iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Katherine Connor Martin @kconnormartin.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The OED's latest update added an entry for "bothsidesism". As is often the case, it proves to be older than I expected (1964). More of the new additions are discussed here: www.oed.com/discover/new...

Screenshot of an Oxford English Dictionary entry for the noun “bothsidesism.” The “Meaning & use” tab is selected. The definition reads: “The practice of treating opposing positions as equally valid, credible, or widely held, or of attributing equal responsibility to both parties in a conflict, despite clear evidential or moral grounds favouring one side,” often arising from an attempt to maintain the appearance of impartiality. Below the definition is a timeline of quotation evidence from 1964, 1979, 1995, and 2023 showing historical uses of the term in publications including Christian Century, Newsweek, MetroWest Jewish News, and the Montreal Gazette.

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Katherine Connor Martin @kconnormartin.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Not me getting distracted on Friday afternoon by the Yale Grammatical Diversity Project's page documenting "Gen Z Constructions" (h/t @lynneguist.bsky.social) ygdp.yale.edu/phenomena/ge...

ygdp.yale.edu

Gen Z constructions: an overview | Yale Grammatical Diversity Project: English in North America

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Katherine Connor Martin @kconnormartin.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Editorial notes on the more than 900 new words, phrases, and senses added in OED's June update, including not only "enshittification" but also "Lovecraftian", "fearmongering", and "au contraire", can be found here: www.oed.com/discover/new...

oed.com

Oxford English Dictionary

The OED is the definitive record of the English language, featuring 600,000 words, 3 million quotations, and over 1,000 years of English.

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Katherine Connor Martin @kconnormartin.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

I guffawed at this seasonally thematic McSweeney's piece. (And not just because my cousin wrote it!) www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/whi...

mcsweeneys.net

Which Founding Father Are You?

Are you George, Alexander, Thomas, or Ben?

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Katherine Connor Martin @kconnormartin.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

"The vast majority of features defined in those articles [about so-called TikTok slang] were lexical, and around one-third of that lexis was from AAVE."

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Katherine Connor Martin @kconnormartin.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Sometimes an obsolete word is so delightful you wish it could be resurrected.

Screenshot shows OED entry for the obsolete and rare adjective, "galactopotic", defined as "that drinks milk". One quotation, dated 1623, from Cockeram's "The English Dictionarie, or An Interpreter of Hard English Words", reading "One that still drinkes milke, Galactopoticke".

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Ashmolean Museum, Oxford @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

This lion is a rare example of ancient Egyptian sculpture in clay. It was found with a cache of royal sculpture in the temple enclosure at Hierakonpolis. In Egyptian mythology, paired lions often served as the guardians of entrances, and sculpted lions performed the same function in temples.

An ancient Egyptian clay statue of a seated lion.

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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Want to know where he is running to holding with a pitcher in 1649?

a man running with a pitcher in his hand.

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Katherine Connor Martin @kconnormartin.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Attention digital humanists: The OED would like to hear from anyone currently using OED/dictionary data in their research, and who would be interested in accessing OED as a dataset. Please share your thoughts at tinyurl.com/mpn6kcuu! The survey takes about 3 minutes to complete, and closes 3rd Apr.

survey.alchemer.eu

OED API

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Bodleian Libraries @bodleian.ox.ac.uk · 16/03/2026

Oscars looks 🤝 medieval manuscripts Some of these outfits felt suspiciously familiar, so we went digging in the collections… #MedievalMonday Shelfmarks: MS. Bodl. 265 fols. 58r, 60r; MS. Douce 364, fol. 61v; MS. Douce 195, fol. 003r

Conan O'Brien wearing a crown and a regal robe stands confidently on stage, with several individuals in red and gold robes behind. In the foreground, a tapestry-style illustration depicts three medieval figures with the person in the middle wearing a crown and a regal robe.

Emma Stone wearing a simmering white dress standing in front of a medieval illustration of someone wearing a white dress while holding a sword.

Kathy Bates wearing a light blue, elegant gown, stands smiling in front of a medieval-style illustration. The illutration features a medieval illustration with a figure small hoop wearing a light blue gown surrounded by decorative floral elements.

Jessie Buckley wearing an elegant red and pink gown next to a medieveal illustration of someone wearing a gown echoing the fabric

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The Royal Society @royalsociety.org · 02/02/2026

#OnThisDay in 1826, the first paper to be written by a woman was read at a Royal Society meeting. The paper, by noted polymath Mary Somerville, was read at the meeting by her husband, as she wasn't permitted to attend. bit.ly/2A3Cj2N

A portrait of a woman, Mary Somerville, dressed in 19th-century attire, featuring a dark gown with a fur trim and a lace ruffle at the neckline. The person has a composed expression and an elegant hairstyle. The background is dark, highlighting the figure.

A historical text page discussing a scientific study titled "On the Magnetizing Power of the More Refrangible Solar Rays" by Mrs. M. Somerville, communicated by W. Somerville, M.D. F.R.S., dated February 2, 1826.

