#buzzfeed books

[cashytouille]

Shitposting cuz its funny

[yeoldenews]

While we’re on the subject of names, is there an explanation for how traditional nicknames came about that are seemingly unrelated to, or have little in common with, the original name?

ie- John/Jack, Richard/Dick, Henry/Harry/Hank, Charles/Chuck, Margaret/Peggy/Daisy, Sarah/Sally, Mary/Molly, Anne/Nan, etc

I am actually over a week into researching a huge follow-up post (probably more than one if I’m being honest) about the history of nickname usage, so I will be going into this in much, much more detail at a hopefully not-so-later date - if I have not lost my mind. (Two days ago I spent three hours chasing down a source lead that turned out to be a typographical error from 1727 that was then quoted in source after source for the next 150 years.)

As a preview though, here’s some info about the names you mentioned:

The origins of a good portion of common English nicknames come down to the simple fact that people really, really like rhyming things. Will 🠞Bill, Rob🠞Bob, Rick🠞Dick, Meg🠞Peg.

It may seem like a weird reason, but how many of you have known an Anna/Hannah-Banana? I exclusively refer to my Mom’s cat as Toes even though her name is Moe (Moesie-Toesies 🠞 Toesies 🠞 Toes).

Jack likely evolved from the use of the Middle English diminutive suffix “-chen” - pronounced (and often spelled) “-kyn” or “kin”. The use of -chen as a diminutive suffix still endures in modern German - as in “liebchen” = sweetheart (lieb “love” + -chen).

John (Jan) 🠞 Jankin 🠞 Jackin 🠞 Jack.

Hank was also originally a nickname for John from the same source. I and J were not distinct letters in English until the 17th Century. “Iankin” would have been nearly indistinguishable in pronunciation from “Hankin” due to H-dropping. It’s believed to have switched over to being a nickname for Henry in early Colonial America due to the English being exposed to the Dutch nickname for Henrik - “Henk”.

Harry is thought to be a remnant of how Henry was pronounced up until the early modern era. The name was introduced to England during the Norman conquest as the French Henri (On-REE). The already muted nasal n was dropped in the English pronunciation. With a lack of standardized spelling, the two names were used interchangeably in records throughout the middle ages. So all the early English King Henrys would have written their name Henry and pronounced it Harry.

Sally and Molly likely developed simply because little kids can’t say R’s or L’s. Mary 🠞 Mawy 🠞 Molly. Sary 🠞 Sawy 🠞 Sally.

Daisy became a nickname for Margaret because in French garden daisies are called marguerites.

Nan for Anne is an example of a very cool linguistic process called rebracketing, where two words that are often said/written together transfer letters/morphemes over time. The English use of “an” instead of “a” before words beginning with vowels is a common cause of rebracketing. For example: the Middle English “an eute” became “a newt”, and “a napron” became “an apron”. In the case of nicknames the use of the archaic possessive “mine” is often the culprit. “Mine Anne” over time became “My Nan” as “mine” fell out of use. Ned and Nell have the same origin.

Oddly enough the word “nickname” is itself a result of rebracketing, from the Middle English “an eke (meaning additional) name”.

I realized earlier this week that my cat (Toe’s sister) also has a rebracketing nickname. Her name is Mina, but I call her Nom Nom - formed by me being very annoying and saying her name a bunch of time in a row - miNAMiNAMiNAM.

Chuck is a very modern (20th century) nickname which I’ll have to get back to you on as I started my research in the 16th century and am only up to the 1810s so far lol.

[parkercore-69]

i was a victim of the gravity falls to transgenderism/buzzfeed unsolved (+watcher) pipeline and i made a visual representation for it.

[2ndbestalex]

[saintetheldredablogshorrormovies]

okay

this one is for all the ancient myth, folklore, urban myth, cryptid and supernatural people of tumblr

i am trying to start a folklore reading group on discord for 2025 covering all of the above categories

every month we pick a category of folklore to read around. categories can be anything. could centre around culture/period/place (eg ancient chinese myth and legend) or individual text (eg the aeneid, the poetic edda) or specific monster (eg vampires) or specific approach (eg theories of myth and their puprose eg joseph campbell)

anything is fair game from aztec myths to angelology to modern urban myths to aliens and cryptids

wed be a reading group but SUPER low key so it can fit in with everyones lives

like. im not gonna assign the same book to everyone to read by the end of the month

use whatever sources you wish - the internet, your local library, buy the specific book you think looks most useful, read/watch fictionalised retellings you think look fun

