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Reposted by Gretchen McCulloch

Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 14h

Huh. Today in "always look up the etymology because sometimes you're just repeating a myth but sometimes it's weirder and more incredible than you could have possibly imagined" www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/c...

Screenshot of Merriam Webster etymology note for cockamamie:
By the look and sound of it, cockamamie (also spelled "cockamamy") could have something to do with a rooster and the outrageous sound it makes. But in fact, cockamamie is believed to be an altered form of the term decalcomania, which refers to the process, invented in the mid-19th century, of transferring pictures and designs from specially prepared paper to surfaces such as glass or porcelain. (The word referring to the picture or design itself, decal, is a shortening of decalcomania.) The word decalcomania comes from French, with décalcomanie combining the verb décalquer, meaning "to trace" or "to transfer by tracing," and -manie, meaning "-mania." Starting in the 1930s, painted strips of paper with images capable of being transferred to the skin were called decals or—in children's slang—cockamamies. Those familiar with today's temporary tattoos will understand quickly that these were regarded by many as silly novelties, lending the word cockamamie the necessary leeway for application to anything ridiculous.

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Potomac Ripper Inclusive @potomacripper.bsky.social · 9h

Here is an example of ceramics I have made using a cockamamie technique

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anatsuno [no cap] @anatsuno.bsky.social · 7h

Re: decalcomania in France, lemme introduce you to Richard Gotainer’s (one of our national treasures of novelty singer-songwriters) “Mambo du décalco” youtu.be/n7qNILSKTms?...

youtu.be

Richard Gotainer - Le Mambo du Décalco (Clip Officiel)

YouTube video by Club Music 80

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 14h

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 29/09/2026

*clicking through and seeing your old avatar* oh you're curly haired at the bottom of the frame acid green guy! I remember you!

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 29/09/2026

btw I was thinking that our followers elsewhere would probably enjoy seeing this art too are you active on uhh... instagram/patreon/tumblr? and have you posted it there already or can we tag you for credit? (can DM if that's better!)

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 29/09/2026

I love this. (and the people following the #linguistics tag need to see it too)

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Daniel Solis @danielsolis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This zine is incredible 🤩

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 29/09/2026

aw yay, I love it when people make visual art and there's not enough fanart of linguistics in particular imo (those were the exact two memes I chose for our bouba/kiki zine so I'm biased haha) lingthusiasm.com/post/8223518...

lingthusiasm.com

Lingthusiasm - Which shape is bouba and which is kiki? A...

ALT ALT ALT ALT ALT Which shape is bouba and which is kiki? A Lingthusiasm zine Here are two shapes. If you had to assign the name “bouba” to one of them and “kiki” to the other, whic...

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 29/09/2026

I love this. (and the people following the #linguistics tag need to see it too)

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 23/09/2026

People used to put that sort of stuff in birth announcements in the newspaper too (are they still doing that? I dunno) but I guess that started before newspapers were searchable and so on

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 23/09/2026

Have you by any chance read the Steerswoman series by Rosemary Kirsten? If you haven't, don't google it, one version of its covers are unnecessarily spoilery, but I feel like it has things in common with both of these series but is less well known

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 23/09/2026

I read all of the works Bujold had published at the time in...2022 I think? There's been a new Penric novella or two since then and I'm not caught up but it was indeed a great universe or two to explore!

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Daniel Solis @danielsolis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

A linguist reads Pern for the first time. Great thread. 🐉 #fantasy #book #linguistics

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 22/09/2026

...I was today years old when I realized what Jeeves and Wooster were quoting

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 22/09/2026

Welcome to the autumnal equinox, Northern Hemisphere folks, this might be a good day to get your full spectrum lamp and/or Vitamin D supplements back out of storage why wait until things are bad a month from now when you could prevent it from happening by starting now!!

static.klipy.com

Earth, Wind & Fire - September (Do You Remember)

Alt: That clip from Earth, Wind & Fire - September (Do You Remember) that everyone posts today because it says "Do you remember/the 21st night of September?"

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 22/09/2026

oh I got the end quotation mark placement wrong look, I've said this one before, just shuffle it around yourself to where it makes sense, k thx

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 22/09/2026

Today in "linguists are NOT KIDDING" when we say your capacity for language includes the ability to understand sentences that have never been said before in human history

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 22/09/2026

I got one a couple years ago and sitting under it while I eat my breakfast genuinely does help me fall asleep better in the evening (this is a Known Fact about melatonin production, apparently)

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 22/09/2026

static.klipy.com

Earth, Wind & Fire - September (Do You Remember)

Alt: That clip from Earth, Wind & Fire - September (Do You Remember) that everyone posts today because it says "Do you remember/the 21st night of September?"

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 21/09/2026

Oh whoa, new Carly Rae Jepsen day, how'd I miss this important news! (Okay yes I was scrolling back through your tweets after your Personal News post, we don't know each other but I wish you all the best and look forward to seeing what you're writing next!)

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Reposted by Gretchen McCulloch

popchop&axemurder @hannatale.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Looking at it, the northern continent is only about 900? miles across, and most of it is uninhabited/uninhabitable, but also my god that's so many little valleys for people to establish weird dialects in.

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 21/09/2026

Oh, actually, here's one case that could be made for somewhat fewer dialects on Pern: They suffered several plagues and natural disasters there dramatically reduced population a few times So I'd maybe buy that dialects also contracted in those eras, any medievalists want to weigh in?

