Another season of Mad Men is wrapping up, and we’ve been collecting our favorite groovy words along the way. We have 15 here, including slang of the times, a bit of sales lingo, and some catsup (or is it ketchup?).

1-A

Arnold: “It doesn’t matter if he goes back to school. He’s 1-A. His induction could be tomorrow. He’s on a damned list for the rest of his life.”

“Favors,” June 9, 2013

1-A, or Class 1-A, is a classification of the Selective Service System, “an independent agency of the United States government that maintains information on those potentially subject to military conscription.”

Someone who is classified as 1-A is “available for unrestricted military service.” Class 1-S is someone who has deferred by statute, either high school or college. In 1969, President Nixon established “conscription based on random selection,” otherwise known as the draft.

bake-off

Stan [upon seeing Peggy and her rival agency]: “It’s a bake-off? Since when?”

“To Have and to Hold,” April 21

The first bake-off was held by the Pillsbury Company in 1949. At the time the contest was called the Grand National Recipe and Baking Contest, and was first referred to as a bake-off by Sheboygan Press, according to the Oxford English Dictionary: “In a grand final bake-off at the Waldorf-Astoria, Pillsbury Mills will award $150,000 in prizes.”

The word bake-off comes from playoff, which was coined around 1895, and cook-off, coined in 1936. It’s unclear when the figurative use of bake-off began. The earliest citation the OED has is from 2003.

blow (someone’s) mind

Ted [to Peggy]: “Your friend’s mistake was underestimating you. I hope ketchup makes the same mistake so you can blow their minds.”

“Collaborators,” April 14, 2013

The phrase, blow (someone’s) mind, originated in the mid-1960s to mean “to induce hallucinatory experiences (in a person) by means of drugs,” says the OED. It gained its figurative meaning, to astonish or shock, around 1967.

In 1965, a band called The Gas Company released a song called “Blow Your Mind,” while in 1966, the Barry Goldberg Blues Band had an LP called Blowing My Mind.

bogart

Rollo: “Should I roll another? Your friend bogarted the last one.”

“The Quality of Mercy,” June 16, 2013

Bogart has a few different meanings. The OED says the word originated around 1965 as African American slang meaning “to force, coerce; to bully, intimidate,” named for the actor Humphrey Bogart’s tough guy characters.

The meaning, “to appropriate (a marijuana cigarette) greedily or selfishly,” is from 1968, also named for Humphrey Bogart, in this sense referencing his “frequent on-screen smoking, especially to the long drags he took on cigarettes.”

Bogart also refers to “the first cup of brewed coffee collected from under the coffee filter.” We couldn’t find how this meaning came about. If you know, please fill us in.

catsup

Peggy: “So, what’s the difference between ketchup and catsup? Well, catsup has more tomatoes, comes in a bigger bottle, is cheaper, but tastes just like ketchup. Now we know that’s not true, but that’s what your competitors are saying.”

“To Have and to Hold,” April 21

As Slate tells us, there’s no difference between catsup and ketchup (and catchup for that matter) except the spelling. Catchup seems to have come first with a 1699 citation in the OED. Ketchup is next in 1711 and catsup brings up the rear in 1735.

These catsup varations may come from Amoy, also known as Xiamenese, a Chinese dialect. Kôechiap or kê-tsiap is Xiamenese for “brine of pickled fish or shell-fish.”

Ketchup caught on when Heinz, again according to Slate, changed “Heinz Tomato Catsup,” to “Heinz Tomato Ketchup” to distinguish it from competitors.

close

Roger: “I have this check for $10,000 because I close, Pete. I close things.”

“For Immediate Release.” May 5, 2013

Close here means to close a deal or bargain. The earliest citation, according to the OED, is in Charles Dickens’s 1839 novel, Nicholas Nickleby: “He closed the bargain directly it reached his ears.” The word closer, someone good “at bringing business transactions to a satisfactory conclusion,” is from around 1906, says the OED.

Always be closing (ABC) is “a sales strategy in which a salesperson should constantly look for new prospects, pitch products or services to those prospects and complete the sale.” According to Investopedia, “the phrase was popularized in the 1992 film ‘Glengarry Glen Ross.’”

get it on

Wendy [to Don]: “Do you want to get it on?”

“The Crash,” May 19, 2013

Anachronism alert! While this episode takes place in 1967, the term get it on, or to have sex, didn’t come about until 1971, according to the OED, appearing in B.B. Johnson’s Blues for Sister: “She gripped him with her legs and they got it on.” But if anyone can antedate this term, please let us know in the comments.

grok

Squatter [to Betty]: “What you can’t grok is that we are your garbage.”

“The Doorway,” April 7, 2013

To grok means “to understand profoundly through intuition or empathy.” The word was coined by science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein in his 1961 novel, Stranger in a Strange Land: “Now that he knew himself to be self he was free to grok ever closer to his brothers.”

In Heinlein’s invented language, grok “is described as being from the word for ‘to drink’ and, figuratively, ‘to drink in all available aspects of reality.’” Grog is an alcoholic drink named for Old Grog, the nickname of a British admiral who always wore a grogram cloak.

groovy

Ted: “Fleischmann’s. Groovy. We’ll get right on that.”

“Man with a Plan,” May 12, 2013

Groovy originated in the late 1930s as jazz slang, says the OED, meaning “playing, or capable of playing, jazz or similar music brilliantly or easily.” Groovy comes from in the groove, which has the same meaning. Groove refers to the groove of a record, perhaps from the idea of a record playing smoothly and easily in a groove, as opposed to skipping.

margarine

Peggy: “[Margarine] was invented for Napoleon III because armies need to move and it never spoiled.”

