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Jesse Sheidlower

@jessesword.com

5K followers 470 following 2.2K posts

Lexicographer. The F-Word (new edition Nov. ’24!), sfdictionary.com, ex-OED, coder (mainly Perl and Python), Threesome Tollbooth #cocktail bar manager, adjunct @ Columbia.

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · Oct 22

News: the 4th edition of The F-Word is coming out in two weeks from Oxford UP! Everything you could want to know about the word _fuck_.

This is a major revision: 500 pages with 150 new entries, 150 antedatings, & 2,500 new quotations. See link below for more info!

jessesword.com/fword.html

Cover picture:
The F-Word
edited by Jesse Sheidlower
IV Edition

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 4h

This isn't a one-off—this has been a very widely established term particularly in the last year or so.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/19/s...

www.msn.com/en-us/money/...

www.gq.com/story/a-slop...

etc.

Living the Slop Life

www.nytimes.com

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 17h

He was fantastic. So excited to read the book!

Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 17h

@lancerichardson.bsky.social being interviewed by @shamblanderson.bsky.social at the NYPL, for the publication of True Nature, his biography of Peter Matthiessen

Picture of Sam Anderson interviewing Lance Richardson on stage at the New York Public Library

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 1d

The OED has evidence back to 1915, but in recent times, it's used chiefly as a term to encompass all branches of armed forces. I.e. it's a genuinely useful alternative to saying "soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines" or the like.

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Reposted by Jesse Sheidlower

Stefan Fatsis @stefanfatsis.bsky.social · 1d

Happy pub day to me!

Also pictured, bottom to top: Webster's Third (1961); battered Webster's New World (1974; my first dictionary); Webster's Collegiate, Fifth Edition (inscribed by my immigrant father in 1949)

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Reposted by Jesse Sheidlower

Lance Richardson @lancerichardson.bsky.social · 1d

Eight years ago, I drove to Sag Harbor and sat down for tea with Maria Matthiessen, telling her I wanted to write a book about her late husband, Peter. She warned me against it: a Sisyphean task! I pushed on anyway. (Maria was right.) And today, miraculously, is publication day for TRUE NATURE.

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 1d

Congratulations, Lance!

Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 1d

I can't immediately find it anywhere earlier.

Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 1d

This anecdote is found in D.G. Wells's _Recreations in Logic_ (1979):

The curate of Lower Purdham was notorious for his fiery sermons, not least with his uncle, who was the local landowner and bigwig and did not appreciate what he took to be frequent references to his wealth and social position. One day his uncle and aunt were visiting him as he was preparing one of his sermons and his aunt, glancing over his shoulder was horrified to see that it started off, in the curate’s hand, “UNCLE AND I SHALL OWE DEVIL . . .” Quite apart from the poor standard of English, this was clearly going to be a hellfire sermon of the first order, and she hastened to tell her husband.
In the ensuing explosion a lot of hard words were spoken, but to no purpose, as became apparent when the curate explained how his sermon actually started. How did it start?

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 1d

This is why I have four different versions of The Annotated Alice['s Adventures in Wonderland].

Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 1d

Here's one additional example, albeit from a self-published novel (Ryan Rayston, The Quiet Sound of Disappearing, 2011):

Screenshot from a book, reading in relevant part "The next day, ready to Agatha Christie the information, I applied for a job at Elan. I was hired on the spot."

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 2d

Thorough look at the history of the former name of the Washington Commanders, esp. as seen through the @merriam-webster.com files, from @stefanfatsis.bsky.social (whose new book about dictionaries is being published this week).

Defector @defector.com · 2d

The annotated history of a slur: defector.com/the-annotate...

The Annotated History Of A Slur | Defector

A few years ago, when the conversation over the racist nickname and racist iconography of the NFL team that maintained racist hiring policies longer than any other NFL team was a sad constant in the s...

defector.com

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Reposted by Jesse Sheidlower

Jon Danziger @danziger.bsky.social · 3d

“It *is* an acronym”

Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 3d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/

hammancheez @hammancheez.bsky.social · 3d

"The chancellor approved it"

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Reposted by Jesse Sheidlower

Stefan Fatsis @stefanfatsis.bsky.social · 4d

My new book, UNABRIDGED, published by @groveatlantic.bsky.social, is out! It took a long time to report and write and I'm proud of it and would be grateful if you bought it and would love to see people when I'm traveling to promote it. Consider this an official book thread

Jacket cover of Stefan Fatsis's new book, Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 5d

Do you have an allergy to LaTeX? Try groff instead!

(Shamelessly copied from @[email protected] on Mastodon.)

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 5d

The Ho

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 5d

By complete coincidence, I was at one of my favorite bars in Brooklyn, Tooker Alley, tonight, and they had the Diamondback on the menu! Of course it was great.

Photo of a bar menu including a barely visible description of the Diamondback cocktail, illuminated by candlelight, with a Diamondback-cocktail-containing Nick and Nora glass in the shot.

Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 5d

Here for @modaviau.bsky.social's NYC launch of her great new novel Epic and Lovely, at Lofty Pigeon Books in Kensington.

Also bought @davidwondrich.bsky.social's new Comic History while here. Support local bookstores!

Picture of Mo Daviau with Roohi Choudhry at Lofty Pigeon Books

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 5d

No, we had to close at the start of the pandemic, and haven't yet figured out what to do next. We have elaborate private events of various kinds, but nothing public.

Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 5d

www.newyorker.com/culture/anna...

The Top-Secret New York Bar That’s Only Big Enough for Two Customers

The Threesome Tollbooth is neither a theatrical experience nor an erotic one—it is, simply, a bar.

www.newyorker.com

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 5d

...wearing his professional bartender hat in this case...

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 5d

punchdrink.com/recipes/diam...

Diamondback Rye Whiskey Cocktail Recipe | PUNCH

The Diamondback is a classic rye whiskey, yellow Chartreuse and applejack cocktail recipe from the Lord Baltimore Hotel.

punchdrink.com

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 6d

New entries for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: the "retro-futurism" terms, to support upcoming entries. Mostly based on the OED entries (though "-futurist" is an antedating). 1980s–.

sfdictionary.com/view/3045/re...
sfdictionary.com/view/3052/re...
sfdictionary.com/view/3044/re...

Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction: retro-futurism

Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction

sfdictionary.com

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Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 6d

Very Wodehousian!

Jesse Sheidlower @jessesword.com · 6d

I was just able to log in and use OED without issue.