Terminology - WOTTIES 2022 - Cambridge Dictionary "homer"

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The Cambridge Dictionary has selected homer as the 2022 Word Of The Year (WOTY). Nothing new about this word in the United States, where it has been a winner, at least since the dawn of baseball. 

A homer is a home run, originally in baseball, one of America’s favorite sports. Indeed, a homer is scored when the batter is able to hit the ball with such force that s/he is able to run through all the bases to home base, in a single bat. When all the bases are loaded with previous players, a homer also scores points for each player, moving to home base. The YouTube video below shows Aaron Judge's 62nd home run, on Oct. 4, 2022. A homer, marking a record-breaking streak for any single player, in a single-season of American League professional baseball. 

What is extraordinary about the selection of homer (not Homer, the Greek) as WOTY in 2022, is that searches for the word homer, at the online Cambridge Dictionary website, were reported to have spiked to 65,000, in a single day, on May 4th, when homer was wordle in the free, Internet word-guessing game, called Wordle®. An increase in searches that made homer the 2022 WOTY, in part because Cambridge Dictionary selects WOTTIES based on the qualitative and quantitative observation of terms searched online at the dictionary’s website, and in part because the American-English term homer threw so many British-English speakers into search mode.

However, you might also be wondering, what is Wordle®? Alternatively, why isn’t wordle, or the verb to wordle, the 2022 WOTY? After all, Wordle® is a word-guessing game that has taken over the Internet, even prompting the New York Times to purchase the online game for a low-seven figure. (Cunningham, 1-30-2022).

Briefly, in response to the first question about the Wordle® game: Josh Wardle’s Wordle®, is a cross between crossword puzzle and the Wheel of Fortune. An empty grid of 5 by 6 squares enables players to guess the 5-letter wordle of the day, in six attempts. The only clues provided are also the instructions, included below:

To answer the second question about the term wordle (noun or verb) not making the 2022 WOTY cut, the reason is probably that too few people queried the Cambridge Dictionary for the term wordle, preventing the word from even becoming a 2022 WOTY candidate. In fact, all of the searches that spiked for 2022 WOTY candidates were apparently other five-letter wordles. Wordles such as bayou, tacit, caulk and humor, with American-English spelling reported to have driven some of the searches, together with a bit of British-English speaker annoyance for getting stumped. Conversely, searches for the wordle bloke, the British-English equivalent of fellow in American-English, were also reported to have spiked, the wordle bloke, this time having vexed folks from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. 

References

Cunningham, A. (1-31-2022) NYTimes spends low seven figure to by Wordle. NY Times
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/01/whats-a-five-letter-word-for-acquire-nyt-buys-wordle-for-low-7-figures/

The Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year 2022
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/editorial/woty

Rosenberg, A. (Oct. 3, 2022). What’s Wordle? Here’s everything you need to know.
https://mashable.com/article/wordle-word-game-what-is-it-explained (since Oct, 2021 – John Wardle – inventor)

Breaking good news! Slaughter-free meat

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

UPSIDE Foods Inc has just received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for the marketing of lab-grown meat. In a nutshell, this means the availability of real chicken (and in the future, beef, porc, or duck), grown from animal cells in a laboratory, without hurting, force-feeding, or slaughtering animals.

The UPSIDE Foods Inc website makes it all sound very easy. Primary cells from a chicken, or fertilized egg, are sampled. Ideal cells for establishing a commercial cell line are selected. The cells are nourished with a proprietary cell-culture medium. Then, the cells are cultivated, in a cultivator, at the right temperature and oxygen levels. About three weeks later, the cultivated tissue is harvested from the cultivator, and any leftover cell medium is removed. Currently, the resulting tissue is chicken muscle. In the future, the harvested tissue might be beef, duck, or porc, each product ready to be “inspected, prepared, packed, served, and enjoyed”.

Indeed, the fabrication process even appears easier than the problem of scaling production for mass consumption. At the end of the day, many people, not necessarily vegetarians, are eagerly waiting for 100% real meat that is also 100% cruelty-free (i.e.; does not involve killing any animals).