“Man with a Plan,” May 12, 2013

Peggy’s right: in the 19th century, Napoleon III “offered a prize to anyone who could make a satisfactory alternative for butter, suitable for use by the armed forces and the lower classes.” In response, a French chemist “invented a substance he called oleomargarine, the name of which became shortened to the trade name ‘margarine’.”

Margarin, which comes from the Greek margarites, “pearl,” was the French term given to “a peculiar pearl-like substance extracted from” animal fat, a main ingredient in the original formulation of margarine.

out of sight

Party-goer: “I heard the bread is out of sight.”

“A Tale of Two Cities,” June 2, 2013

While out of sight might seem like typical slang from the ‘50s or ‘60s, it’s actually much older than that. The OED has it originating as U.S. slang for “excellent” or “wonderful” in 1891. We particularly like this citation from 1902: “‘How do you feel old chap?’ ‘Out of sight,’ replied the American.”

Bread as slang for money is from the 1940s, and comes from breadwinner, which originated in the 19th century with the idea of winning or earning bread or other food.

rap session

Ted: “I want to have a little rap session about margarine in general.”

“Man with a Plan,” May 12, 2013

The term rap session, “an informal discussion held especially by a group of people with similar concerns,” was very new at the time of this episode. The OED’s earliest citation is from 1968. To rap meaning to talk is from the 1920s.

Second Avenue subway

Realtor [to Peggy]: “Believe me, when they finish the Second Avenue subway, this apartment will quadruple in value.”

“The Flood,” April 28, 2013

While a few subway lines run up and down the west side of Manhattan, only one runs the entire length of the east, the Lexington Avenue Line. Plans for constructing a second east side subway, the Second Avenue subway, began in 1929. As of today, it is nowhere near completion.

truncheon

Michael: “You’re a truncheon, Cutler!”

“A Tale of Two Cities,” June 2, 2013

A truncheon is “a staff carried as a symbol of office or authority,” and ultimately comes from the Latin truncus, “trunk.” It may also be used figuratively to refer to an authority figure.

Yankee wrinkle

Pete: “How come you didn’t get yourself a job?”
Duck Phillips: “That’s a Yankee wrinkle. You interested in my business?”

“The Better Half,” May 26, 2013

A wrinkle is a “clever trick, method, or device, especially one that is new and different.” This meaning originated around 1817. Yankee, in addition to referring a native of New England or the U.S., has the 19th century meaning of “to deal cunningly with like a Yankee, to cheat,” says the OED. Thus, a Yankee wrinkle is an especially cunning trick or scheme.

From a 1912 article: “I have discovered the latest Yankee wrinkle. You couldn’t guess what this new scheme is if you tried a hundred times.”

Every week, we pose a challenge: using any word of the day from the week, create a perfect tweet, otherwise known as a twoosh. Here are our favorites from last week.

Thanks to everyone for playing! As always, to get the word of the day, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or subscribe via email.

Homemade cronuts

Welcome to this week’s Language Blog Roundup, in which we bring you the highlights from our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news and culture.

In language news, Russian’s most isolated dialect was found in Alaska. Phonemica, an open-archive, ethnographic project, is on a quest to preserve China’s languages. A study shows a link between altitude and the way language is spoken. Pit talk, a miner dialect in East Midlands, England, is in danger of disappearing.

We learned why regional accents return when you’re drinking and, via some wonderful dialect maps, that everyone else in the U.S. talks funny but us. Meanwhile, Grammarphobia shed some light on why people say yeah, no; the Week discussed derp; and a dog learned grammar.

Ben Zimmer told us how the word emo got political. Robert Lane Greene explored why there’s so little Chinese in English. Arika Okrent rounded up 12 old words fossilized in idioms.

At Lingua Franca, Anne Curzan shared the silent but deadly origins of the word fizzle; Lucy Ferriss talked about silent letters; and Ben Yagoda blogged a blog about blog blogs and wittily discussed the wordplay of Arrested Development and the catchphrases of TV’s funniest show.

At the Macmillan Dictionary blog, Michael Rundell discussed prescriptivism in the Daily Telegraph; Ana Maria Menezes told the story behind the word box; and Stan Carey collided with common sense and usage. On his own blog, Stan dangled some modifiers. The Dialect Blog explored what rhymes tell us about changing English and the phrase, causing a row.

In words of the week, Word Spy spotted superdiversity, “extreme diversity, particularly with respect to the ethnic and racial mix of a population.” Fritinancy noted prankvertising, “an extreme form of guerrilla marketing that involves unsuspecting people,” and so explored the word so.

Erin McKean’s selections included Texican, a kind of Texan-Mexican food; omnichannel, “a term that is meant to signify a seamless integration of brick and mortar stores with online and mobile commerce”; and gunslinger, a quarterback who tries “to make any throw, no matter how unlikely, whatever the consequences.”

In honor of the French word for French kiss, galocher, finally entering the French dictionary, Nerve listed 10 more ways to describe kissing while The Week gave us 10 more mots merveilleux that have recently been added. Mental Floss let us know of six dictionary mysteries we can help solve. Meanwhile, we can say goodbye to the German language’s longest word.

Slackpropagation nerdily – or geekily? – showed us the difference between a geek and a nerd. Novelist Sherman Alexie asserted that “grammar cops are rarely good writers” and that “imagination always disobeys.”

In book news, in the light of the NSA scandal, sales of George Orwell’s 1984 have increased. Jen Doll has a great rundown of summer Young Adult reading.

And speaking of summer reading, the latest book of our own Erin McKean has just come out. Check out The Hundred Dresses: The Most Iconic Styles of Our Time, which of course is full of cool dress names like The Wench, The Austen, The Siren, and The Biohazard.

