FURLOUGH

[Dr. Goodword]

• furlough •

Pronunciation: fêr-lo • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. An official leave of absence from an organization such as the army or a company, permission to leave a job temporarily. 2. A document authorizing such a leave.

Notes: Today's word may be used as a verb with no change: "Thirty office workers were furloughed until Christmas." I see no reason why we couldn't speak of someone being furloughable, though only a handful of people have shown the nerve to do so. Furloughable makes room for furloughability, of course.

In Play: If you are in the military, you always look forward to a furlough: "Sosmeier got a furlough in Paris, but I didn't didn't get time off until we returned to Ft. Bragg." In fact, because of its positive connotation, this word is being used more and more in business as a euphemism for temporary lay-offs: "The board of regents notified administrators, including college presidents, vice presidents and deans, that they could be targeted for a furlough." After which they can rejoin their troops in the trenches.

Word History: Today's Good Word was borrowed from Middle Dutch verlof, which was borrowed from the German word Verlaub "permission, leave". German -laub, as in Urlaub "leave, vacation", Dutch lof "praise", and English leave (as in "by your leave") came from the same root, leubh- "like, love". This root also produced English lief as in "I would as lief go now" meaning, "I would prefer or like it better to go now." We find the same root in belief, something else we hold dear or love. All these words are also related to English love and German Lieben. (We hope Riutaro F. Aida does not go on furlough but keeps sending us great words like this one for our series.)

[Slava]

As this can be used as a verb, can't we also have furlougher and furloughee?

These do make me want to pronounce the -ough as -uff, though.

[LukeJavan8]

...got to love the 'ough'.

[Perry Lassiter]

How long before we drop the extra letters? Many, including me, spell foneticly in texts, Tweets, and stuff.

[Slava]

I hope never.

[LukeJavan8]

I'll piggy back on that. Never, I hope.

foneticly?
fonetikly! or fonetiqly?
who makes the standard, and picks what is phonetic?

Language breakdowns become dialects.
Witness LATIN = Spanish, Catalan, Romansch, French, Portuguese, Provencal, Italian, Romanian, etc. When Latin
was the Lingua Franca of the Roman Empire all could understand each other. But when the Empire died
(officially in 476 CE) languages developed according to
the separate regions of the Empire no longer connected
to a central source. The same can happen here. Textese
can become a second language, or English to texters.



I cannot and will not read textese, So people who do use
it are breaking away from mainstream. Language has
divided always. Do you ken? Is that word understandable?
And so dialects develop. And then some will change it
because something upsets the cart, something new will
develop which is not phonetic in textese. And texters
will not be able to read English. As a teacher I experienced
many who could not write in English, and some probably
lost out, because their grades showed it. If I could not
read it, they did not learn, and they had grades which showed
that lack of performance.

[misterdoe]

Sorry, Luke, I doona ken.

Seriously, though, I pretty much agree with you. I text and Tweet but I spell things out. I want to make sure I'm understood though I will stoop to an occasional "u" when texting my brother. But he started it...

[Slava]

misterdoe, you're "doona ken" makes me realized that in a way we have been doing a lot of such writing all along. How else can writers put across the idea that someone is of such and such a class, or from such and such an area or place. I can easily see someone using "doona ken" for some sort of stereotyped speech pattern. I doona ken just which, but it's there.

[misterdoe]

That's a Scotland dialect of English -- and maybe the Scots language too, I don't know.

Just remembered another exchange from Big Bang Theory:

• Sheldon: (to Penny) Woman, you are dealing with forces beyond your ken.
  Penny: Yeah, well, your Ken can kiss my Barbie.

(Don't do it, Sheldon, your lips will get burnt pretty bad. )

[Slava]

I originally wrote Irish, so it's perhaps good I made it neutral?

[Philip Hudson]

Perry, say it isn't so. A man of your erudite nature touting spelling reform! What's next, free love and nickel beer?

[LukeJavan8]