Looking for the skinny on what's in the next issue of The Butter Lamb News? Want to know what was in issues you might have missed? Looking for PDFs of past issues? If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, then you've come to the right place! Now stop talking to yourself and read on!
Current Issue:
Issue
#4 - Issue #4 of the BLN is bigger and
better than ever thanks to a new, larger format and color ink cartridges. And
then there's the content! If you thought this shit was nerdy before, well then get a load of this issue! (16 pages, 8.5 X 11, full color)*** You can get a PDF of this issue right here! ***
- My Choice for Word of the Year? "Stop" - References don't need to pander to the Twitterverse or chase the digital-age currency of clicks, likes, and shares by latching on the latest, most fire AF slang because, they have not lost any their relevance. This is how I know.
- Dictionaries and References in the News - Time operas; Removing words from the dictionary; Weed slang; Oxford to release dictionary of African-American English; dictionary of Gen Z dating terms; Merriam-Webster adds a bunch of new words; and the famed Kripke Collection finds a new home; and dictionary lovers waxing philosophic.
- New Words and Phrases (or words and phrases new to me) - Productivity paranoia, loud laborer, boyfriend air, wife guy, mufti, snackification movement, appurtenances, beetle-browed, eigengrau, fin-de-siecle, and grisaille, labile, lemniscate, and lunule.
- Reference- (and reference like) and Word-Related Publications Received - Anachronisms, Hypno Video, Just a Jefferson, Ritual View, and Word of the Day
- Plus, new Arrivals to the Butter
Lamb Reference Library and a slew of reader letters!
Back Issues:
*** You can grab a PDF of this issue right here! ***
- Let References Help: In addition to telling us what words mean, a good dictionary can also help us choose the best word … or so says John McPhee
- Reader Letters … or letter
- New Words and Phrases (or Words and Phrases new to me): Newfangled workplace words, psychological disorders, and other words and phrases of interest from "book shy" to "bezoar."
- Dictionaries and References in the News: Dictionaries banned in prison, threats against Merriam-Webster for tinkering with gender-related definitions, school districts rejecting dictionary donations, and the number of words invented by Shakespeare in question
- New Additions to the BLRL: Dictionaries of literary symbols, word origins, proverbs, war, "rediscovered" words (not), and the future in America.
- It Came from the PO Box: Zine reviews
- And a trip down memory lane …
or so I thought … in The Last Word
*** You can grab a PDF of this issue right here! ***
- More on descriptivism vs. prescriptivism … through the lens of Star Wars
- Reader letters on tax tokens, reactions to cheugy, problems with my punctuation, and more.
- New Words and Phrases (or Words and Phrases new to me): Basic, dazzle, Gasconade, hurkle-durkle, Idioglossia, lachrymose, mission statement, and more.
- Dictionaries and References in the News: People with low emotional intelligence use this phrase, thesaurus history, new words added to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, and who is and isn't a "victim."
- New Additions to the BLRL: Dictionaries on rhyming, lexicography (why not?), geek slang, classical mythology, modern thought, obscure words, and dreams. I also speak of Dreyer's English and the fictional Liar's Dictionary.
*** You can grab a PDF of this issue right here! ***
- Front Matter: Yes, Virginia, Dictionary Forewards can be Fascinating!
- Dictionaries and References in the News: Defining life, the link between COVID-19 and dictionaries, and bad words and artificial intelligence
- New Words and Phrases: Cheugy, chuffed, pflug, phub, smize (and the cult of the green M&M), and zaftig
- New Additions to the BLRL: Dictionaries on or for the highly literate, linguistics and phonetics, the F-word, religions and secular faiths, abbreviations, books, psychoanalysis, and political thought.