Etymology: word 'a sound or a combination of sounds, or its representation in writing or printing, that symbolizes and communicates a meaning' + -nik 'one associated with or characterized by.'
Glad to hear that information is of interest, whichbe. We have discussed internally doing a feature/fix roundup in the blog once in a while, but nothing is set in stone yet.
What word are you looking for? I just checked 40 different dictionaries and none have a word "backstein."
On edit: it occurs to me that you are looking for "bockstein," a sturdy mug used for holding bock-style beer. No dictionary has that, either, but perhaps the individual words will do. Just click on either or both.
Funny! Something like that happens every year. Someone sends me a link to my own article with a note like, "Right down your alley!" and never realizes it has my byline until I tell them.
How do you mean "half-assed"?
In my opinion, AHD etymologies are some of the best in the business, given that many have been done from scratch, they tend to include the Indo-European root, and they balance informativeness and conciseness in consideration for the limited space on the printed page.
We have new super-s3krit spam measures going into effect very soon.
The best anti-spam measures for you, Yarb, and everyone else is to stop commenting on the spam. It creates more links to and more attention for the spam, which is exactly what the spammers need to be effective.
Telofy, send Tony and the other API guys an email at apiteam@wordnik.com and they'll try to answer any questions you have about the APIs.
The list URLs do not change if you rename them and number IDs are not being assigned to new lists. The old URL-forwarding for numbers still works if you use and old Wordie URL, but not if you do the same URL except for the Wordnik domain. (The highest-numbered list on Wordie, by the way, seems to be 24268.) I know John has been working like a crazy man on lists, so perhaps he'll have more to say about them here.
Telofy, I'll do some testing on editing comments with images and see if I can duplicate your issue. I'll make a support ticket for it, in any case.
Clearing cache should definitely help. You may have an older version of a Javascript file in there. John's been performing some wizardry on those files so the new ones are preferred.
Zeitgeist is updating for me on three different profiles on three browsers in two operating systems. Dontcry, can you send the details of your user profile and computer setup (OS, browser, versions, etc.) to feedback@wordnik.com?
Zeitgeist is updating for me on three different profiles on three browsers in two operating systems. Dontcry, can you send the details of your user profile and computer setup (OS, browser, versions, etc.) to feedback@wordnik.com?
thtwonse, you've got it wrong. Sexual connotations of that particular meaning of "suck" are more recent than the usage itself. It did *not* originate as a put-down related to imbalanced sexual power between men of the pitcher/catcher or bull/punk types. See this comment I left elsewhere.
"Untypical" is less common, but many dictionaries include it (I checked various volumes from Collins, Oxford, and Longman), it has a long history, and it's comprehensible to most English-speakers. Words with the negating "a-" prefix do tend to be problematic due to the variability of that word-initial morpheme, so it's possible that English-speakers would seek out an alternative synonym that is less ambiguous, or better, that they would repeatedly re-coin "un" plus "typical," since that is a construction that is logical and common in English morphology.
Prolagus, we have support tickets for all of those things except for adding Feedback to Zeitgeist or putting it on every page. There is a "contact" link on all pages which does the job of giving people a way to reach us. We established this Feedback page for Wordies, since they're accustomed to making requests and pointing out bugs in comments. You all are special, and not short-bus special, either. Maybe multi-container-tractor-trailer-special? I dunno.
Something akin to "most commented on" has a prominent place on John's to-dos, but he can say more about that when the time is right.
Bilby, there is currently no way to search for lists on our site, but for the time being replacing the word "beautiful" in this Google search is highly effective in searching the content of lists. This one will search only list names. Also your suggestion about instructions on profile pages is spot-on; I'll make a ticket for it.
Prolagus, same for the "close this message" issue: I'll make a support ticket.
Mollusque, examples are chosen via a highly complex algorithm that is constantly adjusted as we add masses of new data to our corpus. I'll look at those sentences and see if they can help us revise our rules that attempt to filter duplicates. As for the unattributed Safire quote, it's what we were given by a source. Sentences without attribution are always going to be lower ranked, since attribution is a part of understanding the context of an example sentence, which informs our own use.
