Madison, Wisconsin: Semantic Capital of the World?
A friend of mine recently introduced me to CityDictionary.com, a Web site kind of like UrbanDictionary.com catering to regional definitions. In addition to Madison staples like Grainger High, Coasties, and the Virgin Vault, I learned the true identity of Scanner Dan.
For some odd reason, I always thought Scanner Dan was that old wily-looking guy who runs around town like Forrest Gump, but it turns out he is someone completely different. Scanner Dan and Running Man (a.k.a. Yeti Sighting), if you are reading this now, I apologize for the mix up. My bad.
The funny thing about CityDictionary.com is that Madison is the #1 city for users and contributors. Apparently our little city is full of semantic enthusiasts like me.
I’ve been trying for many years to coin a new term that becomes the buzzword of the week. My closest mainstream attempt was the word “taut” as in “The cargo net was difficult to climb because the ropes were not taut.” Instead, I used it to describe something cool or awesome like “That club had great music. I mean it was seriously taut, dude.”
I eventually learned that one must have some kind of authority on the subject for people to take you seriously. Not being cool or awesome myself, the adjective quickly fell into oblivion.
But there is hope. I am currently awaiting a peer review from UrbanDictionary.com to get the term “todash” added to the lexicon. Specifically, “todash” is what happens to a cell in a spreadsheet that does not compute correctly even though the formula is entered properly and you’ve checked the links and references to no avail.
As a number-crunching Excel jockey, I feel I can get this term off the ground. To all the analysts working out there, please help a colleague out and use this term the next time Excel is playing tricks on you. It will make you sound smart and you will help a comrade get one step closer to realizing a dream.
Ben, I need some help with the pronunciation of your neologism. Is it tuh-DASH or TOW-dash? Also, I might be missing something really obvious, but I can't figure out any logical origin of the word. Did you just arrive at the word arbitrarily? – Thomas, Madison, WI(09-17-08)
Thank you for asking...the correct pronunciation is TOW-dash and I wish I could say I made it up but it's actually from Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Todash in the book is sort of an alternate universe no-mans land so-to-speak. Precisely where non-computing excel formulas end up. I realize this is extremely nerdy as I'm typing this but anyone who has ever read the book would probably agree with me. – Ben, Madison(09-18-08)
Thanks for the clarification. I wouldn't worry that the word is nerdy. You have to consider your likely audience. I don't think you'd ever run the risk of Paris Hilton picking up the word. ;)
As for Madison being the Semantic Capital of the World, from what I've seen we do have richer local slang than most cities. If a city is too small the numbers are simply stacked against it. If a city is too big, people from a diverse and dispersed group of neighborhoods might not speak a common language, or have a "Scanner Dan" type that everyone can relate to. Madison, on the other hand, as a medium-sized college town, has all the local flavor someone could ask for.
But maybe the results are a little skewed b/c City Dictionary is a Madison start-up. – Thomas, Madison(09-20-08)