we can all use our own sources and most importantly we can recommend the ones we find the most useful to the rest of the group to help each other (or just to gush about it)!! < 3

oh and if youre an artist and you want to make art (drawing the monsters/creatures, writing your own adaptation of the story, write a self-insert where you get to shoot the monsters w/ dean winchester or dana scully or smth, writing mothman x reader fanfiction) youll get so many brownie points and everyone will think youre really cool

point is well all be reading the same broader points. so we can chat about it and discuss interpretations and make memes and show love for your favourites or complain about the dryness of your least favourites and there is so much weirdness to make fun of in myth and folklore

every month we will vote on the next topic (dont worry there will be a channel to argue about why your suggestion is the best haha) and by the end of the year well all know so much weird shit itll be great. dont you want every month of your 2025 to be defined by a weird little folklore era

well its about halfway through january when i post this meaning we'll only have half a month for the first one, no time for a vote either so if you want to hop in and start nerding out immediately january is going to be your

~ ancient japanese myth era ~

well discuss sources in the discord if you dont know where to start

but if you just want to join to wait it out so you can vote on next months subject, youre so welcome to

everyone welcome. contribute as much or as little as you like. friendliness and good vibes only!!

also ill be making a tag, "folklore2025" for people to post stuff related to this reading project thing on their tumblr if they wish

discord link below

[daisydoodle-123]

Not to brag, but…

[inkinclouds]

things i dabble in

A.Podcasts

Creepcast

The watcher ( and buzzfeed unsolved)

Rotten mango

B. Manifestation and spiritual stuff

C. Thriller/ horror and gothic books

D. Perfectionism

F. Anime and youtube commentary

G. Lana del rey and ethel cain

H. Anything esoteric abd unknown

[pendragonbooks]

In which Sophie is horrified to discover she has been doing magic the whole time

[elysian467]

How I like my books....

I get so frustrated when I find people pointing natural flaws in characters simply to hate them.I love my fictional(or non fictional) books realistic in some aspects.I have never been attracted to God Perfect characters tbh.Characters should have depth and real emotions(which include messed up intrusive thoughts too u know) and fake faults and weaknesses.

I am a reader so I have countless scenarios to talk about but I'll just give a few examples.

•Harry Potter Series: People hate Hermione(Yes they do) saying she is bossy, know-it-all ,book-smart,infuriating.I don't really understand why book-smart is not considered as a positive attribute by many(Like being as book-smart as her is a great deal!)People dislike the fact that she is called as the brightest witch of her age like what???She is! She could perform spells that helped them during the third floor corridor! She made the polyjuice potion in 2nd year(Practical use),she actually SOLVED the mystery of the chamber of secrets.And there are many many instances where its proved to be true(Read HarryPotter again if u forgot). That being said, I am not blind to her faults.People hate her for the "abuse" when she set the canaries on Ron but they forget that such stuff is normal in the wizarding world(They change hair colours,jelly leg spell tarantallegra,explosions etc). Similarly, Ron is bashed for his insecurities and rudeness and leaving in the last book. Guys the best and the closest relationships have arguments,disagreements and sensitivity involved okay???I really don't like how these two and other characters too tbh are hated for these attributes. They are 17 years old people!!!

•Percy Jackson series:Finding faults in Gods is more than okay cause they are childish selfish useless assholes.Annabeth is hated for her jealousy(bitches please that's called being a teen) though Percy is not called out for his jealous moments.They are both teens and its okay.And listen people Annabeth does not "abuse" okay😂😂We throw light friendly punches while demigods blow up toilets,They literally practice sword fighting!?, judo flip etc.

WAIT A DAMN MINUTE PEOPLE!

HERMIONE IS BUZZFEED'S MOST HATED BOOK CHARACTER!!!????WTF!??

JASON TOO????LIKE DID WE READ THE SAME SERIES!?(Read several times)

Okay wait.I need a moment.No wait.My mind literally went blank rn.I had soooo many examples to give but-

Let's end this post here(temporarily) 😵😷

Literally people who hate characters for reasons worse than their very own existence,Please get a life, see a therapist and tell us HONEY WHO HURT YOU???

Oh wait.Like the title was popular book characters people despise.Aah.STILL NOT OKAY.I should probably calm down.