Yes, it's likely the comma to blame. Or else the system knew that there are two Kansas Cities: one in Missouri and on in Kansas. The good barbecue is on the Missouri side.
That's Mr. Martinet, but no, we're not old-fashioned or censoring or anything like that. You weren't getting smacked down! Maybe we need something opposite of vexamples. charmples? (charm + examples).
FWIW, we do have sentence-ranking taking place right now, which may mean that terrible stuff will disappear and better uses will start to appear near the top of the examples. That one's a cruddy example because it's mostly in caps, it has a weird attribution, and it doesn't add much to our understanding of NIGGA.
We were warned! He even gave us a defense kit: wooden stakes, a sack of unplanted wig hair, a can of hairspray, and instructions for conducting a tonsillectomy under field conditions. So far the hairspray has been most useful. It keeps his code in place.
Prolagus, I am pleased to report that your list has been restored and is currently visible on our staging server. Expect it to roll out sometime in the next 24 hours!
If you post a bogus pronunciation, leave a comment for me and I'll delete it. I review all the prons every few days, anyway, and can usually tell when some snarfled a fargle or ruzzled a pallow.
lampbane, we're running a cleanup script on the entire database of example sentences as we speak. It has a ton of fixes in it which should remove a bunch of bad sentences, lower the rank on others, and increase the rank of some good ones. Should be done by the end of next week.
I'm doing a bit of research on the history of "cellar door" being considered beautiful. I've found it as far back as 1903 so far! Which leaves out Tolkien as the originator, given that he was 11 years old then.
Comments by grantbarrett
grantbarrett commented on the user feedback
Mollusque, we've got a bunch of improvements for "random word" in the works, though I can't give you an ETA right now.
January 14, 2010
grantbarrett commented on the word Wordnik
Etymology: word 'a sound or a combination of sounds, or its representation in writing or printing, that symbolizes and communicates a meaning' + -nik 'one associated with or characterized by.'
January 5, 2010
grantbarrett commented on the user feedback
Glad to hear that information is of interest, whichbe. We have discussed internally doing a feature/fix roundup in the blog once in a while, but nothing is set in stone yet.
January 4, 2010
grantbarrett commented on the word backstein
Also, "backstein" means "brick" in German. For what it's worth.
December 31, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word backstein
What word are you looking for? I just checked 40 different dictionaries and none have a word "backstein."
On edit: it occurs to me that you are looking for "bock stein," a sturdy mug used for holding bock-style beer. No dictionary has that, either, but perhaps the individual words will do. Just click on either or both.
December 31, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user bilby
ASL dictionaries are a good idea. I'll make a note of it. No promises, though.
December 25, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user grantbarrett
Would that my graphic skills were more adept, I would shop Oolong into wearing the best vanilla beanie you ever saw.
December 24, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user milosrdenstvi
Milosrdenstvi, I think if you can reconstruct the messed up list items, that is probably the best course of action.
December 24, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word ice-cream
Yum! ice-cream!
December 23, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user grantbarrett
I would like some ice-cream.
December 23, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word decade
Why, yes! I made one this morning.
December 23, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user grantbarrett
Thanks! The early nominations for the American Dialect Society's 2009 word of the year were also released today.
December 22, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user grantbarrett
Funny! Something like that happens every year. Someone sends me a link to my own article with a note like, "Right down your alley!" and never realizes it has my byline until I tell them.
December 21, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word dabble
How do you mean "half-assed"? In my opinion, AHD etymologies are some of the best in the business, given that many have been done from scratch, they tend to include the Indo-European root, and they balance informativeness and conciseness in consideration for the limited space on the printed page.
December 20, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the list thats-what-she-said-and-other-spoken-earworms
Yes, there's a problem with "really?!"
December 19, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the list wilfred-j--funks--ten-most-beautiful-words-in-the-english-language--1932--1933
Ooh, nice: "wistful-pastoral wallpaper." Need to favorite that.
December 19, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user grant_barrett
Ready when you are.
December 19, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user feedback
We have new super-s3krit spam measures going into effect very soon.
The best anti-spam measures for you, Yarb, and everyone else is to stop commenting on the spam. It creates more links to and more attention for the spam, which is exactly what the spammers need to be effective.
