This word feels very British. There is an American sense that the British treat all subjects with equal gravitas, including things we would fine to be worthless.
Thanks nearsounds. In the early days, there was quite a competition to have the "most words". I never thought that was a good idea. These are my words because they mean something to me. Words are like friends. You can have a lot of them, but you only have a few good ones you are really close to.
I read it last year and it was amazing. The breadth and depth was astonishing. Whether you are a fan of science fiction, fantasy, politics, history, science, or philosophy, there is something for you. There is even some fun word stuff.
I never give any thought to the boundaries of my book reading. I rarely ever take more than a week to read a book, so it probably does come up that often. I think I read Cryptonomicon across New Year's last year.
From Wikipedia, it says the etymology is from the "Montagnais word meaning "snowshoe-netter", and the Inuit Circumpolar Conference used both Inuit and Eskimo. So apparently you are allowed to say Eskimo without offense.
My chief objection is that I don't find these words particularly "beautiful". It can't be a measure of the inherit nature of the concept, because of hush, so it must be from the sounds?
Many people believe that a hate crime is worse than a crime, and I assume the laws in this case are such. The point is, is murder for racism worse that murder for fun?
We have a true mystery on our hands. It certainly seems like some of the expressions are crazier than others. The Native American would be from Washington state, which is way outside the bounds of where it was used. The Yiddish also seems ridiculous. French is somewhat reasonable, especially given the usage in Louisiana by people like Satchmo. Without finding some 19th century writing (very unlikely), we will never know.
My question is, who cares if he was racist? He should go to jail, both as punishment for his crime, and as a deterrent to others who might commit similar crimes. It's not illegal to hate an entire race, but it is illegal to attack them.
Even in small print I read this as surf-line the first time. I can't imagine any native English speaker actually linking that fline is an acceptable morpheme.
Uselessness, that does actually sound kind of ethnocentric to me. I bet the Hawaiians think we went out of way to have too many hard to pronounce sounds. I would be interested to find out if the languages with "clicks" are closer to each other than all other languages (evolutionarily speaking, a clade), or if that has arisen independently multiple times.
From googling, it appears that "pod" is the more common term for narwhals. As with all of the exhaltation of larks, these are highly subjective and people like us are constantly coming up with new ones. All it takes (especially with the internet) is for someone to come up with a good one and have the meme catch on.
"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us...We need the kind of books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us." - Kafka
This is an important thought experiment, because it raises numerous questions about the nature of language, knowledge, and intelligence. Given that language is combinatorial, there are more possible utterances than could be stored in the brain, we must have rules to generate language. For a computer to "understand" language, it must have some sort of what to generate new utterances.
Unfortunately, David Cole doesn't seem to grasp the intricacies of this, and completely misinterprets what Searle's argument actually is.
The scarier thing is to come up with something which I think is endlessly witty and rush to Wordie to post it, only to realize that I myself posted it two years ago. I don't look forward to my dotage.
It isn't trepidation on my part John. I've been off the grid for 96 hours and I returned to Wordie to only 3 pages of comments. We need to start up some new puzzles or contests.
The dictionary definitions seem to disagree with WordNet. They seem to have a connotation of someone who goes around town partying, as opposed to just visiting.
"No one is born a baitman, I don't think, but the rings of Saturn sing epithalamium the sea-beasts dower." -- Roger Zelazny, "The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of his Mouth"
I'd say the "standard" option could do what you wanted. As for pronunciation, Americans would all probably know the correct pronunciation, but in casual speech let the vowel be shortened.
It's pretty funny, because accountants deal with digits, numbers, not fingers, but the parallel is etymologically obvious. If they used the original word, it would be a clever pun on moving the digits around to mean what they wanted. Instead you have this ugly word that no one will ever use.
Calm down Sarah, different people can spell names different ways. I too know what it is to have a name that is spelled a number of different ways, but you can't tell people that they are spelling their name wrong.
How will the links between pages work in Wordnikie? I like the current system of brackets in Wordie, but perhaps a more expressive system could be made. It would be nice to link to the Wordnik page normally, or to link to the comments section when referencing another comment, as well as to have special ways to reference lists or tags.
