Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 3h

I will always maintain that Columbus, OH is, in fact, a foreign country. The sovereign state of OSU.

John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 3h

From my Cincinnati standpoint, this absolutely nails why Cleveland feels like a foreign country, despite being in the same state, and Louisville very much does not.

William Hazen @williamhazen.bsky.social · 1d

This is the most accurate depiction of the Midwest to date. Wichita has always felt like the last Midwest city while also being the first plains city.

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John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 2d

And to be clear, understanding our universe is not just science gratia science.

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John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 2d

Recently spoke to particle astrophysicist. He works on axions/dark matter. I asked him what misconception he’d like to disabuse people of. He said he wants people to understand the huge economic impact abstract-seeking work actually generates. Science for its own sake has downstream benefits!

Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 4d

As a theoretical cosmologist, I'm frequently asked "what is the benefit of the work you're doing for people's lives?" Nothing I work on makes money or cures disease.

There are a few different answers one can give, at various levels of "convincing" / "actually relevant to why the work is done."

1/🧵

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John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 5d

For most recent/current sense (which Swift uses but I love the idea of her/someone on her team diving into OED on this, too, and deepening the social/gender valences of her choice of title/theme), the OED cites George Soane’s drama ‘Lilian, the Show Girl’: “The tinsel dress of the poor show girl.”

John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 5d

The Life of a ‘Showgirl,’ #etymology edition.

Adapted from OED. Show + girl.

- 1750, young girl regarded as object of display, especially one who dresses/behaviors ostentatiously.

- 1816, young woman employed to model clothes.

- 1836–37, female performer in musicals, et al. (chorus girl)

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John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 5d

Yes! Not just you.

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Reposted by John Kelly

Because Language (becauselangpod) @becauselanguage.com · 5d

Kavanaugh stop

#WordOfTheWeek

Fight the Lies @fightlies.bsky.social · 5d

Kavanaugh Stop - "Brief detainment by lawless masked federal agents inflicting serious bodily injury, followed by weeks in a makeshift shithole overcrowded jail, and then being flown in the dark of night to a slave prison in some other country after which your name is disappeared from all records."

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Reposted by John Kelly

Wordorigins.org @wordorigins.bsky.social · 5d

I was interviewed by NPR the other day about the origin of "hoax"

www.npr.org/2025/10/01/n...

Fool me once: the magical origin of the word hoax

Frauds, swindles, cons, scams, and deceptions are collectively known as hoaxes. But there's more than meets the eye.

www.npr.org

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Reposted by John Kelly

Damnèd Screamvens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 5d

AI is definitely not a virgin because we all get fucked by it every day.

Laura Jedeed @laurajedeed.bsky.social · 5d

I'm sorry: "if I wish to see a virgin on-screen"?

My Favorite Actress Is Not Human
Tilly Norwood doesn’t need a hairstylist, has no regrettable posts, and if you wish to see a virgin on-screen, this is one of your better chances. That’s because she’s AI.

A picture of some AI girl standing on an AI landscape with an AI monster behind her. I'm gonna be so real: she looks about 14

By Tyler Cowen

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John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 5d

Apropos of absolutely nuthin:

TIL 'shotcrete,' a sprayed concrete.

1950. Blend of shot + (con)crete. So named because it's shot through a hose onto harder-to-pour surfaces.

Another term for 'gunite' (1912), originally a trademark. Based on gun + -ite. Think 'cement gun.'

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John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 5d

'Grifter.' Recorded in early 1900s.

Probably from 'grafter,' someone who makes money dishonestly. Recorded in late 1800s for 'pickpocket.'

Based on verb or noun 'graft' (both mid-1800s), which concerns illicit money-making.

Further origin obscure. Evidenced now—and daily.

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John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 6d

deemed *them (the animals in the scientific order)

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John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 6d

TIL Carl Linnaeus included BATS in his classification of Primates, which he so named because he deemed of the highest order. ('Primates' is ultimately based on Latin "'primus," meaning 'first, foremost.') Bats rule!

A screenshot of the etymology of "Primates" from the Oxford English Dictionary.

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John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 6d

Wow, this is really fascinating and consequential research.

Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 6d

So excited to see this research! My students just learned the word “sycophantic” today, for exactly this reason! We talked about the types and qualities of conversations you can have with a sycophant, and why this matters for how we process the output of LLMs.

Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 7d

🚨 New preprint 🚨

Across 3 experiments (n = 3,285), we found that interacting with sycophantic (or overly agreeable) AI chatbots entrenched attitudes and led to inflated self-perceptions.

Yet, people preferred sycophantic chatbots and viewed them as unbiased!

osf.io/preprints/ps...

Thread 🧵

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John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 6d

Refreshing and exciting developments in the dictionary space. Definitely order yours today. Go really lexicographically bananas and add to it ‘Conversations on Dictionaries’ (ed. Ilan Stavans) from @universitypress.cambridge.org!

Ben Zimmer @benzimmer.bsky.social · 6d

Big day for lexicographical unboxing! Received the just-published 12th edition of @merriam-webster.com's Collegiate Dictionary (a big surprise to everyone in the dictionary game) and @stefanfatsis.bsky.social's long-awaited journey through modern lexicography, UNABRIDGED. Get 'em both!

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John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 8d

‘Lethality’ is recorded in 1656 another important early English dictionary of special distinction: Thomas Blount’s 'Glossographia,' regarded as the first English dictionary to include etymologies. Also a “hard words” dictionary and far larger than Cawdrey’s at over 11,000 entries.

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John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 8d

'Lethal' is recorded by at least 1604 in Robert Cawdrey’s 'Table Alphabeticall,' considered the first monolingual dictionary in English and concerned with "hard words.” He entered over 2,500 of them.

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John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 8d

In some Greek and Roman #mythology, the souls of the dead would drink from the River Lethe, one of five in the underworld, to forget their past lives before being reincarnated.

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John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 8d

The history of the word ‘lethal’ in English touches on some important developments in English #lexicography.

First, its #etymology: from the Latin ‘lethalis’ (deadly, mortal, fatal), ultimately based on ‘letum’ (death) and apparently influenced by the Greek ‘lethe’ (forgetfulness, oblivion).

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John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 8d

Thanks for sharing, Nancy!

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Reposted by John Kelly

Nancy Friedman @fritinancy.bsky.social · 9d

"We seldom see a typographical symbol—as a symbol—command so much attention in mainstream discourse." From @mashedradish.bsky.social: mashedradish.com/2025/09/24/2...

2025 Punctuation Mark of the Year

The em dash (—) straddles clauses—and urgent conversations about humanity and technology in 2025.

mashedradish.com

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Reposted by John Kelly

Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 9d

gibbering insanity

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John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 11d

'Teem' originally meant "produce, bear, give birth," later developing to "be full, abound, swarm with."

OED first cites that latter sense in 1597.

random #etymology

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John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 11d

Deeper roots of 'team' are Germanic. Cognates (in likes of Old High German) meant "bridle, rein, rope."

Yet more ancient, probably related to verb for "to drag, pull, lead," related to Latin 'ducere' that yields English words like 'conduct,' 'deduce,' 'educate,' and many more.

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