In more book stuff, we loved this list of the 25 most challenging books; these 11 weird books; and this ranking of all 185 Choose Your Own Adventure titles. We also found these book paintings and artful book stacks very cool.

We chuckled at these movie titles with bad grammar and would like to see all of these movies starring books.

In music and language, we learned that learning Finnish may be a good idea for heavy metal musicians; that the music business has its own grammar guide; and there are hiphop artists in Quebec who dare to use English.

We loved these literary-themed restaurants, and that this chef named his newest dish after 2013 Scripps National Bee winner, Arvind Mahankali. We’re not sure, however, how to feel about cronuts.

That’s it for this week!

[Photo: CC BY 2.0 by Arnold Gatilao]

Before Jane Austen, there was Fanny Burney.

English writer Fanny Burney was born on this day in 1752. Known as Madame d’Arblay after she married, Burney wrote several novels and plays, as well as voluminous journals and letters.

Jane Austen was a great fan, going as far as to derive the title of one of her most-loved books from the concluding pages of Cecilia, Burney’s 1782 novel: “The whole of this unfortunate business, said Dr Lyster, has been the result of PRIDE and PREJUDICE.”

In addition to inspiring other writers, Burney also coined or popularized at least a few dozen words that we still use today. Here are our 10 favorites.

Bonbons

bonbon

“’Incomparably well observed!’ cried he, collecting some bonbons from a bonboniere, and swallowing one after another with great rapidity.”

Camilla, or A Picture of Youth, 1796

A bonbon is a dainty candy that is often covered in chocolate and has at its center fondant, a kind of sweet creamy paste, fruit, or nuts. The word is French in origin and reduplication of bon, “good.” Burney was the first to bring the word into English.

In case you were wondering, a truffle could be considered a kind of bonbon. While truffles are always chocolate, bonbons may or may not be.

bumptious

“No, my dearest Padre, bumptious!—no! I deny the charge in toto.”

Diary and Letters, Volume 6, 1793-1812

Burney formed bumptious, “crudely or loudly assertive; pushy,” by combining bump, perhaps with the idea of someone rudely bumping into another, and the -tious suffix of words like fractious.

fubsy

“In the evening we had Mrs. Lawes, a fat, round, panting, short breathed, old widow; – & her Daughter, a fubsy, good-humoured, Laughing, silly, merry old maid.”

Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney, Volume 4, 1780-1781

Fubsy is British slang for “somewhat fat and squat.” Burney added an -sy to the already existing fub, “a plump, chubby person,” which is now obsolete. Fubsy may be a play on chubby, which was coined around 1611, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

gag

“I gagged the Gentleman with as much ease as my very little ease would allow me to assume.”

Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney, Volume 2, 1774-1777

Gag meaning “to play jokes upon” is older than the noun meaning, “a joke, especially a practical joke; a farce; a hoax.” Burney’s use was either figurative “with the notion of thrusting something down the throat of a credulous person,” says the OED, or imitative, like an older meaning of the word gaggle, “to make a noise like a goose; cackle.”

Day 261: Grumpy

grumpy

“You know very well I wanted to borrow Mr. Smith’s room, only you were so grumpy you would not let me.”

Evelina, or The History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World, 1778

Before grumpy, or even grump, there was humps and grumps, “slights and snubs,” a phrase coined by author Daniel Defoe in 1727, according to the OED. Next came the grumps, a state of ill-humor, the grump, and finally Burney’s grumpy.

For even more on grumpy words, check out our post, A Short-Tempered History of the Curmudgeon.

keepsake

“She sent me a neat little pocket volume, which I accept from that valuable friend, as just the keepsake, I told her, that could give me only pleasure from her hands.”

Diary and Letters of Madame D’Arblay, 1778-1840

While now a memento in general, Burney originated the word keepsake specifically as “a token of friendship.” The word was also “used as the title of some of the holiday gift-books formerly published annually.”

Around 1839, says the OED, the word gained the cynical meaning of “having the inane prettiness of faces depicted in a keepsake volume,” or “the namby-pamby literary style of such books.”

pinafore

“A pin-a-fore for Master Mortimer Delvile, lest he should daub his pappy when he is feeding him.”

Cecilia: Memoirs of an Heiress, 1782

A pinafore is “a sort of apron worn by children to protect the front part of their dress,” and is so-called because it was formerly pinned to the front of the dress. In pinafores means “ at a very young age, childish, inexperienced,” according to the OED.

A pinafore dress is like a jumper in American English, “a sleeveless dress worn over a blouse or sweater.” To add to the confusion, in British English, a jumper is a pullover sweater.

sulk

“In sitting down, he flung himself unto the back of his Chair just as he used to do at Twickenham, when he was not in spirits, & I never in my life saw a youngman sulk longer.”

The Early Letters and Journals of Fanny Burney, 1782-1783

The next time the teenager in your life goes to sulk in his room, you can tell him the word is a back-formation of sulky, which may be an alteration of the obsolete sulke, “sluggish.” The sulks, like the grumps, are a state of ill-humor, and came about after Burney’s use of sulk as a verb.

tea-party

“The room was so very much crowded, that but for the uncommon assiduity of Sir Clement Willoughby, we should not have been able to procure a box (which is the name given to the arched recesses that are appropriated for tea-parties) till half the company had retired.”

Evelina, or The History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World, 1778

Burney probably didn’t expect the seemingly innocuous phrase tea party to become as loaded as it is today.

What was “an afternoon social gathering at which tea and light refreshments are served” became linked to the Boston Tea Party, a demonstration in 1773 by Bostonians disguised as American Indians. As a protest against taxation without representation (for instance, on tea), they “raided three British ships in Boston harbor and dumped hundreds of chests of tea into the harbor.”

