Writings > Lexical Leavings
Random Notes of a Freelance Lexicographer
by Tom Gally
These notes were written between 2002 and 2005, when I was helping to edit several English-Japanese and Japanese-English dictionaries. The first note is at 1, and the last at 150.
Topics
abbreviations of four-character jukugo 36
addresses in dictionary examples 33
adverbs used with 笑う 46
anachronisms 20, 40
- evolving: Gulf War 63
arithmetic in English and Japanese
- division 107
- multiplication 97
Berkeley High School Slang Dictionary 127
books about dictionaries 12, 18, 27,
52, 94,
113, 115,
129,
141,
146
British and American differences
- breaking/coming out in a rash 57
- intend doing 50
- lanes inside and out 87
- leave off/out 17
- queue 34
- run-up 89
Chomsky by Postal 66
compounding of English words 125
computer-compiled keyword dictionary 86
copying between dictionaries 72
country names
- India and Ireland 41
- North Korea 13, 22
dialect headwords 126
digital dictionaries, future of 56
discrimination
- discriminatory words 78
- heterosexism 108
distinctions, nonexistent 43
errors that aren't 65
exempliphasia 53
fingers and toes 74
future tense in English 37
Google as corpus
- adverbs used with 笑う 46
- archaisms 39, 50
- hypochrondria and 肩こり 79
- nonexistent words 95
- Parises of the East 82
- sexism 45
- what people did in times past 61
- who and that with human head nouns 81
glottal stop interjections 119
grammaticality of sentence patterns 59
Green Goddess 88, 95, 105, 112, 128, 134, 140, 143
- 1942 pirated edition 128
Helps to Translation from Japanese Into English 147
“Hints on Lexicography” 150
inconsistencies
- hyphenation 44, 125
- translations of examples 11
kanji, number in Japanese 35
Kenkyusha's Third 73
Meet Mr. Hyphen and Put Him in His Place 125
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate, Eleventh Edition 93
mistakes, embarrassing
- hink 91
- misread audio 136
names of dictionaries 5
names of people in dictionary examples 30
new words in old dictionaries 60, 69, 73,
75, 130
nouns, collective 3
nouns, singular and plural 9, 21, 38
- in jokes 51
- collective plurals of proper nouns 58
pregnancies, length of 42
pronunciation
- /s/ suffix after vowels and voiced consonants 110
- supposed to, used to, have to 96
proverbs
- Every cloud has a silver lining. 72
- ghosts 1, 98
- goody-good 55
- missing from dictionaries 23
- put one's pants on one leg at a time 83
- tree falling in forest 85
publication schedules
- ambitious 118
sales of dictionaries in Japan 49
Shibata and Koyasu 121
spelling
- English teacher and Englishteacher 99
stereotyped language, 老人語 48
Students’ Japanese-English Dictionary (1906) 80
taboo words 24
- changes in 105
Takehara's 75
Takenobu's First 67, 68
Takenobu's Second 69
trademarks
- chapstick 122
typos 16
unlookupables 8, 29, 71,
84, 109,
114, 131, 138
Webster's Second 60, 149
Words and phrases
English
a 47
as adjective as any... 31
body shot 54
border on the north [south, east, west] 133
chapstick 122
come to a period 39
constitution 103
coprosperity 142
disintermediation 7
Down('s) syndrome 106
fair (amount) 32
fight with 137
fray 15
intend doing 50
into 107
leave off/out 17
last, next 14
make a virtue of necessity 145
manifesto 116
move something ahead [back] 132
nor'easter 124
not an option 123
not going anywhere 25
pants one leg at a time 83
pennant race 117
Prof. vs. Professor 43
recommend somebody to do 59
queue 34
rash, breaking/coming out in a 57
run-up 89
sanpaku eyes 64
sayonara home run 100
skinship 28
some 144
start from 65
stent 104
then (as conjunction) 101
time of (the) night 6
times ADJer [as ADJ] as 135
UCLA 76
unbeknownst 120
uninstallable 139
weather 70
would (just) as soon 102
Japanese
アジト 90
うけ狙い 4
会社 92
逆ハーレム 4
乞う, 恋う 62
三白眼 64
生体 19
経時 77
弾 111
鉄板 10
中抜き 7
など 148
々（のま） 35
ハーフ 2
ペナントレース 117
マニフェスト 116
メディアスクラム 4
めばちこ 126
モニター 26
ものもらい 126
リップクリーム 122