Customer Reviews

Word Fugitives: In Pursuit of Wanted Words

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Every language in the world has the capability of producing an infinite number of words. Just think of constructions like "anti-ballistic missile" or "anti-anti ballistic missile" or "anti-anti-anti ballistic missile" and so on. After awhile, making them up becomes a bore. Not so in "Word Fugitives." Here the trick is to come up with words to name situations as yet unnamed. What do you call the feeling, for example, just after you thought you had stepped off the curb and suddenly realized you were falling? Bad news? "Word Fugitives" does much better than that. It is a funhouse of a book, finding new words for old situations in clever, amusing and quite unexpected ways. This book is first and foremost fun to read. Then it will provoke you. And finally, it will enlighten you. For those of you lost in the thicket of lexicography, this book is a machete.

I thought that English was a rich language, with special terms for everything, until I read Word Fugitives, having heard about it on NPR. There are so many missing terms - holes in the language, as Barbara Wallraff calls them - and so many ways to plug them. This book is full of the solutions, all wonderful and funny. One favorite: getting in one line at the supermarket only to find another moving faster - what is it? Misalinement. How can I get my favorite new word to stick? Umm...that's another matter, and Word Fugitives has some tips.
All in all, really amusing.

This fantastic mind expanding book has grown out of Ms.Barbara Wallraff's column in The Atlantic Monthly. Something that I have followed for years. It overflows with diversions, (e.g. "English hasn't had a new pronoun for about a thousand years, and there is no sign it will acquire one any time soon") quizzes, contributions and comments from people who are authorities, linguists, authors and plus the fact that it is made sprightly cheerful by supplications from people who are groping for words that remain to be found. Quoted as "English at a Loss for Words",even when Global Language Monitor, an organization estimates there are more than 900,000 words in the English language, and more are being added every day.

To explain about this book, even when we know that feeling it is often that we are not able to find the exact word that defines it - often that word does not exist, (Or it is a sniglet - "word that should be in the dictionary, but isn't) - despite the exuberant and extravagant richness of our language. This endeavor by Ms. Wallraff proves, and I am beginning to be convinced that perhaps even language such as English is dismayingly inadequate. This book comes to rescue providing hundreds of words minted, coined, redefined or delimitated. Just like when you're looking for a word that can mean either "a phantom" or "an ideal" -- eidolon would come handy.

- People who blabber loudly and annoyingly on cell-phones in public? Yakasses.

- Disposable plastic bags caught in trees? Fouliage.

- And when look up a word in a dictionary, and get distracted by something totally off the subject, on the other side of the page? This is called double-entry-bookpeeping. Or is it lexploring?

- What would you say of the times your car or washing machine or TV breaks down, and you pay a repairman to take a look at it, but when he or she - turns it on , IT WORKS ! you can call it deus hex machine. Or how about? Hocus operandi?

Another example to serve the purpose - like what would you call the experience of having recently heard about something for the first time and then starting to notice it everywhere? How are toujours vu, newbiquitous or coincidensity.

What would you call the feeling when you revisit the same refrigerator you had left disappointed few minutes ago, hoping to find - this time, the perfect snack -- which you overlooked before. Well that's leftoveractive imagination. Other choices such as Cold comfort, refrigerator magnetism, smorgasboredom, and freonnui have also been suggested. Somebody has even called it stirvation another one terms it as procrastifrigeration.

Would it be handy to use a word for that momentary confusion everyone experiences when they hear a cell phone ringing and wonder if it is theirs? There - fauxcellarm, phonundrum, pandephonium , phonundrum , ringchronicity , ringmarole or ringxiety are the suggested choices.
And what would like to call your offspring who are adults? (Try unchildren or offsprung.) Or the word for the irrational fear when you're throwing a party that no one will show up? (That might be guestlessness, empty fest syndrome, or fete alism.)

Again what is a word to describe the process of going through the dirty-clothes hamper to find something clean enough to wear? which one would you like to take skivvy-dipping snifferentiate, brainwashing or laundry composting. Or even the laundry alternative is known as dry gleaning.