UPSIDE Foods Inc meat is a patented invention. At least three patent applications recite the UPSIDE Foods Inc cultivated meat invention, each patent awarded to groups of scientists at UPSIDE Foods Inc:

• US20210235733A1 - Characteristics of meat products.
• US20220073870A1 - Nutrient media for the production of slaughter-free meat.
• US20220333081A1 - Generation of cell-based products for consumption that comprise proteins from exotic, endangered, and extinct species.

Below, an UPSIDE Foods Inc image of harvested chicken tissue, both raw, and prepared for delectable human consumption. 

References

Reynolds, M. (Nov. 16, 2022). A Lab-Grown Meat Startup Gets the FDA’s Stamp of Approval. Wired Magazine.

https://www.wired.com/story/lab-grown-meat-approval/

UPSIDE Foods Inc. (website)
https://upsidefoods.com/

Oh, patents! Squaregles® Oggs™!

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Squaregles® magnetic building-tile kits might be combined with manipulable, multi-piece toy sets with interchangeable parts, called OGGS™. These small cuties comprise three independent and cooperating parts: 1. a head with face features, 2. a base such as a toy robotic body part, or a toy car part, and 3. an attachment part such as a helmet or hair, serving to connect the head and base parts. The OGGS™ are thus designed to be manually, and easily, assembled, re-assembled, configured and re-configured, to roll around, or to stay put, according to a child’s fantasy play world, and available interchangeable parts.

OGGS™ are a patented invention. The US utility patent, US20190217212A1, titled Manipulable multi-piece toy, was awarded, on July 18, 2019, to Joseph Kelley and Noah Ornstein, both OGGS™ inventors. The invention seeks to provide a toy that is easily manipulated and produced, while still remaining customizable, adjustable, reconfigurable, and usable in different play worlds. For example, the OGGS™ spherical head part with face features is also made of rubber, so that it can be used as a small ball that bounces, or a marble that rolls around, independently from a base or attachment part.  Base or attachment parts, which once connected or reconnected to the OGGS™ spherical head, provide their many different identities, for example, as an alien, a robot, a humanoid, a pilot, a driver or boat captain. The patent thus discloses some of the possibly boundless OGGS™ assemblies and configurations.

The patent Figure 1 displays an exploded view of a manipulable, multi-piece OGGS™ toy 10, in a disassembled configuration. The disassembled OGGS™ toy configuration 10 comprises a spherical (head) part 12 with face features 26, a base part 14, embodied as a car with wheels 32, and axle 38, and an attachment part 16, embodied as a helmet. The attachment (helmet) 16, has a housing 50, with a hollow cavity 24, designed to cooperate with the upper portion 42 of the spherical (head) part 12. The base (car) 14 has a receiving seat or depression 20, forming a recess 46, designed to cup the lower portion 36 of the spherical (head) part 12. The spherical (head) part 12 is secured within the depression 20, of the base (car) 14, using the extensions 28 of the attachment (helmet) 16. The extensions 28, of the attachment (helmet) 16, are designed to cooperate with the tabs 30 of the base (car) 14. The extensions 28 of the attachment (helmet) 16, are further equipped with small beads 44, which engage the fastening elements 18 of the base (car) 14, comprising small depressions 40, on the tabs 30. Thus, children are able to snap all the parts together and to pull them apart, to exchange and reconfigure their OGGS™, in their play.

The scope of the Squaregles® OGGS™ invention extends to many varying bases 14, such as, for example, trucks, tractors, cycles, motorcycles, rail crafts, boats, personal watercrafts, snow mobiles, spacecrafts or surfboards, as well as varying bases in the shape of animal, insect, robotic or humanoid bodies. Likewise, many different sorts of attachment pieces 16, designed to cooperate with the bases 14, for the purposes of securing the spherical OGGS™ parts 12 (i.e., heads with facial expressions), also fall within the scope the OGGS™ invention. 

Below, a YouTube video, all about OGGS™, together with the abstract of the invention. 

