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Stephen Hopkins

@phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social

4.3K followers 800 following 930 posts

Asst Prof (Old English & Old Norse). Book on hell & apocrypha. Phil-lol-ogist, word-lover, pun-makar, collector of dictionaries, glamorer of grammar. He/his

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Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · 8d

Bae, new ROEP dropped 💅
roep.web.ox.ac.uk/article/the-...

The Old English "Avenging of the Saviour" ("Vindicta Salvatoris"), by Stephen Hopkins

roep.web.ox.ac.uk

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Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · 20d

Depends on the baby in my experience

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Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · 21d

PSA for new parents

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Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · 23d

Do you bake them after, or just chuck em in the dryer?

Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · 23d

People say they don't teach real world skills in college anymore.

People are wrong. We tried writing in cuneiform yesterday in my "What is a word?" class

Room full of students happily molding their own clay tablets

Some of these folks have bright futures as scribes! Student hand holding bamboo reed and writing their name in cuneiform

Another student writing cuneiform on their clay tablet next to an inferior tablet (a so-called smart phone)

My own miserable attempt to transliterate my name in cuneiform: S T I F N

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Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · 23d

🙏🙏🙏
It's "entered production", so hopefully it'll be out early '26!

Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · 24d

🚨THIS BOOK IS ALMOST REAL!!!🚨

@manchesterup.bsky.social out here making dreams come true!

Book cover preview of "Translating hell: Vernacular theology and apocrypha in the medieval North Sea" by yours truly.

Cover image of a hell mouth from the Utrecht Psalter (ca. 9th c)

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Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · 24d

I've toyed with it, but I've always used Wright's. Neither his nor Lambdin's is very user friendly, alas!

W. H. Bennett is somewhat more user friendly...but isn't easy to find

Gary Miller's grammar is a mighty reference tool, but not a proper textbook per se

Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · 26d

se cyning hylles

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Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · 27d

In sketching something so inane one worries about botching two poles of slang a century and an ocean apart. Nevertheless

Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · 27d

okay but do we *need* a gen z Jeeves fanfic

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Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · Sep 6

real ones recognize the original sussy baka

Manuscript illustration of Auðhumla the primeval cow from Norse mythology. One assumes the phrase sussy baka could be construed thus in the Iberian peninsula particularly

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Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · Sep 5

Worried my 3 year old is showing symptoms of being proto-Brythonic.

His sister is obsessed with kpop demon hunters, yet he keeps calling it "p-pop demon hunter"

Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · Sep 1

Compiling a slang dictionary with students is *always* a good time

Whiteboard with scribbled entries for: face card, chuzz, shyt, gyat(t), and attempted definitions and/or deeivations

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Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · Aug 30

Watching a classic with the kids this weekend

Noamward Bound: like homeward bound but every per has Chomsky s face. Maybe that grammar is truly universal

Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · Aug 29

It's much catchier than when I sing out their other required books: "holler if you have Bosworth and Toller", "hit the floor if you brought klaeber iv" and so on

Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · Aug 29

Some do, some discover the classics in my classroom

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Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · Aug 29

Do you ever make a slide and think "the hell is wrong with me?"

PowerPoint slide featuring badly photoshopped Sisqo thong song album cover with Walter Ong inside Sisqo's head

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Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · Aug 27

She's a beaut, Clark!

Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · Aug 27

Come now, it's an historical specimen!

Plus, it's the biggest single volume in my office. Never underestimate the power of a prop in the classroom!

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Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · Aug 27

YES. We looked for one at the store yesterday, to no avail. In 2 weeks, I'll be set!

Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · Aug 27

I think of it as my scholarly approximation of lugging stones up Mt Purgatorio

Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · Aug 27

BIG DICTIONARY ENERGY

Carried some 33lbs of lexicography a half mile to class this morning so students could partake of an ancient activity known as "looking up words"

This scholarly body is sore 💪😅

Heap o' dictionaries: Webster's 3rd NID (~12.5 lbs), vol 20 of the print OED (7 lbs), Liberman's Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology, Seat's Etymological, Johnson's abridged, and Cawdrey's A Table Alphabeticall

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Reposted by Stephen Hopkins

Katherine Churchill @katherinechurchill.bsky.social · Aug 19

for mixed feelings, I had a blast writing about medieval fan culture! feat. interviews with a couple of my fav colleagues Maggie Solberg and @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social

snag a print issue if you can the entire zine is glorious!!

www.mixedfeelings.earth/p/the-mediev...

Screaming, Crying, Throwing up: The Medieval Origins of Fandom

Since time immemorial, people have been screaming, crying, and throwing up over their faves. Today we swoon over anime characters, Lady Gaga, our K-Pop bias, etc. But many of the hallmarks of fandom —...

www.mixedfeelings.earth

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Stephen Hopkins @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social · Aug 17

they *did* promise PhD level performance...

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