Lexical Compendium

AGI stands for "Artificial General Intelligence." Unlike AI, AGI is meant to connote a system that exhibits human-like intelligence and is not trained for specific tasks.

Related: ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence), ANI (Artificial Narrow Intelligence), p(doom)

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References:

• Wikipedia: Artificial General Intelligence
• YouTube: Wozniak: Could a Computer Make a Cup of Coffee? - Steve Wozniak talks pontificates about a computer being smart enough to make a cup of coffee in a random person's home; something that would take a lot of "general" intelligence.

While alla turca generically just means "in the Turkish style," alla turca time (or alaturka saat) specifically refers to the way that time was reckoned in the Ottoman Empire.

In the alla turca time Sun always sets at the 0’th hour and rises at the 12th hour. The hours of the alla turca time have variable length. During winters the length of 1 (alla turca) night hour is longer than the length of 1 (alla turca) day hour. During summers the opposite is true.

-- from alla turca time (blog post)

Clocks around the empire were manually set/reset by the muvakkit, or timekeeper. It's hard to even imagine using this sort of time keeping in our modern era.

I haven't been able to find a whole lot about this online, but I've noted what I have found. My father introduced me to this term; it was something he recalled from his childhood.

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References:

• Reading Clocks, Alla Turca - A review of the book _Reading Clocks, Alla Turca_ by Avner Wishnitzer
• alla turca time - Blog post on alla turca time
• It's Sirius O'Clock: Astronomical Timekeeping in Ancient Egypt - Dr. Sarah Symons lecture on ancient timekeeping.
• Reading Clocks, Alla Turca: Time and Society in the Late Ottoman Empire - Excerpt from the book _Reading Clocks, Alla Turca: Time and Society in the Late Ottoman Empire_ by Avner Wishnitzer.

My favorite line in the movie "Trading Places" is a reference to a joke in another movie called "Aunti Mame." In that movie, a rich and condescending woman tells a story about a ping pong game in which she "stepped on the ball."

In "Trading Places," this exchange takes place as Louis Winthorpe III, now disgraced, jobless and homeless, enters his tennis club in in hopes of getting help from his rich friends. As Louis enters the scene, we hear the end of a story being told by one of these friends to the rest of the gang, "...and she stepped on the ball." Louis, of course, discovers that his friends and even his fiancée want nothing to do with him.

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References:

• What do Kimmy Schmidt, Trading Places, & Auntie Mame have in common - Reel Memorable blog entry
• IMDB: Trading Places

I came across this quote in the television series Mythic Quest. In that show, it was attributed to Aristotle, but I haven't been able to confirm this.

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References:

• IMDB: Mythic Quest

Banoffee is a portmanteau combining the words "banana" and "toffee" and is often used in reference to Banoffee Pie, which seems to be a popular pie flavor in the UK.

I learned of this while watching a YouTube show: Food Tours: Finding the Best Afternoon Tea in London.

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References:

• YouTube: Food Tours: Finding the Best Afternoon Tea in London
• Wikipedia: Banoffee Pie

There is a "Cards Against Humanity" card that simply reads: "Bees?" It's so fatuous that it has become a common expression for me.

Some on the internet believe that this is a reference to an "Arrested Development" episode.

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References:

• Cards Against Humanity
• Arrested Development clip - perhaps the origin of the card

"Bespoke realities" is a term used by David French in a NYT op-ed. The op-ed describes a phenomenon that is bigger (and perhaps more dangerous) than quirky little "confined" conspiracy theories.

There is a fundamental difference between, on the one hand, someone who lives in the real world but also has questions about the moon landing and, on the other, a person who believes the Covid vaccines are responsible for a vast number of American deaths and Jan. 6 was an inside job and the American elite is trying to replace the electorate with new immigrant voters and the 2020 election was rigged and Donald Trump is God’s choice to save America.

