Croydon is a town in South London, an outpost on the way north to London for at least a thousand years. According to Martin Clark, a music journalist, DJ, and musician who goes by the name of Blackdown, the town is "distinct because it’s kind of like its own entity... large and self-contained. It’s quite lairy." It was also home to Big Apple Records, in some ways the epicenter of dubstep in its earliest days, before "dubstep" was even a word.
Lairy, according to the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and Thesaurus, means "behaving in a loud, excited manner, especially when you are enjoying yourself or drinking alcohol." In my estimation, when people are especially enthusiastic and taken with intoxication, they’re also willing to put energy into things that aren’t stereotypically productive, such as making music. Let us take a moment to praise the lairy.
Those previous tweets & the world "alpha hole" come from Karina Bliss' Here Comes the Groom. Due out Jan but available Dec 1 from Harlequin (Thu, Oct 28)
There’s so many crimes of douchitude in this article, I’m having trouble selecting the right lines to examine. Every other sentence is a steaming pile of misleading patronizing ill-informed supercilious twatbaggery.
I can feel my face turning red and my ears feel hot and I'm so mad I want to smash their faces in. Toph is just picking up stuff left lying around by dumbass salesdroids and I'm setting up scams in fucking Spencer's Gifts which everybody knows is really hard to score at because security is like bugfuck tight.
—Benjamin Rosenbaum, “Frankenstein's Daughter” in The Ant King and Other Stories (Northampton, MA: Small Beer Press, 2008)
Sean remembered visits before the old man was committed, he and his dutiful father visiting the impeccable apartment in the slate house in Kingston, Ontario. Grampa made tea and conversation, both perfectly executed and without soul. It drove Sean's father bugfuck, and he'd inevitably have a displaced tantrum at Sean in the car on the way home.
“There was a flaw in their architecture. Within a few years of start-up, most of them had gone bugfuck insane. I don’t even want to think about what being stuck out here’s done to this one.”
—“Nightingale” by Alastair Reynolds, in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection, ed. Garner Dozois (New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2007)
“Your bugfucking lover has tried to screw me, hasn’t he, Ms. Lin? Buying up great swathes of my dreamshit, keeping his own moths, so Gazid tells me, and then stealing mine.” He roared the last words, trembling.
—China Mieville, Perdido Street Station (New York: Del Rey, 2000)
You’ll notice how, when walking down the street, you’ll sometimes find yourself facing someone going in the opposite direction, and each of you is blocking the other, and when you move to the left, the other person . . . moves to the right, and vice versa, and after you’ve done this, say, twice, it’s almost impossible not to do it, and now you’re having far more interaction with this other person than you really want to have, and you’re both looking at each other all apologetic and embarrassed. It is an awkward impasse.
My mother, an artist who’s been making prints since the 1960s, often verbs chine collé in speech—e.g., “and then we chine colléd the rice paper to the Arches paper”—but I’ve never seen it used that way in print.
Especially when spelled “mariah” (long comment with examples and etymological speculation there) and preceded by “black,” this word refers to a police van. See also “black maria.”
Sometimes spelled “maria,” it’s US and UK slang for a police van, and in US English it can mean a hearse. An article in American Speech traces it to Philadelphia in the 1840s:
OED2 lists 1847 as the earliest date in their files for Black Maria ‘van for the conveyance of prisoners’ (Boston source). However, “The Prison Van; Or, The Black Maria” is the title of a story about Philadelphia by Joseph C. Neal in Godey’s Lady’s Book (Nov. 1843, 225–29; I am indebted to David E. E. Sloane for directing me to this first publication of Neal’s story). Neal, a Philadelphia journalist, adds in a footnote: “The popular voice applies the name of ‘Black Maria’ to each of these melancholy vehicles and, by general consent, this is their distinguishing title” (225). Barrère and Leland (1889) commented that the term “is said to have originated in Philadelphia in 1838.” (Leland was an American born and reared in Philadelphia.) The name might have originated in connection with the transportation of prisoners to the new Moyamensing County Prison, which opened on the edge of Philadelphia in 1835. Flexner (1976, 275) asserts the existence of (but unfortunately does not reference) a citation dated 1840. The original allusion of Black Maria remains uncertain.