The Tea Party movement is an American political movement that “tends to be anti-government, anti-spending, anti-Obama, anti-tax, nationalistic, in favor of strict immigration legislation and against compromise politics.”

tranquilizer

“I find, however, useful employment the best tranquiliser, & however my heart still aches – I have less of the violent emotions which have hitherto torn me.”

The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney, 1797-1801

While we may primarily think of a tranquilizer as a drug to reduce anxiety or put you sleep, it originally referred to anything soothing or relaxing. Burney’s usage, the earliest recorded, is from 1800.

Tranquilize originated around 1623, says the OED, and tranquil in 1616. The earliest citation of tranquil is in Shakespeare’s Othello: “Farewell the tranquile mind, farewell content.”

[Photo: "Bonbons," CC BY 2.0 by fdecomite]
[Photo: "Day 261: Grumpy," CC BY 2.0 by Emily]

The Word of the Day Perfect Tweet Challenge is back!

Every week, we pose a challenge: using any word of the day from the week, create a perfect tweet, otherwise known as a twoosh. Here are our favorites from last week.

Thanks to everyone for playing! As always, to get the word of the day, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or subscribe via email.

The Portuguese got around. Starting in the 15th century, Portuguese sailors and navigators explored Africa, South America, Japan, China, India, and the Middle East. Eventually the country had established the Portuguese Colonial Empire, the “first global empire in history.”

Inevitably Portuguese words worked their way into these cultures and eventually over to English, sometimes in surprising ways. Here are eight words you might not know come from Portuguese.

albino

“Many people in Tanzania — and across Africa, for that matter — believe albinos have magical powers. . . .Tanzanian officials say witch doctors are now marketing albino skin, bones and hair as ingredients in potions that are promised to make people rich.”

Jeffrey Gettleman, “Albinos, Long Shunned, Face Threat in Tanzania,” The New York Times, June 8, 2008

An albino is “a person or animal lacking normal pigmentation.” Prevalence of albinism is “highest overall in people of sub-Saharan African descent.”

The word is a diminutive of Portuguese albo, meaning “white,” and was used “by Portuguese of white-spotted African[s].” The Portuguese first began exploring the African coast in 1419.

amah

“Graduating smoothly from running errands and doing odd jobs to acting as amah and housekeeper, she became the backbone of the Buck household and later, when Pearl finally left China, of the Thomsons’ too.”

Hilary Spurling, Pearl Buck in China: Journey to The Good Earth

We would have assumed that the word amah, “a housemaid, especially a wet nurse, in India and the Far East,” came from an East Asian or Indian language. However, it comes from the Portuguese ama, “nurse,” which comes from the Medieval Latin amma, “mother.”

From the mid-16th to the mid-17th centuries, the Portuguese had long stopovers in China during their travels to and from Japan.

ayah

“There was Rickon Goold, the ringleader, and four others, and they brought away a little boy who was lying fast asleep, because one of them had been in the service of his father, and because of the value of his Indian clothes, which his ayah made him wear now in his little cot for warmth.”

R.D. Blackmore, Mary Anerley, 1880

Ayah is another word we thought would have Asian roots. The Hindi āyā actually comes from the Portuguese aia, “nursemaid,” which comes from the Latin avia, “grandmother.” While amah is often used in East Asian countries and cultures, ayah seems to be primarily used in India.

In addition to China, India was a stopover for the Portuguese during the time they journeyed back and forth from Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries.

dodo

“The Dodo was native to Mauritius when no humans lived there, but its numbers rapidly dwindled after the arrival of Portuguese and Dutch sailors in the 1500s.”

“Dutch Diggers Discover Skeleton of Extinct Dodo Bird,” Milwaukee Sentinel Journal, December 26, 2005

The dodo, as most people know, is a clumsy, flightless, long-extinct bird that once inhabited the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. When Portuguese sailors first encountered the bird, they dubbed the poor thing doudo, simpleton or fool.

The dodo is now something of a celebrity among extinct species, making appearances in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the idioms dead as a dodo and to go the way of the dodo, which describe anything out-of-date or obsolete.

emu

“Nevertheless, they saw, though unable to get near them, a couple of those large birds peculiar to Australia, a sort of cassowary, called emu, five feet in height, and with brown plumage, which belong to the tribe of waders.”

Jules Verne, The Mysterious Island, 1874

The emu is a large flightless bird found in Australia and “related to and resembling the ostrich and the cassowary.” The word emu was once thought to have come from an Arabic term meaning “large bird,” but now is thought to have originated from the Portuguese word for “ostrich,” ema.

While it’s commonly thought that Australia was “discovered” by the Dutch in 1606, there’s the theory that the Portuguese first arrived on the continent more than 80 years earlier.

fetish

“This indeed was the solution, and had the boys known it there are many such rocks in Africa, carved out by some forgotten race, and the weird cries that the vent-holes give out in the wind doubtless acted as a powerful ‘fetish’ to keep away troublesome enemies.”

Captain Wilbur Lawton, The Boy Aviators in Africa, 1911

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest English forms of fetish came directly from the Portuguese feitiço, “charm, sorcery.” (The Portuguese came from the Latin factīcius, “artificial.”) The word originally referred to objects “used by the indigenous peoples of the Guinea coast and the neighbouring regions as amulets or means of enchantment, or regarded by them with superstitious dread.”

In the 17th century, fetish came to refer to any object “believed to have magical or spiritual powers, especially such an object associated with animistic or shamanistic religious practices”; by the 1830s, “something irrationally reverenced”; and around 1901, “a material object or a nonsexual part of the body, that arouses sexual desire and may become necessary for sexual gratification.”

joss

“This ‘joss’ was a thick stake of wood, six or eight feet high, with the upper part roughly carved into the shape of a very ugly human face, and crudely coloured in vermilion and green.”

