Tuesday, February 13, 2007

I'm Bringing Lexi(cography) Back...

I'm going to work on peppering my speech with even more bizarre phrases, so I can be completely incomprehensible to the casual observer. My 48-hour obsession with "in all of Christendom" can best be described as... quirky. I shall bring it back into my lexicon for no reason other than no one else does it. However, claiming that, for example, "The Office is currently the greatest show in all of Christendom, and it was disGRACEfully erased from my TiVo before I had a chance to watch it," raises some questions, especially if you think about it too much.

I want it to replace "on the planet," or "in the observable universe," or "ever," but unfortunately, Christendom doesn't really cover that much distance anymore. Does the U.S.A. even fit into the realm of "Christendom," as a secular republic? Where there happens to be a preponderance of Christians? Or am I limited to countries like... the Vatican City and... countries I'm not confident are actually primarily Christian. Well, the CIA Factbook is of no help, because it really doesn't notate "official religions," consistently or not too many countries have state religions anymore. But apparently, any statement I make wouldn't be valid in Nepal, as it's the only offically Hindu country in all of... well, you know. I could feel confident about my statement applying in Monaco, though. Probably not The Gambia. But I digress.

I don't know what sort of idiomatic excavations I can use beyond that, but I'll work on it.

Also, is the "bringing ___ back" construction even humorous anymore?

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2 Comments:

At 14 February, 2007 09:51, Blogger Josh said...

Bringing _ Back is still funny, but I don't think "lexicography" is the word you're looking for. It's defined as "the art or practice of writing dictionaries." I think you probably want "lexicology" or more probably "lexiconization."

Sorry for the aeonian/aeonial/aeonic comment. They all mean the same thing!

 
At 16 February, 2007 00:17, Blogger Unknown said...

The heck with Josh. I like you phrasing. Love, Gram

 

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