Thanks to The Google, we can now easily push that date back. In 1841:
At the east wing was standing, pensive and melancholy, the Automedon of ‘Black Maria,’ the equipage used in carrying criminals to court and thence to their prisons, melancholy, no doubt in apprehension of being turned out of office. These are fearful times! The public functionary is in the thief-taking line, and doubtless, availing himself of his official influence, has been meddling in politics, thereby subjecting hilself to the displeasure of government. His black wagon stands just underneath the Philosophical Society, a conspicuous figure in the group; bearing about the same relation to the other equipages as the hangman to the rest of the community.
What I referred to was—Charles Strine, of Philadelphia, who drives the prison coach called the Black Maria, in the fall of 1838—it seems to me, but I will not be certain—he said I could get $25 or $30 if I would come to New York to vote; that was the way I understood it.
—John M. Snyder quoted in Extra Globe, October 26, 1840, Vol. 6, No. 26
According to a 2001 article on World Wide Words, the earliest known citation is 1835:
However, we now know, as the result of research by George Thompson, that the term was in use in New York about a decade earlier, since the term was used in at least two newspaper reports, one of 1835 and the other of 1836. The former was in the New York Transcript of 24 Dec 1835 and said “A man named Henry Stage ... contrived to make his escape on Saturday last while on his way from Bellevue prison to the city in the carriage generally known as ‘Black Maria’ ”.
Ebenezer Cobham Brewer’s 1905 (and possibly earlier editions) Dictionary of phrase and fable says the term honors a woman in Boston:
The tradition is that the van referred to was so called from Maria Lee, a negress, who kept a sailors’ boarding house in Boston. She was a woman of such great size and strength that the unruly stood in dread of her, and when the constables required help, it was a common thing to send for Black Maria, who soon collared the refractory and led them to the lock-up.
Quinion points out that there is no evidence for this, and that a more likely source is “a black racehorse whose most famous exploit is in New York in 1832.”
I associate this word with an episode of The Simpsons in which (I'm recounting from memory) Bart is participating in a cola taste test. "Sweeeet," he says, as various parts of his body swell to unusual size. The lab tech records the effect as "Pleasant taste; some monsterism."
Came across this word in a 2008 interview for Artist and Influence 28 (New York: Hatch-Billops Collection, 2009), in which an African American academic quoted another African American academic as having said to him, "You look like a purenteen fool." Based on this and the handful of repellent Google results it gets, the word appears to be a synonym for "purebred." Possibly from black English, possibly U.S. South. I wonder if it's maybe a play on "octoroon" and the like.
From Francis Heaney's blog, Heaneyland! (http://www.yarnivore.com/francis/archives/000123.html): '"Igry" basically means "painfully embarrassed for or uncomfortable about someone else's incredibly poor social behavior, or descriptive of such poor social behavior". Like, say you're at a restaurant, and one of the people at your table summons the waiter by snapping their fingers. Watching this makes you die a little inside. You feel igry. (Or you might think, "What an igry thing to do.") The noun form is "igriness".'
In typography, a glyph that resembles a capital C crossed by one or two vertical lines.
"Like most punctuation, the paragraph mark (or pilcrow) has an exotic history. It's tempting to recognize the symbol as a 'P for paragraph,' though the resemblance is incidental: in its original form, the mark was an open C crossed by a vertical line or two, a scribal abbreviation for capitulum, the Latin word for 'chapter.' Because written forms evolve through haste, the strokes through the C gradually came to descend further and further, its overall shape ultimately coming to resemble the modern "reverse P" by the beginning of the Renaissance. Early liturgical works, in imitation of written manuscripts, favored the traditional C-shaped capitulum; many modern bibles still do." —Jonathan Hoefler,
In typography, justified text is "Copy in which all lines of a text – regardless of the words they contain – have been made exactly the same length, so that they align vertically at both the left and right margins." (http://www.typographicdesign4e.com/resources_glossary.html#anchor-w)
"In typography, “rag” refers to the irregular or uneven vertical margin of a block of type. Usually it’s the right margin that’s ragged (as in the commonly seen flush left/rag right setting), but either or both margins can be ragged." (http://www.fonts.com/AboutFonts/Articles/fyti/RagsWidowsOrphans.htm)
In typography, a widow is "A very short line that appears at the end of a paragraph, column, or page, or at the top of a column or page.These awkward typographic configurations should be corrected editorially." (http://www.typographicdesign4e.com/resources_glossary.html#anchor-w)
Comments by indiaamos
IndiaAmos commented on the word mathwash
https://twitter.com/fredbenenson/status/729690496818360321
May 12, 2016
IndiaAmos commented on the word twig Bishop
Used as an insult by habitual lichen-name-tweeter Charlie Loyd (@vruba) in his blog post Wealth, risk, and stuff:
He later explained via Twitter, “It’s a common name of the lichen Ahtiana pallidula. Let’s see if it catches on.”