[roundaboutnow]

i need to stop finding out about tv show/movies id be interested in while theyre still in pre-production or development

i found out about the Black Adam movie starring The Rock from some clickbait article on an anime website when i was 12. it didnt come out for another 10 years or so and by that point i didnt even wanna watch it anymore

i heard about a Channing Tatum/Gillian Bell remake of Splash that, last i checked, hasnt made any progress in years.

ive been dying for the Counterfeit Son movie (adaptation of the book by Elaine Marie Alphin) to start production since highschool!

and a few months ago i heard about a tv show for the book, "Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone" which is still pretty recent so theres still hope, but. it'll be a long while before it comes out, yknow?

[aseriesofunfortunatejan]

Okay, sure, BanG Dream! 10th Anniversary. You know who else is celebrating her 10th anniversary? My dog Kali. March 17th, big party.

[hazellvsq]

the 7 as the babysitters club

kristy thomas: annabeth chase: i don’t need to explain this one

claudia kishi: leo valdez: bad in school despite their intelligence, consistently feel inadequate despite being geniuses in their own right, seen as annoying and irresponsible by those around them despite the entire premise of the series resting on their tiny shoulders. legends only.

stacey mcgill: jason grace: bad bitches...blondes...the duality of man...torn between past versus present pretense versus reality control versus freedom...trying to define what “home” really means...

mary anne spier: hazel levesque: frequently underestimated. romantics with sensitive spirits. trying to be their own person and maintain their sense of wonder. wanting to see what the world has to offer them despite being scared.

dawn schafer: piper mclean: piper’s not obnoxious or a White Activist but like dawn she's unfairly hated and doesn’t eat meat. and like dawn she’s a real one who is committed to living as an individual and doing right by herself and by others.

mallory pike: frank zhang: frank’s author clearly hates him much less than mallory’s hated her. but he IS the awkward one of the group that is his thing! like mallory he also suffers more than jesus in his own head.

jessi ramsey: percy jackson: humbly is and will always be the most talented player in the game. hot, funny, moody, misunderstood, deeply kind. legends only.

[tolerateit]

reading murder in the family by cara hunter rn and im really enjoying the format!

[makynzieig]

YALL HOWD IT KNOW… LIKEEEE DONT TELL JUDE IM TRYNA STAY ALIVE

[the-dog-watch]

I wish Buzzfeed quizzes had existed in the 90s because then Patrick O'Brian could have written one where you, a humble reader of the Aubrey/Maturin series, could test and see if you know more and less about sailing than Stephen Maturin.

[magic-multicolored-miracle]

Listen, I understand that "they changed it, now it sucks" is the battle cry of the internet.

But if you're writing an listicle about why a tv show is bad compared to its source books... (I am going to write a counter-list of the issues with common complaints but it's too long, so now it's under a cut. The short version is "you need to remember it's a different type of storytelling, you're boring, and I hate you.")

1) If you complain about storylines being cut or changed, or potentially being cut that are about rape and/or incest...you're gross. And creepy. And I don't trust you or your opinions on anything.

2) If your complaints are about character changes are that they are more outwardly ambitious instead of secretive and scheming, consider the fact that books have the ability to portray internal thought processes and decision-making, tv has to show it visually and ideally without weird omniscient narration. So a character may be doing the same scheming, it just looks bolder/less secretive. Also if you have 80 characters who are all scheming schemers who quadruple-cross each other, it gets confusing and hard to follow, even in a book. In a show with limited time, plotlines get streamlined and some of those 80 characters stop playing the long game.

3) If you complain that characters are less sure, somber, level-headed, strategic etc. than their book counterparts, consider again that the tv can't show their internal thoughts, so being outwardly expressive suits the medium. Also, many of these characters are starting at different points of their story, and character growth is interesting and relatable. Also also, a show full of just somber, cold, strategic men and level-headed self-assured women is frankly Boring. (A book is too, but at least with internal reflection you can add more depth and variety so it isn't unsalvageable.)

4) If you complain about secondary characters being cut or having their storylines given to others, think about the practicality of scripting, casting, filming all of those side things, who never appear again. It's not practical. TV shows have a limited time, audiences have a limited attention span.

5) If you are upset about storylines being changed or replaced by entirely new ones, ask yourself "was the original one convoluted, difficult to follow, nearly identical to another storyline, or only tangentially connected to the main characters and plot?" if the answer is yes, there's a good reason for it getting altered. Cohesion and focus are essential to storytelling, especially when you have a limited amount of time and resources to work with. Unfortunately, most shows are not syndicated daytime tv soap operas that run for 40 years and can tell an evil twin, amnesia, or surprise return from the dead story every three seasons (I'm being generous to say they wait that long).