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operativewords.com
Anthony Shore
@operativewords.com
170 followers 470 following 1.8K posts
I name things.
https://www.operativewords.com
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operativewords.com
Anthony Shore @operativewords.com · Nov 18
Hi! For those of you new to me, I name things. A good place to learn more about my weird job is this 2015 New York Times Magazine article that documents a naming project I directed, The Weird Science of Naming New Products. Read and enjoy!
#naming

www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/m...
The Weird Science of Naming New Products (Published 2015)
To find the perfect brand, leave no word unturned.
www.nytimes.com
operativewords.com
What if our alphabet is just the 2D shadow of something bigger? What about the letters in higher dimensions we can't see? Even from Flatland, our letters let us describe so much, but imagine what a language with extra-dimensional symbols could express.
jstckr.bsky.social Robert @jstckr.bsky.social · Oct 20
i just remembered last night i dreamed about decimal letters in between the alphabet that could be used to describe the world in more detail
November 19, 2025 at 8:06 PM
operativewords.com
Dressing up tonight as spooky action from a distance 👻
October 31, 2025 at 10:27 PM
operativewords.com
The wildest #naming project I have ever worked on launched 25 years ago. I told the story behind the name Accenture to @fortune.com. Please read and enjoy!

fortune.com/2025/10/26/t...
The 25th-anniversary story of Accenture’s name, from the professional namer who led the project | Fortune
An insider’s revealing look into Accenture — the wild ride behind history’s most painstaking corporate name change
fortune.com
October 27, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Reposted by Anthony Shore
gretchenmcc.bsky.social
Higgledy piggledy
Timothée Chalamet
Has a name meriting
Endless design

Much like his forerunner
Benedict Cumberbatch:
Hexasyllabically,
Easy to rhyme
tweet from childish branzino @absflora: timothée chalamet is the new benedict cumberbatch in the sense that you can say ANYTHING and we know who you mean. tiffany chevrolet. timpanogos charlemagne. symphony cabernet. jiminy castaway.
October 9, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Reposted by Anthony Shore
fritinancy.bsky.social
August linkstack: political lingo, AI news, a new word game, a terrific new book, and more. Feat. @grammargirl.bsky.social @cwarzel.bsky.social @operativewords.com @awalkerinla.bsky.social @trufelman.bsky.social @caseynewton.bsky.social et al. fritinancy.substack.com/p/august-lin...
August linkstack
Political language, Olympics naming, generational naming, a new word game, and more.
fritinancy.substack.com
August 28, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Reposted by Anthony Shore
fritinancy.bsky.social
March links: Banned words, dead names, restored vowels, @newyorker.com style, and a close reading of a 1958 issue of “Male” magazine. Feat. @operativewords.com @bcdreyer.social @zinzin.bsky.social @grammargirl.bsky.social @emckean.bsky.social & more. open.substack.com/pub/fritinan...
March linkstack
A good read, some banned words, Covid nostalgia, New Yorker style, and more.
open.substack.com
March 27, 2025 at 2:52 PM
operativewords.com
Solid! 🙌🏼 But I think 'Trump Slump’ are the words you are looking for.
#naming
davidmoscrop.com David Moscrop @davidmoscrop.com · Mar 11
They should call it the Down Jones.
A screenshot of the Dow industrial average showing a red line sloping down, a five day decline of 2.35% to 41,520.45 points.
March 11, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by Anthony Shore
arrantpedantry.com
Um, excuse me, it's Proto-INDO-European, not Proto-European.
theonion.com The Onion @theonion.com · Feb 26
Rest Of Party Thanks Fucking God 2 Guys Who Like Etymology Found Each Other
theonion.com/rest-of-part...
Rest Of Party Thanks Fucking God 2 Guys Who Like Etymology Found Each Other
February 26, 2025 at 9:58 PM
operativewords.com
Try searching for the file Bobbyfinalfinalfinal2finalreallyfinal3.jpg

Best of luck!
February 13, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by Anthony Shore
fritinancy.bsky.social
Word of the week: Forestalgia, with notes on other -stalgias. Don't miss @operativewords.com comment about “lostalgia”! fritinancy.substack.com/p/word-of-th...
Word of the week: Forestalgia
Once and future coinages.
fritinancy.substack.com
January 27, 2025 at 3:42 PM
operativewords.com
Announcement just now at SeaTac airport, calling out boarding group letters with joyful alternatives to the NATO alphabet: B as in “beautiful”, D as in “delightful”.

Beautiful and delightful, indeed!

Thanks, Alaska Airlines gate agent, for those little bits of joy! 🤩

#naming
January 8, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Reposted by Anthony Shore
merriam-webster.com
'World Wide Web' contains fewer syllables than its intended short form, 'www.'

The shorter version actually takes longer to say.
January 3, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by Anthony Shore
operativewords.com
You can learn a lot about a word by the company it keeps.
November 16, 2024 at 9:17 PM
operativewords.com
This, dear readers, is why you don’t name your company BeyondTrust.

Firstly, including Trust in your name invites suspicion. If you want to be perceived as trustworthy, be trustworthy.

Second, if you are “beyond trust”, you are past trust: untrusted and untrustworthy.

