Linguistics Cartoon Favorites - Naming Rights

From 22 Words

Onomastics - Creative Restroom Signage

Onomastics or onomatology is the study of proper names of all kinds and the origins of names. The words are from the Greek: "ὀνομαστικός" (onomastikos), "of or belonging to naming" and "ὀνοματολογία" (onomatologia), from "ὄνομα" (ónoma) "name". - Wikipedia


One of the many ways that businesses add character to their establishments is by creatively naming their restrooms. Here are a couple spotted on the web.

I was recently out at one of the newer restaurants in my hometown when I happened upon these interesting restroom signs.

I get the name "Joe" for the men's restroom (after all, Average Joe, Joe Public, Ordinary Joe and Joe Sixpack have long been used as generics to represent the average American male); what I don't get is "Sally" for the women's restroom. The female equivalent of the above named "Joes" has always been "Jane". In my experience, "Sally" is used as a derogatory nickname for effeminate men. So what gives?

Maybe it has to do with Urban Dictionary's top definition for Sally: "A really, really hot girl."

Are You Envoweled?

According to the website is this your name?, I am extremely well envoweled (at least my name is, anyhow).

50% of the letters that make up my name are vowels and of one million first and last names reviewed by the site, only 2.2% have a higher vowel make-up.

I am thrilled that I can do my share to support the use of vowels, after all, without vowels (vowel sounds, that is) there would be no syllables and thus no rhymes; language would lose its poetic nature.

*The vowel sound is the nucleus of the rhyme and the only mandatory element of a syllable.

* A vowel letter does not always equal a vowel sound (ex. the word "tote" is written with two vowels but when transcribed phonetically, /tot/, it only has one vowel sound).

Name That Genre with People Magazine

When People magazine reviews a movie, the review usually starts out with an information box that lists the genre of the movie. The following picture is an example from the May 24th issue review of Robin Hood.

The same issue also includes a review of the movie Letters to Juliet.

Here is a closer look at the information box from this review.


Unless there is a new movie genre named, simply, "genre" I have to believe the article writer/editor forgot to fill in the genre in the layout for this review.

Sexuality in the Semantics of Names

A man boarded an aircraft at London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 for New York, and taking his seat as he settled in, he noticed a very beautiful woman boarding the plane. He realised she was heading straight toward his seat and bingo - she took the seat right beside him.

"Hello," he blurted out, "Business trip or vacation?"

She turned, smiled enchantingly and said, "Business. I'm going to the annual nymphomaniac convention in the United States."

He swallowed hard. Here was the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen sitting next to him, and she was going to a meeting for nymphomaniacs!

Struggling to maintain his composure, he calmly asked, "What's your business role at this convention?"

"Lecturer," she responded. "I use my experience to debunk some of the popular myths about sexuality."

"Really," he smiled, "what myths are those?"

"Well," she explained, "one popular myth is that African-American men are the most well endowed when, in fact, it's the Native American Indian who is most likely to possess that trait. Another popular myth is that French men are the best lovers, when actually it is the men of Greek descent. We have also found that the best potential lovers in all categories are the Irish."

Suddenly the woman became uncomfortable and blushed. "I'm sorry," she said "I really shouldn't be discussing this with you, I don't even know your name!"

"Tonto," the man said. "Tonto Papadopoulos, but my friends call me Paddy."





-I received this joke in an e-mail, the author is unknown.

The Etymology of the Detroit Red Wings

GO RED WINGS

Well the big game is tonight and last year I posted about the semantics of sports award names in honor of The Stanley Cup Playoffs so this year I thought I would mention the history of the Red Wings' team name in hopes that the Red Wings will win the Stanley Cup tonight.