A manipulable multi-piece toy having a spherical body that is removably captured between a base and an attachment member is provided. The base and the attachment member are configured to have portions of a coupling element associated therewith. The base also has a depression with curvature for receiving and securely retaining a first portion of the spherical body in its assembled configuration. In some configurations, the depression comprises a seat with geometry that mates with geometry of the spherical body. By one approach, the base includes a vehicular or figure body. In another aspect, the attachment member includes, for example, a helmet, a hat, a headdress, hair, horns, ears, and/or a mask. [Abstract US20190217212A1]

Reference
Squaregles® (website)
https://squaregles.com/

Oh, patents! Squaregles® frames

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The design of Squaregles® frames is also patented. The US design patent USD867263S1, titled Toy building frame, was awarded on November 19, 2022, to John Kelley and Noah Ornstein, both co-founders of Squaregles® and the inventors of the construction toy. 

The patent figure below depicts two embodiments of the triangular Squaregles® frames, where oblique lines represent transparent or translucent pieces, and broken lines represent aspects of the design, unclaimed in the patent. Images of boxed Squaregles® construction triangles, and of children assembling the magnetic triangle frames and panels, are also  included.

 

USD867263S1

As a reminder, a design patent only covers the ornamental aspects of an invention (i.e., what the invention looks like) vs a utility patent that describes how the invention functions (i.e., what the invention does). (MPEP Section 1502.01)

References

MPEP – Chapt. 1502-01 - Distinction between design and utility patent.   https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s1502.html 

Squaregles® (website)

https://squaregles.com/

Oh, patents! Squaregles® panels

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The designs of Squaregles® magnetic building panels are also patented inventions. For example, the US design patent, USD868169S1, titled Toy building panel, covers two embodiments of a Squaregels® tower panel. The patent was awarded on Nov. 26, 2019, to Joseph Kelley and Noah Ornstein, both cofounders of Squaregles®, and the inventors of the Squaregles® construction game. 

The patent figure drawings below show two embodiments of the invention design. The oblique lines appearing on one of the figures indicate a transparent or translucent surface, whereas broken lines, on both embodiments, indicate aspects of the design that are unprotected. The patent figures are shown together with the image of a marketed Squaregles®  set, showing the patented design panels assembled as a translucent yellow tower.  

Reference
Squaregles® (website)
https://squaregles.com/

Oh, patents! Squaregles®

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Pop! Click! Snap! Squaregles® magnetic frames, panels, bridge clips, and Oggs™, are all about building, imagination, problem-solving, and Getting lost in play®. Award-winning, STEAM(1) toy, Squaregles® is also a patented invention.

The US utility patent, US10918963B2, titled Magnetic building tiles, granted to Noah Ornstein and Joseph Kelley, on February 16, 2021, is one of a dozen patents, reciting the Squaregles® invention. Specifically, this patent discloses all the various toy-building components of the Squaregles® invention, in 95 patent figure sheets, the 15-page description of their endless combinations, and 44 claims. 

Compared to the prior art of toy building kits that might replicate a particular model, the Squaregles® toy building kits are designed to combine and recombine endlessly, according to a child’s fantasy and imagination-at-play. Furthermore, Squaregles® are not only reconfigurable, the building kits are also customizable and alterable, according to each child’s creativity. Thus, for example, the building tiles not only connect and disconnect, using magnets, clips or other means, the tile frames are also connectable to varying building elements. Similarly, tile panels can also be colored, decorated and graphically altered.

Below, the patent Figure 2 depicts an exploded square magnetic tile 10, comprising a tile frame 12 and an exploded tile panel 18 with two tile panel walls, 26 and 28. The tile frame 12, in Figure 2, is shown comprising two portions, 14 and 16, which may be connected together, using the connection mechanism 22. A releasable, snap-fit, magnetic connection 22, comprising two joint portions, 32 and 34, that are designed to mate. The snap-fit connection mechanism 22 of the two tile frame portions, 14 and 16, enables to securely bring a tile panel 18, together with a tile frame 12. Conversably, the snap-fit magnetic connection 22 is also releasable, so that tile panels are removable and exchangeable, when both portions of the tile frame, 14 and 16, are pulled apart.

The Figure 2 further depicts a series of brick-shaped magnets 20, inserted inside the sides of the tile frame 12. The inserted magnets 20 enable one side of a magnetic tile 10 to connect with the side of another magnetic tile 10, also square, or of triangular shape. Within the sides of the tile frame portions, 14 and 16, the magnets 20 might otherwise have different cylindrical or spherical shapes, so that they are able to rotate, in view of adjusting their polarity, when in contact with the magnets of other building tiles.