I have a lot of statistics, but I still find myself using random colloquially to mean a variety of things. Sometimes I refer to things as stochastic just to mix it up.
I don't mind foreign words, especially those which have cool etymological connections to English. What I don't really care for is scrolling through pages of comments of simple definitions in characters I don't recognize. These unfortunately just end up being background noise to me, and distract from my real mission, which is to read all the awesome comments. I don't think much would be lost by having some segregation between different languages. As for numbers, dates, punctuation, etc., those could remain in a language neutral section, or be tagged multiply for all languages where they are valid.
This is very interesting, because pronouncing it makes it clear it is "to-ward and fro-ward", each pronounced with two syllables, and giving us the etymology of toward. It is rather a simple etymology, but due to its prepositional nature, I never thought about it.
The episode titled "That's Lobstertainment!" is about Dr. Zoidberg, a failed stand-up comic, and his washed up silent hologram star uncle, Harold Zoid, named from the silent movie star Harold Lloyd.
"in" is a fairly productive prefix, and it surely must have existed in Shakespeare's time. Is it fair to credit Shakespeare with it, even if it is first attested in his play?
his arms on the top of the staircase and looked coldly at the shaking gurgling face that blessed him, equine in its length, and at the light untonsured hair, grained and hued like pale oak.
A choir gives back menace and echo, assisting about the altar's horns, the snorted Latin of jackpriests moving burly in their albs, tonsured and oiled and gelded, fat with the fat of kidneys of wheat.
Actually, Lucifer is considered to be the "Day Star", and often "Light bringer". You only consider him "dark", because of the popular black/evil white/good conception.
Is there any regime that has lasted forever? What is the longest continuing government in the world? Pretty much every country I can think of in Europe has abandoned the monarchy in the last two hundred years. Most of Asia has undergone significant changes since World War I (or II). Africa can't have that many stable regimes, most have probably been overturned in the last half century. One could argue that all governments are inherently unstable.
Shevek, I think you need to know about something about the internet in general, and somewhat here at Wordie. We abhor censorship. There is no better way than to get people to say and write something than to tell them to stop.
When I get really angry, I will often type off long ranting posts. When I was younger, I would send them, but these days just the typing is cathartic enough and I usually just close the window.
I've been saying it over and over again, but I don't really think I stress either syllable. There might be a slightly stronger stress on the second, but not by much.
I like Twitter, I think it is a good idea, if properly used. Just like blogs Twitter is a medium that can be very effective and useful, as well as crazy and annoying. It is the nomenclature that upsets me. Twit is an insult, and for a while there were a lot of passed tense twat jokes which were mildly amusing. A tweet is a noise a bird makes, and in college when I tried to pass out drunk at 4 in the morning the birds kept me awake. Add to that all of the really awful portmanteau words like this, and the fact that the twit prefix has become relatively productive in a short period of time and the whole twitter phenomenon needs to die and be resurrected with a new name.
It's not in the dictionary because no one ever uses it. Also because it is really more than is necessary to describe an act that can be fairly easily described in English.
When I was first learning Spanish, my Mom asked me to speak it to a fluent neighbor, and the only thing I could think of was "levanta los manos", which he (jokingly) took to mean I was attempting to rob him.
Mollusque, most of my books are about words, or at least, word oriented. At least, they contain mostly words, so I assume that is related to the subject.
Well you just have to define logoclasm after using it. I would say this the gulf between what one person means by a certain word and what another means.
They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid and a Catholic priest.
They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid, and a Catholic priest.
In the first case, Wikipedia says it is clear there are 3 people, but I'm not so sure, I could easily read this as an appositive. In the second case, there could be one person, Betty, or 3 people. I don't see how the comma effects the ambiguity at all. There are several easy ways to fix this by changing the words, but the comma does nothing.
To Rolig, I don't understand how "bacon, lettuce, and tomato" could possibly upset the flow of written text. People rarely if ever read the commas directly as pauses in speech, they let the flow of the words come naturally to them.
