Adam Jacot de Boinod

Last updated

Adam Jacot de Boinod (born 1960) is a British author, notable for his works about unusual words, such as his last name. Usually known as Jacot, he has written three books, the first two (The Meaning of Tingo and Toujours Tingo) looking at words which have no equivalent in the English language, and his latest book (The Wonder of Whiffling) which reveals unusual words in English.

Contents

Early life

Jacot was educated at Harrow School, [1] before obtaining a degree from Cambridge University (MA).

Career

Jacot worked on the first series of the television panel game QI . His research on the show involved him reading an entire Albanian language dictionary and noting down any words which he found interesting. He noted that there are 27 different words for moustaches and 27 words for eyebrows in Albanian, including, "vetullan" ("very bushy eyebrows"), "vetullor" ("slightly arched eyebrows") and "vetullosh" ("very thick eyebrows"). There was also a question asking the meaning of the word "vetullushe", which was claimed to be "a goat with brown eyebrows". [1] [2] [3]

After leaving QI, Jacot began an investigation into other languages, examining 280 dictionaries and 140 websites. [4] This led to the creation of his first book in 2005, The Meaning of Tingo, a book featuring words which have no equivalent in the English language, "tingo" being a word from the Pascuense language of Easter Island meaning, "to borrow things from a friend's house, one by one, until there's nothing left". [5] He then wrote a sequel entitled Toujours Tingo in 2007. In 2009, Jacot wrote The Wonder of Whiffling, a book about unusual words in English, the word "whiffling" having several meanings, including "one who examined candidates for degrees… an officer who cleared the way for a procession, as well as being the name of the man with the whip in Morris dancing." [6]

Adam is also occasionally involved with "The Inflectionist" (magazine), and became a guest writer in early 2013.

See also

Related Research Articles

Rhyming slang is a form of slang word construction in the English language. It is especially prevalent in the UK, Ireland and Australia. It was first used in the early 19th century in the East End of London; hence its alternative name, Cockney rhyming slang. In the United States, especially the criminal underworld of the West Coast between 1880 and 1920, rhyming slang has sometimes been known as Australian slang.

Dictionary Collection of words and their meanings

A dictionary is a listing of words in one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically, which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc. or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, sometimes known as a lexicon. It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.

Jabberwocky Nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll

"Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a creature named "the Jabberwock". It was included in his 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). The book tells of Alice's adventures within the back-to-front world of Looking-Glass Land.

Loglan is a constructed language originally designed for linguistic research, particularly for investigating the Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis. The language was developed beginning in 1955 by Dr James Cooke Brown with the goal of making a language so different from natural languages that people learning it would think in a different way if the hypothesis were true. In 1960 Scientific American published an article introducing the language. Loglan is the first among, and the main inspiration for, the languages known as logical languages, which also includes Lojban.

Onomatopoeia Word whose pronunciation imitates sound of its denotation

Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as "oink", "meow", "roar" and "chirp". Onomatopoeia can differ between languages: it conforms to some extent to the broader linguistic system; hence the sound of a clock may be expressed as "tick tock" in English, "tic tac" in Spanish and Italian, "dī dā" in Mandarin, "katchin katchin" in Japanese, or "tik-tik" in Hindi.

Nadsat is a fictional register or argot used by the teenage gang members in Anthony Burgess's dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange. Burgess was a linguist and he used this background to depict his characters as speaking a form of Russian-influenced English. The name comes from the Russian suffix equivalent of "-teen" as in "thirteen". Nadsat was also used in Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of the book.

<i>A Dictionary of the English Language</i> 1755 dictionary by Samuel Johnson

Published on 15 April 1755 and written by Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, sometimes published as Johnson's Dictionary, is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language.

Enochian Occult or angelic language recorded in late 16th-century England in the journals of John Dee and Edward Kelley, who claimed that it was revealed by the Enochian angels

Enochian is an occult language, claimed to be angelic, recorded in the private journals of John Dee and his colleague Edward Kelley in late 16th-century England. Kelley was a spirit medium who worked with Dee in his magical investigations. The men claimed that the language was revealed to them by the Enochian angels. The language is integral to the practice of Enochian magic. The syntax and grammar of the Enochian language are highly similar to the English language.

According to the official theory regarding the origin of the Eastern Romance languages, they developed from the local Vulgar Latin spoken in the region of the Balkans. That there is a connection between the Vulgar Latin and the Paleo-Balkan languages spoken in the area is a certainty. Taking into consideration the geographical area where these languages are spoken and the fact that there is not much information about the Paleo-Balkan languages, it is considered that the substratal of the Eastern Romance languages should be the ancient Thracian and Dacian.

