20 Years Ago, Millennials Found Themselves 'Lost in Translation' - Esquire UK - Translation

There is no sadder place on the internet than an Instagram film account. They are all the same: fuzzy, well-chosen screenshots of beautiful people with easily-digestible quotations overlaid. (Every time I consider reposting these to my story, usually at 2am, I cringe and leave it in my saved folder: the second saddest place on the internet.) The only theme is love, more specifically heartbreak, which plays well on Instagram. Where else do heartbroken people go? And you would think, from these accounts, only a handful of films had ever been released: the Before Sunrise trilogy, In the Mood for Love, anything by Greta Gerwig, a television exception for Normal People. Tales of unrequited, lost, fragile love. Another touchstone? Lost in Translation.

Somehow, Translation is now 20, and it feels as fresh as anything from the past year. It helps that director Sofia Coppola’s unhurried, impressionistic vision has stayed in style. Scarlett Johansson plays Charlotte, a self-described “mean” Yale graduate, who’s in Tokyo while her photographer husband, John (Giovanni Ribisi, perfect in his small role), is working. After a few close encounters, mostly at the hotel bar, she strikes up a friendship with faded movie star Bob Harris (Bill Murray), who is shooting a campaign for Suntory whisky. These jet-lagged characters are disgusted by their networks: publicists, valley girls, nagging wives, distant boyfriends. Thus the May-December relationship blossoms, over karaoke, and drinks, and meals in a foreign city.

Nothing in Translation should be relatable: the proximity of celebrity, the cost of a room at the Park Hyatt (around £1000 a night), having a week to spend in Tokyo with no financial worry. But it connected, making almost $120 million on a $4 million budget. Coppola won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. You see Translation’s legacy everywhere, not just in Tokyo, where there are film-related tours of the city, but also in the following decades at the cinema. Elements of Charlotte lived on in the dream girls to come: Zooey Deschanel in (500) Days of Summer, Kirsten Dunst in Elizabethtown, Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It lives on in direct references, from Shawn Mendes’ 2018 video for “Lost In Japan” to Johansson’s pink wig to the American success of Phoenix (the French band’s lead singer is now married to Coppola).

When Translation came out, the eldest millennials were 22, around Charlotte’s age. Millennials are not the first to question their life’s purpose or feel stuck (and Coppola, born in 1971, is not one), but that doesn’t mean they don’t feel those things acutely: a generation with lots of options, and even more challenges. Those challenges – recessions, impossible job markets, unaffordable housing – may have existed before, but their impact became a running theme in contemporary coming-of-age films, in which characters wrestled with expectations and reality. A year later, Zach Braff’s Garden State touched on similar themes and became a success (though it has not enjoyed the same critical legacy as Translation). Listless, stunted adult characters populated the mumblecore genre, from Funny Ha Ha (released a year before) to later entries like Frances Ha and Celeste and Jesse Forever.

Translation is an irresistible vessel for those feelings. If the film were set even five years later, Charlotte would be scrolling on an iPhone. Nowadays, she’d be swiping on an app or else uploading to Instagram about how happy she is while actually being miserable. Frozen in a just-before time, Translation channels a lot of anxiety without any of the tools that amplify those anxieties. There is some irony in all the people you know on Instagram who have posted from the Shibuya crossing, depicted in the film: Charlotte would surely roll her eyes at this, snottily. And for younger viewers, it helps that Bob is also in crisis mode: a sign that it is both normal, and if you are really lucky and turn things around at quarter-life, perhaps you can avoid this feeling later.

Coppola had directed her debut, an adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides starring Kristen Dunst, a few years earlier to critical acclaim (that film has only grown in stature since its 1999 release, too). Translation has the impossibly cool origin story that only a film directed by a Coppola child (her dad is filmmaker Francis Ford and her mother is documentarian Eleanor) could have: she travelled to Tokyo for work experience and found herself listlessly wandering around. Coppola is not the first Westerner to be inspired and alienated by an Asian city, nor will she be the last. There are justified critiques that Translation falls into stereotypical traps, but that is the point: this is a film about lost Americans who barely leave their hotel rooms, not Japanese culture. Besides, it easy to believe that Coppola loves this city. More specifically, her camera loves this city: it glides over motorways, and skylines, and billboards, and neon signs with a fuzzy, miraculous ease, as though Coppola cannot believe this place exists.

Mystery is the name of the game, and a significant aspect of Translation’s enduring legacy. The final scene – in which Bob whispers unknown words into Charlotte’s ear – is perhaps the most enduring enigma. The kiss was improvised, and no one apart from Johansson, Murray and Coppola knows what was said (and good luck getting an answer from them). YouTube videos have since tried to decode it by manipulating the sound, but it is nicer to believe that puzzles still exist.

