The Layman's Linguist
@laymanslinguist.bsky.social
Fun facts, exhaustive etymologies, & informative infographics for both linguists & laypeople
Just one linguist's opinion:
<WOOF> is specifically a deep booming type of bark
<BARK> is the general term and thus includes woofs but also all other kinds of barks—not whines or yelps. It's also more likely to be the verb: eg, "the dog barks" > "the dog woofs"
See: their respective etymologies
<WOOF> is specifically a deep booming type of bark
<BARK> is the general term and thus includes woofs but also all other kinds of barks—not whines or yelps. It's also more likely to be the verb: eg, "the dog barks" > "the dog woofs"
See: their respective etymologies
October 25, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Just one linguist's opinion:
<WOOF> is specifically a deep booming type of bark
<BARK> is the general term and thus includes woofs but also all other kinds of barks—not whines or yelps. It's also more likely to be the verb: eg, "the dog barks" > "the dog woofs"
See: their respective etymologies
<WOOF> is specifically a deep booming type of bark
<BARK> is the general term and thus includes woofs but also all other kinds of barks—not whines or yelps. It's also more likely to be the verb: eg, "the dog barks" > "the dog woofs"
See: their respective etymologies
Okay now I am even more confused
October 24, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Okay now I am even more confused
TikTok creator and indigenous activist Che Jim has been sharing a lot of informative videos recently of isolated petroglyphs (some practically inaccessible) around the US Southwest and I really recommend checking them out!
Here's a fun one just for chuckles:
Here's a fun one just for chuckles:
October 24, 2025 at 7:55 PM
TikTok creator and indigenous activist Che Jim has been sharing a lot of informative videos recently of isolated petroglyphs (some practically inaccessible) around the US Southwest and I really recommend checking them out!
Here's a fun one just for chuckles:
Here's a fun one just for chuckles:
*incorrect buzzer sound*
![[prompt and answer from hinge profile]
My most controversial opinion is: it's weird to get annoyed by new slang or how people use "literally" because all words are made-up anyway
[response message]
I don't think that's controversial at all. The new slang is crazy. What's one slang word you hate? Mine is skidiby toilet seat or whatever it is lol](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:gmdwys3hqs243vr2chuttyoy/bafkreido2jsbmcupilsgeu3s2eymvfihfb6zp7kmqblq4va7vfwm3k4cfq@jpeg)
September 9, 2025 at 2:39 AM
*incorrect buzzer sound*
I don't know if time has simply slowed to a crawl for me personally but there's no way <skibidi> is still being used by anyone besides Gen Xers trying to make fun of their own kids
August 19, 2025 at 5:24 PM
I don't know if time has simply slowed to a crawl for me personally but there's no way <skibidi> is still being used by anyone besides Gen Xers trying to make fun of their own kids
Love Island has once again proved a treasure trove of dialectal variants I'd never before encountered
August 2, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Love Island has once again proved a treasure trove of dialectal variants I'd never before encountered
Discovered this on my regularly scheduled IMDb rabbit hole and didn't have anyone else to tell
July 25, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Discovered this on my regularly scheduled IMDb rabbit hole and didn't have anyone else to tell
The band Radiohead is technically named after this character actor
July 25, 2025 at 6:30 PM
The band Radiohead is technically named after this character actor
Amazing things are happening on X: The Everything App
July 23, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Amazing things are happening on X: The Everything App
Met another self-described "cunning linguist" on bumble but this one might be salvageable
July 9, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Met another self-described "cunning linguist" on bumble but this one might be salvageable
Vegetable (spiritually) 🤝 Fruit (technically)
"Welcome to the family, precious baby Tomato!"
"Welcome to the family, precious baby Tomato!"
July 4, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Vegetable (spiritually) 🤝 Fruit (technically)
"Welcome to the family, precious baby Tomato!"
"Welcome to the family, precious baby Tomato!"
Just discussing Jordan Peterson's linguistic skills with a hinge match, how's your weekend going?
June 30, 2025 at 5:54 AM
Just discussing Jordan Peterson's linguistic skills with a hinge match, how's your weekend going?