Such individuals don’t simply believe in a conspiracy theory or theories. They live in a “bespoke reality.” That brilliant term comes from my friend Renée DiResta, the technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, and it refers to the effects of what DiResta calls a “Cambrian explosion of bubble realities,” communities “that operate with their own norms, media, trusted authorities and frameworks of facts.”

-- French, David. Welcome to Our New ‘Bespoke Realities', NYT, 30 Nov 2023

I heard reference to this on a Hard Fork podcast episode on which Renée DiResta was a guest, A Surgeon General Warning, The Disinformation Battle and The Rise of CryptoPACs, 21 Jun 2024.

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References:

• Our ‘Bespoke Realities’
• Hard Fork: A Surgeon General Warning, The Disinformation Battle and The Rise of CryptoPACs
• Renée DiResta - home page
• Stanford Internet Observatory
• NYT: Welcome to Our New ‘Bespoke Realities’

From Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky," a poem in "Through the Looking Glass."

The poem was about the capture and killing of a creature called the "Jabberwock" and is filled with many other nonsense terms.

The word "jabberwocky," itself, has come to mean something meaningless in writing.

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References:

• Definition: jabberwocky
• Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

When Great Briton's two halves were slammed together.

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References:

• Caledonian Orogeny - Encyclopedia of Geology (Second Edition), 2021

A false or unfounded statement/story.

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References:

• Definition: canard

An ideology that, in a Christian context, supports the concepts of Zionism (Jewish people returning to the "Holy Land").

Joe Biden considers himself a Zionist.

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References:

• Wikipedia: Christian Zionism
• 'I am a Zionist': How Joe Biden's lifelong bond with Israel shapes war policy - A Reuters article from shortly after the start of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023.
• The Times of Israel: Biden stands by identification as a Zionist

An expression coined by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. It means something similar as "seeing the light at the end of the tunnel." In other words, a task or period is reaching its end.

When Lincoln was asked where this phrase came from, he told the story of a little girl who ate too much and then followed that up with a dessert of raisins. She became sick and, eventually, was throwing up only the raisins. Thus, she knew that she was nearly done.

I came upon this phase while watching Manhunt, S1E6.

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References:

• Anecdotes About Abraham Lincoln - Got Dow to Raisins
• Mr. Lincoln's Whitehouse - The War Effort: Telegraph Office
• IMDB: Manhunt

An acronym for Display Keyboard (pronounced diskey). This was the interface that Apollo astronauts used to communicate with the computers on the Command and Lunar Modules.

I first came across this acronym while watching the television series For All Mankind.

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References:

• IMDB: For All Mankind
• Smithsonian: DSKY - A Smithsonian description and image of a DSKY.

A quote from Jeff Bezos during the 2008 YC Startup School.

Bezos made an analogy between AWS and breweries, at the turn of the 20th century when electricity had just been invented. These early breweries started generating their own power to leverage machines that ran on electricity. Soon, utility companies came along. Newer breweries that were able to just use electricity from the utility companies didn't have the capital expenses of the older breweries and were able to beat them.

I heard of this analogy from the Acquired podcast.

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References:

• YouTube: Footage from the '08 Startup School
• Acquired: The Playbook: Lessons from 200+ Company Stories

A fomite is an object or surface that acts as a medium to transmit infection. I became aware of this word during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

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References:

• Tweet: @veshi 11 May 2020 - I think my word of the year is going to be "fomite" this year.
• Definition: fomite
• ACS Environmental Au: Occurrence of Human Viruses on Fomites in the Environment: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

This archaic word was used to describe someone who was discontent, i.e. someone who grumbles a lot. The origins of the word are in 17th century English politics.

I heard the word in an episode of the podcast The Allusionist.

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References:

• Podcast: The Allusionist - Episode 193: Word Play 3: Lemon Demon
• Definition: grumbletonian

An acronym for Internal Combustion Engine. This acronym seems to be bandied about a lot during automobile discussions, especially when discussing electric vehicles (EVs).