Its other, and this one is more intriguing, is the relationship between Bob and Charlotte, not solely platonic, but not precisely romantic. “It was more about those relationships that you have that are more than friends but less than a love affair,” Coppola told The Independent on the film’s UK release. “There’s something so sweet about them that you don’t want to see them ripping each others’ clothes off.” Like many of the best relationships, Charlotte and Bob instantly find home in each other: a place where you can ask questions and, even if you don’t receive an answer, feel heard.

In the scene which most obviously epitomises that dynamic (and one that film accounts commonly repurpose), Charlotte confesses that she has no idea what she wants to be to Bob, while they lay in bed. She tried being a writer, but hated what she wrote. She tried taking pictures, but hers were so mediocre: “Every girl goes through a photography phases, like horses, you know, dumb pictures of your feet…” Bob tells her to keep writing, which is sound advice. Translation is comforting because you’re never in doubt that Charlotte is going to be absolutely fine. Yes, she is privileged, but she is also intelligent and sensitive and the film validates that worldview. That self-awareness, feeling lacklustre and unambitious despite education and resources, is another relatable trope of millennial culture.

“Why do you have to be with your opposite, why can’t similar people be together?” Charlotte asks towards the end of her sleepover heart-to-heart with Bob. “Because that would be too easy,” he answers, a response that your least philosophical friend would reel off, and yet somehow feels momentous. Translation is often like this: feather light, and serious as a paper cut. What Coppola pulls off, unique even among her remarkably high-quality oeuvre, is infinite interpretation: a Rorschach test for each viewer. Are you content, sad, in love, heartbroken, full of wonder, exhausted? There is an answer here, should you wish to find one.

A 17-second video of that scene, posted this past summer on TikTok, has been played almost 90,000 times. Videos posted under the film’s hashtag have amassed 379.5 million views on the platform. When you search the film on Instagram, as one might do at 2am, you will be greeted by thousands of glittering stills of Bob and Charlotte, smoking at a bar, resting their heads on each other in a lift, or catching sight of one another in a crowd. Read, if you can, the comments: a wave of tear-stained and broken heart emojis, proclamations of loneliness and uncertainty and understanding exactly what the characters are going through. That is the lovely, legacy-defining trick of Coppola’s film: how, in its depiction of isolation, it has managed to connect so many, decades after its parting, inscrutable whisper.

Adblock test (Why?)

The Dictionary of the Jamaican Language takes you bak tu skuul - Jamaica Gleaner - Dictionary

The Jamaican language, popularly referred to as (Jamaican) Patwa, is a significant component of brand Jamaica. However, despite its high international visibility and mounting global interest, it is severely under-resourced in its homeland.

The language has benefitted from the work of outstanding linguists such as Beryl Loftman Bailey whose book Jamaican Creole Syntax (1966) was the first technical grammar of the language, and Frederic G. Cassidy and Robert B. Le Page’s Dictionary of Jamaican English (DJE), which was the first scholarly dictionary prepared. While these works have enjoyed much attention in academia, they are not as known as they should be by ordinary Jamaicans, and they are consulted even less.

Admittedly, on the market are numerous phrase books, glossaries, and dictionaries prepared by laypeople, but these tend to suffer from one or more of the following issues: incorrect part of speech identification; mismatch between the part of speech, the definition, and the example sentence; and incomplete information, forcing Jamaican into English structure. One exception is Eric Rosenfeld’s comprehensive Jamaicasaurus, However, like all of the others (including the scholarly works), it only describes those areas in which Jamaican is different from Standard English. Unfortunately, this common approach of only treating the differences ends up making our vibrant language look malnourished.

FILL THE GAP

To fill the gap, work began in earnest this month on the Dictionary of the Jamaican Language (DJL). The DJL will be a bilingual, unidirectional dictionary; bilingual because the headwords are in Jamaican and the definitions in English; unidirectional because there is no reverse section where the headwords are in English and the definitions are given in Jamaican. The latter will be done at a later stage. The main plan is for the dictionary to be web-based but we may contemplate a print version based on demand. The DJL is coming at an opportune time when there is an urgent need for general-purpose dictionaries and learners’ grammars to support the aims of the National Standards Curriculum, as well as the teaching and learning of Jamaican as a second/foreign language.