December 19, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user feedback
Telofy, send Tony and the other API guys an email at apiteam@wordnik.com and they'll try to answer any questions you have about the APIs.
The list URLs do not change if you rename them and number IDs are not being assigned to new lists. The old URL-forwarding for numbers still works if you use and old Wordie URL, but not if you do the same URL except for the Wordnik domain. (The highest-numbered list on Wordie, by the way, seems to be 24268.) I know John has been working like a crazy man on lists, so perhaps he'll have more to say about them here.
Telofy, I'll do some testing on editing comments with images and see if I can duplicate your issue. I'll make a support ticket for it, in any case.
December 19, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word wha happen
Oh, yes.
December 16, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user feedback
Clearing cache should definitely help. You may have an older version of a Javascript file in there. John's been performing some wizardry on those files so the new ones are preferred.
December 12, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word pronunciations
Excellent advice, uselessness. I may use that for a help page...
December 12, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word Cthulhu
No, it's Cthulhu, according to the original tale, "The Call of Cthulhu."
December 12, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the list food-collection
Oooh, this is good. Pastrami, sopressata, andouille, and morcilla all in a row. Homer Simpson-style slobbering commences.
December 11, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user dontcry
Zeitgeist is updating for me on three different profiles on three browsers in two operating systems. Dontcry, can you send the details of your user profile and computer setup (OS, browser, versions, etc.) to feedback@wordnik.com?
December 11, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user feedback
Zeitgeist is updating for me on three different profiles on three browsers in two operating systems. Dontcry, can you send the details of your user profile and computer setup (OS, browser, versions, etc.) to feedback@wordnik.com?
December 11, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the list invented-word
Yodji, how would you pronounce floatieling?
December 11, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user grantbarrett
Lay off my bunny!
December 10, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word It sucks
thtwonse, you've got it wrong. Sexual connotations of that particular meaning of "suck" are more recent than the usage itself. It did *not* originate as a put-down related to imbalanced sexual power between men of the pitcher/catcher or bull/punk types. See this comment I left elsewhere.
December 10, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user feedback
Mollusque, I fixed that for you. The blog has a different hostname, so its relative URLs default to blog.wordnik.com rather than www.wordnik.com.
December 9, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word wordnik
That's it, Marky. It just shakes the browser window. It might do more later. Wait and see. :)
December 8, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user marky
Marky, I can delete your comments at ROPID if you want. Okay?
December 8, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word pornial
A ghost word, caused by a mis-reading of "primal" by the editors of the Century Dictionary. See this Language Hat discussion.
December 2, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user feedback
Votes noted and sent for counting. I'm afraid we award points like Humphrey Lyttleton did, though.
December 1, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user grantbarrett
It's a rabbit! It's the famous rabbit Oolong, RIP.
December 1, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user feedback
Lambane, we're still working on the character issues. Hang in there.
November 25, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user feedback
Dhuber, what is the name of the list you're trying to create?
November 24, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word untypical
"Untypical" is less common, but many dictionaries include it (I checked various volumes from Collins, Oxford, and Longman), it has a long history, and it's comprehensible to most English-speakers. Words with the negating "a-" prefix do tend to be problematic due to the variability of that word-initial morpheme, so it's possible that English-speakers would seek out an alternative synonym that is less ambiguous, or better, that they would repeatedly re-coin "un" plus "typical," since that is a construction that is logical and common in English morphology.
November 24, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user feedback
Ruzuzu, it's a test list I made for an incipient bug we're trying to squash. Engineers are on a code-Raid alert.
November 24, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the list lists-of-the-day
Sweet Tooth Fairy
November 24, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the list lists-of-the-day
Animal Identity Crisis
November 24, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word PLOWED
The offending sentences have been disappeared from examples.
November 24, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user feedback
Prolagus, we have support tickets for all of those things except for adding Feedback to Zeitgeist or putting it on every page. There is a "contact" link on all pages which does the job of giving people a way to reach us. We established this Feedback page for Wordies, since they're accustomed to making requests and pointing out bugs in comments. You all are special, and not short-bus special, either. Maybe multi-container-tractor-trailer-special? I dunno.