Love catching up with old college friends
June 16, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Love catching up with old college friends
That was before this AI Overview though. I assume most of that department lost their jobs by now anyway, cause there's pretty clearly no one vetting the accuracy at all anymore 🙃🙃🙃
But Google's penchant for coming up with new ways to promote misinformation is nothing new. Some greatest hits:
But Google's penchant for coming up with new ways to promote misinformation is nothing new. Some greatest hits:
![Screenshot of a tweet with the following text:
The Layman's Li... LaymansLinguist
I am once again BEGGING Google to care about the accuracy and quality of their featured search results
[Text of the screenshot]
Portuguese has a lot f slurred sounds, it is a very fluid language, as oppose to
Spanish, where words are more ALTiberate.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:gmdwys3hqs243vr2chuttyoy/bafkreibe5goj6ddhhicfuzmp6u3izaurqi3exuxxvivhces4gnulpugy7i@jpeg)
![The Layman's L.....
We have a new entry in my ongoing series "Google Featuring Unvetted Results" and once again there is a lot to unpack:
"In English, there are no neutral terms for sex and excrement."
Then what kind of words are <sex> & <excrement>? Profane?? .....Oh. Ohh no.
[Text in the screenshot]
The phrase four-letter was first attested in print in 1923 and four-letter word in 1934. There are, in addition, some 'honorary' four- letter words, such as the five-letter but monosyllabic prick, screw. In English, there are no neutral terms for sex and excrement. Jun 8,2018
O https://www.encyclopedia.com>fou.
...
Four-letter Word | Encyclopedia.com](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:gmdwys3hqs243vr2chuttyoy/bafkreifq35xatrlepiynvnfjfa42khmtyz63uchvop3uvonbepm5jpgxe4@jpeg)
![The Layman's ....16 Oct 21 g Sooo got mad at tthe Google questions again..
List
ANYWAY, English isn't inherently owerful & its users aren't bestowed with better economic nsights!
English-majority nations may have money & power NOW -they've been invading colonizing the rest of the world for quite a while!
[There are two screenshots under the tweet but most of the text is cropped from the sides]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:gmdwys3hqs243vr2chuttyoy/bafkreidj32vclvbevb5nrir4lkoodcrlow36t3mpb7prdfdx3rlqnjb7wu@jpeg)
![The Layman's...16 Dec 22 G If you google "is it possible to speak English without an accent?" the top featured result erroneously states that it's not only possible but desirable! I especially like how they describe their strategy of just, the way pretty much all hearing babies learn their first language.
[Text from screenshot #1]
but as we get older it becomes more difficult. If you're an adult, and speaking English as a non- native speaker, accent free English can be very difficultto achieve. We need to teach our ears to hear the different speech patterns and then training our mouths to make the new sounds.
[Screenshot #2 is SpongeBob walking through his front door looking exhausted]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:gmdwys3hqs243vr2chuttyoy/bafkreif3ntewdputi6v3uggvpdezxzwkj4avqwxzo42barmt4p435pfoee@jpeg)
June 3, 2025 at 7:53 PM
That was before this AI Overview though. I assume most of that department lost their jobs by now anyway, cause there's pretty clearly no one vetting the accuracy at all anymore 🙃🙃🙃
But Google's penchant for coming up with new ways to promote misinformation is nothing new. Some greatest hits:
But Google's penchant for coming up with new ways to promote misinformation is nothing new. Some greatest hits:
I'd never heard of a fork breakfast so I looked it up and I just love this explanation that assumes I know what the hell a fork lunch is. I've never even heard of a cold buffet so I'm just picturing a long table of sandwich meats.
This has explained nothing. I only have more questions now.
This has explained nothing. I only have more questions now.
June 3, 2025 at 10:37 AM
I'd never heard of a fork breakfast so I looked it up and I just love this explanation that assumes I know what the hell a fork lunch is. I've never even heard of a cold buffet so I'm just picturing a long table of sandwich meats.
This has explained nothing. I only have more questions now.
This has explained nothing. I only have more questions now.
Raphael Lemkin was a Poland-born Jewish American who coined the term GENOCIDE in his 1944 text where he explicitly states that it does *not* necessarily refer to mass murder but rather any coordinated plan to destroy a society's foundation with the aim to eventually annihilate their people entirely.
![Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. Ilt is intended rather #O signify a oordinated plan of different actions aimed at the destruction of essential foundations of the S of national groups, with the A aim of annihilating the groups themselves. [Lemkin]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:gmdwys3hqs243vr2chuttyoy/bafkreichhseq3ybxomqmc3ejrdyctsr3umgaoactxa37bjvgva6uj7c7ki@jpeg)
June 2, 2025 at 6:15 AM
Raphael Lemkin was a Poland-born Jewish American who coined the term GENOCIDE in his 1944 text where he explicitly states that it does *not* necessarily refer to mass murder but rather any coordinated plan to destroy a society's foundation with the aim to eventually annihilate their people entirely.