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References:

• Wikipedia: ICE

These were the lines spoken in the play "Our American Cousin" when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. A "sockdologer" is the decisive word in an argument; the final blow.

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References:

• The context behind the fatal punchline that obscured the Lincoln assassination - Washington Post Op-ed
• Definition: sockdologer

1. A period when normal government is suspended, especially between successive reigns or regimes.
2. An interval or pause between two periods of office or other things.

As in:

...the interregnum between the discovery of radioactivity and its detailed understanding.

or:

You are a weak monarch in a dangerous interregnum.

The latter comes from a line of dialog from the character Gerri in the television series "Succession"

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References:

• Definition: interregnum
• succession-season-4-episode-6-recap - episode recap from thewrap.com

"Jawboning" is a political technique in which statements are made by persons of authority in order how to influence public perception or behavior without making formal policy changes.

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References:

• Definition: jawbone
• U.S. jobs report: These numbers have economists jawboning - news article using the word "jawboning"

From Wikipedia:

The Leahy Laws or Leahy amendments are U.S. human rights laws that ostensibly prohibit the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense from providing military assistance to foreign security force units that violate human rights with impunity.

In 2024, as the Israel–Hamas war wages on, the Leahy Law has been in the news a lot.

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References:

• Wikipedia: Leahy Law
• Washington Post: I created the Leahy law. It should be applied to Israel - An op-ed by Patrick Leahy, author of the Leahy Law.

In simple terms, the longer something is around, the better it gets (or the longer it's likely to continue to be around).

I first heard a reference to this in a Breaking Points episode in which the hosts were debating the merits of lab grown meat.

The origin of this term comes from a 1964 article published in The New Republic by Albert Goldman. In this article, Goldman described comedians that used to meet up at Lindy's Deli in NYC discussing comedy shows. An observation was made that the longer a show has been running, the longer it is expected to continue to run. This was formalized in something Goldman called "Lindy's Law." Note: this is also commonly referred to as the "Lindy Effect."

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References:

• Podcast: Breaking Points - Krystal And Saagar DEBATE Lab Grown Meat BAN - 07 May 2024
• Wikipedia: Lindy Effect
• Wikipedia: Antifragile (book) - in this book, Nassim Nicholas Taleb tweaked Lindy's Law some and coined the "Lindy Effect."
• The New Republic: Lindy’s Law - published in 1964
• Physica A: Lindy's Law (abstract) - Volume 486, 15 Nov 2017, Iddo Eliazar, Pages 797-805

The word milquetoast is used to describe a meek or timid person.

It originated from the comic strip character Caspar Milquetoast, created by Harold T. Webster in 1924. The character was known for his timidity and refusal to participate in controversial discussions. Some time after the character's debut, the term "milquetoast" began to be used to describe people with similar characteristics.

Caspar's last name is derived from "milk toast," a breakfast food that was thought to be easy to digest and was a popular food for convalescents in New England (USA) in the 19th and early 20th century.

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References:

• Definition: Milquetoast
• Wikipedia: Caspar Milquetoast
• Wikipedia: Milk Toast

A neologism is a newly coined word or expression.

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References:

• Definition: neologism

An English translation of a line from The Bhagavad Gita, written in Sanskrit. A more accurate translation is "Time I am, destroyer of the worlds..."

I first encountered this expression in the late 90s on the CAKE BBS. It appears many times in popular culture:

• Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer
• Bolivar in s01e07 of Xmen '97
• Captain Ramius' diary in Hunt for Red October
• Caleb Smith in Ex Machina

And probably many more.

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References:

• Bhagavad Gita
• IMDB: Oppenheimer
• IMDB: X-Men '97
• IMDB: The Hunt for Red October
• IMDB: Ex Machina

The "pale blue dot" is how Carl Sagan described the Earth as seen in a photograph taken by Voyager 1 in 1990 (the last picture of the Earth it took as it continued to leave the solar system).