F.A. McKenzie, Korea’s Fight for Freedom, 1920

Joss, a Chinese god or idol, is another word that came from Portugal’s time in China. Originally Chinese pidgin English, the word is corruption of the Portuguese deos, “god,” which comes from the Latin deus.

tempura

“Tempura embodies qualities Japanese cooks hold dear: fresh ingredients, precision cooking and beautiful presentation.”

“Tempura – Or Is It Tapas?” Brisbane Times, May 12, 2008

Wait, so tempura isn’t originally Japanese? Nope: the word probably comes from the Portuguese tempero, “seasoning.” According to this Brisbane Times article, which cites the book, Japan: Its History and Culture, by W. Scott Morton:

by 1569, there were about 300,000 Christian converts in Japan and that linguistic borrowings from this period include the Portuguese words for bread (“pan,” from the Portuguese “pao”) and tempura “for fried shrimp in batter, derived from the fact that on Ember Days, “quattour tempora” days of fasting and abstinence, the Jesuit fathers ate only seafood.

The Portuguese remained in Japan until they were expelled in 1639.

[Photo: CC BY 2.0 by Port of San Diego]

SPOILERS GALORE TO FOLLOW.

Have you recovered from Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones? We have, just barely, but not before losing our collective minds. We’ve recouped enough now to bring you our favorite words from this latest season of the show, just in time for this weekend’s season finale.

Special thanks to the excellent Game of Thrones wiki.

crow

Ygritte: “In your hearts all you crows want to fly free.”

“Valar Dohaeris,” March 31, 2013

Crow is a derogatory nickname given to the Night’s Watch by the Free Folk, those who live beyond the Wall, thought to be the northernmost edge of civilization on Westeros, the continent where the most action of Game of Thrones takes place.

The Night’s Watch is “a military order which holds and guards the Wall.” Night’s Watch members “swear an oath of duty that is binding for life and prohibits marriage, family, and land ownership,” and dress entirely in black, giving rise to the nicknames crow and black brothers.

Other military nicknames that have to do with uniform color include greyback, redcoat, lobsterback, and blackcoat.

khaleesi

“She was Daenerys Stormborn, the Unburnt, khaleesi and queen, Mother of Dragons, slayer of warlocks, breaker of chains, and there was no one in the world that she could trust.”

George R. R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

Khaleesi is a Dothraki word referring to the wife of the khal, or warlord of a khalasar, a Dothraki clan or tribe. The Dothraki are a nomadic horse-riding people, similar to Eurasian nomads or the Native Americans of the Great Plains.

We learned recently that we’ve been pronouncing khaleesi wrong this whole time. While the word is popularly pronounced ka-LEE-see, it should be KHAH-lay-see, according to the show’s language creator, David J. Peterson.

maester

Jaime Lannister: “You’re no maester. Where’s your chain?”

“Kissed By Fire,” April 28, 2013

A maester is one of “an order of scholars, healers, and learned men” who focus on scientific knowledge and have only a “disdaining belief in magic.” They wear a chain around their necks of varying substances to indicate their expertise in various fields of study, such as medicine and healing, money and accounting, warcraft, and “the higher mysteries,” or magic.

The Middle English word for master is mæstere.

Meereenese knot

Tyrion Lannister: “Kayla is famous from here to Volantis, one of the four women in the world who can perform a proper Meereenese knot.”

“Walk of Punishment,” April 14, 2013

The Meereenese knot is “a difficult-to-perform act of contortion or sexual gymnastics, named after the city of Meereen in Slaver’s Bay.” It also refers to “a complex series of plot problems author George R.R. Martin encountered” while writing the fifth novel in the series, A Dance with Dragons. Martin often blogged about this Meereenese knot, a play on Gordian knot, “an exceedingly complicated problem or deadlock.”

milk of the poppy

Qyburn: “You’ll need milk of the poppy.”
Jaime: “No milk of the poppy.”
Qyburn: “There will be pain.”
Jaime: “I’ll scream.”

“Kissed By Fire,” April 28, 2013

Milk of the poppy is an anesthetic or painkiller with addictive properties. It’s probably a play on opium, which is “prepared from the dried juice of unripe pods of the opium poppy,” and is also known as poppy tears.

pyromancer

Jaime: “He had his pyromancer place caches of wildfire all over the city.”

“Kissed By Fire,” April 28, 2013

A pyromancer is one who practices divination by fire or has “a magical ability to conjure or control fire.” This word comes from the Greek pyr, “fire, funeral fire,” and manteia, “oracle, divination.”

More pyr- words and -mancy words.

raven

Jeor Mormont [to Samwell]: “Did you send the ravens?”

“Valar Dohaeris,” March 31, 2013

Ravens are used to send messages across far distances, much like carrier pigeons in real life and owls in the Harry Potter universe.

The three-eyed raven is a supernatural messenger that appears in the dreams of Bran Stark.

Red Wedding

“The Red Wedding, the smallfolk are calling it. They swear Lord Frey had the boy’s head hacked off, sewed the head of his direwolf in its place, and nailed a crown about the ears.”

George R. R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

The Red Wedding is a massacre that takes place at the wedding that was intended to make peace between the Starks and the Freys. Game of Thrones fans (at least those who hadn’t read the books) were shocked, upset, and horrified.

The Red Wedding was inspired by two real-life events.

Second Sons, the

Jorah Mormont: “They’re called the Second Sons, a company led by a Braavosi named Mero, the Titan’s Bastard.”

“Second Sons,” May 19, 2013

The Second Sons are a company of mercenaries, soldiers for hire known for “their professionalism and ruthlessness in pursuit of a contract.” They’re so-called because the company is commonly made up of “second sons of lords and merchants” who as second-born males would inherit nothing from their fathers, everything going to the first-born sons.