https://twitter.com/vruba/status/311929851739250690
March 13, 2013
IndiaAmos commented on the word lairy
From Joseph L. Flatley, “Beyond lies the wub: a history of dubstep,” The Verge, August 28, 2012 (http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/28/3262089/history-of-dubstep-beyond-lies-the-wub):
August 29, 2012
IndiaAmos commented on the word alpha hole
Jane Litte (@jane_l) brought the term to Twitter's attention on October 27, 2010:
October 28, 2010
IndiaAmos commented on the word twatbaggery
—Sarah Wendell, "Bloomberg BusinessWeek Blows," Smart Bitches Trashy Books (blog), August 7, 2010August 9, 2010
IndiaAmos commented on the word asarcasmia
Source:
—@andresb (Andrés Bianciotto), 11:34 AM Mar 31st via TweetDeckApril 20, 2010
IndiaAmos commented on the word bugfuck
—Benjamin Rosenbaum, “Frankenstein's Daughter” in The Ant King and Other Stories (Northampton, MA: Small Beer Press, 2008)February 8, 2010
IndiaAmos commented on the word bugfuck
—Cory Doctorow, “Visit the Sins,” 2003; http://www.strangehorizons.com/2003/20030331/visit.shtmlFebruary 8, 2010
IndiaAmos commented on the word bugfuck
—“Nightingale” by Alastair Reynolds, in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection, ed. Garner Dozois (New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2007)February 8, 2010
IndiaAmos commented on the word bugfucking
—China Mieville, Perdido Street Station (New York: Del Rey, 2000)February 8, 2010
IndiaAmos commented on the word uprezzed
Mark Wilson, writing for Gizmodo:
—“Apple iPad First Hands On,” Gizmodo, 1/27/2010January 28, 2010
IndiaAmos commented on the word fracket
I was told this means "A fraternity jacket, commonly a hoodie worn over less durable clothing as vomit and beer armor."
January 17, 2010
IndiaAmos commented on the word contrapedation
What the word means is this:
—Tim Carvell, Some Common Life Problems, with Possible Solutions, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, March 21, 2000.January 17, 2010
IndiaAmos commented on the word chine collé
—The Complete Printmaker: Techniques, Traditions, Innovations by John Ross, Clare Romano, Tim Ross (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990)January 9, 2010
IndiaAmos commented on the word chine collé
My mother, an artist who’s been making prints since the 1960s, often verbs chine collé in speech—e.g., “and then we chine colléd the rice paper to the Arches paper”—but I’ve never seen it used that way in print.
January 9, 2010
IndiaAmos commented on the word amuse-gueules
"Amuse-gueules means "appetizers"; from the French, obviously.
December 1, 2009
IndiaAmos commented on the word black maria
Also spelled mariah, with more examples at that listing.
November 29, 2009
IndiaAmos commented on the word maria
Especially when spelled “mariah” (long comment with examples and etymological speculation there) and preceded by “black,” this word refers to a police van. See also “black maria.”
November 29, 2009
IndiaAmos commented on the word black mariah
Definitions are under the spelling black maria, and I've posted a longish comment with examples under mariah.