Scholarly dictionaries such as the DJE and Richard Allsopp’s Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage (DCEU) attempt to treat both Jamaican and Jamaican English between the same two covers. Additionally, they are intended as supplements to dictionaries such as Webster’s Third New International Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary, which cover metropolitan varieties of English. In keeping with their supplemental nature, they mostly list ‘Jamaicanisms’, i.e. words and senses that were considered unique to Jamaica. For example, the only sense the DJE lists for Jamaican sik (sick) is “to sicken, to make sick”, reflecting its use as a transitive verb; because, at that time, that was the only meaning different from standard English. However, Jamaicans also use the word sik as an adjective, e.g. di sik man, and as a stative verb, e.g. di biebi did sik. The latter usage is one way in which the Jamaican word is different from its English source; a feature which Jamaican shares with several West African languages where words denoting properties and states tend to be verbs. The DJL will reflect this aspect of the language rather than trying to force Jamaican into the structures of English and Latin.

The DJL will focus on contemporary usage but, since it aims to be a full record of the Jamaican language, it will include words and senses that have been used throughout the history of the language. Because of the contemporary focus, the order of senses will not necessarily reflect their historical development. Current senses will be listed before older, more dated, ones. Since the speakers of the Jamaican language are in full preparation mode for the back-to-school season, we decided to announce the start of our work on the dictionary by presenting to the nation a little over 30 of the entries to be included in the DJL which are related to school life.

STRUCTURE OF DJL ENTRIES

The headword will be followed by the part of speech. Although we have abbreviated the part of speech below because of space constraints, in the actual dictionary, the part of speech will be spelt out. The part of speech is usually followed by the sense or senses associated with that specific part of speech. Where a word has multiple senses, those senses are numbered consecutively. In cases where additional information about the use of the word/sense may be useful, this is written in small capitals and placed before the relevant sense. Some of these usage labels include “dated”, for words that are old-fashioned (mostly used by grandparents), “offensive” (likely to offend, degrade, upset), “dormant” (no longer in use), and “historical” (still used but only when talking about the past). Each sense is followed by a made-up example sentence which helps to illustrate how the word is used. In the web-based dictionary, each headword will be accompanied by at least one audio file which contains the pronunciation of the word.

Since the DJL is meant to contribute to the standardisation of the language, headwords will be written using the Cassidy-JLU Writing System (CJLU), which is an easy-to-learn phonemic system that was developed by Jamaica-born linguist Frederic Cassidy and amended by the Jamaican Language Unit (JLU). The beauty of this system is that, even if you are seeing or hearing a word for the first time, it doesn’t take long to work out its spelling or pronunciation.

The DJL editorial team comprises a chief editor, Joseph Farquharson; assistant editor, Tajay Henry, and three subeditors, Tali Thorney, Carson Thomas and Donikue Campbell. The initial phase of the DJL is planned to last between 2023 and 2025. This phase is made possible by financial support from the CHASE Fund.

DJL ENTRIES

Abbreviations: intr., intransitive; n., noun; phr., phrase; stat., stative; tr., transitive; v. verb

baal-ed-i-tiicha n. OFFENSIVE. a term of address used by children to taunt a boy sporting a bald head. Baal-ed-i-tiicha, wiet til skuul uova.

baks lonch n. cooked food served for lunch in a disposable rectangular or square container. Bai di taim mi riich a kyantiin, baks lonch don.

bak-tu-skuul n. the period just before the beginning of the school year that is used to make preparations. Dongtoun ful op chruu a bak-tu-skuul ya nou.

big skuul n. (for basic and primary-school students) any education level above the one they are at.

Kim api se shi a go big skuul Septemba a kom.

boblz n. a hair accessory for girls comprising an elastic cord with a small ball at each end. Mi lov wen mi mada plat op mi ier an put iin di priti boblz dem.

brait spaaks n. a person who is quick-witted; but, more commonly, someone who is good at book learning. = SPAAKS. Mi no shak se shi paas ar egzam kaa mi nuo se shi a brait spaaks.

brieks n. 1. = BRIEKS TAIM. 2. any snack that is (intended to be) eaten during the short scheduled break during school hours. Mi figat mi brieks pan i dainin tiebl dis maanin.

brieks taim n. a short scheduled break during the schoolday which allows students to refresh themselves. = BRIEKS. Notn no iina yu lonch pan fi brieks taim so yu afi bai sitn a tok shap.

dons bat n. OFFENSIVE. a person who is slow at book learning. Im neva du im uomwork gud. Im a dons bat.

eksasaiz buk n. 1. a ruled book with either a soft or a hard cover (measuring roughly 4.9 x 6.9 in.), primarily used for writing in schools. Dem nowadiez eksasaiz buk no iizi fi mash op. 2. DATED. a ruled book with a soft cover that is primarily used for writing in schools. Mi eksasaiz buk ful op a mats.

fos braitis n. (in schools where students are streamed based on performance) the class at each grade level with the top-performing students. Mi mash op di egzam so mi a-go ina fos braitis neks ier.

freshaz n. a new student at a college or university, especially during the orientation period. Di freshaz dem a kom iin orli fi kalek dem pakij.

grob n. a new student who is bullied by older students to perform menial or degrading tasks.