Primogeniture is “the right of the eldest child, especially the eldest son, to inherit the entire estate of one or both parents,” as opposed to ultimogeniture, “by which the youngest son succeeds to the estate.”

Seven, the

Priest: “By the faith of the Seven, I hereby seal these two souls, binding them as one for eternity.”

“The Rains of Castamere,” June 2, 2013

The Seven, also known as God of Seven, the Seven-Faced God, or the New Gods, are the gods most dominantly worshipped by the Seven Kingdoms. The Seven have seven aspects: the Father, the Mother, the Maiden, the Crone, the Warrior, the Smith, and the Stranger.

Battlestar Galactica was another popular show with a polytheistic religion.

Unsullied, the

Ser Jorah Mormont: “Some say the Unsullied are the greatest soldiers in the world.”

 “Valar Dohaeris,” March 31, 2013

 The Unsullied are eunuch slave soldiers “famed for their skills and discipline in battle.” Presumably they’re called the Unsullied as they’ve never had sexual relations.

 Valyrian

 Robb Stark [to his wife Talisa]: “Is that Valyrian?”

 ”The Bear and the Maiden Fair,” May 12, 2013

Valyrian, divided into Low and High, is the language of the Valyrian Freehold, an empire that reigned uncontested for 5,000 years until “a cataclysmic event known as ‘The Doom’ laid waste to the Valyrian capital, its people, and the surrounding lands.” As a result, “Valyrian recorded history, spells, and knowledge were lost,” as well as its dragons. Only one of the “mighty families of dragonlords” survived, House Targaryen.

Valyrian steel is “a form of metal that was forged in the days of the mighty Valyrian Freehold,” and is extraordinarily sharp, strong, and expensive. Maesters trained in magic wear a Valyrian steel link in their maester chains.

Wall, the

Gilly: “Is the Wall as big as they say?”
Samwell Tarly: “Bigger. So big you can’t even see the top sometimes.”

“The Climb,” May 5, 2013

The Wall is a fortification that defends the Seven Kingdoms against the wildings who live beyond it. The Wall “stretches for 300 miles along the northern border,” is reportedly 700 feet high and made of ice, and is defended by the Night’s Watch (see crow).

Real-life fortifications include the Maginot Line, the Great Wall of China, and more.

warg

Mance Rayder: “He’s a warg. He can enter the minds of animals and see through their eyes.”

“Dark Wings, Dark Words,” April 7, 2013

A warg is a person with the ability to enter the minds of animals and control them. In the stories of J.R.R. Tolkien, a warg is a “particularly evil” kind of wolf, says the Oxford English Dictionary. The word comes from the Old Norse word for wolf, vargr.

Bran Stark, who is a warg, first encounters his abilities in dreams in which he sees through the eyes of his pet direwolf, Summer.

White Walkers

Jon Snow: “Thousands of years ago, the First Men battled the White Walkers and defeated them. I want to fight on the side that’s for the living.”

“Valar Dohaeris,” March 31, 2013

The White Walkers are mythological “creatures of ice and cold who, more than eight thousand years ago, came from the uttermost north.” They have the ability “to reanimate the dead as their servants, known as Wights.” A wight is also any “preternatural, unearthly, or uncanny creature.”

The First Men were “the original human inhabitants of Westeros.”

wildfire

Jaime: “You heard of wildfire? The Mad King was obsessed with it.”

“Kissed By Fire,” April 28, 2013

Wildfire, known by pyromancers as the Substance and derisively as pyromancer’s piss, is a “highly volatile material which can explode with tremendous force and burns with a fire” immune to water and that can only be extinguished by large amounts of sand. Wildfire is similar to Greek fire or napalm.

 Wilding

 Night’s Watch Member: “He’s a bloody Wilding all he is.”

 “And Now His Watch Is Ended,” April 21, 2013

Wilding is a derogatory term for the Free Folk, people who live north of the Wall. A wilding is also a plant that grows wild, a wild animal, or anything that is “wild; not cultivated or domesticated.” It also refers to “the act or practice of going about in a group threatening, robbing, or attacking others.”

Yesterday was all about the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Congratulations to 13-year old Arvind Mahankali of Bayside Hills, New York. Arvind won the 86th Scripps National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling knaidel, “a type of dumpling eaten by Jews during Passover.”

Knaidel is Yiddish in origin by way of German, and after misspelling German words two years in a row, Arvind proclaimed that “the German curse has turned into a German blessing.”

Check out all the words from the final round of the Bee, as well as all the winning words starting from 1925.

In other bee news, Ben Zimmer discussed this year’s change to the rules that required competitors to know the definitions of the words they were spelling. Mashable rounded up 10 spelling bee words we’d definitely mess up, Mental Floss reminded us of 13 words that knocked out Scripps Bee finalists, and we confessed to common words we still can’t spell.

At the Macmillan Dictionary blog, Gill Francis discussed dangling modifiers and Simon Williams told the story behind the phrase, as rare as hen’s teeth.

At Lingua Franca, Anne Curzan looked at more importantly; Allan Metcalf redefined the dictionary; Ben Yagoda played the the card and suggested smart as an early contender for the word of the year. Lucy Ferriss thought getting rid of the apostrophe might be a good idea, and Matthew J.X. Malady at Slate agreed.

Inventor of the GIF, Steve Wilhite, told us the proper way to pronounce the acronym, while Stan Carey assured as we can pronounce it however we like, and also gave a reactive defense of the word, proactive.

James Harbeck relayed the delights and frustration of off-road grammar; dissected the linguistics behind seven annoying teenage sounds; and clarified some preposition confusion. Kory Stamper explained how pop culture words become official.

