Jess Zafarris

Jess Zafarris

@jesszafarris.com

Author of USELESS ETYMOLOGY, WORDS FROM HELL, ONCE UPON A WORD, INTO THE WORDS. Podcaster, Words Unravelled. Adjunct prof at Emerson and UFL. Speaker, content director, social pro, ad world wordsmith. https://linktr.ee/JessZafarris

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Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

My next book, INTO THE WORDS: AN ETYMOLOGIST'S FIELD GUIDE TO PLANTS, ANIMALS, AND NATURE, arrives Nov. 3! If you're a leaf peeper, a mushroom admirer, a moss petter; if you have a favorite funny bird name; if "touch grass" speaks to you, but you enjoy a cozy reading nook, this book is for you.

Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

I’m enjoying the heck out of Scott Kenemore’s book The Grand Hotel and am hoping to read another (or two) in the next week. Any recommendations for spooky-fun horror anthologies, especially (but not necessarily) ones connected by a larger framing narrative? I’d prefer that they not be super bleak.

Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

Putting in an early bid for "(AI) sycophancy" to be a word of the year. (I also get to help pick the words of the year for a couple of platforms/media outlets/brands so this may be a self-fulfilling prophecy.)

Jess Zafarris reposted

c0nc0rdance
@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social

What a lovely orchid. 💮 Wait: Look AGAIN. Hymenopus coronatus, the 'orchid-blossom mantis' has such clever camouflage that, even when you KNOW it's a bug, it can take a minute to parse out. They climb up to flowers, hang about bobbing as though blown by wind & wait for butterflies.

Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

For the record: Obi is getting allll the love and attention and snacks, and his crazy eyes are because he's hopped up on trazodone and carprofen

Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

My next book, INTO THE WORDS: AN ETYMOLOGIST'S FIELD GUIDE TO PLANTS, ANIMALS, AND NATURE, arrives Nov. 3! If you're a leaf peeper, a mushroom admirer, a moss petter; if you have a favorite funny bird name; if "touch grass" speaks to you, but you enjoy a cozy reading nook, this book is for you.

Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

Preorders help me a LOT, so if this pretty little tome belongs in your mind and on your shelf, I'd be so grateful if you put in an order wherever you get your books. I recommend Bookshop, though, because you can route the purchase through your favorite indie seller: bookshop.org/p/books/into...

bookshop.orgInto the Words: An Etymologist's Field Guide to Plants, Animals, and NatureWhich animal holds the record for having the most common names? When and why did we stop calling giraffes "camel-leopards"? Do mushrooms have anything to do with mush or rooms? Why are dandelions n...
Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

Spoilers for the next episode: I'm editing the Words Unravelled captions, and I think this autocaption fail is onto something. Sycopants sounds like a Spongebob Squarepants villainous alter ego.

Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

I thrifted a US Army surplus jacket for cold weather running, and I have learned that I cannot wear it to the grocery store unless I am prepared to have a (well-meaning but) lengthy conversation with literally every elderly man I encounter.

Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

My grandmother and two uncles are veterans, and I’m happy to chat about them… but between that and my general distaste for the US military machine as a whole, I’m probably going to patch over the logo.

Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

An anthology is literally a “flower collection” or a “gathering of flowers.” The Greek anthologia is made of anther “flower” and logia, here meaning “collection” or “gathering.” In Greek it was a word for a collection of poems and aphorisms, used metaphorically…

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Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

If you’re looking for an anthology (in both senses) of word origin facts, I have a book coming out in early November called Into the Words: An Etymologist’s Field Guide to Plants, Animals, and Nature. Available everywhere, but Bookshop supports indie booksellers: bookshop.org/p/books/into...

Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

An anthology is literally a “flower collection” or a “gathering of flowers.” The Greek anthologia is made of anther “flower” and logia, here meaning “collection” or “gathering.” In Greek it was a word for a collection of poems and aphorisms, used metaphorically…

Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

Folks have been asking for the Kirkland hoodie lore. I was walking through Costco and spotted the hoodie. High quality material and embroidery, looked dope. I snapped a pic and tweeted it (during the twitter days). At the time I was the audience engagement director at Adweek, so…

Jess Zafarris@jesszafarris.com

Watch on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE92... Or listen anywhere you get your podcasts: audioboom.com/channels/512...

youtube.comDenny's used to be called Danny's.YouTube video by Words Unravelled
Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

…many of my followers were brand social media managers and advertising reporters. They liked it, it popped off hard (screenshot from a day or two later). Within three days, drop ship sites were selling knockoffs called “Jess Zafarris Kirkland Signature hoodie” and stuff.

Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

It wasn’t my first taste of Internet fame, though. I had already gone (not quite as) viral a few times on my own TikTok and on Adweek’s account. And the next year I wrote a twitter horror story that hit the stratosphere.

Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

There's a lady (who is a mom) with a bookish IG account who regularly mentions my books in her posts, and she's so kind and lovely about it, but she always uses the hashtag #momswhoread, and never once have I read that correctly on the first try.

Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

Here's one for my fellow brand and ad nerds! In the latest episode of Words Unravelled, @robwords.com and I discuss the origins of famous brands, including Nutella, Denny's (Danny's?!), and Nerf, as well as (sexy) mascots like Mr. Clean and M&M's spokescandies.

Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

I long aspired to be like Granny Weatherwax when I grew up, but lately I've come to accept that, with the exception of the heap of children, I'm surely on track to become a Nanny Ogg. 🍻

Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

If you do this, you might win a copy of one of my books + some Words Unravelled merch!

Lingthusiasm@lingthusiasm.com

Announcing the Linguistic Zine Challenge! Make or share a linguistics zine and tell us about it by the end of November, and you could win prizes! (oooh, prizes~~) Thread, or here's a link for the blog fans: lingthusiasm.com/post/8299478...

Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

I won an ad nerd game show with a book themed question. (I was losing at this point, but got lucky with the bonus points.) Big thanks to Neuemotion and Ted Harrison, our host, and bravo to my brilliant co-contestants Natalie Fratto and Gail Amurao.

Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

Oh! And for winning the game, my prize was a $1000 donation to a charity of my choice. I went with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

Jess Zafarris
@jesszafarris.com

Fable is so photogenic that she looks AI-generated in some of these (These were taken today on an iPhone 16 Pro and are unaltered aside from cropping and rotating)

Jess Zafarris reposted

Gretchen McCulloch
@gretchenmcculloch.com

Hey. The fragmentation of the social media landscape has been hard on indie #scicomm 🧪 projects So if you'd like to follow a podcast that's enthusiastic about #linguistics, could you check out @lingthusiasm.com? And if you think your followers might like to, could you give this a repost?