The National Museum of Language in College Park, MD is curating an exhibit on the role of the War of 1812 in the development of American English. (Thanks to the Visual Thesaurus for the tip)

The role of the museum is to promote a better understanding of language and its role in history, contemporary affairs, and the future. Orin Hargraves’ post highlights some interesting history on the plight of Noah Webster to further separate his language from that of established Samuel Johnson.

From the Language Lounge on Visual Thesaurus:
Perhaps the greatest lexical victor of the war was the much older word spangled, which got promoted to a plush job that it will keep forever. Francis Scott Key, unavoidably detained on a ship in Chesapeake Bay on a September night in 1814 and compelled to watch the bombardment of Fort McHenry by Royal Navy ships, was moved to write the words that eventually became the national anthem. The epithet “star-spangled,” interestingly, goes back to the 16th century but never seems to have been applied to anything but the sky until Key’s moment of inspiration for the Star-Spangled Banner.

As namers, we use words like “neologisms,” “hybrids,” and “current usage words” with every project we work on. A neologism (from the French “new + body of knowledge”) is a made-up word or something that has been coined for a specific purpose (ex: Aceba). A hybrid is two words fused together (ex: FunHub), while a current usage word is something you would find in the dictionary.

If you think about it, every word was at one point in time a neologism, a new word, something that someone made up. Someone had to fabricate it somewhere in history. Words become interesting parts of our vernacular when we have an association that gives them a new definition.

Anonyponymous: The Forgotten People Behind Everyday Words by John Marciano hits the shelves today, and takes a different approach at examining the origins of current usage words. Coining a word himself, John fuses “anonymous” with “epononym” to introduce a new word into our vocabulary; “anonyponymous” refers to eponyms that were created based on otherwise anonymous people in history. It provides some fascinating references to very obscure people (and moments) in history.
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Today, right now even, pick up the phone and call your grandmother or grandfather in honor of National Grandparents Day.

But as you scroll through your contacts, what name are you looking for? We surveyed our team in search of the most unusual grandparent naming. From the most traditional to the young and hip, we found that everyone has a story to tell about their own Jinx and Boompa. Here’s our list:

Grandmother:
Grandma, Grandmommy, Grandmama, Granny, Grammy, Gramma, Grammy, Granna, Gra-Gra, Mom-mom, Mah-mah, Mam-maw, Me-maw, Mami, Oma, Nana, Missy, Manny, Ninni, Toppi,
Mimi, GiGi, Honey, Banana, Jinx

Grandfather:
Grandpa, Grandaddy, Grampa, Grampy, Pa, Papa, Paw-Paw, Papaw, Opa, Poppy, Poppi, Papi, Pop-Pop, Bampa, Buppa, Boompa

Marian McQuade campaigned for National Grandparents Day, which became official in 1978. She wanted to strengthen the bond between grandparents and grandchildren and to champion the cause of lonely people in nursing homes.

If you don’t have any living grandparents, you can visit older adults in area nursing homes or assisted living centers. Some of our AW Helping Hands volunteers have done this through Hands on Charlotte. We can’t guarantee that your new friends will let you call them Granny or Poppy, but we know they’ll be happy to see you…and they might let you call the letters at Bingo.

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Here at Addison Whitney, we know branding. We know how important it is to have a brand name that reinforces your overall strategic plan. The following are a list of “nicknames” that some U.S. cities have been given or have adopted themselves. How successful are these nicknames at making the connection to the city they are referencing? These nicknames were found on the official Wikipedia site for city nicknames in the United States.

How many U.S. cities can you match with the following nicknames. (Try and pick the cities before looking at the list of choices!)

Hanging Basket Capital of the World
The First Town in the First State
The City of Five Flags
The Classic City
Turf Grass Capital of the World
Ice Cream Capital of the World
Bourbon Capital of the World
Horse Capital of the World
The Birthplace of Jazz
Crab Cake Capital of the World
The Mini Apple
Firefly Capital of the World
The Queen City
Furniture Capital of the World
The Sweetest Place on Earth
Emerald City
The Magic City of the Plains

See below for list of U.S. City choices

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