A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia
ESQUIVALIENCE, defined as “n. the willful avoidance of one’s official responsibilities,” is a fabricated word inserted into the 2001 first edition of the New Oxford American Dictionary to protect the copyright of the electronic edition. Erin McKean, the editor-in-chief of the second edition of the dictionary, said, “The editors figured, We’re all working really hard, so let’s put in a word that means ‘working really hard.’ Nothing materialized, so they thought, Let’s do the opposite.”
HIV VIRUS is an obvious redundancy, since the “v” stands for “virus.” Some other common redundancies which include an abbreviation are ATM MACHINE, SALT TALKS, START TALKS, VIN NUMBER, PIN NUMBER, AC CURRENT, DC CURRENT, ISBN NUMBER, DOS OPERATING SYSTEM, ABS BRAKING SYSTEM, DIMM MODULE (Dynamic Inline Memory Module), EFT TRANSFER (Electronic Funds Transfer), EMP PULSE (Electromagnetic Pulse), and MSDS SHEETS (Material Safety Data Sheet), DC COMICS (DC = Detective Comics). THE EL CAMINO HIGHWAY in California translates to “The the highway highway”. Since iterate means “to repeat,” REITERATE could be considered a redundancy.
No President of the United States has had a last name starting with S, even though it is the most common last name initial in the United States.
SUBBOOKKEEPER is the only word found in an English language dictionary with four pairs of double letters in a row.