#naming
wired.com WIRED @wired.com · Jan 2
Treasury says hackers accessed “certain unclassified documents” in a “major” breach, but experts believe the attack’s impacts could prove to be more significant as new details emerge.
US Treasury Department Admits It Got Hacked by China
Treasury says hackers accessed “certain unclassified documents” in a “major” breach, but experts believe the attack’s impacts could prove to be more significant as new details emerge.
www.wired.com
January 2, 2025 at 4:17 PM
operativewords.com
Wearing togas, Roman customer to Ronan clerk says “There I go — sill writing ‘B.C.’ on my checks.”
January 2, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Reposted by Anthony Shore
fritinancy.bsky.social
Color of the year! Words of the year! Mispronounced brand names! My December linkstack, feat. @lynneguist.bsky.social @tonythorne007.bsky.social @mashedradish.bsky.social @pkrugman.bsky.social @tomfreeman.bsky.social @operativewords.com & more #woty2024 fritinancy.substack.com/p/december-l...
December linkstack
Maple syrup, mocha mousse, and other tasty year-end treats.
fritinancy.substack.com
December 26, 2024 at 3:21 PM
operativewords.com
These bang-on and bonkers color names: Stygian blue, self-luminous red, hyperbolic orange.

A masterclass in descriptive #naming! 🙌🏼
mikeachim.bsky.social Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · Dec 23
But here's one we should all be able to do:

a) Stare unblinkingly at box on the left for a while...
b) ...shift gaze to box to its right...
c) ...and see either a colour that's blacker than total black, brighter than total white or oranger than totally orange.

Absolutely barmy, 'tis.

2/
A chimerical colour test which tricks the eye into seeing so-called impossible colours: Stygian Blue (a hue blacker than total black), Self-Luminous Red (a shade that's brighter than total white) and Hyperbolic Orange (more than 100%-saturated orange).
December 23, 2024 at 3:36 PM
operativewords.com
On a literal level, "capricracy" means rule by goats.
#naming
December 19, 2024 at 6:56 PM
Reposted by Anthony Shore
schargel.com
As marketers, how do we create slogans that not only capture attention but also leave a lasting impression? Well...it depends...
operativewords.com Anthony Shore @operativewords.com · Dec 16
Do you want your slogan to be liked or remembered? You can only pick one.

My latest blog post is about the findings of ingenious experiments, in which researchers uncovered how specific linguistic properties of slogans and taglines govern their ability to be remembered or liked. Read and enjoy!
The Science Behind Great Slogans — Operative Words
What can you do to make your slogan or tagline more memorable or likable? New research shows you how.
www.operativewords.com
December 17, 2024 at 4:56 AM
operativewords.com
Absolute legend. A feature figure in my Lx studies. RIP
#linguistics
joshuajfriedman.com Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · Dec 18
Sad news from the linguistics community: the great sociolinguist William Labov has died at age 97 languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=67399
Screenshot of post on Language Log: Bill Labov December 17, 2024 @ 7:40 pm · Filed by Cynthia McLemore and Mark Liberman under Obituaries, Sociolinguistics William Labov, known far and wide as one of the most influential linguists of the 20th and 21st centuries, passed away this morning at the age of 97, with his wife, Gillian Sankoff, by his side. Bill is still very alive to us, so many of us, here at Penn. His voice reverberates. Mark is working on a longer, more detailed appreciation. For now, a warm memory. One night over dinner Bill said that when he wrote he liked to imagine a scholar in the library, perhaps in some faraway place or distant future, opening one of his books and finding a useful insight, just as he had from scholars before him. We got to see him receive news about such an occurrence one evening at that same table: a guest hand-delivered, from the hills of Sindhi-speaking Pakistan, a sociolinguistic book inscribed with thanks for his insight, inspiration, and example. Here’s a favorite picture of Bill turning to say goodbye one Thanksgiving afternoon. Farewell, dear friend. Photo from Language Log of William Labov, dressed in sneakers, a blue nylon-and-fleece jacket, and a distinctive fur hat
December 18, 2024 at 2:25 AM
Reposted by Anthony Shore
operativewords.com
If you need business jargon, it's all here.
Every. Single. One. https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-going-to-close-this-deal-using-business-words-ive-heard-men-yell-in-airports
I’m Going to Close This Deal Using Business Words I’ve He...
Thanks for hopping on this call today, gentleman. Who jus...
www.mcsweeneys.net
November 16, 2024 at 4:51 PM
operativewords.com
Do you want your slogan to be liked or remembered? You can only pick one.

My latest blog post is about the findings of ingenious experiments, in which researchers uncovered how specific linguistic properties of slogans and taglines govern their ability to be remembered or liked. Read and enjoy!
The Science Behind Great Slogans — Operative Words
What can you do to make your slogan or tagline more memorable or likable? New research shows you how.
www.operativewords.com
December 16, 2024 at 9:24 PM
Reposted by Anthony Shore
aem76us.bsky.social
"One Undershaft" is a downer of a name for London's tallest (planned) building.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
City of London: Skyscraper as tall as The Shard approved
One Undershaft, a 74-storey building will be the tallest building in the City of London.
www.bbc.com
December 13, 2024 at 11:09 PM
operativewords.com
#naming
rebeccasolnit.bsky.social Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · Dec 10
Cheer yourself up with some medieval troubles and medieval names bonus: Wiggo, Angelbert, Charles the Bald not to be confused with Charles the Younger, Himiltrude (mother of Pepin the Hunchback), Otgar of Mainz. Congratulations @lollardfish.bsky.social & @profgabriele.com
Oathbreakers: The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe Hardcover – December 10, 2024 by David Perry and Matthew Gabriele: By the early ninth century, the Carolingian empire was at the height of its power. The Franks, led by Charlemagne, had built the largest European domain since Rome in its heyday. Though they jockeyed for power, prestige, and profit, the Frankish elites enjoyed political and cultural consensus. But just two generations later, their world was in shambles. Civil war, once an unthinkable threat, had erupted after Louis the Pious’s sons tried to overthrow him—and then placed their knives at the other’s neck. Families who had once charged into battle together now drew each other’s blood.
December 10, 2024 at 4:06 PM
operativewords.com
It’s like a full-body sign language. Are there actual gestural languages that make use of the full body like this? Actual question? #linguistics #signlanguage
December 6, 2024 at 2:58 AM