Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped “Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J.”

Other beauties include Shannon Wedge of New Hampshire who won in the Adventure category:

Leopold looked up at the arrow piercing the skin of the dirigible with a sort of wondrous dismay — the wheezy shriek was just the sort of sound he always imagined a baby moose being beaten with a pair of accordions might make.

As well as Graham Thomas of St Albans, Hertfordshire, U.K. who ran up the Purple Prose:

The complementary crepuscularities of earth and sky shrank away from one another as the roseate effulgence of a new dawn burst forth, not unlike a reclining pneumatic beauty’s black silk stocking splitting apart at the seam to reveal the glowing radiance of an angrily sun-burned leg.

ANGLERS

ANGLERS, alias HOOKERS; petty Thieves, who have a Stick with a Hook at the End, wherewith they pluck Things out of Windows, Grates, &c. Make ready your Angling Stick; a Word of Command used by these petty Villains, to get ready the Stick with which they perform their Pranks, and as a Signal of a Prey in Sight. In the Day-time they beg from House to House, to spy best where to plant their Designs, which at Night they put in Execution.

It’s a classic.

Urban Dictionary has a definition of its own:

1. Stomache

An idiot who can’t spell “stomach”.
Guy1: Man, my stomache is killing me.
Guy2: It’s stomach, dumbass.

2. stomache

Upset stomach, contracted form of “stomach ache”
You can’t sit on my lap, pet, I have a stomache.

The rest of the Google references will take you to pages about gastroenterology, under the assumption that stomache is really just a common mispelling of stomach. Unfortunately, I’m writing this to tell you that it’s not. It’s its own new portmanteau word, replacing “stomach ache.”

The bigger mystery is how “Canadian” came to be code for black. An online directory of racial slurs defines Canadian as a “masked replacement” for black.

Last August, a blogger in Cincinnati going by the name CincyBlurg reported that a black friend from the southeastern U.S. had recently discovered that she was being called a Canadian. “She told me a story of when she was working in a shop in the South and she overheard some of her customers complaining that they were always waited on by a Canadian at that place. She didn’t understand what they were talking about and assumed they must be talking about someone else,” the blogger wrote.

“After this happened several times with different patrons, she mentioned it to one of her co-workers. He told her that ‘Canadian’ was the new derogatory term that racist Southerners were using to describe persons they would have previously referred to nigger.”

A similar case in Kansas City was reported last year on a Listserv, or electronic mailing list, used by linguistics experts. A University of Kansas linguist said that a waitress friend reported that “fellow workers used to use a name for inner-city families that were known to not leave a tip: Canadians. ‘Hey, we have a table of Canadians…. They’re all yours.’”

The article concludes that the term “Canadian” is being used by racists to refer to black Americans because it affords a cultured sense of otherness, and because other immigrant nationalities, such as “Mexican,” would have been too obvious.

Urban Dictionary at least lends some credence to this alternate definition, odious as it is. Hopefully this is just a linguistic passing phase, limited only to a few select idiots in the Southern USA.

Update: There is an article in Passport Foreign Policy which says, “There is just so much wrong with this situation on so many levels that I don’t even know where to begin. So, you be the judge.”

A submitter who prefers to remain anonymous sent me this. Talk about a front for the mob…

There’s also a fascinating Flickr group called “Quotation Mark” Abuse that’s well worth checking out. For those interested in the rules, quotation marks should be used to set off actual speech. The quotation mark can be further abused as a mark of irony, distancing the writer from the word or phrase contained. You can check out Wikipedia for more rules.

Bäck E. Books Blog [Internet]. New York: Elliott Bäck. 2004 Nov – [cited 2007 Oct 12]. Available from: books.elliottback.com/?p=147

They strongly recommend including the word “blog” in the title if it is not already there to indicate that the citation refers to a blog. Also interesting is the date of publication, which is given as the date of the first post that can be found in the archives.

Thanks to the fantastic Ben Goldacre for digging this up!

AGLET – The plain or ornamental covering on the end of a shoelace.

DRAGÉES – Small beadlike pieces of candy, usually silver-coloured, used for decorating cookies, cakes and sundaes.

OCTOTHORPE – The symbol ‘#’ on a telephone handset.

SCROOP – The rustle of silk.

Honestly, I’d never heard of these and I question their use. But they are neat!

1. apology – admission of fault in what you think, say, or do; formal defense of what you think, say, or do
2. dust – add fine particles, remove fine particles
3. oversight – error, care
4. pitted – with the pit in, with the pit removed
5. rent – buy use of, sell use of
6. table – propose (in the United Kingdom), set aside (in the United States)

There are doubtlessly many many more out there, so leave tons of comments for us in the hopes of acquiring more of these beautiful words!

Seriously, the city of NYC has banned the use of the word “nigger,” thus preventing schools from teaching Huck Finn, and the homies in the hood from saying hello. Reuters has a hilarious quote from Chris Rock on the issue:

“What, is there a fine? Am I going to get a ticket?” Rock mocked in a Reuters interview when asked about the City Council move. “Do judges say, ‘10 years, nigger!’”

As a linguist, I think all words are useful tools for expressing ideas. What if you want to express a distasteful history of slavery and modern linguistic rebellion and rebranding? Then it’s the perfect word.

Update: The hip-hop/rap music link to the revitalization of this word is well known and controversial enough–I’m not interested in discussing it here. What is interesting though, is that I just realized that rapper (unfortunately) Jay-Z calls himself “Jigga Man.” Of course, Jigga is only a slightly more corrupted form of the N-word, and he’s taken it as his name. I’m not going to draw conclusions.

Update 2:  Here are some others’ opinions on the matter:

“I used the word nigger to defuse its negativity,” he told us by phone. “When Puerto Ricans call each other the Spanish word ‘negro,’ it reflects feelings of love. I think New York blacks picked up ‘You my nigger’ from Puerto Ricans.” writes NYMag

“The word word originates from the Latin “niger,” meaning black, to its first documented written use in 1786 as a term slave masters used to label their African slaves.” writes A Welsh View

“Sorry, banning words you don’t approve of is infantile at best and fascist at its worst. Forbidding the use of a word usually only gives it more power. Besides, racism is a complex cultural and historical issue that goes far beyond a two syllable word.” says Cynical-C

“My fantasy is that I could have made a citizens arrest and then tortured him for hours upon hours, tied up in my apartment, by recounting every act of racial hatred and discrimination that I have ever endure…” writes Black Looks

“How would we feel if the city had been Memphis, Tennessee, and the word had been “Jesus Christ!” (when used as an expletive). Most of us here would agree that both expletives are a bad thing, but would we want both of them outlawed?” says World Views

“Perhaps dialogue encouraging the black community to hate using the word ‘nigger’ as much much as they hate other people using it would be far more productive.” notes Amy Proctor who I remind does not need so many italics