Charles Montagu Doughty

Charles Montagu Doughty was an English poet, writer, explorer, adventurer and traveller born in Theberton Hall near Saxmundham, Suffolk and educated at private schools in Laleham and Elstree, and at a school for the Royal Navy, Portsmouth. He was a student at King's College London, eventually graduating from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in 1864.

David Crystal British linguist and writer

David Crystal, is a British linguist, academic, and author.

Untranslatability is the property of text or speech for which no equivalent can be found when translated into another language. A text that is considered to be untranslatable is considered a lacuna, or lexical gap. The term arises when describing the difficulty of achieving the so-called perfect translation. It is based on the notion that there are certain concepts and words that are so interrelated that an accurate translation becomes an impossible task. Some writers have suggested that language carries sacred notions or is intrinsic to national identity. Brian James Baer posits that untranslatability is sometimes seen by nations as proof of the national genius. He quotes Alexandra Jaffe: "When translators talk about untranslatable, they often reinforce the notion that each language has its own 'genius', an 'essence' that naturally sets it apart from all other languages and reflects something of the 'soul' of its culture or people".

The longest word in any given language depends on the word formation rules of each specific language, and on the types of words allowed for consideration.

Fuzhou dialect Eastern Min Chinese dialect

The Fuzhou dialect, also Foochow, Hokchew or Hok-chiu, is the prestige variety of the Eastern Min branch of Min Chinese spoken mainly in the Mindong region of Eastern Fujian Province. Like many other varieties of Chinese, the Fuzhou dialect is dominated by monosyllabic morphemes that carry lexical tones, and has a mainly analytic syntax. While the Eastern Min branch it belongs to is relatively closer to Southern Min or Hokkien than to other Sinitic branches such as Mandarin, Wu Chinese or Hakka, they are still not mutually intelligible.

Bilingual dictionary Specialized dictionary used to translate words or phrases from one language to another

A bilingual dictionary or translation dictionary is a specialized dictionary used to translate words or phrases from one language to another. Bilingual dictionaries can be unidirectional, meaning that they list the meanings of words of one language in another, or can be bidirectional, allowing translation to and from both languages. Bidirectional bilingual dictionaries usually consist of two sections, each listing words and phrases of one language alphabetically along with their translation. In addition to the translation, a bilingual dictionary usually indicates the part of speech, gender, verb type, declension model and other grammatical clues to help a non-native speaker use the word. Other features sometimes present in bilingual dictionaries are lists of phrases, usage and style guides, verb tables, maps and grammar references. In contrast to the bilingual dictionary, a monolingual dictionary defines words and phrases instead of translating them.

Michael Quinion

Michael Quinion is a British etymologist and writer. He ran World Wide Words, a website devoted to linguistics. He graduated from Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he studied physical sciences and after which he joined BBC radio as a studio manager.

<i>Zzxjoanw</i> Fictitious entry in an encyclopedia which fooled logologists for many years

Zzxjoanw is a likely fictitious entry in an encyclopedia which fooled logologists for many years. It referred to a purported Maori word meaning "drum", "fife", or "conclusion".

Schmuck, or shmuck, is a pejorative term meaning one who is stupid or foolish, or an obnoxious, contemptible or detestable person. The word came into the English language from Yiddish, where it has similar pejorative meanings, but where its literal meaning is a vulgar term for a penis.

Verbosity or verboseness is speech or writing that uses more words than necessary, e.g. "in spite of the fact that" rather than "although". The opposite of verbosity is plain language. Some teachers, including the author of The Elements of Style, warn against verbosity; similarly Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway, among others, famously avoid it. Synonyms include wordiness, verbiage, prolixity, grandiloquence, garrulousness, expatiation, logorrhea, and sesquipedalianism.

References

  1. 1 2 John Lloyd and John Mitchinson. QI – The Complete First Series: "Factoids" (Audio Commentary) (DVD). BBC and 2entertain.
  2. ↑ "Albania". QI. Season 1. Episode 8. 30 October 2009.
  3. ↑ Jacot de Boinod, Adam Jacot (2005). The Meaning of Tingo. London: Penguin Books. pp. 19–20. ISBN   0-14-102198-5.
  4. ↑ Jacot de Boinod, p. ii
  5. ↑ Jacot de Boinod, p. 95
  6. ↑ de Boinod, Adam Jacot (2009). The Wonder of Whiffling. London: Penguin Books. pp. ix.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.