Linguists' "inscrutable grudge"?
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Today's xkcd:
Mouseover title: "Linguists, settling some inscrutable grudge, have been steadily sneaking more backdated synonyms for 'sharing borders' into the dictionary. They've added 'contiguous,' 'coterminous,' 'conterminous,' and next year they're adding 'conterguous.'"
The grudge in question is inscrutable enough that I was unaware of it, though perhaps this is because I have little direct power over dictionary entries.
But I notice that Pennsylvania, my home state for the past 30 years, is one of those cleverly omitted from the map.
Jerry Friedman said,
December 5, 2020 @ 11:16 am
The map is very well done, I must say. At first glance it doesn't look wrong.
Omitting New Mexico is unoriginal, though. The almost monthly New Mexico Magazine has a feature called "One of Our 50 is Missing" with examples of people ascribing Arizona flora and scenery to New Mexico, thinking you need an international calling plan or plane ticket to reach New Mexico from the rest of the U.S. (see the July column), and so on.
Robert Coren said,
December 5, 2020 @ 11:47 am
The map is indeed cleverly done. I had to stare at it for quite a while before I was able to identify all 7 missing states.
Cervantes said,
December 5, 2020 @ 1:21 pm
There are plenty more of course. Touching, adjacent, abutting, neighboring, bordering . . . I could probably think of more but I have better things to do.
At least New England is intact.
Chester Draws said,
December 5, 2020 @ 3:18 pm
Jerry, it could be worse — my entire country is frequently erased: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapsWithoutNZ/
Anthea Fleming said,
December 6, 2020 @ 4:24 am
Tasmania is often omitted from maps of Australia. Or transplanted to the Great Australian Bight.
Jerry Friedman said,
December 6, 2020 @ 7:52 pm
Chester Draws: And what if you lived in Tonga?
Adrian Bailey said,
December 7, 2020 @ 1:05 am
Over here in the arcane field of UK redistricting, I'm used to coterminous meaning "having the same borders" rather than "sharing a border".
Narmitaj said,
December 7, 2020 @ 9:37 am
The Explain xkcd site states that conterguous, from the mouseover bit, "is a neologism by Randall, though he blames it on linguists, consistent with his claim that they made up all the others. It is a portmanteau of 'CONTERminous' and 'contiGUOUS'."
Though it isn't raised as a possibility in the explanation, I wouldn't be surprised if "conterguous" was also a covid-related play on words with "contagious"… the Contagious 41 States and all that.
Narmitaj said,
December 7, 2020 @ 9:38 am
The Explain xkcd site states that conterguous, from the mouseover bit, "is a neologism by Randall, though he blames it on linguists, consistent with his claim that they made up all the others. It is a portmanteau of 'CONTERminous' and 'contiGUOUS'."
Though it isn't raised as a possibility in the explanation, I wouldn't be surprised if "conterguous" was also a covid-related play on words with "contagious"… the Contagious 41 States and all that.
Rodger C said,
December 7, 2020 @ 10:18 am
I wonder if Randall is, in the first place, annoyed at the awkward and superfluous "conterminous." I first met this word in the US Army half a century ago and assumed it was one of those sarge-isms.
Quinn C said,
December 7, 2020 @ 9:37 pm
Conterguous actually suggests sharing a backside (tergum) to me. Seems like a back-handed joke.