Luk ou lang wi sen di grob fi go bai pati an im kyaahn kom bak yet. v. tr. to bully a new student by forcing them to perform menial or degrading tasks. Di fos wiik mi de a ai skuul di biga bwai dem grob mi.

guomin taim n. = GUOMIN UOM TAIM.

guomin uom taim n. the scheduled time one departs for home at the end of a day-long activity such as school or work. = GUOMIN TAIM. Di bel jos ring so dat miin se a guomin uom taim nou.

jain op phr. v. tr. 1. to link or connect two or more things. Dem jain op di buod dem an mek wahn siit. 2. to work together; co-operate; collaborate. Di tuu a dem jain op fi pie di bil. phr. v. stat. be linked or connected. Di tuu piis a waya dem jain op. phr. v. intr. to become a member of a group or organisation. Dem a plan paadna agen bot dis taim mi naa jain op. n. a style of handwriting in which the letters of a word are joined to each other: cursive. = JAININ OP. Sins mi staat taip mi kyaahn rait ina jain op agen.

jainin op n. = JAIN OP n.

kalijaz n. a student who attends a teachers’ college or community college. Di kalijaz dem ful op di kuk shap.

kapi skecha n. a student who copies from the work of others. = kapi teka. Mi a chrai tel tiicha se Jan a kapi skecha.

kapi teka n. = KAPI SKECHA.

kraab tuo = KRAB TUO.

krab tuo n. poor handwriting. Da kraab tuo ya aad fi riid.

lainz n. a sentence or passage that is copied multiple times by hand as a form of punishment in school. Mi kech a skuul liet so di klaas priifek gi mi lainz fi du.

push paint n. 1. a type of pencil with an internal chamber that holds the graphite stick. The stick comes out by squeezing or twisting a part of the pencil. Di push paint we mi a yuuz ron outa led. 2. a wood-cased pencil with a loose graphite stick that can be pushed through the wood casing from either end. It aad fi rait wid push paint.

rang bang n. an X mark used by a teacher grading student work to indicate an incorrect answer. Mi a-go stodi aad fi Mats kaa mi no waahn get no rang bang.

red ingk n. 1. ink that is red in colour. Di red ingk kech mi kluoz. 2. a pen that has red ink. Beg yu wahn red ingk mek mi maak dem piepa ya.

skuulaz n. a student who attends school, especially up to the secondary level. Di ruobot taksi dem no waahn kyar no skuulaz.

spaaks n. = BRAIT SPAAKS.

stiki n. a check mark used by a teacher to indicate that a student’s work is correct or has been checked. = uk stik. Luk umoch stiki mi get ina mi buk.

taim tiebl n. = TAIMZ TIEBL.

taimz tiebl n. a list containing multiples of a series of numbers, used by students as a study aid. = TAIM TIEBL. Tiich se wi fi nuo wi taimz tiebl.

tiich n. an affectionate term of address for a teacher. Tiich, mi jos waahn fi tangk yu fi tek kier a Jahnoi.

uk stik n. 1. a check mark used by a teacher to indicate that a student’s work is correct or has been checked. Johnny get nof uk stik ina im buk. 2. a long stick with a crook or a v-shaped hook at one end used for hoisting or lowering things. Di uk stik kudn riich di manggo dem pan di tap lim. 3. a sturdy stick roughly 2 ½ ft in length (cut from a tree in such a way so there is a short hook at one end), used while clearing land or weeding with a machete. Di faama dem yuuz dem uk stik wen dem a bush di plies so di mashiet no chap dem.

wash out phr. v. tr. 1. use water or other types of liquid to remove unwanted material from something. Mi tuu tayad fi wash out di tuu likl piis a kluoz. 2. (of an event) to cancel because of rain. Di fans dem beks kaa rien wash out di mach. 3. to have an abortion. Im gi mi sitn fi jringk fi wash out di biebi. phr. v. intr. (of a place that is normally dry) covered by a lot of water; flooded. Mi faada grong wash out an im luuz evriting. n. the process of using a substance to stimulate the evacuation of the bowels. Wen alidie don wi afi tek wash out.

Email carilingjm@gmail.com for further information and how to support the work of DJL.