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Katherine Connor Martin @kconnormartin.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Submissions are now being accepted by Oxford University Press for the 2026 First Book Prize for early career researchers in the humanities and social sciences. academic.oup.com/pages/early-...

academic.oup.com

Early Career Researcher First Book Prize | Oxford Academic

<img data-image-id='712a691a73d711308c03' data-image-title='ECR book prize - Banner - design 1.png' data-link-id='5a4dc5aa-9e00-4d33-892d-c89fb0ea117a' dat

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Rachel Deering @racheldeering.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Fresco of January at Castello Buonconsiglio, Trento, Italy, (detail), c. 1405-1410.

A detail from the medieval fresco titled Courtiers Intent on a Snowball Fight, Month of January, part of the "Cycle of the Months" by the Bohemian painter Maestro Venceslao. The artwork depicts several figures, identified as nobles or courtiers, engaged in a playful snowball fight amidst a winter landscape.
A woman on the left, wearing a green gown, is gathering snow in her skirt, using it like an arsenal for ammunition.
A man in the center and another figure partially visible on the right are actively throwing snowballs.

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Canadian English Dictionary @canadiandictionary.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

And the results are in! After carefully reviewing the results of a national poll the Board of Directors of the Society for Canadian English (SCE) has determined that this year’s Canadian Word of the Year (CWOTY), the first of its kind, will be “maplewashing.”

"Canadian Word of the Year" on a red banner. Beneath the banner reads "maplewashing" and "the deceptive practice of making things look more Canadian than they actually are"

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Eileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Offered seasonally with book selections by guest curators, this new collection highlights renowned and modern artists practicing within ... themes of poetry, visual art, critical thought, design and ... more. Works can be borrowed by readers for 45-days, free of costs to our U.S. based community.

saintheron.com

Saint Heron

Saint Heron Community Library; a growing media center dedicated to students, practicing artists and designers, musicians and general literature enthusiasts.

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

'A high-resolution digital map allows people to plan their routes along the ancient roads of the Roman Empire. Combining historical records with modern mapping techniques, researchers mapped hundreds of thousands of kilometres of roads. The findings nearly double the known length of Roman roads.'

nature.com

‘Google Maps’ for Roman roads reveals vast extent of ancient network

A high-resolution digital map nearly doubles the known length of the ancient road network.

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 28/10/2025

The OED on _aunt_ n. sense 1.b.

1750–

A woman who is regarded with respect or affection similar to that often accorded to an aunt (sense 1a) despite not being linked by this specific kinship; esp. a close family friend or (chiefly regional, as a term of respect or affection) an elderly woman. Also as a form of address or as a title preceding a first name. Cf. auntie n. 1b, uncle n. 1b.
Frequently as a title. Cf. sense 1a.ii.

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John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

The Life of a ‘Showgirl,’ #etymology edition. Adapted from OED. Show + girl. - 1750, young girl regarded as object of display, especially one who dresses/behaviors ostentatiously. - 1816, young woman employed to model clothes. - 1836–37, female performer in musicals, et al. (chorus girl)

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Katherine Connor Martin @kconnormartin.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Lots of intriguing patterns in this survey about the disciplines in which Americans think humanity has already discovered all there is to know.

Screen shot of graph shows conservatives more likely to say humanity knows most of what there is to know about math, history, physics, economics, while liberals more likely on statistics, political science, and engineering

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Bodleian Libraries @bodleian.ox.ac.uk · 15/09/2025

Our medieval curator Alison Ray introduces Rawlinson Bodleian Library MS. Rawl. D. 252...a 15th Century necromancer's journal. This manuscript contains spells written in Latin and Middle English, and would have served as a reference for a professional sorcerer. #MedievalMonday

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Katherine Connor Martin @kconnormartin.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

"An organic trend can take longer to percolate into general usage but an algorithmic trend like the “clanker” joke may be deliberately reproduced by influencers who are actively aware of memes and how platforms reward them" on.ft.com/45PYTuY via @FT

on.ft.com

From skibidi to rizz, why the internet loves slang

The online engagement treadmill deliberately pushes niche language into the mainstream

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Hanna Torsh @htorsh.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Participants needed for research on innovative grammar in Australian English. It will involve an anonymous online questionnaire that will take approximately 5-15 minutes to complete.

limesurvey.mq.edu.au

Acceptability and use of grammatical innovation in Australian English

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Katherine Connor Martin @kconnormartin.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Over time, ironic and self-aware use of Trumpisms gives way to established speech patterns that are unmoored from their origin. Many such cases. (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | The Insidious Creep of Trump’s Speaking Style

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Lieven Vandelanotte @lieven.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

bsky.app/profile/liev...

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Katherine Connor Martin @kconnormartin.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

"in the multimodal predictive construction that is a Scumbag Steve meme, the subject argument suppression forms part of the ways in which the text has adjusted to the presence of the image." A fun analysis of meme grammar.

