foxgrrl: (Default)
foxgrrl ([personal profile] foxgrrl) wrote2006-10-21 04:57 pm
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Esquivalience!

I have discovered a new word to use… ESQUIVALIENCE!

Esquivalience, esquivalience, esquivalience, esquivalience! Doesn't that sound so cool? What's even cooler is that it's a totally fake word that some dictionary publisher — New Oxford American Dictionary — inserted into the 2001 edition for copyright reasons. (To prove when someone copies their list of facts about English words. You see, because facts about the universe are not [supposed to be] covered by copyright, but there was a court case [with a phone company I've forgotten] that established a precedent for the copyright of lists of facts.) Cartographers would use this trick of placing false landmarks on maps to prove ownership of the facts about where things are located.

So you see; One of the evils of copyright is encouraging this practice of inserting deliberate falsehoods into lists of fact, and other reference materials.

Anyway, I discovered this while trying to look up for Nyah what the actual term was for the false-landmarks-on-a-map was — I'm still not certain. She thought that "esquivalience" would just be a synonym for "equivalence", or as I like to think of it: Esquivalience is esquivalent to the word equivalence. But sadly, no, it does have a real meaning, which is this:

esquivalience
The willful avoidance of one's official responsibilities.


I don't care if it's my responsibility to use words in their official ways; I'm going to continue to use "Esquivalent" in place of "Equivalent".

Speaking of skipping out on my official responsibilities; I'm kinda thinking of skipping YaoiCon tonight, and maybe just going tomorrow. I need some downtime, someday, sometime, and I've been working or traveling, or partying every moment for the last month; It seems.


Update:
Oops, I forgot to mention…

In celebration of this tradition, I will begin to randomly post completely untrue entries in my journal. (This has really been my intention all along, but I've only had time to tell the truth so far…)

[identity profile] l-stboy.livejournal.com 2006-10-22 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
Esquivalient... you get to be my hero all week :)
elf: Can't spell slaughter without laughter (Slaughter)

[personal profile] elf 2006-10-22 01:38 am (UTC)(link)
So... "esquivalience" is a fancy way to spell "LJ?"

[identity profile] trema-slo.livejournal.com 2006-10-22 07:18 am (UTC)(link)
How interesting you'all discovered this. I used to insert stuff like that back when I was editor of a talent & arts directory. keeps honest folks honest i suppose. That is the esquivalient thing, isn't it? for me, yeah, as a public employee it would be.

random false journal entries, that's great, and I think i will start doing that too! I think I fell for that a few times elsewhere in lj-land already. LMAO.

Speaking of downtime this weekend i finally got some. Yay for sleep and around the house tasks! Take care of your-self, sweet.

bonjour lady,
T.L.

[identity profile] tlttlotd.livejournal.com 2006-10-22 08:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Sort of like map publishers putting fictional towns on maps for the same reason.