Let me be the first to say: great post! Short and meaty, full of useful stuff. (And I love La grande rousse too.)
posted by languagehat at 6:25 PM PST on February 7


Thanks, very useful.

On a tangent, La Grande Rousse is fascinating for those with a soft spot for French linguistic purism. So, for instance, the best word the French vocabulary police could come up with to replace blog/blogue is carnet? With a blogger/blogueur being a carnetier? Bah! That's the same as proposing blogs become known as notebooks and bloggers as notebookers. There is nothing "carnet" (which implies sheets of paper bound in some way) about a blog. Blog is a made-up word and as such should be universal.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:32 PM PST on February 7


Spoken like a true non-francophone.
posted by languagehat at 6:34 PM PST on February 7


I always thought Miguel Cardoso was a fantastic pseudonym.
posted by lelilo at 8:27 PM PST on February 7


(And he's not even Portugese.)
posted by Vidiot at 8:55 PM PST on February 7


1. Interesting that so many sf and fantasy writers wind up in the top 10. Part of the reason may be that so many, like Robert Silverberg, were short fiction hacks, churning out so much stuff that editors often ran multiple stories by them in the same issue. But are there any other reasons?

2. All of the noms de guerre of Palestinian leaders being with 'Abou'. What does this mean? Something like 'comrade', perhaps? (And if their noms de guerre are known, what's the point of having one, anyway?)
posted by Slithy_Tove at 8:57 PM PST on February 7


Just for contrast with your authors with multiple pseudonyms, how about a pseudonym with multiple authors?
posted by Nicolae Carpathia at 3:53 AM PST on February 8


Miguel, as La Rousse points out, you will no doubt also insist on replacing the term web "page," which implies a sheet of paper (whether or not bound in some way). Or (if I must spell it out): words take on new meanings as the world changes. Try to adapt, quoi?

(And I completely fail to see the logic in "Blog is a made-up word and as such should be universal.")
posted by languagehat at 6:29 AM PST on February 8


Yeah, don't even get La Rousse started on the French nomenclature of blogs. That horse has been around and around and around the track, then the horse died, and then it was beaten. The horse, however, is still dead and most Francophones seem to like it that way. Carnet, blog, joueb, whatever. One will out, the rest will lag, and that will be that.
posted by Mo Nickels at 8:57 AM PST on February 8


how about a pseudonym with multiple authors?

Not to mention names like "Tom Clancy"....
posted by mattpfeff at 9:27 AM PST on February 8


Languagehat: so words take on new meanings as the world changes? Wow.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:40 PM PST on February 8


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