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Tumblethought March 5, 2008

At the time of writing, I’m the only person ever to have used the term Glasgasian on the web. (It refers to the accent lots of Glaswegian people of Asian descent have. I thought it was a fairly well known and used term, but now I’m wondering if I invented it!)

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Tumblequote December 3, 2007

The conventional view is that language evolved to enable males to do things like coordinate hunts more effectively… I am suggesting that language evolved to allow us to gossip.–Robin Dunbar, Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language (Via this piece on Williams syndrome.)

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Tumblethought August 15, 2007

I subscribe to the A Word A Day mailing list, which more often than not deals in familiar words. Every so often it throws up a beautiful and useless gem, though: Bissextile–of or pertaining to the leap year or the extra day in the leap year.

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