Kory Stamper Profile picture
Oct 4, 2019 6 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Friends: I finally got to see the window where the (17th-century) Defenestration of Prague happened, which started the Thirty Years' War and gave English everyone's favorite word, "defenestration." #levelupnerds an etching of the defenestr...This is the window which wa...
Since the video where I talk about "defenestration" is no longer online, some fun defenestration facts:

--basically, Catholic envoys were sent to tell the Prague Protestant leaders to stop building churches. This was not well-received! OUT THE WINDOW YOU GO. (1/x)
--All three envoys survived the fall. Catholics attributed their survival to a miracle; Protestants to the fact they fell in a giant manure pile. Physics tells us that they likely hit the gentle slope not far from the top of the toss and just rolled down it. (2/x)
--This started the Thirty Years' War, which was A Big Deal in Europe, and so was written about a lot.
--"Defenestration" comes from the Latin "de-" and "fenestra" which means "out the window." (3/x)
--Though e'erybody calls this "the Defenestration of Prague," this is actually the _Third_ Defenestration of Prague. The first one happened in 1419, at the beginning of the Hussite Wars; the second in 1483, during the Hussite Wars. (4/x)
--The other two defenestrations didn't happen in Prague Castle, but in the New Town Hall and the Old Town Hall. Just...stay away from tower windows in Prague, I guess? (FIN)

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More from @KoryStamper

Jan 4, 2021
I'm taking a break from lexicography to read the Trump-GA call transcript, and I am now very much looking forward to the dissertation that will be written on T's shifting use of "won" in this rambling argle-bargle.
I am a language professional. My entire career is based on my finely honed ability to analyze discourse and draw logical boundaries around the uses/meanings of individual words in context.

I'm a third of the way through this and have no fucking clue what I'm reading here.
Yes, we dated briefly in the late '90s. An excerpt from Trump's ab....
Read 19 tweets
Aug 27, 2020
"The microphone on the Amazon Halo Band isn’t meant for voice commands; instead it listens to your voice and reports back on what it believes your emotional state was throughout the day." I have a whoooooole extra-spicy batch of questions! 1/n
Per article: "It picks up on the pitch, intensity, rhythm, and tempo of your voice and then categorizes them into 'notable moments'..."

So, what's in your training dataset? What's the gender, race, age split? What dialects were included? 2/n
Turns out @backlon asked this! Amazon's rep gave no info on the demographic makeup of the dataset, but did say that the feature was trained on American English, and "if you have an accent," it will be less accurate.

I...
Read 14 tweets
Jul 25, 2020
I SURE CAN! BUCKLE UP, BUTTERCUPS.

Yoho's non-pology starts with "the abrupt manner of the conversation I had with my colleague from New York." Coupla things about that statement: 1/x
1. He's apologizing for his "abrupt manner" like he's Fitzwilliam Goddamned Darcy and not for what he said. Notice the subtle deflection, as if the words themselves were incidental and not actually offensive. But, okay, let's focus on this: he's sorry for his _manner_. 2/x
2. He calls the exchange a "conversation." A conversation is interactive and involves active listening and usually an exchange of ideas. "Conversation" makes it seem like they were talking about the weather. It's a reframing that makes her version of events seem outsized. 3/x
Read 14 tweets
Jul 24, 2020
There's so much to unpack in this shitshow of a snippet, but let's zero in on how they describe AOC's delivery of "fucking bitch": "punching each syllable in the vulgarity." 1/?
First, that's a weird verb to use in that phrase. Usually we see "emphasizing," "enunciating," "pronouncing," or "stressing" used with "each syllable." "Punch" isn't even in the corpus I checked (COCA for the nerds). So, the verb draws undue attention to the phrase. 2/?
Then there's the inclusion of "in the vulgarity." Generally speaking, the verb "punch in the" is most often followed by a body part: "the face," "the stomach." The brain is wired to associate "punch in the ___" with a physical act of violence. 3/?
Read 6 tweets
Mar 19, 2020
So we've got this quarantine on, and you're suddenly looking at your bookshelves, whining like an over-tired toddler about how there's nooooothing to reaaaaaad in the hooooooouse, and the library's closed, and what if Amazon shuts down? I got a cure for what ails ya! 1/4
1. Buy used book from Federal Street Books, owned by my lovely friends & former coworkers. Inventory is online and they'll ship! The owners rescued this western MA institution recently; keep 'em afloat! federalstreetbooks.com 2/4
(shoulda been "books," not fixing the typo.

2. Uncharted Books in Chicago! Buy some rare books online, y'all. Inventory is varied and pretty cheap for rare books. Or subscribe to their Substack so they can continue to pay their employees! unchartedbooks.com 3/4
Read 6 tweets
Mar 6, 2020
"Quarantine" has a pretty complicated etymology. WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR ALL ABOUT IT, YES YOU WOULD, SETTLE IN, MY NERDS

1/13
The kind of quarantine that we're all thinking of originated in Venice in the 1300s: ships had sit at anchor for 40 days before coming into port to prevent the spread of the plague. In Venetian, this was called "quarentena,” which originally meant “40 days.” 2/13
The word “quarentena” predates the practice of quarantine, though. It’s actually a Late Latin word that comes ultimately from the Classical Latin word “quadraginta,” which means “forty.” That Late Latin word “quarentena” originally referred to another sad 40 days: Lent. 3/13
Read 14 tweets

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