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• Nature Lovers Also Annoyed About Children's Dictionary

  Who knew kiddie dictionaries were so controversial? First Christians were peeved because the Oxford Junior Dictionary removed words such as "bishop" and "abbey." But they also removed "beaver", "heron" and "magpie." I could maybe see getting rid of magpie. Other than Heckle and Jeckle, one doesn't encounter too many magpies, and as far as I know, Heck and his homie are not in heavy Saturday morning rotation. But otter? Not that I see them in the wild but otters are at the zoo. They're on Bob the Builder all the time. Plus they're cute. It's the same problem as before. The publishers took out the nature words in favor of "modern" terms like mp3 player. My feeling on this hasn't changed — it's a dumb move. But it does show that, despite what some in England were saying, that the changes are not an attack on the Christian faith. It's just plain stupid. Methinks some smart publisher could step in with a better kid-friendly dictionary and take away some of Oxford's business. I know I won't be buying a dictionary that thinks mp3 players are more important than otters. Source: Canadian Press via Google News Image: Amazon.com Read more: Disney Bails on Narnia No Christmas Specials for Some Jewish Kids Stuff You Never Thought You'd Say -- Winter Edition Christian Words Removed From Oxford Junior Dictionary Review: Unstable Fables Goldilocks and the Three Bears Show Posted Dec 26 2008, 12:00 PM by Brett Singer with | with no comments Filed under: celebrity, news, religion, Canada, wtf, words, childrens books, vocabulary, weird news, odd, Brett Singer, Telegraph, dictionary, oxford junior dictionary, words removed from dictionary, religious words, dictionaries, oxford university press, oxford english dictionary, nature lovers, nature words, beavers, otters

• Christian Words Removed From Oxford Junior Dictionary

  This is a very odd story. The Telegraph is reporting that Oxford University Press has removed a number of words from their Junior Dictionary. The words were removed "to reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multifaith society," according to the publisher. So "mistletoe", "goblin", and "minnow" are out. "Celebrity", "broadband" and "tolerant" are in. Read More... Posted Dec 10 2008, 11:00 AM by Brett Singer with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: celebrity, news, religion, wtf, words, childrens books, vocabulary, weird news, Brett Singer, Telegraph, dictionary, oxford junior dictionary, words removed from dictionary, religious words, dictionaries, oxford university press, oxford english dictionary

• Nintendo Scrabble Game Drops the F-Bomb

  First it was the word "tits." The Nintendo Scrabble game offered the eight-year-old boy two definitions: a garden bird or an informal word for female breasts. A garden variety mistake? Not when you consider the game's next choice.  Ethan Carrington's handheld Nintendo DS spit out the word "f**kers" to win at Nintendo Scrabble - the f-bomb was worth a triple word score. Read More... Posted Dec 08 2008, 09:31 AM by JeanneSager with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: video games, Nintendo, Scrabble, f-bomb, pot, Cursing, vocabulary, Nintendo DS, Jeanne Sager, kids cursing, video game ratings, cannabis

• 10 Names to Give Your Under 5 Daughter for Her . . . You Know

  10) Cha-cha/hoo-ha/etc. In other words "Something whose name we dare not speak, so we replace it with nonsense syllables." Not promising in terms of open information sharing. With the right attitude, I suppose it can be pulled off, but for me these have all been tainted irrevocably by the "Hoo-haa Monolgues" episode. 9) Mariposa. A near miss. A beautiful sounding word, meaning butterfly in Spanish, but also a colloquially appropriate term. Unfortunately, to many, it's kind of like the Spanish equivalent of "pussy." Read More... Posted Oct 06 2008, 10:01 AM by Miriam Axel-Lute with | with 14 comment(s) Filed under: girls, gender differences, vocabulary, Grey's Anatomy, anatomy, down there, girl bits, yoni, clitoris, hoo-haa, vajayjay, Vagina monologues, Eve Ensler, vulva, scheide, female genitalia, mariposa, cha-cha, private parts, c word

• Could We Lose These Parenting Terms In 2008?

  When the terms first appear, they maybe seem funny or twisted or innocuous or entertaining or whatever. Then they appear more and more, until finally you start to think if one more person refers to, say, "MILFs" you might have to barf--especially if it's in the "MILPH" sense. (Note to mommys making lingerie calendars--don't try and reclaim these terms in a faux-empowerment way, please.) They get overused and nauseating and when MSNBC uses them in a headline, you know the whole thing has so jumped the shark. It's over. Done. Let's erase the term from the lexicon and move on.  My nominees for this year's overused parenting terms:  Read More... Posted Jan 02 2008, 09:33 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: words, vocabulary, msnbc, jamie lynn spears, lexicon, yummy mummy, pop culture, language, terms, baby-daddy

• Bilingual Babies Learn Words Differently

  My older son grew up in an essentially bilingual household. His dad, The Ex, inexplicably began speaking college French to Nathaniel at birth. 12 years later, he still hears college French from his dad, and it's my belief that hearing tw languages from birth had a profound effect on the way he learned language. And according to this study conducted at the Universities of British Columbia and Ottawa, I'm right.   Read More... Posted Oct 02 2007, 08:05 AM by Karen Murphy with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: babies, toddlers, vocabulary, language acquisition, bilingual households

• Put 'Ginormous' On the Flashcards

  I'm picturing a first-grade spelling bee. "Okay, Charlie, your word is 'smackdown'." "Um, can I get that in a sentence?" "Yes. 'After he got in my face, I knew it was time for a smackdown.'" Merriam-Webster is adding a bunch of new words. The list includes "ginormous," "Bollywood," "microgreen," and "crunk". I, like many folks, am quite partial to "ginormous" myself. But there's a few people who aren't so happy. English professor Allan Metcalf said, "'A new word that stands out and is ostentatious is going to sink like a lead balloon... It might enjoy a fringe existence.'" Okay, doesn't that quote soooo sound like something from a language purist? Me, I'm like, a hella language purist too. Anyhow, I'm just letting you know you don't have to correct your children when they say "ginormous" and you might wanna brush up on that spelling now.   Posted Jul 12 2007, 08:02 AM by Kelly Mills with | with no comments Filed under: education, Spelling Bee, vocabulary, flash cards