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Jesse Sheidlower

@jessesword.com

5K followers 470 following 2.2K posts

Lexicographer. The F-Word (new edition Nov. ’24!), sfdictionary.com, ex-OED, coder (mainly Perl and Python), Threesome Tollbooth #cocktail bar manager, adjunct @ Columbia.

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · Oct 22

News: the 4th edition of The F-Word is coming out in two weeks from Oxford UP! Everything you could want to know about the word _fuck_.

This is a major revision: 500 pages with 150 new entries, 150 antedatings, & 2,500 new quotations. See link below for more info!

jessesword.com/fword.html

Cover picture:
The F-Word
edited by Jesse Sheidlower
IV Edition

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 1d

Great movie but one viewing was enough for a lifetime, for me.

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 1d

There's a 2012 example in A. M. Bakalar's _Madame Mephisto_, but this is in a Polish context, if not explicitly stated to be Polish. Mhairi McFarlane's 2013 _Here's Looking At You_ uses it in a non-Polish context. Both of these are British.

That's the earliest I can find offhand.

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Reposted by Jesse Sheidlower

Mister Slang @misterslang.bsky.social · 1d

If it's October it must be GDoS Update time. And so it is: #36. A few notes (and a pic of an invaluable supporter) here:
jonathongreen.substack.com/p/gdos-updat...

GDoS Update #36

New material 1 July - 1 October 2025

jonathongreen.substack.com

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 2d

Some pretty impressive harvest supermoon action going on in NYC right now.

(I'm not a photographer, I'm not even gonna try.)

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 2d

Current reading: Sloane Crosley on the writer's drinking life:

yalereview.org/article/cros...

Sloane Crosley: “How Sober Should a Writer Be?”

Sloane Crosley on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s On Booze and the state of American drinking culture.

yalereview.org

Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 2d

I hope you also added OED's 1988 example!

Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 2d

More on Jilly Cooper: Just wanted to point out that the term _bonkbuster_, appearing frequently in coverage of her death, is in fact really used in the UK, not just a one-off joke. And yes, it's in the OED! Here's the entry, which has the deets:

Screenshot of the OED entry for _bonkbuster_, labelled "Chiefly British (colloquial and humorous), defined as "A type of popular novel characterized by frequent explicit descriptions of sexual encounters between the characters. Also: a film or television programme of this nature.", with the note "Popularized by the British writer Sue Limb (b. 1946), writing under the pseudonym ‘Dulcie Domum’, in her humorous newspaper column ‘Bad Housekeeping’ (1988–2001)", and quotations from 1988 onwards.

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 2d

Attn whisky fans in NYC: Astor is having a big sale on Lagavulin 16, probably my favorite non-"special" single-malt bottling, at the fantastic price of $80/bottle:

www.astorwines.com/item/37788

Lagavulin 16yr Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky | Astor Wines & Spirits

Welcome to New York City's largest wine & spirits store online. Come see why The Wall Street Journal says Astorwines.com is one of the best websites for buying wine online. Check out our daily deals a...

www.astorwines.com

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 2d

RIP Jilly Cooper. I skeeted this last year as part of a discussion on the meaning of "middle-class" in BrE vs. AmE:

Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · Aug 23

OMG I found it! It's in Jilly Cooper's 1981 _Class_. (I was trying to understand the British class system, which, as you observe, is very different from the American one.)

When I went on Yorkshire Television with Jean Rook of the Daily Express a few years ago, the interviewer began most embarrassingly by saying: “Now here you are, two columnists from Yorkshire, but from very different backgrounds. You’re working-class, aren’t you, Jean, and, Jilly, you’re upper-class.”

We both shrieked with horror.

"I'm middle, not upper," I muttered, going scarlet.

"I'm upper middle," said Miss Rook witheringly. "I know lots of duchesses."

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 2d

DM'ing!

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 3d

Yes, OED has this (in related forms) from 1968, 1970, and onwards.

Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 3d

Yes, it's Yiddish from Middle High German. Mostly British. In English, from the 1950s onwards.

Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 4d

You coming by for a drink later?

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 5d

I hook grip because I have OCD symmetry issues. If Lasha can use a hook grip to snatch 225kg, then I can use it to DL whatever I need to.

I can't feel my thumbs anymore, but my brain is happier than if I forced myself to use a mixed grip.

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Reposted by Jesse Sheidlower

Peter Gilliver @petermgilliver.bsky.social · 5d

And 10 months later it's grown considerably: over 150 names featured, many of them with (I'd say) fascinating lives. Please take a look—try picking a name at random—and share/link to the website if you know anyone interested in the #OED or its history. (Yes, I'm autotrombating again.)

Peter Gilliver @petermgilliver.bsky.social · May 12

Time to put out a reminder, and a plea, about my—still v rudimentary—website for pieces about @OED people: themakersoftheoed.wordpress.com
The reminder: it exists, and is steadily growing (currently c.40 articles).
The plea: please let everyone know about it who you think would be interested.

The Makers of the Oxford English Dictionary

An experimental site for my writing about the people who created the Oxford English Dictionary.

themakersoftheoed.wordpress.com

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 5d

Struggled through yesterday's WSJ #crossword puzzle, admiring how smart it was, and only when I finished it did I realize that it was of course by @benzimmer.bsky.social.