The abstract of the Squaregles® invention is included below.

A building system includes a plurality of building tiles and / or connectors that are magnetically and releasably connectable to one another. The magnetic building tiles are comprised of a tile frame and a tile panel. The tile frame, by one approach, is comprised of two connectable frame portions or elements having magnets embedded therein. The first and second frame elements are connectable to one another through a snap, clip, or another similar connection mechanism. The first and second frame elements are connectable around or into the tile panel, which is removable from the magnetic building tile. The tile panel or the tile frame has a channel into which the other of the tile panel or tile frame extends to secure the two pieces together. In another approach, the tile frame is a single element and the tile panel may snap or attach thereto, such as, for example, through fasteners or friction. [Abstract US10918963B2]

Note

(1) The Acronym STEAM indicates a toy that requires the application of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math, while building.

Reference
Squaregles® (website)
https://squaregles.com/

Terminology - WOTTIES 2022 - The Collins shortlist (2)

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The Word of the Year (WOTY) shortlist is no less interesting than the winner of them all. Especially this year, since the terms shortlisted are all related to permacrisis, the Collins WOTY selected for 2022.

Below, the shortlist of the 9 words that competed with permacrisis, together with the Collins animated gif files and jpeg stills, illustrating each of them. The list includes 5 additional neologisms, added to the Collins Dictionary in 2022: partygate, lawfare, warm bank, quiet quitting and splooting.

• partygate: [noun, informal] 

• carolean: [adjective; origin from the Latin Carolus meaning Charles] 

• Kiev: [noun] 

• lawfare: [noun] 

• quiet quitting: [noun, informal] 

• splooting: [noun, slang] 

• sportwashing: [noun, informal] 

• vibe shift: [noun, slang] 

warm bank: [noun] 

References

The Collins Word of the Year is…

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/woty

Shariatmadari, D. (Nov. 1, 2022). A year of permacrisis - Collins – Language Lovers Blog.

https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/language-lovers/a-year-of-permacrisis/

Terminology - WOTTIES 2022 - Permacrisis - Collins English Dictionary (1)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann 

The Collins English Dictionary has selected the neologism permacrisis, as the winning 2022 Word of the Year (WOTY). According to Collins, the term permacrisis, is defined as "an extended period of crisis and instability“, which sums up “just how truly awful 2022 has been for so many people.” A difficult year, not only in the United Kingdom specifically, where the third Prime Minister has just moved to Downing Street, but also in the world at large. 

Record high inflation, driving prices up, and overshadowing miraculous recovery from the COVID 19 pandemic; the horrific invasion of Ukraine, bringing famine in the Third World, and everyone else on the brink of nuclear warfare; climate crisis with once-in-a-century floods in parts of Australia, South East Asia and Venezuela.… that is permacrisis in 2022 —the opposite of stability and security. 

Below, the Collins animated Gif for permacrisis, showing some of the major 2022 disasters, cascading inexorably on a conveyor belt. As Shariatmadari stated on the Collins' Language Lover's Blog, the term permacrisis "perfectly embodies the dizzying sense of lurching from one unprecedented event to another, wondering what new horrors might be around the corner."

References

Collins Permacrisis gif file.
https://resources.collins.co.uk/Dictionary/WOTY22/22.10.21_6709%20HARP_PERMACRISIS_RF_V3.gif

Milman, O. et al. (Oct. 20, 2022). ‘Nature is striking back’: flooding around the world, from Australia to Venezuela. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/20/flooding-world-climate-crisis-australia-venezuela-nigeria

Shariatmadari, D. (Nov. 1, 2022). A year of permacrisis. Collins – Language Lovers Blog.

https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/language-lovers/a-year-of-permacrisis/

Suliman A. (Nov. 1, 2022). ‘Permacrisis’ is a dictionary’s word of the year in ‘truly awful’ 2022. The Washington Post. 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/11/01/permacrisis-2022-word-year-collins-dictionary/