I was reading Wired magazine--a tech geek mag I've been reading online for over a decade and in print, strangely, for just two years--when I saw it:

Some Choice $1-a-Letter Words

Being of indelicate mind (and thinking about all my favorite words), I was, of course, hooked. So, I read further. It was an article about the Big Word Project, hatched by University of Ulster-Belfast students, Paddy Donnelley and Lee Monroe. When you buy a word from the dictionary-like site, you can then link it to any other site which becomes the word's new "definition."

Here are a few of my favorites:

"Idiot" links to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush (of course),

"Steriod" links to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Clemens (ouch!),

"Geekier" links to wired.com (they're very pleased with themselves about this), and

"Faggot" links to Indiana's own Bilerico.com (they're snatching back this hateful word)

Two weeks into the launch, they've sold words as short as "a" ($1) to "zyzzyva ($7).

Bilericites (er, Bilericonians), we love you. Rock on!

(Now if I can figure out where I'd want to point "nigger" and "bitch"....)

Lalita Amos's blog | login or register to post comments