CatchThis Naming Company Blog
Category Archives: Language Use
Hooray! The American Name Society (of which I am a proud, dues-paying member) has announced their name of the year – it’s the Icelandic volcano that shut down Europe for a couple of weeks. Eyjafjallajökull (pronounced [ˈɛɪjaˌfjatl̥aˌjœkʰʏtl̥] ( listen)) — is Icelandic … More »
This item was originally published on January 5th, 2010 at Fast Company. In my last blog, I looked at how Batman is known globally in comics. With plans in the current DC storyline to have Batman Inc. go worldwide, I … More »
Is there any community of creatures more uniformly maligned than farm animals? Seriously. Isn’t it enough that we keep these animals hostage, squeeze their teats, feed them slop, spin their coats into cozy Merino sweaters, scramble their young, and just … More »
Consider the Seven Deadly Sins: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. At Catchword we consider them essential parts of every contemporary wedding reception. Although the list has been in its current form since the fifteenth century–even immortalized in … More »
This item was originally published on December 7th, 2010 at Fast Company. Yes, I read comics. (I just wanted to get that out of the way before the eye-rolling and snorting starts.) For those of you who don’t, let me … More »
Today’s lesson is about language use, and more specifically, how to use a swear word correctly. I am usually a fan of Progressive’s commercials, starring the ever-cheerful Flo; they’re short and funny, and while I don’t believe for a second … More »
I’ve been reading Mary Roach’s Spook – great book, highly recommend, would do business again A++! – and I just came across this wonderful section on the names of devices that were supposed to detect, measure, amplify, or otherwise manifest … More »
Around five years ago, about the time my first-born reached school age, my wife and I made the decision to leave New York City, join the middle class herd, and move to Northern New Jersey. Tired of all the wonderful … More »
Until I saw this episode of the IT Crowd, I don’t think I’d ever heard the expression damp squid: As the judge helpfully points out, the actual expression is damp squib, which I hadn’t heard either. By sheer coincidence (maybe), … More »
We here at Catchword use instant messaging regularly. It’s tremendously useful to be able to ask a quick question without crossing the office. Of course, on occasion it also aids in the sharing of funny tidbits from the internet. Today … More »