Okay, #LanguageNerds --

Do we know what English word was used for "tattoo" before Brits brought it to Europe from Polynesia? Was it just "painted skin"? Did "tatau" get incorporated into European languages *because* there wasn't a one-word equivalent?

Apparently, Icelandic has a nifty modern(?) term: "húðflúr," which would mean "skin/hide embellishment."

So yeah, any pre-18th-century English words for #tattoo?

#linguistics
#language

Of Leopards & Cats for #languagenerds

http://the-bee-writes.com/2025/04/17/of-leopards-cats/

"Singular they, along with its inflected or derivative forms, them, their, theirs, and themselves (also themself and theirself), is a gender-neutral third-person pronoun. ...

Singular they has been criticised since the mid-18th century by prescriptive commentators who consider it an error. Its continued use in modern standard English has become more common and formally accepted with the move toward gender-neutral language. Some early-21st-century style guides described it as colloquial and less appropriate in formal writing. However, by 2020, most style guides accepted the singular they as a personal pronoun.

In the early 21st century, use of singular they with known individuals emerged for non-binary people... They in this context was named Word of the Year for 2015 by the American Dialect Society, and for 2019 by Merriam-Webster. In 2020, the American Dialect Society also selected it as Word of the Decade for the 2010s."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they

#LanguageNerds

Dangling modifiers may cause other things to dangle. (In this place, it may also cause polling.)

(stolen from Facebook)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dangling_modifier

#LanguageNerds