Adblock test (Why?)

You can now look up the definitions of “nepo baby” and “shower orange” on dictionary.com. - Literary Hub - Dictionary

September 6, 2023, 7:00am

Attention word nerds: today, Dictionary.com announced its latest update, which includes 566 new entries, 348 new definitions for pre-existing entries, and 2,256 revised definitions.

New additions include terms you likely know (nepo baby, decision fatigue, box braids) and a few terms you may not, unless you are more online and/or cooler than I (shower orange, atmospheric river, mountweazel). The full list of new terms can be found here.

“People are so creative! As you can imagine, recording the ever-changing language is incredibly enjoyable while also being intellectually stimulating,” said Grant Barrett, head of lexicography at Dictionary.com and co-host of the public radio show A Way with Words, in a press release. “Even though dictionary-making is what we do, we’re still delighted with the variety, depth and complexity of this big batch of terms. There’s so much that shows how vibrant the language is, as it keeps up with changes in culture and society.”

This update also includes another major change: Dictionary.com’s lexicographers have removed binary-gendered phrases across the dictionary’s entries. “On the inclusivity side, his or her does not include people who use other pronouns,” they explained in the same press release. “In terms of usage, they is simply much more common as a generic pronoun than he or she, including in spoken and all but the most formal types of written English.”

“We always strive for Dictionary.com to be clear and helpful for our users,” Barrett added. “Updating binary-gendered phrases makes the entries more similar to how people actually speak and write. The entries are now more natural-sounding.”

Adblock test (Why?)

Review: The Man Who Swallowed A Dictionary a dramatic eulogy to ... - The Irish News - Dictionary

Paul Garrett who plays David Ervine in 'The Man Who Swallowed A Dictionary', a new play by Bobby Niblock. Picture by Hugh Russell

THERE were times in Green Shoot’s production of The Man Who Swallowed a Dictionary, a dramatic eulogy to the late, great David Ervine, when you felt Long Kesh must have been a kind of Open University course for people reading The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.

That’s maybe unfair, and we heard about abuse, although Gusty Spence did recommend the book to his jailed protégé - and its message went home.

For Ervine’s nuanced politics were left-wing, with a repeated line about ‘big house unionism’ ignoring the two up-two down reality of their voters.

This spread to a humorous scene early on when David Ervine’s mother assures Ian Paisley on the doorstep that he has their vote, while his dad, a life-long socialist, says not on his watch. But more colourfully.

The first half of Robert Niblock’s one man show about the life of the man who put the PUP properly on the map was affectionate.

Premiered at the Lyric last night, it was a portrait of one man’s journey rather than the conflict overall, and Paul Garrett portrayed him energetically and with feeling.

The late David Ervine who is the focus of The Man Who Swallowed A Dictionary

Read more:

The last word on David Ervine: The Man Who Swallowed A Dictionary

David Ervine play to open at Lyric before tour of Northern Ireland

"Working-class unionists miss a leader like David Ervine" says play producer

We heard that when asked what sort of baby it was after his birth, usually meaning gender, the messenger said ‘He’s a Protestant’. He was, but a fairly unusual one in his time and place.

The narrative covered the ground, from leaving school early to hanging out with his teenage mates.

One segue goes from groping big Tracey, who has enhanced her figure with stuffed newspaper including a cutting detailing fighting in Derry that heralds the start of the Troubles, to the history.

The Man Who Swallowed a Dictionary writer Bobby Niblock, actor Paul Garrett and director Matthew McElhinney. Picture by Mal McCann

There was a plausible sense of Ervine sleepwalking into the UVF, led by the first guy he has to call 'sir'.

He’s bolshy but settles into the mindset, having as a kid learnt his neighbours might be dubbed ‘Fenians’.

This is familiar territory, but from a particular perspective when it comes to the actual violence. Coalisland is namechecked, as well as Bloody Friday, when IRA bombs clustered in Belfast city centre.

Family life suffers and Jeanette, Ervine’s teenage love and wife, resists the money due her from the paramilitaries once her husband receives his lengthy sentence.

The judge pronounced Ervine good with words but still a terrorist, sentencing him to 11 years.

The Man Who Swallowed A Dictionary stars Paul Garrett. Picture by Hugh Russell

The guy’s verbal talent was threaded through the script via key words and phrases – crossing the Rubicon to determined, the latter from grandson Mark aiming to be a superhero – the definitions read out from the Oxford English Dictionary. David Craig’s nice set consists of two enormous books laid out open onstage.

There are more than decent passages, with Davy’s reaction to his grandson’s death by suicide harrowing. Yet we didn’t entirely get why this engaging man shifted his world view, even though his quotes, including the famous line noting "We’re all just people" gave a clue. 

