super-acapnotic has adopted no words, looked up 0 words, created 2 lists, listed 5 words, written 2 comments, added 0 tags, and loved 0 words.

Comments by super-acapnotic

  • ASPERAND Rick McLaughlin told me about this word. When many years

    ago I wrote (http://wwwords.org?ATAT) about the varied names used

    worldwide for the symbol that in English is formally "commercial

    at" (@) this one didn't feature. There are many references to it

    online, the earliest being a posting on misc.writing on 31 December

    1996 in which Jerry Kindall notes that he recently heard the word.

    A rare sighting in print is in Grammar with a Global Perspective by

    F Melrose Davis, in which the alternative "ampersat" is also given.

    That's slightly older: Tim Gowens was recorded as suggesting it in

    February 1996 in the British newspaper, the Independent, as a blend

    of "ampersand" and "at". "Asperand" might also be a type of blend,

    from "asterisk" and "ampersand", but that's a guess. Neither word,

    despite appearing in at least one dictionary of computing, shows

    any signs of becoming popular. They are mentioned, but are not used

    unselfconsciously as the name for the symbol, though Mr McLaughlin

    says he uses "asperand".

    November 12, 2007

  • From: a·cap·ni·a, which is a condition marked by an unusually low concentration of carbon dioxide in the blood and tissues. New Latin, from Latin acapnos, without smoke (which contains carbon dioxide), from Greek akapnos : a-, not; see a-1 + kapnos, smoke.

    Therefore, I am "acapnotic" or a non-smoker. A nice stretch.

    November 9, 2007

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