The Dialect Blog examined the pronunciation of Manhattan; the differing pronunciations of the letter t in butter and button; and the word goombye.

In words of the week, Fritinancy noted HOHO, which stand for hop-on hop-off and “describes a type of sightseeing bus that allows passengers to disembark whenever they reach a stop that interests them, then re-board when it’s convenient”; and tick-tock, “journalism jargon for a story that recounts events in chronological order, as if accompanied by the soundtrack of a ticking clock.”

The Word Spy spotted smartphone face, “a drooping jawline and saggy jowls caused by neck muscles that have been shortened from constantly looking down at a smartphone or similar device,” while Erin McKean brought to our attention, fondleslab, another word for the iPhone, iPad, or similar device, as opposed to grandpa box, a desktop computer.

Erin’s weekly word choices also included magicicadas, periodical cicadas; nixtamalization, “dried corn treated with lye or lime,” and bodag, a special Roma bread.

The Altantic took a look at a new book, Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing, focusing on how Romans swore, while Salon excerpted the book.  Meanwhile, Medium recounted the history of fuck yeah on Tumblr.

McSweeney’s gave us some updates to the new Newspeak dictionary, while several words were added to Le Petit Robert, a popular French dictionary, including bombasse, “a noun used to describe a curvy female”; chelou, “slang for someone or something of dubious character”; and galoche, the French kiss. Well, it’s about time.

That’s it for this week!

[Photo: CC BY 2.0 by Jelene Morris]

Tomorrow are the semi-final and final rounds of the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Talented orthographers aged 8 to 14 will be tasked with spelling difficult words such as last year’s winner, guetapens, or the winner from 2012, cymotrichous.

However, many of us still have difficulty spelling even the simplest of words. We asked our followers on Twitter and fellow Reverbers what kinds of words still trip them up.

Double consonants were a common culprit. Words such as accommodate, disappointed, embarrassed, occurrence, unnecessary, immediately, and of course misspell, sent many folks to Google and dictionaries (such as [cough] Wordnik [cough]). Mischievous received a couple of votes with that pesky alternate pronunciation that adds an extra i in the penultimate syllable.

French-derived words, often with silent vowels, were the bane of many an existence, including bourgeois and bourgeoisie, bureau, bureaucracy, and bureaucrat, guarantee, nausea and nauseous, restaurant and restaurateur. “‘Restaurant’ I’m fine with,” said Drew Mackie, “but ‘restaurateur’ I bungle. Dumb, vanishing ‘n.’” We agree.

For others, silent consonants were the tricksters in words like Buddhist, lasagna, rhythm, silhouette, and surprise. “Is there an r or isn’t there?!!!!!!!” asked @miarose. There is, as Jim Nabors knows.

Sometimes it’s our fingers that do the misspellings. One Reverb developer noted that he often spells password as passwd “because of too much time with Apache,” while another used to constantly misspell myself as mysql. One New England native confessed that he often writes main as maine, while another Reverber’s fingers type reasearch when she very well knows it’s research.

Other words are simply too much alike. Who hasn’t spelled weather as wheather (“a bad spell of weather,” as a Reverber put it), or whether as wether? As David Habib noted, “‘Wether‘ is a word and always passes spellcheck.”

For still others, the variant is more well-known. Several of us were astounded to learn that the correct spelling of supercede is actually supersede, and one Reverber relayed how he lost a spelling bee by spelling doughnut as donut, which we all agreed was wholly unfair.

And damn all those alike-sounding vowels! Is it anomalous or anamolous, anomaly or anamoly, anonymity or anonimity? How about definitely or definately, privilege or privelege,  separate or seperate? (The first word is right for all those by the way.)

We’ve just about given up on learning how to spell these words correctly, and will leave the art of orthography to the experts.

Speaking of which, be sure to join us on Twitter on Thursday as we live-tweet the semi-final and final rounds of the Scripps Bee.

Happy (mis)spelling!

[Photo: CC BY 2.0 by Elliott Brown]

It’s time for another installment of Word Soup Wednesday, in which we bring you some weird, funny, and interesting words from recent TV.

l’affaire est ketchup

Anthony Bourdain: “Across town [is] another thing entirely, the younger, wilder L’Affaire Est Ketchup, which I am reliably informed means ‘everything’s cool’ in local idiom.”

“Quebec,” Parts Unknown, May 5, 2013

We couldn’t find the origin of l’affaire est ketchup, which seems to mean everything from “everything’s okay,” to “it’s going to work,” to “it’s all good.” If anyone knows, please add it in the comments.

beavertail

Anthony Bourdain: “Beavertail, on the other hand, is not actually beaver at all, rather a quick spoonbread type of thing that in our case goes somewhat awry during an inadvertent inferno.”

“Quebec,” Parts Unknown, May 5, 2013

The beavertail is a kind of fried-dough pastry shaped like a beaver’s tail. BeaverTails are “a Canadian-based chain of pastry stands” founded in 1978. It’s unclear which came first, the pastry or the chain.

crackles

Dr. Turner [listening to Sister Bernadette’s lungs]: “Crackles on both sides.”

Episode 6, Call the Midwife, May 5, 2013

Crackles refer to “clicking, rattling, or crackling noises” in the lungs as a result of respiratory disorders should as pneumonia, pulmonary fibrosis, acute bronchitis, or, as in this episode of Call the Midwife, tuberculosis. Crackles were originally known as rales, French for “rattles,” a term developed by French physician René Laennec.

embarrassment of boobies

Zeke: “It’s an embarrassment of boobies!”

“Carpe Museum,” Bob’s Burgers, May 5, 2013

An embarrassment in this case is a mock collective noun, “a noun that denotes a collection of persons or things regarded as a unit,” in this case, “boobies.” Other collective nouns include a blush of boys, a superfluity of nuns, and a glaring of cats.