The Man who Swallowed a Dictionary

There was realpolitik, also real passion on behalf of his community, with Ervine pleading with Mo Mowlam to release Loyalist prisoners as well as Republicans and save the Good Friday Agreement. She phoned Tony, of course.

The Lyric has fielded a few dramas recently on questions of Irish political identity, including the outstanding Agreement.  

This wasn’t that, but a different look at history through a single, significant life. Matthew McElhinney directed with care.

The Man Who Swallowed a Dictionary runs until September 10 at The Lyric Theatre, then tours, ending up at the Playhouse, Derry on September 24. 

Adblock test (Why?)

The word nerds who lived and died for the Oxford English Dictionary - Sydney Morning Herald - Dictionary

By Ken Haley

September 5, 2023 — 7.00pm

HISTORY
The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes Who Created the Oxford English Dictionary
Sarah Ogilvie
Chatto & Windus, $35

Autobibliogenesis. There ought to be a word for the process whereby one book appears to spontaneously generate others. If there were a Guinness listing for the most prolific exemplar of the phenomenon, surely The Oxford English Dictionary would be among its leading claimants.

From The Surgeon of Crowthorne (1998) to Australian Pip Williams’ luminous 2020 novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words, and Caught in the Web of Words, a biography of James Murray, its most celebrated editor, the OED has spawned titles across a broad spectrum of genres.

Sir James Murray, first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, surrounded by files of word definitions.Credit: Getty Images

The Dictionary People, by Australian-raised lexicographer Sarah Ogilvie, is the latest addition to this august company. She has been an editor on the world’s largest dictionary of English, and before that was Chief Editor of Oxford dictionaries in Australia.

The Oxford English Dictionary was the first lexicon to trace the evolution of words down the centuries; and first to base its citations on a form of crowdsourcing, inviting readers worldwide to locate the earliest written examples for every entry and shade of meaning.

Credit:

Ogilvie’s work stems from a serendipitous find: a discarded volume that turned out to contain Murray’s address books – identifying 3000 contributors who provided the building blocks of the masterwork that took up 40 years of his life and was only completed, with the last word (zyxt: an obsolete Kentish word meaning: “[Thou] seest.“) printed in 1928, 13 years after his death.

Chasing words may be an intellectual pursuit but it is hardly arid, and occasionally lends itself to pathos. In 1906 the widow of William Sykes from South Devon wrote to Murray that he had been working on a dictionary entry the Friday morning prior and died that evening, so “The last words he ever wrote were to you”.

Ogilvie cleverly (and logically) divides her work into 26 letter-headed chapters. H is for “Hopeless Contributors”, thus defined by successive editors. Some refused to send in their citation slips; others produced slipshod work; a few, to whom Murray had sent specially selected volumes, promised much but produced nothing. Picture the steam rising from the “Scriptorium”, where the editors worked, as he wrote against the name T.W. Tonkin of Barnes, “Impostor – Stole the Book”.

A more diligent sleuth was Eleanor Marx, Karl’s daughter, who committed suicide after learning that the love of her life had secretly wed another. One contribution of hers made it into the dictionary only this century: the verb ruffle, from a Madame Bovary citation.

William Chester Minor, prolific contributor to the OED and inmate in the Broadmoor asylum in Crowthorne.Credit:

The “surgeon” of Crowthorne, aka an inmate at that town’s “insane asylum”, American William Chester Minor, was not the only “lunatic” (using the word in its 19th-century acceptation) engaged as a researcher. Three of the four most prolific contributors were asylum inmates, the fourth ran one. As Ogilvie appositely asks: “Was it their madness that drove them to do so much Dictionary work, or was it the Dictionary work that drove them mad?”

This book should be a desideratum for lovers of new words, or even old ones that fell out of, or were never in, fashion: such as superexalt (to overpraise). Some will like it for the words themselves, others for the characters who defined them. Ogilvie puts some remarkable specimens of humanity under her microscope.

Religion and sex nestle under the covers. More than 10 per cent of Dictionary People were clergymen (too much time on their hands?). A vegetarian vicar, John Mayor, oversaw new words for meat abstainers, depositing fruitarian and nutarian in the word salad bowl. And then there was Henry Spencer Ashbee, who boasted of owning the world’s largest collection of pornography and erotica.

By the late Victorian era, when the word hunt was in full use, Australia was no longer a convict destination, but it could still serve as a refuge, as Ogilvie explains: “Miss Edith Lucas of High Wycombe had ‘gone to Melbourne’ and was never heard of again.”

