm rules of spelling and was thus open to all sorts of contributions), 2. how there are many arbiters of what shall be “official” who want to put into place firm rules about how their little pet version shall be “the” version (and who will often quote various dictionaries and other “official documents”, not always realising that such “standards” are simply a documentation, often very belated, of popular usages, and not necessarily authorities in their own right. That does not even consider other issues such as regional usage, etc.), and 3. about where all this is leading us to in the future (eg. will “SMS-speak” and “SMS-write” finally win out, and we all start writing again in whatever way we feel like, as in Chaucer’s and Shakespeare’s time ?) To my weird mind, there’s a lot of food for thought there. I used to be very judgmental about people’s general mental state, based on their spelling and grammar (the term “spell-Nazi” comes to mind), but I have come to be more forgiving and broad-minded as time has passed. I still think that clear thinking is important, but I try to get beyond mere words. That’s not to say that I am prepared to compromise when I do professional translation jobs, but I’m more forgiving on the input side … Perhaps that is what is needed to achieve the “gist of things” type of translation that you have mentioned ?