Something akin to "most commented on" has a prominent place on John's to-dos, but he can say more about that when the time is right.
November 22, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user feedback
Feature requests can definitely be left here.
Bilby, there is currently no way to search for lists on our site, but for the time being replacing the word "beautiful" in this Google search is highly effective in searching the content of lists. This one will search only list names. Also your suggestion about instructions on profile pages is spot-on; I'll make a ticket for it.
Prolagus, same for the "close this message" issue: I'll make a support ticket.
Mollusque, examples are chosen via a highly complex algorithm that is constantly adjusted as we add masses of new data to our corpus. I'll look at those sentences and see if they can help us revise our rules that attempt to filter duplicates. As for the unattributed Safire quote, it's what we were given by a source. Sentences without attribution are always going to be lower ranked, since attribution is a part of understanding the context of an example sentence, which informs our own use.
November 22, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the user feedback
Vanishedone, John is on top of the tag situation, but it's not a quick fix.
Frogapplause, there's a response at Kansas City.
November 21, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word Kansas City
Yes, it's likely the comma to blame. Or else the system knew that there are two Kansas Cities: one in Missouri and on in Kansas. The good barbecue is on the Missouri side.
November 21, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the list sweet-tooth-fairy
Ooops. I am testuser51. Fight club is at 5:15 in the break room.
November 21, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word dravest
Looks like an nonstandard spelling and archaic second-person conjugation of drive, as in "to repulse or put to flight by force or influence."
November 19, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word NIGGA
That's Mr. Martinet, but no, we're not old-fashioned or censoring or anything like that. You weren't getting smacked down! Maybe we need something opposite of vexamples. charmples? (charm + examples).
FWIW, we do have sentence-ranking taking place right now, which may mean that terrible stuff will disappear and better uses will start to appear near the top of the examples. That one's a cruddy example because it's mostly in caps, it has a weird attribution, and it doesn't add much to our understanding of NIGGA.
November 19, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word NIGGA
We were warned! He even gave us a defense kit: wooden stakes, a sack of unplanted wig hair, a can of hairspray, and instructions for conducting a tonsillectomy under field conditions. So far the hairspray has been most useful. It keeps his code in place.
November 19, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word NIGGA
Yes, well, vexamples are best reported rather than enshrined for all time in comments.
November 19, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word Lowenstein et al 2009 PLoS ONE
Prolagus, I am pleased to report that your list has been restored and is currently visible on our staging server. Expect it to roll out sometime in the next 24 hours!
November 19, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word comments
Prolagus, I've made a support ticket for that, but there's no ETA.
November 19, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word completionist
The prons play for me, too, in two browsers on two OSes. Weird.
November 19, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word pronunciation
If you post a bogus pronunciation, leave a comment for me and I'll delete it. I review all the prons every few days, anyway, and can usually tell when some snarfled a fargle or ruzzled a pallow.
November 19, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word comments
lampbane, we're running a cleanup script on the entire database of example sentences as we speak. It has a ton of fixes in it which should remove a bunch of bad sentences, lower the rank on others, and increase the rank of some good ones. Should be done by the end of next week.
November 19, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word ln÷oæΣï
What were you looking for when you found this?
November 18, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word Cliff Hanger
The movie reviewer.
November 13, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word Stormy Weather
A weathercaster.
November 13, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word Mariana Trench
Hurricane and oceanography beat reporter.
November 13, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word Sue Pine
Reports on the logging industry.
November 13, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word Sandy Bottom
Beach and surf reporter.
November 13, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word Obamania
Both exist! Check out the examples at each entry.
November 13, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word wordplay
wordplay != swordplay
November 12, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word cellar door
I'm doing a bit of research on the history of "cellar door" being considered beautiful. I've found it as far back as 1903 so far! Which leaves out Tolkien as the originator, given that he was 11 years old then.
November 10, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the word h1n1
Pronounced "heinie" in some circles.
November 10, 2009
grantbarrett commented on the list slang-words-of-irish-origin-according-to-daniel-cassidy-author-of-how-the-irish-invented-slang
As a professional lexicographer, I made my thoughts known yesterday on the subject of how bad this book is.
November 11, 2007