Happy Monday! My head is sort of full so this is going to be a bit of a mish-mash, but not a monster mash, that’s not until Halloween. Maybe it’s a pre-March madness mash. No, wait, it’s a Monday mash! See how things are?
I love my weekly World Wide Words newsletter. There is always a “weird word.” The weird word from this last weekend’s issue is “Phrop.” Phrop is a word that will find a happy place in my vocabulary. A phrop is one of those lying phrases we say to be polite but really mean the opposite. You know, when you see someone and say “we have to do lunch sometime” or “we have to be better at keeping in touch” when what you really mean is “I would be really happy if I never saw you again for the rest of my life.” Some might call these fibs or white lies. But phrops are more than that. Phropish phrases also include things like “with all due respect” “no doubt” and “needless to say.” One of the most famous double-edged phrops comes from Benjamin Disraeli (but it has been attributed to many others): “Thank you for sending me your book, I shall lose no time in reading it.” Heh.
Lest we forget that librarians do more for us than recommend books to read and help us find the answers to some of our most pressing questions, they also fight for our rights. The latest rumble in library world is a bill of rights for e-book users. Librarians are beginning to stand up and argue with publishers for our right to actually own the e-books we buy for our Kindles and Nooks and iPads and what not. They are advocating that the first-sale doctrine be extended to digital content, that an e-book owner has the right to “retain, archive, share, and re-sell purchased e-books.” So next time you visit the library, be sure to thank the librarian (they are not adverse to cookies or other sweets, they will tell you otherwise and refuse to take the gift but they will be secretly delighted and talk about it all day).
The date with Turbo Tax Friday night went well. He was nice to us this year. So nice that there will probably be a book shopping afternoon in the near future. And the annual plant sale Bookman and I always go to will be especially green this year.
On Saturday I finished reading Trollope’s The Warden. I quite enjoyed it. On Sunday I finished reading Hafiz. He is coming really close to pushing Rumi off to the side. I have begun reading William Gibson’s Neuromancer and am enjoying it very much. It’s been far too long since I’ve read a really good scifi book.
Now I’m off to work on school. TTFN!
Phrop – what a great word! Not that I would ever use one of those phrases
Yay for money for book shopping. I still need to work on taxes but instead of doing that I was organizing my studio yesterday and cleaning. Now that tells you, I really don’t want to work on taxes! ha.
The Warden is such a quirky little book. I enjoy it too, even though it feels kind of teetery at times. I’ve adopted Archdeacon Grantly’s “Good Heavens!”–works for many occasions.
That’s very interesting about rights for ebook users. I’ve started buying and reading more through Kobo (they work on my Sony Reader and my iPad, which is a plus)–but thinking that I don’t really “own” them makes me a bit fretful at times. So far I’m mostly sticking to hard copies for books I feel strongly about, but books I’m reading on spec or might otherwise have bought used or borrowed from the library I’m OK with having in ebook only. If I knew I owned them outright (and could use / lend / give away etc. as I chose, as I do with a paper book), I would be willing to buy more (and probably pay more)–it seems to me that these limits on use are hampering the growth of the market for ebooks, but hey, I’m only a reader, not a publishing exec, so what do I know.
Phrop – what more can I say! I shall have to go and investigate this site immediately. I love new words. Thank you.
Iliana, I’m sure neither of us would ever use a phrop!
I completely understand procrastinating when it comes to taxes. I have done it before myself!
Rohan, quirky is a good way to describe The Warden and “good heavens” a handy phrase. Don’t short yourself as “only a reader” when it comes to e-books. The fact that you would be willing to pay more for e-books if it meant that you owned them like a paer book is an important point that publishers are not paying attention to and really should.
Annie, phrop is not only a useful word but it is also fun to say, isn’t it?
I am unable to find a single dictionary reference to “phrop.” Is there one?
Richard, it’s not in the OED but it’s in Wikipedia so that counts right?
It has appeared in the New Yorker in 1952. It’s one of those infrequently used words that seems to be kind of slangy so it’s no real surprise it doesn’t show up in a dictionary.
It reminds me of the Farsi word, taarof. I assume you speak Farsi. Of course, it is what we often mean by ironic. Thank you for the Wikipedia reference. I will send you a winning lottery ticket if you can tell me the 1952 New Yorker piece and that’s not a phrop.
Footnote: I found the New Yorker reference–Geoffrey T. Hellman, The Talk of the Town, “Phrop Collector”, The New Yorker, 20 December 1952, p. 25
I’ll send myself the winning lottery ticket. Is that a phrop?
You beat me to the citation. Guess I don’t get that winning lottery ticket. And see, there are now phrops everywhere!
thanks for the link to the Librarians bill of rights. I’ve been following the ebook controversy with worry…
Any idea what the origin of the word phrop is? I saw the New Yorker citation, but I wonder what inspired someone to use that particular word. It’s a great concept, but a very strange word! All the ebook and library stuff is very interesting, and also distressing; I understand that everything is in flux right now, but I don’t like the idea of libraries being harmed in any way and the possibility of not really owning my ebooks!
Rebecca, ebooks are a big worry. I would have hoped that the publishing industry would have learned a lessong from all the DRM problems the music industry had. But they probably think they can somehow get what they want without making the same mistakes.
Dorothy, I don’t know what the origin of phrop is. It seems to have been coined by a person and isn’t all that old. I don’t like the idea of not being able to own ebooks either. That’s one reason I haven’t bought one yet.
I love that quote and must remember it. I’m adding phrop to my vocabulary, too! You never know when it might come in handy. We are getting more and more ebooks at my library–one of the agreements for a group of them through one vendor is they only get a certain number of check outs. Once they are all used we have to be bought again. And they do indeed or may at any time disappear from the catalog. They Do need to work some of these things out!
Danielle, isn’t it excellent? I wish I could be half so witty. I do believe it is the publisher that is responsible for that little trick of having to re-buy the ebooks after so many check outs. I think it is Harper Collins, but don’t quote me on that.