An especially zealous contributor to the OED (now halfway through its third edition), Chris Collier, hailed from Brisbane, the author’s hometown. He produced 100,000 slips from 1975-2010, among them: kit off (naked); sea changer; snaky, petrolhead. The OED accepted them all, but rejected a parochial favourite, Brizvegas.

Whether it’s words or people that float your boat, this stimulating compendium is – whatever other descriptives you might use – hard to superexalt.

The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from books editor Jason Steger. Get it delivered every Friday.

Most Viewed in Culture

Adblock test (Why?)

Electronic Dictionary Market to Hit US$ 12,976.66 Million By 2030 | Latest Research By Consegic Business Intelligence - Yahoo Finance - Dictionary

Consegic Business Intelligence is a data measurement and analytics service provider which gives the most exhaustive and reliable analysis available of global consumers and markets. Our research and competitive landscape allow organizations to record competing evolutions and apply strategies accordingly to set up a rewarding benchmark in the market. We are an intellectual team of experts working together with the winning inspirations to create and validate actionable insights that ensure business growth and profitable outcomes.

Electronic Dictionary Market is projected to register a CAGR of 11.10% during 2023-2030, due to its increasing demand from educational institutions, language learners, and travelers, among others, and major participants includes are ELLTON ENTERPRISE PTE LTD, APKPure, Merriam-Webster Incorporated, Vasco Electronics, SHARP CORPORATION, iFLYTEK Corporation

New York, Sept. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As per the research report “Global Electronic Dictionary Market” published by Consegic Business Intelligence, the market was worth USD 5,739.21 Million in 2022 and is anticipated to reach over USD 12,976.66 Million by the year 2030, growing at a CAGR of 11.10%.

Electronic dictionary stores data in digital format that is often stored and accessed through a computer by means of software. The benefits of electronic dictionary including ease of utilization, faster translation, excellent portability, availability of a broad range of information, and others, make it ideal for utilization by educational institutions, business enterprises, language learners, and travelers among others.

Get Sample Report@ https://ift.tt/zFg8Xhf 

The rising utilization of electronic dictionary in educational institutions to promote bilingual is one of the key factors driving the market growth. Moreover, rising government initiatives for development of educational institutions, increasing adoption of higher education enrolments, and growing international student mobility trends are key factors fostering the adoption of electronic dictionary. For instance, according to the Institute of International Education Inc., the total number of new international students enrolled in U.S. institutions increased by 7% during the academic year 2021/22. Thus, the rising student enrolments in educational institutions is driving the adoption of electronic dictionaries to aid students in language learning, vocabulary expansion, and exam preparations, thereby, driving the growth of the market.

Additionally, the rising application of electronic dictionary by travelers or tourists is expected to promote potential opportunities for the growth of the electronic dictionary market. Electronic dictionary is often utilized by travelers or tourists for effective communication in foreign countries, attributed to its instant translations and language support. Moreover, electronic dictionary helps in overcoming language barriers and enhance the overall travel experience, which are primary determinants for increasing its utilization by travelers or tourists. However, the availability of substitutes for electronic dictionary is hindering the growth of the market.

Report Attributes	Report Details
Market Size By 2030	USD 12,976.66 Million
Forecast Period	2023-2030
CAGR (2023-2030)	11.10%
Base Year	2022
Study Timeline	2017-2030
Key Players	CASIO COMPUTER CO. LTD., Canon Electronic Business Machines (H.K.) Co. Ltd., ECTACO Inc., ELLTON ENTERPRISE PTE LTD, APKPure, Merriam-Webster Incorporated, Vasco Electronics, SHARP CORPORATION, iFLYTEK Corporation, Hanvon Technology Co. Ltd.
By Sales Channel	Direct Sales and Distributor Sales
By End-User	Educational Institutions, Business Enterprise, Language Learners, and Travelers
Report Coverage	Company Ranking and Market Share, Growth Factors, Total Revenue Forecast, Regional Competitive Landscape, Business Strategies, and more
By Region	North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East & Africa

Immediate Delivery Available, Buy Now @ https://ift.tt/w25DF7N 

Electronic Dictionary Market Growth Drivers:

• Rising utilization of electronic dictionary in educational institutions is driving the market growth.

• Increasing adoption of electronic dictionary by language learners is spurring the market growth.

Restraints

Opportunities

Global Electronic Dictionary Market Segmentation Details:

Based on sales channel, the distributor sales segment contributed the largest shares to the market growth in 2022. Distributor sales channel includes the sales of electronic dictionaries indirectly to customers through several e-commerce websites and offline distributors including specialist stores, retail stores, and others. Additionally, factors including ease of use, high flexibility, higher accessibility to a broad range of products, and others are among the key prospects driving the growth of the distributor sales channel segment.

