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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.

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

hhp

now I know what
a Bouma is

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

This is and will always be my definition of Bouma

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

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?

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

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

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!)

Yes, and Typophiler, particularly on reading theory.

"Peter Ennison, of this book?"

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

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

hhp

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

The vain are easily pleased!

hhp

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

n.