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References:

• Wikipedia: Pale Blue Dot

p(doom) stands for "probability of doom" and is a term used when talking about AGI.

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References:

• Wikipedia: p(doom)
• NYT: Silicon Valley Confronts a Grim New A.I. Metric
• Fast Company: P(doom) is AI’s latest apocalypse metric. Here’s how to calculate your score

A pogrom is an organized (i.e. mob) attack of a particular ethnic group. Historically the word has been used to describe ethnic cleansing of Jews, but it can apply to any instance of violent, organized persecution against a specific group.

The word originates from the Russian word "погром," which means "to wreak havoc." It was first used in reference to the violent attacks on Jewish communities in the Russian Empire.

In 2024, as the Israel–Hamas war wages on, the word appeared in the news when on Sunday, 23 June, a protest turned violent in Los Angeles.

Demonstrators were protesting a real estate fair at a synagogue. The Pro-Palestinian protesters have been criticized as antisemitic as violence broke out and CNN's Van Jones called it a pogrom. And this rhetoric seems to be spreading.

The reason for the protest appears to be because the real estate event was promoting the sale of land located in the illegally-occupied Palestinian territories and restricting those sales to Jews. It's unfortunate that this hasn't been the headline in the news. How is this type of event even be allowed to happen??

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References:

• LA Times: Protest violence outside L.A. synagogue spurs widespread condemnation. Bass vows quick action
• Wikipedia: Pogrom
• Definition: pogrom
• CAIR: CAIR-LA Condemns Events Promoting Real Estate Sale of Occupied Palestinian Land
• Van Jones - homepage
• Mediaite: CNN’s Van Jones Calls Protest Outside Synagogue That Turned Violent a ‘Pogrom’ - including clip
• NYT: Biden and Democratic Leaders Condemn Protest Outside L.A. Synagogue as Antisemitic

The dried seeds of legumes (beans, peas, chickpeas, lentils, etc). This seems to be a word that is commonly used in the UK. In the US, I don't think I've ever heard it.

I looked this up after watching a YouTube show: Food Tours: Finding the Best Cheeseburger in Los Angeles. The two hosts (popularized on Food Wars) are from the US and UK. In the US, if I were eating chickpeas and lentils I'd say that I was eating "chickpeas and lentils," while in the UK it seems like it might be common to say that one is "eating pulses."

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References:

• YouTube: Food Tours: Finding the Best Cheeseburger in Los Angeles
• Definition: pulses - (third definition)

I learned, from sort of an unlikely source -- the National Park Service, the reason why "night vision" is reset after exposure to light.  That our pupils dilate  is probably obvious, but what I didn't know was that the body produces a protein called rhodopsin which, through a series of chemical reactions, gives our rods the ability to "see" in dim light.  The protein decays in bright light (though much slower in longer wavelengths, i.e. red light).  When depleted, it takes ~30m to regenerate.

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References:

• Dark Adaptation of the Human Eye and the Value of Red Flashlights - National Park Service blog article
• Wikipedia: Rhodopsin

Rozzer is British slang for a police officer.

"Cripes, the rozzers are after us!"

I first heard this while watching the movie Wicked Little Letters.

The terms rozzers , bobbies and peelers (all slang words for police officers) likely originate from a play on the name Sir Robert Peel, founder of the Metropolitan Police Service in 1829.

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References:

• Definition: rozzer
• IMDB: Wicked Little Letters
• Why are the police in the UK called "rozzers"?
• Wikipedia: Robert Peel

A sawbuck is slang for a $10 bill. Likewise, a double-sawbuck is a $20 bill.

It has been suggested that the slang originated because a sawbuck (sawhorse) resembles an "X," the Roman numeral for "10."

I came across this slang while watching For All Mankind, S3E2.

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References:

• IMDB: For All Mankind
• Definition: sawbuck

"Shoe Leather" is a bit of television/movie jargon that refers to all of the boring/procedural parts of an exchange that often get eliminated from a script.

