nathanbierma.com archive » words

Despite White House theme, days numbered for ‘merry’

Nathan Bierma — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 20:00:10 +0000

The White House theme gave a boost to a word that has been lagging lately in the English language: "merry." As with our Christmas ornaments, we pick "merry" out of our closets this time of year, blow the dust off it, and put it on prominent display in anticipation of Dec. 25. After that, we put it back in a box and keep it in storage for the next 11 months.

Dictionary offers full menu of culinary terms to digest

Nathan Bierma — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 20:00:53 +0000

Menus make great vocabulary lists, and “there’s no better way to remember a new vocabulary word than to eat it,” writes William Grimes, former restaurant critic for The New York Times, in “Eating Your Words: 2000 Words to Tease Your Taste Buds” (Oxford, $20). His culinary dictionary is interspersed with lists of 113 words for [...]

‘Wordcraft’ details birth of brand names, semantics of ‘berries’

Nathan Bierma — Tue, 25 May 2004 20:00:21 +0000

There is a moment every marketer both dreams of and fears. It is the time when a brand name, by decree of the dictionary or whims of the zeitgeist, becomes a common noun or a verb. This can be a blessing -- the ultimate validation of a name that is both catchy and meaningful. But it can also be a curse. The more widely a word is used, the harder it is to legally protect as a trademark. So we "xerox" a memo, "fed-ex" a package or "google" a blind date, to the chagrin of squads of copyright attorneys in corporate headquarters.

In a brand name's infancy, however, the thought of gaining this kind of cultural currency is an inspiration to professional namers, says Alex Frankel in his new book Wordcraft: The Art of Turning Little Words Into Big Business (Crown, $24.95).