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 21/09/2026

This is a closer analogy to what could happen on Pern, yes

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 21/09/2026

Australia is a fantastic example for the exact opposite reason It's been colonized like 200 years and had telecommunications for as long as any of us, and you can STILL make Melbournians and Sydneysiders argue about potato cake vs potato scallop www.macquariedictionary.com.au/australian-w...

macquariedictionary.com.au

Australian Word Map - Macquarie

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 21/09/2026

You may also want to check out this about how magical systems interact with language (spell and spell have a common origin!) notably, this is the episode which someone on mastodon once complained was "too much about linguistics" dunno what you were expecting from a podcast called @lingthusiasm.com

lingthusiasm.com

Lingthusiasm - Lingthusiasm Episode 80: Word Magic

Lingthusiasm Episode 80: Word Magic The magical kind of spell and the written kind of spell are historically linked. This reflects how saying a word can change the state of the world, both in terms ...

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 21/09/2026

I seem to be picking up a bunch of new followers from this Pern thread so hello, welcome, if you like linguistic analyses of sff you may also want to check out this @lingthusiasm.com episode on cross-cultural communication in space (yes we have good transcripts if you're not a podcast person)

lingthusiasm.com

Lingthusiasm - Lingthusiasm Episode 116: Cross-cultural...

Lingthusiasm Episode 116: Cross-cultural communication (in space!) Sometimes, you’re talking with someone and you just seem to click. Other times, you just can’t seem to get comfortable: they’re sta...

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Lauren Gawne @superlinguo.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

From PARADISEC: 150 cassette tapes caked in dirt were painstakingly cleaned, digitised and salvaged. A real emotional rollercoaster featuring a very patient human and a robot hero: www.paradisec.org.au/blog/2026/08...

paradisec.org.au

SG2: Adventures with tape

When the SG2 collection arrived at PARADISEC, it consisted of approximately 150 cassette tapes carried from Papua New Guinea to Australia in two duffel bags. They had been gathered through a commun…

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 21/09/2026

I do want to give kudos where it's due to the swearing as worldbuilding system in Pern though, all of this "by the Egg" and "shards" and "shells" is incredible dragonic worldbuilding

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 20/09/2026

I read the first one and I was like damn that's some 80s sexism and then I found out it was published in the 60s and I was like oh well that's not so bad then And they do get less sexist as they go on! But yeah I didn't read them for years bc of all the caveats and yet I still enjoyed them!

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 20/09/2026

But in the Dolphins of Pern book, the dolphins have apparently remembered the word for horse all this time (idk why) and see one of them on land and go oh yeah that's a horse and the human is like?? (This might just be one of many continuity errors?)

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 20/09/2026

If everyone can teleport, then sure, no dialects But when they've been down to one Weyr for 400 years at the beginning of the series and most of the peasants are excited and awed to catch a glimpse of a dragon occasionally, that's a lot of people who functionally don't get to teleport

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 20/09/2026

I know this is a deep cut but it's confirmed in the dolphins book, the dolphins have (somehow, don't ask me why) retained the original word for horse

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cyllan @cyllan.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

WAIT. WAIT. RUNNERBEASTS ARE HORSES? Look, it's been ages since I've read these books, but I always pictured runnerbeasts as some sort of weird riding kangaroo/donkey crossover? My reading brain is a FASCINATING place. (Pern reference for those confused)

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 20/09/2026

And the cultures are different enough in the Weyrs vs the Holds that they've established very different styles of dress (eg riding leathers, short hair under riding caps) and sexual mores (one of them cares about monogamy, the other uh, doesn't), that's got to go with SOME linguistic differences!

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Richelle Sepulveda @richellesepulveda.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

One of my fantasy novel pet peeves is a single "common tongue" being something all of the poor and/or non-nobility speak, while the rich nobility speak a variety of languages fluently. I also dislike "the old tongue" when it has current speakers because they were mostly isolated from the world.

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 20/09/2026

I bought it for like $12 used on one of those used book sites a few years ago? But in the meantime, there seem to have been put up copies on the Internet Archive and here monoskop.org/images/d/db/...

monoskop.org

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 20/09/2026

It's a very cute headcanon but I don't think it 100% checks out lol

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 20/09/2026

I'm happy to posit that the harpers and the dragonriders are speaking a single common language that's also taught to children for writing, but that'll be much more like the fragmentation between Latin as a common language for travel/education/ritual and local Romance dialects on the ground

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 20/09/2026

Some people have said in response to this thread that the harpers and the dragonriders are keeping the language from drifting across the continent, but exactly this, the remote fishing village Menolly is from where they have one harper and it's a big deal when they see a dragon? Not enough

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Alex MacLaren @alexmaclaren.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Absolutely brilliant - and a lovely introduction to the ideas in Ong and their relevance for today.

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David Donato @ddonato.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I think about this short story at least once a week since I read it almost ten years ago.

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Daniel S. Katz @danielskatz.org · 20/09/2026

This is an interesting story on technology and people and memory, though I like the version without highlighting at richardcolby.net/writ2000/wp-... better

richardcolby.net

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Erica Brooks @ebrooks.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I’m going to be thinking about this astounding short story for YEARS.

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 20/09/2026

(I need to go to sleep, no one cause any time-travel paradoxes on this thread while I'm gone, k?)

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