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Maria Giovanna De Simone @mginotherwords.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

A bad day at the printing press, London 1660. lib-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Record/fbfb3...

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Marc Alexander @mga.is · 30/07/2025

17 years ago today we sent off the 1st ed of the Historical Thesaurus to OUP for publication in 2009! Scary to think that someone born as we typed in the final word might now be an undergraduate starting this year… (Pictured is Christian Kay handing over the envelope to Tommy Cameron, our janitor.)

Christian Kay, the second director of the Historical Thesaurus, hands over a padded envelope to Tommy Cameron, University of Glasgow janitor, in the entranceway of 12 University Gardens, where we all worked

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Shannon K. Supple @mazarine.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Researchers! Short-term fellowships for working with Beinecke Library (and all Yale special collections) are open for applications. Deadline is July 31. beinecke.library.yale.edu/programs/fel...

beinecke.library.yale.edu

Fellowships

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Adam Bonin @adambonin.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

The OED traces the first known print usage of "bag of dicks" to a 1995 New York Magazine article on the standup comedy scene, though the specific originator of the phrase is unclear. books.google.com/books?id=6eQ...

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Katherine Connor Martin @kconnormartin.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

I was intrigued by this 1949 "Gayese-English Dictionary", shared by Lindsay Rose Russell, which included blank pages for the reader to add their own notes about the queer lexicon.

Archival image of a typescript "Gayese-English" dictionary. The right page features "auntie", "basket", and BJ. The facing page gives space for notes.

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Katherine Connor Martin @kconnormartin.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Interesting to see AusE apparently mildly siding with AmE over BrE. The Eggplant Axis.

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Stan Carey @stancarey.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

The debut of "shitload" in the NYT is as good an occasion as any to read @ivacheung.com's vintage @stronglang.bsky.social post comparing it with "fuckton", "buttload", and other sweary units of measure: stronglang.wordpress.com/2015/01/31/u...

stronglang.wordpress.com

Units of fucking measure

Shit-ton. Buttload. Fuck-ton. Shall we take a closer look at these eminently useful units of measure?

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Katherine Connor Martin @kconnormartin.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

I can't be the only person to have started self-policing my use of LLM-coded locutions. Farewell, "delve".

Table of words showing 4x or greater increases for delve, crucial, foster, critical, and c 3x for potential, significant, leverage

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Katherine Connor Martin @kconnormartin.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

Interesting to see the prominence of "bonkers" as a UK to US import. Besides its evocativeness I wonder if there is a motivation to avoid the mental-health connotation of "crazy"? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

theguardian.com

Bonkers for Britishisms: the UK terms Americans have embraced

Researchers have catalogued the British words and phrases most used in US conversation, sparking delight and frustration

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Because Language (becauselangpod) @becauselanguage.com · 23/03/2025

Happy OK Day! On 23 March 1839, the word OK appeared for the first time in the Boston Morning Globe. It was a humorous abbreviation for "oll korrect". Funny abbreviations were kind of a fad at the time, kind of like the netspeak we see today. We at Because Language hope your day is OK.

The screen grab of the Boston Morning Post, 23 March 1839:

The above is from the Providence Journal, the editor of which is a little too quick on the trigger, on this occasion. We said not a word about our deputation passing "through the city" of Providence.
We said our brethren were going to New York in the Richmond, and they did go, as per Post of Thursday.
The "Chairman of the Committee on Charity Lecture Bells," is one of the deputation, and perhaps if he should return to Boston, via Providence, he of the Journal, and his trein-band, would have the
"contribution box," et ceteras, o.k.—all correct—and cause the corks to fly, like sparks, upward

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Katherine Connor Martin @kconnormartin.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Apparently the UK equivalent of the US "Roy G. Biv" mnemonic for the colors of the rainbow is "Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain". This seems emblematic of both countries.

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Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Today I told some UK collaborators that we couldn’t have “dialect diversity” or “algorithmic bias” in the title of a grant that would be reviewed by the NEH. I have never felt less free to speak or do my job than I do right now.

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Katherine Connor Martin @kconnormartin.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Whatever your opinion of spicy fiction, surely we can all agree that the apparent demise of "loins" is to be applauded. www.economist.com/culture/2025...

Line graph with x axis from 1963 to 2022, derived from Google Gram viewer data. Three lines are loins, declining gently from 1990, and orgasm and clit, riding sharply from 2000.

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Felicity Hannah @felicityhannah.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

The trouble is, once I started imagining they were taking selfies I couldn’t unsee it

Three marble statues all holding their hands up to their faces

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Hannes Cools @hannescools.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

BBC just released damning research on AI assistants' news accuracy. Results: 51% of AI responses had significant issues. 19% introduced errors when citing BBC. 13% misquoted or made up BBC content entirely. 🤐🤐 www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/... via @ezraeeman.bsky.social

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