The team that has become the Red Wings started out as the Detroit Cougars in the fall of 1926. In the 1930-31 season, the coach and general manager, Jack Adams, changed the team's name to the Detroit Falcons. It wasn't until 1932 that the Red Wings became the Red Wings. The name that stuck came about because James Norris Sr., a grain millionaire and shipping magnate who purchased the team had played hockey for a team called the Winged Wheelers from the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association. When Norris and Adams first met they agreed to call the team the Red Wings and they agreed that the team's new logo would be a winged wheel similar to the Winged Wheelers logo.

GO RED WINGS

Swine Flu - Semantic Confusion Results in Name Change

When naming a flu virus it is important to choose the right word or words in order to avoid confusing the general public and apparently "swine" is not the right word to represent the particular virus that has been in the news of late. Many people believe this virus can be contracted by eating pork because of its name. This confusion has had a negative impact on the agricultural industry and has led to the unnecessary slaughter of pigs. As a result of this confusion, World Health Organization spokesman, Dick Thompson has announced that they are, "going to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A."

Tim McGee's McNicknames on NCIS

Because I have posted about the linguistics aspects of the television show NCIS quite a few times, a reader requested that I compile a list of the various McNicknames that have been given to the character Tim McGee. I love the creative word play involved in these nicknames so putting this list together was a blast.


McGee has had some non-McNicknames too, but the McNicknames are much more abundant and more fun in my opinion.

Here are the names that I came up with (if I missed any, please send me a comment and I will add to the list).

Major McTom
McBarfbag
McCheat
McCool
McCranky
McDetail
McEgghead
McFlabby
McFlower Power
McFlubber
McFreaky
McGarnagle
McGeek
McGeekle
McGeeko
McGiggle
McGnome
McGonigle
McGoo
McGoogle
McGoon
McGPS
McGruff
McGullible
McKilljoy
McLawyer
McLover
McLovin
McMotherboard
McMuse
McNerd
McOz
McPinkerton
McPower
McProbie
McProbius
McRanger Rick
McRomeo
McRuff
McScout
McShipmate
McSneaky
McSoftie
McTardy
McTim
McTimex
McTracker
McWriter
McZero


McBarfbag, McFlower Power, McGoogle, McGPS, McKilljoy, McMotherboard, McPinkerton, McRanger Rick and McTimex are my personal favorites.

Obama's Dog Could Be a Portmanteau

Will Obama choose a Labradoodle or a Portuguese Water Dog - this was the topic of an article in the April 13th Newsweek. A Labradoodle is the combination of a Labrador Retriever and a Poodle.

Human-engineered, canine combinations are known as hybrids or "designer dogs"...I think a better name for these canine combinations would be "portmanteau dogs."

In linguistics, portmanteau words are those that are formed by combining the sounds and meanings of two different words; they are considered a linguistic blend. A canine blend combines the sounds (of breed names) and meanings (of characteristics) of different breeds.

Here are some examples:

Bernedoodle = Bernese Mountain Dog + Poodle
Bullmation = Bulldog + Dalmatian
Chipins = Chihuahua + Pinscher
Labrottie = Labrador Retriever + Rottweiler
Maltepoo = Maltese + Poodle

So maybe if Obama goes with a Labradoodle he could name it Portmanteau and call it Port for short.

Click here for additional posts about portmanteaus.

Click here for additional posts about Obama.

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POST UPDATE 04/16/09

Obama did go with the Portuguese Water Dog and his name is Bo. Even though he didn't choose the "portmanteau dog" he still could have named the new dog Port for Portuguese Water Dog.

Uncommon "Nym Words"

As long as we are on the subject of acronyms and bacronyms, I thought I would share some of the other "nym words" that I have come across recently. It is amazing how many there are and I am not talking about the basic nym's like synonym, antonym, homonym, eponym and pseudonym.

Here are some of my favorites:

Aptronym: A person's name that matches it's owner's occupation or character very well (either in fiction or reality); e.g. arctic explorer Will Snow, hairdresser Dan Druff.• From apt (=suitable); coined by Franklin P. Adams.

