"Bouma" enters the Official Dictionary of Unofficial English

[Number3Pencils]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

I was researching something else today and I found the pretty well put together Official Dictionary of Unofficial English (it even has a quote from William Safire on the cover!). And it includes Hrant's famous "bouma", along with a quote from him as one of its seminal uses.

I couldn't find any evidence that this news has been broken to Hrant and the rest of the Typophile community, so I thought I ought to make a topic.

[hrant]

In an actual printed book?! That's awesome!
You've made my day - thanks.

hhp

[Gary Lonergan]

now I know what
a Bouma is

[dezcom]

Gary, did you Lack-a-bouma before this? ;-)

[J.Montalbano]

This is and will always be my definition of Bouma

[dezcom]

Or as they say in Boston, when addressing children born just after WWII "Baby Boomahs" ;-P

[William Berkson]

Nice! By the way, Peter Enneson tells me that in Dutch the "ou" in Bouma is pronounced as "ow" in "cow", not as "oo" in "boom". Does the dictionary indicate the pronunciation?

[hrant]

Yes, it's "ow". I used to pronounce it "oo" (even though I knew
of the native pronunciation) but Peter eventually convinced me
to use "ow" instead. For one thing it makes it sound fancier. :-)

hhp

[dezcom]

I guess you had to bow to Peter's language heritage ;-)

[Theunis de Jong]

Peter Ennison, of this book?

(Fast-reading the colophon brings back memories. I have worked with both Françoise Berserik and with the late Teus de Jong!)

[William Berkson]

Yes, and Typophiler, particularly on reading theory.

[dezcom]

"Peter Ennison, of this book?"

Yes, and he is also fun on a road trip through Georgia ;-)

[hrant]

FWIW, I like esoteric dictionaries to begin with, so I bought it! :-)
Thanks again for the ref.

hhp

[Number3Pencils]

Heh, happy to provide it. I'm glad it's brought such joy.

[hrant]

The vain are easily pleased!

hhp

[5star]

My latest font attempt plays ..neh ...toys with/in the realm of Bouma.

n.