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Grammar Moses: Share your hobby's jargon with Oxford English Dictionary

A while back I wrote about how the Oxford English Dictionary, in celebration of its 90th birthday, is soliciting new entries.

Any 90-year-old could probably use a little modernization. Am I right?

The OED's first quest this year was for regionalisms - those fun words and sayings that are unique to a certain area. I asked that you send me your favorite regionalisms first and then dutifully ship your ideas to the editors at the OED. I'm all for celebrating dictionaries, but my column comes first.

I heard from Yinzers and Yoopers, Bay Staters and Cheeseheads, and many others.

The OED's latest appeal for words seeks to bolster its coverage of the language of hobbies - not necessarily the technical terms but the slang that becomes part of the hobbyists' shared language.

I have three brothers-in-law who are gear heads and Harley-Davidson riders. Put them all in a room and all I can add to the conversation is what I picked up in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," which offers little of value in the realm of motorcycle repair.

They speak a language I can't comprehend, and that's not only because my motorcycle is a fourth the size of theirs.

I bet you are neck-deep in a hobby that has its own language.

The OED is looking specifically for words associated with beekeeping, brewing, preserving, canning, pickling, sewing, dressmaking, interior design, quilting, knitting, gaming, cycling and ballroom dance.

I can only imagine how boring their office parties must be if the editors don't know anything about these hobbies.

My former sister-in-law, Tila, makes beautiful quilts up in Mequon, Wisconsin. I asked her for some help in priming the pump. Here are a couple of my favorites:

• A "fat quarter" is a cut piece of fabric that measures approximately 18 inches by 22 inches, she said. Most fabric shops sell fat quarters. For a quilter, it offers a variety of fabric without a big investment in yardage.

• A "fussy cut" is not what you call trimming the crusts off a 4-year-old's Wonder Bread and peanut butter sandwich. In the quilting world, it's cutting out a specific area of a fabric to use an image or motif from the fabric.

Please email me your favorite hobby terms, along with explanations. And then do the same for the OED. Here is where you can find its online submission form: <URL destination="https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/uMjwCzpl8NUr0jqC7-MaD?domain=public.oed.com">https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/uMjwCzpl8NUr0jqC7-MaD?domain=public.oed.com

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Or, if you tweet, just use the hashtag #hobbywords.

Ted talk

Those of you who read this column regularly will remember Ted "The Dictionary Man" Utchen. Ted has many hot buttons, but none hotter than this:

"All the time I read in the newspapers that someone graduated high school or graduated college. This is my hottest button."

See, I told you.

"Back when I was a little boy, before you were born, we all graduated FROM our high school and FROM our college. Now, of course, the school graduated a lot of students. But the students graduated FROM that school. Semantically speaking, what happened that changed everything? This might well be one of the greatest contributions you will ever make to society."

Some would say my greatest contribution to society would be the suspension of this column. Sorry, folks - not today.

Using Ted's wording, I compared the prevalence of "graduated high school" and "graduated from high school" with Google's handy </iframe>">Ngram Viewer.

It shows that neither phrase existed in literature until about 1890 (puzzling) but the correct "graduated from" form grew steadily since then, and the shortcut has grown from nothing to a trickle since roughly 1964 when I was 2 years old. By 2000, the correct form was being used 13 times as often.

Of course, the words written in books tend to be much more formal (and edited) than the words we use in conversation, especially in the age of texting, when seemingly everything can be expressed with fewer syllables or taps of the thumb.

So, IMHO, that's Y U hear the shorter version IRL.

Write carefully!

• Jim Baumann is vice president/managing editor of the Daily Herald. Write him at jbaumann@dailyherald.com. Put Grammar Moses in the subject line. You also can friend or follow Jim at facebook.com/baumannjim.

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