Yes, I know. I was just conveying my frustration in interacting with people like OP.
Sorry for forgetting for a sec there. Here's the alt version. Thanks.
Sorry for forgetting for a sec there. Here's the alt version. Thanks.
June 2, 2025 at 4:56 AM
Yes, I know. I was just conveying my frustration in interacting with people like OP.
Sorry for forgetting for a sec there. Here's the alt version. Thanks.
Sorry for forgetting for a sec there. Here's the alt version. Thanks.
I'm not sure how much more I can break down the concept of inherent human rights being rights that are inherent to humans
June 2, 2025 at 4:51 AM
I'm not sure how much more I can break down the concept of inherent human rights being rights that are inherent to humans
I get how tempting it is to continue the cycle of abuse but at a certain point I lose patience with people flagrantly taking their past trauma out on others—acting like THEY deserve it in the same breath that you admit how harmful that treatment of YOU has been. It's frankly tragic.
June 2, 2025 at 4:37 AM
I get how tempting it is to continue the cycle of abuse but at a certain point I lose patience with people flagrantly taking their past trauma out on others—acting like THEY deserve it in the same breath that you admit how harmful that treatment of YOU has been. It's frankly tragic.
What a fascinating mind
June 2, 2025 at 4:22 AM
What a fascinating mind
Thomas Jefferson never said that; it's from a series of debates on socialism published in 1914, in which John Basil Barnhill said, "Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty."
It wasn't even attributed to Jefferson until the 90s.
It wasn't even attributed to Jefferson until the 90s.
![Earliest known appearance 1n print: 1914 [2]
Earliest known appearance in print attributed to Thomas Jefferson: 1994[3]
Other attributions: Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine
Status: We have not found any evidence that Thomas Jefferson said or wrote, "When government fears the people, there is liberty. When ihe People fear he government, there is tyranny." nor any evidence that he wrote its listed variations.
Comments: One source attributes this quotation to Jefferson in The Federalist,[41 The Federalist, however, was the work of Alexander Hamilton, John Jay,and James Madison, not Thomas Jefferson; nor](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:gmdwys3hqs243vr2chuttyoy/bafkreieny6aql6ynbbd6ez6chp4rm45e2gkowcl5ya5xpsx3btszeh3qzq@jpeg)
June 2, 2025 at 4:16 AM
Thomas Jefferson never said that; it's from a series of debates on socialism published in 1914, in which John Basil Barnhill said, "Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty."
It wasn't even attributed to Jefferson until the 90s.
It wasn't even attributed to Jefferson until the 90s.
Always love finding a faceless "linguist" with 0 mutuals lol good job everyone
June 2, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Always love finding a faceless "linguist" with 0 mutuals lol good job everyone
My college town is littered with old battlefields and walking down one I overheard a tourist complain about those "bleeding hearts" bringing this "northern liberal bullshit" down here.
It's a statue commemorating a Confederate soldier who risked certain death to save a bunch of injured northerners.
It's a statue commemorating a Confederate soldier who risked certain death to save a bunch of injured northerners.
June 1, 2025 at 11:43 PM
My college town is littered with old battlefields and walking down one I overheard a tourist complain about those "bleeding hearts" bringing this "northern liberal bullshit" down here.
It's a statue commemorating a Confederate soldier who risked certain death to save a bunch of injured northerners.
It's a statue commemorating a Confederate soldier who risked certain death to save a bunch of injured northerners.
hire Cait & Kate for your very professional graphic design needs*
*linguistically themed requests only
*linguistically themed requests only
June 1, 2025 at 3:32 PM
hire Cait & Kate for your very professional graphic design needs*
*linguistically themed requests only
*linguistically themed requests only
In your memoir can you credit me for guiding you in your journey to endearingly terrible graphics? In that I'd found the jankiest editing app slightly before you did?
I still recall our Chomsky movie posters with such fondness.
I still recall our Chomsky movie posters with such fondness.
June 1, 2025 at 3:29 PM
In your memoir can you credit me for guiding you in your journey to endearingly terrible graphics? In that I'd found the jankiest editing app slightly before you did?
I still recall our Chomsky movie posters with such fondness.
I still recall our Chomsky movie posters with such fondness.