For example, you often don't see actors answering the phone with "hello" or even saying "good-bye" before hanging up. These little exchanges don't do much to move the plot forward.

(Note: there are other definitions of this term as well to refer to an "old fashioned" process, especially in police or detective work)

The origin of the phrase seems to refer to the sound of someone walking, i.e. the sound of their shoe's leather soles hitting the ground.

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References:

• What is shoe leather?
• Your Screenplay Sucks!
• YouTube: Why great filmmakers HATE this in a scene.

There is a point in one's life in which not only does the music of the younger generations make no sense, neither do their labels. For me, this is illustrated by the musical genre of "skramz" (I've also seen it spelled "scramz"). When I asked my nephew what he likes to listen to, he told me skramz. When I asked what that was, he told me it was a synonym for screamo. And, well, the rabbit hole continues to HXC and post hardcore.

Listening to this music, it all just sounds like punk. But... maybe these are all just subgenres of punk?

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References:

• YouTube: The truth behind Screamo and Post Hardcore | What's the difference?
• Wikipedia: Screamo

Spaghettification refers to the streching and compressing that occurs as an object passes within a black hole's event horizon. The process was first described by Stephen Hawking in the book "A Brief History of Time."

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References:

• A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes
• Wikipedia: Spaghettification
• Black hole kills star by 'spaghettification' as telescopes watch

A spoonerism is a slip-up in speech in which the person talking transposes the first part of two words. For example, saying "shake a tower" instead of "take a shower." The word is named after Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930) who, apparently, this happened to often.

I came across this while listening to an episode of The Allusionist which discussed an old puzzle novel called "Cain's Jawbone." Among the many word-based challenges in this puzzle novel are spoonerisms which the player must identify in order to put the pages in the right order.

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References:

• Definition: spoonerism
• Wikipedia: Spoonerism
• Podcast: The Allusionist - Episode 195: Word Play 5: 100 Pages of Solvitude

From Wikipedia:

Stigmergy was first observed in social insects. For example, ants exchange information by laying down pheromones (the trace) on their way back to the nest when they have found food. In that way, they collectively develop a complex network of trails, connecting the nest in an efficient way to various food sources. When ants come out of the nest searching for food, they are stimulated by the pheromone to follow the trail towards the food source. The network of trails functions as a shared external memory for the ant colony.

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References:

• Wikipedia: Stigmergy

A thagomizer is a bit of paleontology jargon referring to the spikes on a stegosaurian dinosaur.

When I was young, the Stegosaurus was my favorite type of dinosaur. I had no idea what the spikes were called until very recently though. I especially didn't know that the word was coined by none other than Gary Larson of Far Side fame.

In 1982, Gary Larson wrote a comic in which a caveman, perhaps in a teaching role, explains to an audience that these spikes were named "after the late Thag Simmons."

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References:

• Wikipedia: Thagomizer
• Thagomizer: Why Stegosaurus’ Spiky Tail Was Named After A Cartoon

This is a quote from the 1994 movie "Clerks."

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References:

• IMDB: Clerks (quote)

Something that the character Tom Wambsgans says in the television series "Succession."

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References:

• IMDB: Succession

To tilt at windmills means to fight or pursue some imaginary adversary.

I've always found idioms to be an interesting part of language and this is one of my favorites. In Jr. High, my class read/translated Don Quixote de la Mancha, which is where this expression comes from.

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References:

• Definition: tilt at windmills

Wagwan means "what's going on" and is Jamaican/English slang. It seems to have originated from Jamaican Creole wah gwan ("what go on").

I first heard this while watching Supacell, where it's used prolifically in the dialog.

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References:

• IMDB: Supacell
• What does wagwan mean?
• Definition: wagwan

I came across this bit of old-timey slang in the television show "The Artful Dodger." It means something like, "Wow! It works!"

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References:

• IMDB: The Artful Dodger