Charactonym: A name given to a literary character that is descriptive of a quality or trait of the character; such as, “Long John Silver” for someone who is tall and has silver hair.

Capitonym: A word which changes its meaning and pronunciation when capitalised; e.g. polish and Polish, august and August, concord and Concord. From capital letter.

Pecilonym: 1. The simultaneous use of several names or synonyms for one thing. 2. One of various names for the same thing; a synonym or having a variety of names.

Netcronym: An abbreviation that consists of the first letters of each word in a phrase and which is used when discussing a subject in a chat room or when writing an e-mail. Netcronyms are a quick way of telling people what you think; for example, IMO is a netcronym for “in my opinion”.

The Genericization of "Person" Names (Names as Generic, Descriptive Nouns)

A previous post mentioned the term genericide, which is defined as the process by which a brand name becomes a generic name for the product category. I would like to propose an expanded definition of genericide; I think it should also include the process by which a known "person" name becomes a generic, descriptive noun for anyone that has certain characteristics that are associated with that name.

Consider the following names that have already gone through genericide:

Melvin: an uncool person.
Bob: an imaginary friend.
Lolita: a sexually precocious young girl.
Poindexter: a brainy, nerdy boy.
Eugene: see Poindexter.
Velma: the female version of Poindexter.
And of course...
John Doe: an unidentified man.
Jane Doe: an unidentified woman.

I was always more of a Velma than a Lolita in high school.

Calendar Names

Another interesting item from the July 28th Newsweek is an article about a 2008 Mormon calendar that is causing much controversy. The calendar features good looking and well-toned Mormon missionaries in and out of uniform and is called "Men on a Mission." Apparently the Mormon who came up with the idea for the calendar has been excommunicated. His excommunication, however, has not stopped him from planning his next calendar, the name of which I find very amusing - "Mormon Muffins." Knowing that the calendar is being created by the same person who brought us "Men on a Mission," you might expect a calendar named "Mormon Muffins" to feature attractive Mormon women with nice physiques. Surprise, surprise..."Mormon Muffins" will feature Mormon mothers and their favorite recipes. I love it.

The Stanley Cup and the Semantics of Names

As much as I miss my dear dog, Augusta National or Gus, in consideration of my two sons and as a tribute to Gus, my husband and I decided to get a puppy as soon as we could - which ended up being Wednesday evening. At my one son's suggestion and at my husband's request, we named him Stanley, as in The Stanley Cup. Actually his full, AKC-registered name is Lord Stanley Valentino Payne (Valentino because he was born on Valentine's Day). I, myself, am not quite the sports fan that the rest of my family is, so when they said the name would be Lord Stanley, I thought they added the title Lord just to make him sound cooler. Little did I know that The Stanley Cup is named after Lord Stanley, the Earl of Preston and Governor General of Canada.

I guess, if you think about it, it seems obvious that The Stanley Cup and numerous other sports awards are named after people. However, being that I am not a huge sports fan, I never really thought about it.

Here are a few:
Baseball - Cy Young Award, after Cy Young
Football - Heisman Trophy, after John Heisman.
Football - Vince Lombardi Trophy (Super Bowl trophy), after Vince Lombardi
Basketball - Naismith Award, after James Naismith
Golf - Ryder Cup, after Samuel Ryder
Tennis - Davis Cup, after Dwight F. Davis

By the way, many of these names provide great inspiration for naming a pet. And even though the meaning of certain names may not be obvious to all, when a person chooses a name that means something to them, they know the meaning and that is the semantics of names.

Words Cannot Express

Words cannot express the sorrow I am feeling today, for I have lost my best and most devoted canine friend. I do take solace in knowing that he had a long, full and happy life. He was loved by all who met him, as can be illustrated by the numerous nicknames various people had given him. The Gusmeister, Gusaramovich, Guster, Gussy, Goose, and many more.

We love you Gus.

Augusta National Breakwood Payne 7/22/93 - 4/27/08