FARC

Anthony Bourdain: “Until recently most of the news coming out of this part of Colombia was not good. It was a front line in the War on Drugs, for lack of a better term, and Colombia’s long struggle with the FARC, a Marxist guerilla force financed by drug trafficking, kidnapping, and covert assistance from Venezuela.”

“Colombia,” Parts Unknowns, April 28, 2013

FARC stands for Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or in English, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The FARC is “considered a terrorist organization by the Government of Colombia.”

Glühenvolk

Rosalee: “When I was a kid, we used to think [Glühenvolk] were these beautiful, magical creatures that glowed in the dark. It was supposed be really good luck to see one, like the leprechaun legend.”

“Endangered,” Grimm, April 30, 2013

Glühenvolk translates from the German as “glow people.” Their bulbous heads, bioluminescence, and penchant for mutilating cows to obtain the ovaries for pregnant females (see also alien cattle mutilation) have led people in this episode to think they’re aliens.

orrery

Appraiser: “And this is what’s called a planetarium, or an orrery.”

“Rapid City,” Antiques Roadshow, May 6, 2013

An orrery is “a mechanical model of the solar system,” and was named “after Charles Boyle, Fourth Earl of Orrery (1676-1731), for whom one was made.”

pastagate

Anthony Bourdain: “So I was going to talk about the whole history of French Quebecois identity. A separatist movement, but I have to get right to the pressing matter of the day, pastagate. “

“Quebec,” Parts Unknown, May 5, 2013

Pastagate, as Bourdain says, “refers to an incident where local authorities [in Quebec] notified an Italian restaurant that they were in violation of French laws because they used the word ‘pasta’ which is Italian.”

Pastagate plays off Watergate, a scandal which occurred during the Nixon administration “involving abuse of power and bribery and obstruction of justice.” The suffix -gate has come to signify any scandal.

prom-posal

Stephen Colbert: “These days there’s something even more glamorous and expensive than the prom itself, the prom proposal, or as some zeigeist watchers are calling it, the prom-posal, which of course is a combo of the two words, pro and mposal.”

The Colbert Report, May 7, 2013

A prom-posal is the act of asking someone to the prom. “According to The New York Times,” says Colbert, “prom-posals have gotten so elaborate that teens are bringing in event planners, like the Heart Bandits, which charge $400 for orchestrating custom promposals.”

push the boat out

Mrs. Clark: “They didn’t even have a famous judge, which is where I thought we ought to push the boat out.”

Episode 5, Call the Midwife, April 28, 2013

Push the boat out is a British English idiom meaning to do something extravagantly, especially in regards to a celebration. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest citation is from 1920 and is also Navy slang for “to buy a round of drinks.”

The phrase seems to have originated from the once common practice of helping to push a beached boat into the water, which was considered an act of generosity.

snowball

Trixie: “Just a rather naughty version of eggnog. When you mix it with fizz, you get something called a snowball.”

Episode 5, Call the Midwife, April 28, 2013

A snowball refers to a variety of cocktails. The one in this episode could include a “generous measure of Advocaat” as Trixie has stashed a bottle of that drink under Jenny’s pillow.

spirit lamp

Sister Bernadette: “We struggle with these spirit lamps. They’re so old-fashioned and so fragile.”

Episode 5, Call the Midwife, April 28, 2013

A spirit lamp is “a lamp that burns alcohol or other liquid fuel,” where spirit refers to alcohol.

sugar shack

Anthony Bourdain: “The tradition of the cabane a sucre, or sugar shack, is as old as maple syrup here in Quebec, where 70 percent of the world’s supply comes from.”

“Quebec,” Parts Unknown, May 5, 2013

The sugar shack is a building where maple sap is collected and boiled down to make syrup. It’s also known as a sugar house or sugar shanty.

tablescaping

Linda: “One of our kids is actually participating in something. We’re going, even if it’s table setting.”
Gene: “It’s tablescaping, and it’s the most exciting competition on four legs.”

“Boyz 4 Now,” Bob’s Burgers, April 28, 2013

Tablescaping, as Gene says, “combines accurate table setting placement with creative themes and costumes.” The word is a blend of table and landscaping. Xeriscaping is landscaping for deserts while manscaping is the practice of trimming men’s facial and body hair.

tejo

Anthony Bourdain: “But I’m not really here for the climate. I’m here for tejo. It involves alcohol and explosives.”

“Colombia,” Parts Unknowns, April 28, 2013

Tejo, which translates from Spanish as “disc” or “hopscotch,” is a game in Colombia which involves throwing a metal disc at a board with a metal ring, or bocin, surrounded by “two to four triangular folded paper packets, called ‘mechas,’ which are filled with gunpowder-like material that explodes on impact.” The goal of the game is to “lodge the tejo puck inside the bocin, strike the mechas in order to create an explosion, and ultimately score the most points.”

tyromancy

Franklin: “You ever heard of tyromancy?”
Dr. Lecter: “Divination by cheese.”

“Sorbet,” Hannibal, May 9, 2013

Tyromancy is telling the future by reading the coagulation of cheese, specifically “the shape, number of holes, pattern of the mold and other characteristics,” according to this blog post recapping an episode of The Splendid Table.

Village maidens would “write the names of their prospective suitors on separate pieces of cheese and the one whose name was on the piece of cheese where molds grew first was believed to be the ideal love mate.” Another technique was related to myomancy, divination by mice, in which the possible answers to a question were written on pieces of cheese and placed in a cage with a mouse. Whichever piece the mouse ate first was the answer to the question.

[Photo: CC BY 2.0 by sylvar]