Urban Dictionary

Wed Jan 8 16:12:30 UTC 2014

At 1/8/2014 09:27 AM, Dave Wilton wrote:
>UD can be a useful tool if used with discretion, however. It is a
>quick-and-dirty tool for checking if an alleged slang term is in actual
>circulation or to see what the possible range of meanings for a term might
>be. And it is often easy to distinguish the joke or made-up senses from
>those that are recorded by thoughtful amateurs (the latter of which can
>actually be useful and sometimes do contain actual usage citations).
>
>Like any dictionary, one needs to know the particulars of its scope and
>methodology before employing it usefully.

Regardless of the above, which I suspect is true infrequently,* the
UD requires a large-print "Hazard" sign rather than uncritical praise
or the positive tone of the NYTimes article.  Is anyone writing a
letter to the Times?

Do any of the "actual usage citations" cite written evidence, or
reputable oral evidence?

Joel

>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>Jonathan Lighter
>Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2014 8:44 AM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: Urban Dictionary
>
>Now that UD has a swado-hip following, however, some its coinages will
>certainly get into the shite-geist.
>
>JL
>
>
>
>
>On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 8:31 AM, Jonathan Lighter
><wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > I used to refer to Urban Dictionary daily.
> >
> > If you know what you're looking for, it's like going into a playground
> > and saying, "Hey, teens! What do you think of this groovy word?" And
> > believing whatever they say.
> >
> > Without analysis.
> >
> > If you're looking for new terms in actual use, however, dream up your own.
> >  My professional opinion is that the majority of entries that are
> > unfamiliar to say, us, are jokes and coinages used by more or less nobody.
> >
> > I think it was 1946 when Morroe Berger wrote in _American Speech_ on
> > "Some Excesses of Slang Compilers." That essay goes double now.
> >
> >
> > JL
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 8:12 AM, Christopher Philippo <toff at mac.com> wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Christopher Philippo <toff at MAC.COM>
> >> Subject:      Urban Dictionary
> >>
> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> ----------
> >>
> >> Wortham, Jenna. "A Lexicon of Instant Argot." N.Y. Times. January 3,
> >> 2014.
> >> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/04/technology/a-lexicon-of-the-interne
> >> t-updated-by-its-users.html
> >>
> >> A claim in the article that Urban Dictionary documents regional
> >> Internet vernacular in real time in an important way is absurd. The
> >> majority of it appears to be immature (and not infrequently
> >> disgusting or bigoted) attempts at humor, not actual words anybody
> >> uses.  Wortham mentions "recent casual references by figures like Jon
> >> Stewart on 'The Daily Show'".  That's
> >> misleading: when I've heard him mention it, it's in reference to the
> >> disgusting contrived sexual acts people invent solely for Urban
>Dictionary.
> >>  The often terrible examples and the lack of citations or even
> >> information about what regions of the world or the Internet where the
> >> terms are allegedly being used keeps the site at sub-amateur level.
> >> ADS doesn't seem to think it is "important" or "the anthropologist of
> >> the Internet" (but if I'm wrong, please correct me):
> >>
> >> "A freewheeling and erratic compilation of words, invented and real,
> >> submitted, defined, and approved by users."
> >> http://www.americandialect.org/urbandictionarycom
> >>
> >> Kaufman, Leslie. "For the Word on the Street, Courts Call Up an
> >> Online Witness." N.Y. Times. May 20, 2013.
> >> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/business/media/urban-dictionary-fin
> >> ds-a-place-in-the-courtroom.html
> >>
> >> That there are judges citing Urban Dictionary in decisions is fairly
> >> alarming - and that it's cheaper than using an expert because it's
> >> free is not a good reason to use it.  It calls to mind a worse example:
> >>
> >> "In determining whether to release the documents [in response to a
> >> Freedom of Information Law request], the school searched both
> >> Wikipedia and Google, Gauthier said."
> >> http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/ameast/s
> >> tory/2012-03-29/stony-brook-steve-pickiell-contract-secret/53838432/1
> >> The State University of New York Freedom of Information Law Appeals
> >> Officer citing Wikipedia is troublesome, and her citing "Google"
> >> (i.e. "the
> >> Internet") is akin to citing "the library".  Ms. Gauthier has a
> >> salary of about $90,000 (
> >> http://new-york-employees.findthedata.org/l/2282018/Geraldine-M-Gauth
> >> ier) yet does work that wouldn't be accepted in a report by an
> >> elementary school student.  I've found writing her about problems of
> >> SUNY compliance with FOIL, the NY Personal Privacy Protection Law,
> >> and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act to be useless:
> >> she's never responded once.  (Among other things, I once had to file a
>FOIL request for my own grades for a class !
> >>  because the professor wouldn't provide them, and my department
> >> advisor, the Registrar, and others wouldn't help me obtain them.  I
> >> was charged
> >> $30.00 to obtain my own grades for a class.  Nice scam they have
> >> going
> >> there!)
> >>
> >> Christopher K. Philippo
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> > truth."
> >
>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org