Whenever I type up a blog entry, I try to be helpful. If I use an English idiom that I suspect people won't be familiar with, I provide a link to something explaining said idiom. If I include some bit of Spanish that's pertinent to the story, I translate the phrase so that it makes sense. It's just one of those things that's been drilled into me over the course of my academic career. Professors insisted on bibliographies and English teachers insisted that I explained concepts. It's practically reflex by now, to the point that it feels wrong if I leave that bit out.
As a result, I end up doing a lot of browsing for links. Since I have started writing this blog, I have often found myself on the websites for Urban Dictionary, Wikipedia, and Merriam Webster. Google is also my friend, since I can usually rely on that for some of the more obscure references.
Anyhow, I was looking for one of these helpful links recently, and I stumbled across a top 10 rare & amusing insults list for Merriam Webster. Wait, what? I was looking through the dictionary, wasn't I? When did it suddenly turn into "Yo Mama" jokes?
Well, they have a bunch of other lists, so maybe this is just the exception to the rule. You figure the website is mostly meant for a fairly dry topic, so the insult list is a bit of an aberration, right? Apparently, no. They also have a list for 10 odd words that mean underwear, and a list for 10 odd words for bodily functions. Also, each of the lists have a small image that links to them and an image for each of the items on the list; a surprising number of them have the faces of (attractive) models as the image. I did not realize that teenage boys were running this website.
All of this led me to this post. Upon realizing that all of this was on the Merriam Webster site, my reaction was what you see in the title. Also, I'm going to have to start using mumpsimus in every day speech.
As a result, I end up doing a lot of browsing for links. Since I have started writing this blog, I have often found myself on the websites for Urban Dictionary, Wikipedia, and Merriam Webster. Google is also my friend, since I can usually rely on that for some of the more obscure references.
Anyhow, I was looking for one of these helpful links recently, and I stumbled across a top 10 rare & amusing insults list for Merriam Webster. Wait, what? I was looking through the dictionary, wasn't I? When did it suddenly turn into "Yo Mama" jokes?
Well, they have a bunch of other lists, so maybe this is just the exception to the rule. You figure the website is mostly meant for a fairly dry topic, so the insult list is a bit of an aberration, right? Apparently, no. They also have a list for 10 odd words that mean underwear, and a list for 10 odd words for bodily functions. Also, each of the lists have a small image that links to them and an image for each of the items on the list; a surprising number of them have the faces of (attractive) models as the image. I did not realize that teenage boys were running this website.
All of this led me to this post. Upon realizing that all of this was on the Merriam Webster site, my reaction was what you see in the title. Also, I'm going to have to start using mumpsimus in every day speech.
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