language

Ricky Gervais Would Never Mock People with Down's Syndrome, Except Always

Seth Abramovitch · 10/19/11 09:57PM

Ricky Gervais loves the word "mong." It's the British equivalent of "retard," and comes from a shortening of "Mongoloid." He uses it all the time on his Twitter account, usually when referencing people he deems to be morons worthy of his contempt. He also likes to switch it up. Sometimes he'll say, "Good monging, everyone!" Others, he'll go, "Two mongs don't make a right." And then he'll just post pictures of himself making "mong faces." He's really taken with the whole "mong" theme!

Sexting and Retweet Added to the Dictionary

Adrian Chen · 08/18/11 12:47PM

Hey, did you hear that a bunch of new words were added to the dictionary? Some geeky words like, "noob," "woot!" "sexting," and "retweet." Oh, woe is us. The English language is doomed.

Censor Your Offensive Friends on Twitter

Ryan Tate · 05/03/11 03:33PM

There are now browser extensions that will filter out curse words from your online friends. Meet "Bleep Tweets" and its cousin the "Foul Facebook Filter," both great if your social networking has gotten far too exciting.

Kill The Honorifics

Hamilton Nolan · 02/22/11 02:44PM

The Wall Street Journal is ending the use of honorifics in its sports pages. Meaning that they will no longer say things like "Mr. Griffin then dunked on Mr. Mozgov, balls dangling harshly on Mr. Mozgov's chin." No more "Mr." or "Mrs." in the sports pages! In other words, they will write like human beings talk.

'Austerity' Is America's Most Looked-Up Word

Richard Lawson · 12/20/10 05:30PM

Merriam-Webster.com announced today that austerity was their most looked-up word in 2010, ahead of pragmatic, moratorium, and, gasp!, socialism. Fitting that people are looking for austerity in these penny-pinched times. "With great austerity, Sarah Palin boundered across the Alaskan tundra..."

The Daily Beast Has Stopped Editing Meghan McCain

John Cook · 12/16/10 10:53AM

Meghan McCain is the illiterate daughter of a ruined man, which makes her "column" for the Daily Beast something of a challenge for her editors. But by the looks of today's offering, they've given up.