Language Log

From Barbara Phillips Long, in reference to yesterday's Guardian story "Spinal Tap II: The End Continues review – rockers return for mockusequel of pin-sharp laughs and melancholy" ("Enter the Tapocalypse as Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer and Rob Reiner return in a still-funny, cameo-studded telling of the hapless band’s final gig"):

Apple's been promoting their September iPhone event as "awe-dropping", which is an obvious mixture of "jaw-dropping" and "awe".

But they're not the first to make the mixture.

At least, I've found plenty of earlier examples, though it's hard to tell if they were prior portmanteaux or eggcorns or just typos:

If you're in museum administration, you will certainly know the meaning of "restitution".  But what do you do with a headline like this?

"Ethiopian Heritage Authority Intensifies Push to Restitute Looted Artifacts." ENA English.

Ted McClure asks:

Back-formation from "restitution"? Or verb origin of "restitution"? I would have thought the verb form was "restore".

[This is a guest post by Mok Ling]

Someone asked me why shìhé 適合 ("to suit") and héshì 合適 ("suitable") aren't exactly reversible.  [VHM added the romanizations and parenthetical definitions for those who do not know sinographs.  Ibid. below.]  A quick search online got me this explanation:  

"They [適合 and 合適] mean more or less the same thing, but the former is a verb, while the latter is an adjective." (Chinese Grammar Wiki)

I could not figure out why this is the difference they find. Both the Wiktionary and Baidu entries for 適合 give 合適 as a synonym and vice versa.

Giles' Chinese-English Dictionary has neither word, but does have héshì 合式 ("suitable") under both 合 (3947) and 式 9948. The spelling with 式 is also considered a variant form by DeFrancis. 

Forty-five or so years ago, my Chinese and émigré friends who knew Chinese language and were familiar with Chinese society and culture used to josh each other about these terms:

fūrén 夫人 ("madam; Mrs.")

wàifū 外夫 ("outside husband", but sounds like "wife")

nèirén 內人 (lit., "inside person", i.e. my "[house]wife")

The first term is an established lexical item, and the second two are jocular or ad hoc, plus there are other regional and local expressions formed in a similar fashion, as well as some japonismes.

All of these terms were formed from the following four morphosyllables:

fū 夫 ("man; male adult; husband")

rén 人 ("man; person; people")

wài 外 ("outside")

nèi 內 ("inside")

Is it a "foo fighter" a fighter that fights foos? Or is it a fighter that IS foo? This should show up in the stress pattern, as in the difference between a "German teacher" as a teacher who teaches German (normally with stress on the first word), or a teacher who IS German (normally with stress on the second word).

Dave Grohl clears this up for us in a brief video clip:

We've met Julesy before:  "The conundrum of singing with tones" (5/30/25).  She has a Ph.D. in linguistics and knows how to communicate her scientific knowledge of Mandarin to intelligent laypersons.  Here she is again, this time telling us some very important things about the differences between words and characters:

Two years ago, I wrote a post about "kempt and sheveled" (3/26/23).

That elicited the following offline comment by a German friend:

Yann LeCun's evaluation of political versus linguistic errors:

 

View on Threads

 

Last Monday, Rep. Earl L. "Buddy" Carter introduced H.R.1161 – "Red, White, and Blueland Act of 2025", according to which (Sec. 2)

The President is authorized to enter into negotiations with the Government of Denmark to purchase or otherwise acquire Greenland.

and (Sec. 3)

AntC wrote:

You may or may not have heard of Kucha.  For those who are interested in Tocharian or Uyghur, you almost certainly would be well aware of this oasis city on the northern rim of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin of Eastern Central Asia. 

Coordinates: 41°42′56″N 82°55′56″E

Kucha is the historical seat of so-called Tocharian B, i.e., Kuśiññe Kantwo, the home of the renowned Buddhist translator, Kumārajīva (344-413), and an important center of Uyghur history and culture from the 7th to 13th centuries.

'Tis the season to savor panettone, a mildly sweet Italian bread.

It is made during a long process that involves curing the dough, which is acidic, similar to sourdough. The proofing process alone takes several days, giving the cake its distinctive fluffy characteristics.

(source)

It usually contains small amounts of fruit; the variety I'm eating this afternoon has cherries and chocolate pieces — extremely delicious.

Being the irremediable language buff that I am, I could not help but marvel at the construction of the name of this delicious bread: