Come talk about fun and quirky words in the English Language. Posting is open to all members.
The Wily Mountweazel

In 1975, the New Columbia Encyclopedia included an entry for an American photographer that read as follows:
Mountweazel, Lillian Virginia, 1942-1973, American photographer, b. Bangs, Ohio. Turning from fountain design to photography in 1963, Mountweazel produced her celebrated portraits of the South Sierra Miwok in 1964. She was awarded government grants to make a series of photo-essays of unusual subject matter, including New York City buses, the cemeteries of Paris, and rural American mailboxes. The last group was exhibited extensively abroad and published as Flags Up! (1972). Mountweazel died at 31 in an explosion while on assignment for Combustibles magazine.
Any of that seem kind of weird to you? Bangs, Ohio? Combustibles magazine?
It was a fictional entry designed to trip up would-be plagiarists. After all, if another encyclopedia printed a bio for Miss Mountweazel, there could be no doubt of its source. Since then, similar copyright traps are known as “mountweazels.”
In 2001, the New Oxford American Dictionary created its own mountweazel, esquivalience, (amusingly defined as the “willful avoidance of one’s official responsibilities”) which has since been republished at Dictionary.com. Oops.
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This really is a delightful word with a delightful backstory.
Oooh this is fantastic.
I think so, too! Also, writing clever fake entries for encyclopedias and dictionaries seems like the best job ever.
Although it does mean when you look up a word you'd better check a minimum of two sources, lest you appear esquivalient. Ha.
esquivalience at it's finest....
I would excel greatly at that job. :D
I have no doubt! I think @TheOtherSideOfThePillow would do well with it, too. In the second link they touch on how they wanted to make a word that couldn't exist:
But for that you need a good understanding of etymology, which I'm not sure is my strong suit!
I've coined a few interesting terms in my time (none that stuck around, sadface) - and I do love me some wordplay and etymology...that might almost be my dream job if I didn't love translating as much as I do!
Translation is very cool. I used to work in a dept with a couple of translators--great people--and one of them had a quote on his wall about how the work was about translating culture as much as it was language. I'd never thought about it that way before, but once I did it transformed my view. It's no wonder you love it.
You know, I'd never honestly thought of it that way, but that is very true! You're bringing the culture of another place over in words that the people in your own place can understand...I like that thought.
Right? And you need to understand the culture of both languages so the ideas you're painting are the same. There's so much more involved than a literal word swap--it kind of blows my mind.
I enjoy etymology, but I consider writing to be a weaker point. It would be fun though.
Ahh man. Going to have to start bibliography-ing every WOTD post.
I just dig the idea of knowing how to make up words that sound reasonable to the average person, but are obviously wrong to linguists. It's such a deeply nerdy (and therefore secretly cool) inside joke.
ugh, edited to fix crummy punctuation
That's part of why I like it so much! I get to research all kinds of things. :D
(In fact I've recently been working on one that's making me look up a lot of stuff...it's great fun!)