Based on end-user, the educational institutions segment accounted for the maximum revenue share in the year 2022. Electronic dictionaries are crucial assets for educational institutions and helps students in language learning, vocabulary expansion, and exam preparations, among others. Factors including the expansion of educational institutions, rising adoption of higher education enrolments, and growing international student mobility trends are among the key prospects fostering the growth of the educational institutions segment.

Get Sample Report@ https://ift.tt/zFg8Xhf 

Based on region, North American region accounted for the largest revenue share in the year 2022. The increasing utilization of electronic dictionary in educational institutions and rising number of international student enrollments in educational institutes in North America are primary factors driving the growth of electronic dictionary market in the region. Moreover, the rising tourism activities and increasing utilization of electronic dictionary by tourists for language support and instant translations are further boosting the growth of the market in the North American region.

Key Market Highlights

• Globally, electronic dictionary market is divided based on the sales channel into direct sales and distributor sales.

• In the context of end-user, the market is separated into educational institutions, business enterprise, language learners, and travelers.

• The market is geographically divided into five regions: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East & Africa.

• North America and Asia-Pacific are estimated to support the market growth during the forecast period in terms of the large presence of market players combined with high expenditures on advancements in electronic dictionary market.

Browse Full Report & TOC @ https://ift.tt/gctTSf9 

List of Major Global Electronic Dictionary Market Players

The market research report examines various market factors to determine the key drivers, limitations, and opportunities affecting market players. The report includes a SWOT analysis, regional analysis, and segment analysis to give a complete view of the market situation. This evaluation helps to identify possible growth opportunities through the implementation of technology, product utilization, business strategies, and the launch of new products. The following are major market players operating in the market environment —

• CASIO COMPUTER CO. LTD.

• Canon Electronic Business Machines (H.K.) Co. Ltd.

• ECTACO Inc.

• ELLTON ENTERPRISE PTE LTD

• APKPure

• Merriam-Webster Incorporated

• Vasco Electronics

• SHARP CORPORATION

• iFLYTEK Corporation

• Hanvon Technology Co. Ltd.

Global Electronic Dictionary Market Segmentation: 

• By Sales Channel

• Direct Sales

• Distributor Sales

• By End-User

  • Educational Institutions

  • Business Enterprise

  • Language Learners

  • Travelers

Request for Customization @ https://ift.tt/6PhRiKT 

Key Questions Covered in the Electronic Dictionary Market Report

• Based on current market trends and future predictions, which geographical region will have the largest impact on the electronic dictionary growth in the coming years?

• Which region/country is anticipated to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period, 2023-2030?

  • Asia-Pacific is anticipated to register fastest CAGR growth during the forecast period due to rapid pace of urbanization, expansion of educational institutions, rising adoption of higher education enrolments, and other related factors.

Our Other Research Reports here:-

KVM Switch Market Size, Growth, Analysis | Forecast 2023 - 2030

Acrolein Market Size, Growth, Analysis | Forecast 2023 - 2030

Carbon Fiber Composite Heating Element Market Size, Growth, Analysis | Forecast 2023 - 2030

Infrastructure Monitoring Market Size, Growth, Analysis | Forecast 2023 - 2030

Clinical Immunoanalyzer Market Size, Growth, Analysis | Forecast 2023 - 2030

About Consegic Business Intelligence Pvt Ltd.

Consegic Business Intelligence Pvt Ltd. is the leading research industry that offers contextual and data-centric research services to its customers across the globe. The firm assists its clients to strategize business policies and accomplish sustainable growth in their respective market domains. The industry provides consulting services, syndicated research reports, and customized research reports.

Topnotch research organizations and institutions to comprehend the regional and global commercial status use the data produced by Consegic Business Intelligence Pvt Ltd. Our reports comprise in-depth analytical and statistical analysis on various industries in foremost countries around the globe.

Press Releases:-

Contact:

Consegic Business intelligence Pvt Ltd.

Contact no.: (US) (505) 715-4344

Email: sales@consegicbusinessintelligence.com

Adblock test (Why?)

‘Lost in Translation’ With Bill Simmons and Amanda Dobbins - The Ringer - Translation

Sofia Coppola directs

Focus Features

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and Amanda Dobbins head down to the hotel bar at the Park Hyatt in Tokyo to rewatch Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation, starring Bill Murray, Scarlett Johannson, and Giovanni Ribisi.

Producer: Craig Horlbeck

Adblock test (Why?)