De vira lata

"Brasil still has what its writer Nelson Rodrigues called 'o complexo de vira-lata' - the mongrel dog complex." (WSJ 01/28-29/2012, p.C12.)

Toca

A method of torture during Spanish Inquisition now known as 'waterboarding'.

Pato

Pato aka horseball is a 17th century sport that resembles a cross between polo and basketball - using a live duck. Played in Argentina.

Antinomianism

A theological and philosophical notion that is skeptical of law based on a flawed notion of grace.

Goodluck Comfort Dotcom

Goodluck Jonathan is the President of Nigeria.

Comfort Ero is the Africa Program director for the International Crisis Group.

Kim Dotcom, in news this past week,  is the German founder of the Megaupload website.  Birthname Kim Schmitz.

Boko Haram

Boko Haram is the Islamic militia targeting Nigeria's Christians.


Boko Haram,  means "Western education is sin."

Huomai

Huomai, a catchphrase in China, according to the Wall Street Journal,  means "buried alive".

Mr. Yu (Jie) says the security agent used the term after Liu Xiaobo, a close friend of Mr. Yu's, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.

On the night before the prize ceremony, Mr. Yu writes, he was wrestled into a car and taken to an unknown location where he was stripped naked, kicked and had his fingers bent back one by one. After that, his statement says, the security agent in charge spoke.

"If the order comes from above, we can dig a pit to bury you alive in half an hour, and no one on Earth would know," the agent said, according to a translation of the author's statement provided by the New York-based rights group Human Rights in China. "As far as we, state security, can tell, there are no more than 200 intellectuals in the country who oppose the Communist Party and are influential. If the central authorities think that their rule is facing a crisis, they can capture them all in one night and bury them alive."

Vocal fry

Vocal fry, or glottalization, is a low, staccato vibration during speech, produced by a slow fluttering of the vocal  chords: listen here  http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/vocalfryshort.mp3

According to Science Now:

"A curious vocal pattern has crept into the speech of young adult women who speak American English: low, creaky vibrations, also called vocal fry. Pop singers, such as Britney Spears, slip vocal fry into their music as a way to reach low notes and add style. Now, a new study of young women in New York state shows that the same guttural vibration—once considered a speech disorder—has become a language fad.


Since the 1960s, vocal fry has been recognized as the lowest of the three vocal registers, which also include falsetto and modal—the usual speaking register."


Here's a full blown example: http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/

Riffle & Faro

The standard way to mix a deck of playing cards—the one used everywhere from casinos to rec rooms—is what is known as a riffle (or "dovetail") shuffle.


(you have to shuffle seven times before a deck becomes truly scrambled.)


A perfect (or "faro") shuffle, meanwhile, wherein the deck is split precisely in half and the two halves are zippered together in perfect alternation, isn't random at all. In fact, it's completely predictable. Eight perfect shuffles will return a 52-card deck to its original order, with every card cycling back to its starting position.


More here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204826704577074501731476934.html?mod=WSJ_Books_LS_Books_8

Hachiroku

The new Toyota sports car is called  Hachiroku, which means '86'.  To be introduced stateside in 2012m, we don't think it'll be called '86' here which is a bar slang for an undesirable customer,or one that must be evicted from the premises.


"This continues Toyota's sports car bloodline," Mr. Toyoda told reporters after driving a Hachiroku around the Fuji Speedway race track. "The 86 incorporates a sense of driving pleasure that we call 'doki-doki' or 'waku-waku,'" the Japanese for "heart-pounding" or "euphoric."

descriptivist vs prescriptivist

"academic linguists and other "descriptivist" grammarians dismiss the notion of grammatical "correctness" and insist that "rules" are wholly determined by usage."

chuppah

chuppah is a canopy under which a Jewish couple stand during their wedding ceremony.

Inaccrochable

Back in the 1920s Gertrude Stein was advising young Ernest Hemingway telling him that "You mustn't write anything that is inaccrochable".  (inaccrochable: a French expression meaning that his stories and his language were too raw, too revealing, too exposed for a refined society.)

Meanwhile

Richard Preston  was asked by the late Michael Crichton relatives to complete his unfinished novel titled Micro.


"Ms. Jordan (Michael Crichton assistant) line-edited the book to make sure the voice was consistent. At her suggestion, Mr. Preston dropped the word, "meanwhile," which Mr. Crichton hated."

flecheiros

"Mr. Possuelo's mission penetrated the vast Javari Valley Indigenous Land, 33,000 square miles of dense forest in the Upper Amazon where aerial reconnaissance showed at least 18 uncontacted tribes. Very little is understood about these people, including what ethnic groups they belong to and what languages they speak. One mysterious band is known by neighboring Indians as the flecheiros, Portuguese for "arrow people," for their rumored mastery of that weapon and their supposed ferocity."

El Buen Fin

"El Buen Fin, which translates as "the good weekend," will stretch over four days, starting Friday and ending Monday, which is a local holiday that commemorates the Mexican revolution. Retailers plan to offer discounts of as much as 70% on a variety of goods, from home appliances to automobiles, while also extending store hours."

enantiodromia

"Ask Mr. (Bill) Miller what he did for a living and he would tell you, "We think about thinking." A discussion with him might cover astrophysics and ant colonies, meteorology and baseball, the science of poker playing, and "enantiodromia," or the restoration of balance."

nomenclaturism

"nomenclaturism"  is the notion that words have a one-to-one relationship to the things they purport to name. 

(From today's WSJ review of Is That a Fish in Your Ear? by David Bellos.)

"Nakusa" or "Nakushi"

In the news today  more than 200 Indian girls whose names mean "unwanted" in Hindi chose new names Saturday for a fresh start in life. "Nakusa" or "Nakushi," mean "unwanted" in Hindi.

Ofrendas

Ofrendas are elaborately decorated shrines to the dead erected in homes, shops and offices during the Day of the Dead festival in early November Mexico.