This book captivates and inspires. I cannot say any further, lest you call it Fullabullacolumnia - some description that goes on and on and on

It's not so much that the words in Word Fugitives are in flight, but rather they are waiting to be created. Ms. Wallraff has captured a moment in a highly fertile time for neologisms. Since publication of this slim volume, many new words have entered our language, but the real value of this book is the author's establishment of a perspective in which to view the birth of a new vocabulary.

Having (barely) survived a period in which so many new words were added to our language not from necessity, but from ignorance (e.g. :incentivize" where motivate has long served us well), it's exciting to think we are at the beginning of an era in which linguistic creativity serves a real need.

I recommend Word Fugitives to anyone who revels in the vitality of the English language and the inventiveness of the Anglophones.

All wordsmiths, and even those who just like to laugh, will enjoy this very clever and funny book which is, in many ways, a good-natured spoof on our culture, values and outlook.

Barbara Wallraff has written one of the most fun word books I have yet to read. We are always looking for new ways to express ourselves and she not only acknowledges the wisdom of this practice, but makes it safe and secure while fitting the neologisms into the existing structure with care and panache.

My daughter wanted to give me a book for Christmas.But what to buy the "ole fellow", who already has over 7,000 of them? She came up with a real winner with this one. I have always had a passing interest in these types of words,and even have a couple mentioned in the book;but this one is top notch.As aoon as I unwrapped it ,I opened it at page 77.I guess it was pure luck,but I found this the best entry in the book.
What do you call those disposible plastic bags caught in trees,flapping in the wind? The Irish term is "Witches'knickers"---priceless! A couple suggested that it is perfect and shouldn't be messed with.However,we get a few others.Some suggest "urban tumbleweed". A weak alternative suggested was "American britches".A Rhode Islander suggested "shoppers Kites".Sheliah from North Carolina suggested "white trash",Samuel Hoffman of Fort Wayne,Ind. calls them "bag hawks".Kristin from Colorado calls them "the state bird of Wyoming,while Richard from Lynchburg,Va.,proposed them as the "West Virginia state flag.If you want something appropriate anywhere,try "totebirds".As an avid Birder, who often sees them and wonders if they could be a Red -tailed Hawk or a Rough-legged Hawk;I loved George Cambells's solution of "retailed hawks" For those of Green Persuasion,Linda from N.J. gives us "treecycled plastic".Jonathan from Md. likes "Gladrags" and "detreetus from Christina from Mass.Daniel from Calif. suggests "fooliage" and Rob from N.Y. likes "plastoliage".And why not simply "fouliage" submitted by Michael Abrams,of Custer,Wash. May I be so bold as to suggest "The French Military Victory Flag".How can we ever see one of these bags in a tree again ,and not be reminded of these Word Fugitives?
Being a book addict ,"Bibliophile" has long been accepted.As an avid Birder ,"Ornithologist" fits the bill.However; I have also been a lifelong addict of puzzles. On page we find "cruciverbalists"for crossword-puzzle constructors. But what is the word for someone addicted to all kinds of puzzles,brainteasers,mathematical puzzles,etc.? On a Dr.Ecco website ,Omniheurist" (puzzle solver)is suggested,but I have never been able to find it in any dictionary.Another suggestion I've seen is "metagroboligist"(puzzle lover);but again unable to find in any dictionary.
The book also gives numerous references for anyone interested in really getting serious about Word Fugitives.
My local newspaper has a weekly column titled "The Week's Best Invented Words" These fall in the realm of Word Fugitives,such as these ;

"Cashtration" the act of buying a house,which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

"returnment" rejoining the workforce after failing at-or realizing you can't afford retirement.

"paradigms" 20 cents,no matter how you spell it.

I am the fortunate owner of a little Yorkipoodle ,and a wife who is forever buying her sweaters,coats and dresses,etc. A priceless Word Fugitive for this is "ROVERINDULGENCE". And then there is a favorite I came across several years ago .What do you call that watery stuff that comes out of the mustard bottle when you first squeeze it? "Musquirt".
If you like this sort of stuff;you'll love this book.