isogloss, noun = a line drawn on a map around the area in which a linguistic feature is to be found, such as a particular pronunciation of a given word

Origin: from the Greek ισος (isos) – equal, and γλωσσα (glossa) – tongue/language.

Other words with similar meanings include: isolex, an isogloss for a particular item of vocabulary, and isophone, an isogloss for a particular feature of pronunciation.

The distribution of names of carbonated beverages in the USA can be divided using isolexes – in some areas the usual name for such drinks is soda, in some it’s pop, and in others it’s cola or coke. In the UK we call such drinks pop or soft drinks.

The phenomenon of isoglosses is discussed in the Linguistics books I’m currently reading and I like the sound of the word. This word, and the related words, also illustrate one of the advantages of being familiar with the Greek roots of English words. Now I know that iso(s) means equal, words using this prefix are slightly easier to understand.

The title of today’s post is an example of a metaphor from Shakespeare’s As You Like It. The full version is:

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players
They have their exits and their entrances;

According to Wikipedia, a metaphor, from the Greek: μεταφεριν (metapherin) – “to carry something across” or “transfer”, is a rhetorical trope defined as a direct comparison between two or more seemingly unrelated subjects. A trope is a figure of speech consisting of a play on words.

There are a number of different types of metaphors:

Extended metaphors, which set up a principal subject with several subsidiary subjects or comparisons. The above quote from Shakespeare is a good example of this.

Epic or Homeric similes are extended metaphors containing details about the vehicle that are not, in fact, necessary for the metaphoric purpose. An example of this from Black Adder is: “This is a crisis. A large crisis. In fact, if you’ve got a moment, it’s a twelve-story crisis with a magnificent entrance hall, carpeting throughout, 24-hour porterage and an enormous sign on the roof saying ‘This Is a Large Crisis’.”

Mixed metaphors combine parts of two or more unrelated metaphors together creating a nonsensical but often amusing image. For example, “look before you bark up the wrong end of the stick”, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it spoil the broth” and “They’re biting the hand of the goose that laid the golden egg”, from Samuel Goldwyn.

Dead metaphors started life as metaphors but over time have lost their metaphoric nature and become ordinary expressions. Examples include “to grasp a idea”, “arm of a chair” and “leg of a table”.

Have you mixed an metaphors or heard any metaphoric mixing being committed recently?

An aptronym or aptonym is a name that relates to its owner’s profession or personality, often in a humorous or ironic way. For example, William Wordsworth (poet), Larry Speakes (presidential spokesman under Ronald Reagan) and Anna Smashnova (tennis player).

This word was apparently coined by Franklin P. Adams, an American newspaper columnist in 1938, according to this blog. There are more aptronyms here and here.

Names of characters in Dickens sometimes reflect their personalities or jobs: Scrooge, Uriah Heep, Gradgrind, Sweedlepipe, Honeythunder, Bumble, Pumblechook and Podsnap. Other aptronymic character names include Mrs. Malaprop in Richard Sheridan’s A School for Scandal, and Mistress Quickly in Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Is your name an aptronym, or do you know anyone with an aptronymic name?

One of the things they talked about yesterday on Word of Mouth on BBC Radio 4 was onomatophobhia, the fear or dread of certain words or phrases. They interviewed people who go out of their way to avoid hearing or seeing particular words, in most cases as a result of negative and/or traumatic associations with those words. There was also a man who finds it very difficult to say his own name for fear of mispronouncing it.

Like most phobia words, onomatophobia comes from Greek ὀνομα (onoma) – ‘name’ and φοβυς (phobus) – ‘fear’.

Are there any words that you avoid and/or dislike intensely?

There are many interesting phobias listed at thefreedictionary.com, including:

• Anatidaephobia – fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you
• Luposlipaphobia – the fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a newly-waxed floor.

Both were made up by Gary Larson for his The Far Side cartoons.