What’s a word for the act of being so focused on documenting an important event, such as a wedding or an eclipse, that your effort to capture it distracts from experiencing the event itself? The A Way with Words Facebook group has some creative suggestions, including devisolation (rhymes with isolation) and carpe tunnel syndrome. Another word making the rounds is uncaptured, referring to events where people are asked to leave off using their phones and cameras. Intermediation refers to how something mediates between event and observer. Overshadowing occurs when one thing eclipses another, as when a teacher tells a joke in class and the students remember the joke but not the actual lesson. This is part of a complete episode.
According to Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English (Bookshop|Amazon) by Ben Yagoda, the word smarmy, meaning “unctuous” or “ingratiating,” may come from a 19th-century magazine contest, in which readers sent in...
Mary Beth in Greenville, South Carolina, wonders: Why do we say four-oh-nine for the number 409 instead of four-zero-nine or four-aught-nine? What are the rules for saying either zero or oh or aught or ought to indicate that arithmetical symbol...
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