A few stolen minutes out of your day to talk words and communication, because our daily lives are surrounded by the evolution and influence of words. Forget the grammar police. There is so much more to this conversation. Episode #44 – Pleased as Punchy Punch with a Drink & the Latest in Words You Should Know Approximate transcript: Welcome to episode number 44. I’m pleased as Punch that I’m back, though I’m, of course, not nearly as aggressive as the origins of that expression. “Pleased as Punch.” Sparked from violence? From a spiked party drink? No. Well, not quite how you’d think. Punch drunk. Feeling punchy. Punch lines. So many stories, and we’re not pulling punches in today’s conversation, but first, after such a long break, let’s dive into… The Latest in Word, Language & Writing News Now, you’d think when it comes to news about the English language, that a few months of summer break wouldn’t be that dramatic. This language of ours, or a version of it, has been around for an incredibly long time. Yet… we have so much to discuss. We’ve talked about how artificial intelligence models have been advancing when it comes to natural language processing, how GPT-3 threw the world for a loop, being able to generate sentences, poetry, news articles, textbooks, and so much more. Some panicked. Many were excited. Many more were perhaps confused. Either way, GPT-3 from OpenAI will go down in the history books as a defining moment of transformation when it comes to machine-learning and language processing. Now in August, (and I’m recording this in September 2021 so future listeners have that in perspective), in August 2021, Tel Aviv-based artificial intelligence startup AI21 Labs introduced a program they’ve named “Jurassic,” which released as an “open beta,” meaning there are far fewer restrictions for access, as compared to GPT-3, which requires wait lists and similar hurdles. With different parameters, “Jurassic” is said to have more “depth” and “expressivity,” but we’ll see what happens next. There is so much to follow with AI language technology. Not only who the players are and what the technology can do, but what does this mean for the ease of creating fake news, the continuation of past biases captured in the many texts these systems are using as the foundation of their learning, and on the positive side, how these tools can be used to take storytelling and communication to heights not yet imagined. More on all sides of this conversation coming soon. And speaking of discoveries that are transforming our understandings of things, did you hear that experts have recently decoded a 700-year old King Arthur manuscript, one of the earliest versions of the tales, which had its pages recycled into the bindings of four volumes of French philosophy texts? The discovery was made in 2019, but the text has only recently been taken apart, with the roots of so much we know about Camelot, as well as some fascinating differences. A romance for Merlin? Oh yeah, that’s there and more. There’s so much more to cover—and links to everything I’ve mentioned are in the show notes on my website—but I’ll save further explorations for the next episode. It’s time to dive into to today’s… English Language History & Trivia Did you know September 20th is National Rum Punch Day? No? Well, as I’m recording this on September 20th, maybe I’ll just have to raise a glass when I turn off my microphone—nope, no ice cubes clinking in the background at the moment, but cheers to you all the same. The word “punch,” as in the drink, most likely comes from a Sanskrit word (pañc), meaning “five.” Why “five”? Well, it’s said the drink was originally made from five ingredients: alcohol, sugar, lemon, water, and either tea or spices, depending on the source. High five to that? Or are you now thinking about being punch drunk? Perfect association, I know, but the expression “punch drunk” doesn’t come from drinking too much alcoholic punch at a seventeenth century British literary salon or a twentieth or twenty-first century frat party. Much like “slap happy,” which first arose in the 1930s, “punch drunk” was first coined in the 1910s, in reference to mental impairment after repeated blows to the head. Yikes. I know there’s a lot of history there, but boxing is not my sport. Not my cup of tea—or should I say, not my cup of punch? So “punch,” the drink, comes from Sanskrit, but “punch” as in a jab, as in a one-two punch, body blow, or any other version of a forceful strike, this word comes from a Middle English word (pouncen) meaning to “emboss” or “pierce.” Think about a hole puncher, and you’ll see the connection. Then jump that forceful piercing or embossing action into a verb form with your fist, and there you go… or at least that seems to be the story. “Punch” actually shares a similar etymological root with the...
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14 mins