November 29, 2009
IndiaAmos commented on the word mariah
Unfortunately, the zillions of references to Mariah Carey on the Web drown out two actual examples of this word in use, in song lyrics:
—Tom Waits, “Big Black Mariah,” Rain Dogs (1985)—Mark E. Smith/The Fall, “Carry Bag Man,” The Frenz Experiment (1988)Sometimes spelled “maria,” it’s US and UK slang for a police van, and in US English it can mean a hearse. An article in American Speech traces it to Philadelphia in the 1840s:
—Irving Lewis Allen, “Earlier Dates for Black Maria, Hobohemia, and Rush Hour,” American Speech, Vol. 68, No. 4 (Winter, 1993), pp. 442–443.Thanks to The Google, we can now easily push that date back. In 1841:
—“The American at Home: A Ride in an Omnibus; From the French,” The Knickerbocker, New-York Monthly Magazine, Volume 17, 1841In 1840:
—John M. Snyder quoted in Extra Globe, October 26, 1840, Vol. 6, No. 26According to a 2001 article on World Wide Words, the earliest known citation is 1835:
—Michael Quinion, “Black Maria,” World Wide WordsEbenezer Cobham Brewer’s 1905 (and possibly earlier editions) Dictionary of phrase and fable says the term honors a woman in Boston:
Quinion points out that there is no evidence for this, and that a more likely source is “a black racehorse whose most famous exploit is in New York in 1832.”November 29, 2009
IndiaAmos commented on the word monsterism
I associate this word with an episode of The Simpsons in which (I'm recounting from memory) Bart is participating in a cola taste test. "Sweeeet," he says, as various parts of his body swell to unusual size. The lab tech records the effect as "Pleasant taste; some monsterism."
November 28, 2009
IndiaAmos commented on the word purenteen
Came across this word in a 2008 interview for Artist and Influence 28 (New York: Hatch-Billops Collection, 2009), in which an African American academic quoted another African American academic as having said to him, "You look like a purenteen fool." Based on this and the handful of repellent Google results it gets, the word appears to be a synonym for "purebred." Possibly from black English, possibly U.S. South. I wonder if it's maybe a play on "octoroon" and the like.
November 16, 2009
IndiaAmos commented on the word igry
From Francis Heaney's blog, Heaneyland! (http://www.yarnivore.com/francis/archives/000123.html): '"Igry" basically means "painfully embarrassed for or uncomfortable about someone else's incredibly poor social behavior, or descriptive of such poor social behavior". Like, say you're at a restaurant, and one of the people at your table summons the waiter by snapping their fingers. Watching this makes you die a little inside. You feel igry. (Or you might think, "What an igry thing to do.") The noun form is "igriness".'
October 23, 2009
IndiaAmos commented on the word capitulum
In typography, a glyph that resembles a capital C crossed by one or two vertical lines.
"Like most punctuation, the paragraph mark (or pilcrow) has an exotic history. It's tempting to recognize the symbol as a 'P for paragraph,' though the resemblance is incidental: in its original form, the mark was an open C crossed by a vertical line or two, a scribal abbreviation for capitulum, the Latin word for 'chapter.' Because written forms evolve through haste, the strokes through the C gradually came to descend further and further, its overall shape ultimately coming to resemble the modern "reverse P" by the beginning of the Renaissance. Early liturgical works, in imitation of written manuscripts, favored the traditional C-shaped capitulum; many modern bibles still do." —Jonathan Hoefler,
February 26, 2009
IndiaAmos commented on the word justify
In typography, justified text is "Copy in which all lines of a text – regardless of the words they contain – have been made exactly the same length, so that they align vertically at both the left and right margins." (http://www.typographicdesign4e.com/resources_glossary.html#anchor-w)
February 26, 2009
IndiaAmos commented on the word kerning
"In typesetting, kerning refers to the process of subtracting space between specific pairs of characters so that the overall letterspacing appears to be even." (http://www.typographicdesign4e.com/resources_glossary.html#anchor-w)
February 26, 2009
IndiaAmos commented on the word rag
"In typography, “rag” refers to the irregular or uneven vertical margin of a block of type. Usually it’s the right margin that’s ragged (as in the commonly seen flush left/rag right setting), but either or both margins can be ragged." (http://www.fonts.com/AboutFonts/Articles/fyti/RagsWidowsOrphans.htm)
February 26, 2009
IndiaAmos commented on the word widow
In typography, a widow is "A very short line that appears at the end of a paragraph, column, or page, or at the top of a column or page.These awkward typographic configurations should be corrected editorially." (http://www.typographicdesign4e.com/resources_glossary.html#anchor-w)
February 26, 2009