Several problems. First, to be "made famous", it had to exist beforehand, and I would think Mad TV made it up. Second, it would actually have to be "famous", which I don't think it is. Third, it sounds more like something you bring a girl when you pick her up for a date, instead of follows, a grape.
It's pretty interesting I think, I imagine if you plot average frequency of words vs. # of wordnet definitions (which I might just do this weekend) you'll see a very low number for the most common words (determiners and prepositions), with the most polysemous words coming after that, followed by a drastic drop off of number of senses.
I guess I could see how I might accidentally lead myself down the garden path and end up saying this word, but I would feel dirty about it and probably pretend I used it sarcastically.
The only time I hear this word is in quotations, like Donne or King James. I think this is the main reason people don't use it. If they do use it in writing, the spellcheck must be doing it for them. I understand the rule that governs it, but am unable to make myself use it in speech. Most people I know never use it, or wouldn't know how to use it even if they did. Finally, it doesn't seem to be any loss at all to the language.
It's strange, I live in Texas and almost nobody is that crazy. It is a matter of a few batshit people who care a great deal running essentially unopposed that are screwing it up for the rest of us. Either that, or I've driven away anyone willing to argue with me so that it seems that people around me all think like I do.
The definitions are provided by WordNet, and are only available for a subset of English. For other languages, please feel free to add a definition and/or citation.
Comments by seanahan
seanahan commented on the word depoped
I feel like this is a necessary word, and from the twitter feed, it seems that others agree. Example
The newly depoped Catholic church is about to begin the frantic process by which it enpopes itself.
As always, it is pronounced, də-POPED.
March 1, 2013
seanahan commented on the word dodecahedraphobic
Fear of the dodecahedron. Useful to mix in when giving a list of other, normal phobias.
December 12, 2010
seanahan commented on the word adoxography
This word feels very British. There is an American sense that the British treat all subjects with equal gravitas, including things we would fine to be worthless.
June 27, 2010
seanahan commented on the list seanahan-s-words
Thanks nearsounds. In the early days, there was quite a competition to have the "most words". I never thought that was a good idea. These are my words because they mean something to me. Words are like friends. You can have a lot of them, but you only have a few good ones you are really close to.
May 27, 2010
seanahan commented on the user seanahan
I read it last year and it was amazing. The breadth and depth was astonishing. Whether you are a fan of science fiction, fantasy, politics, history, science, or philosophy, there is something for you. There is even some fun word stuff.
January 2, 2010
seanahan commented on the word books split over the new year
I never give any thought to the boundaries of my book reading. I rarely ever take more than a week to read a book, so it probably does come up that often. I think I read Cryptonomicon across New Year's last year.
December 31, 2009
seanahan commented on the word eskimo
From Wikipedia, it says the etymology is from the "Montagnais word meaning "snowshoe-netter", and the Inuit Circumpolar Conference used both Inuit and Eskimo. So apparently you are allowed to say Eskimo without offense.
December 31, 2009
seanahan commented on the word geodesy
I would say it (geo-DESsy) or (gee-AH-duh-see), but it looks like the Odyssey pronunciation is deemed "correct".
December 31, 2009
seanahan commented on the word cosm
Those words use the Greek cosmos which refers to order, or generally the universe as a whole. So your idea of cosm is pretty similar to that meaning.
December 31, 2009
seanahan commented on the word ainst
I don't think I can take a band seriously whose leader is an anagram of the band name.
December 31, 2009
seanahan commented on the word blarney rose
All over Ireland probably. Sionnach would know.
December 31, 2009
seanahan commented on the word boulanger
It can be a crutch for a writer who isn't good enough to convey the ambiance of a foreign land.
December 30, 2009
seanahan commented on the word racist
Bilby, is it the job of the Supreme Court to facilitate acknowledgment of racism?
December 30, 2009
seanahan commented on the list wilfred-j--funks--ten-most-beautiful-words-in-the-english-language--1932--1933
My chief objection is that I don't find these words particularly "beautiful". It can't be a measure of the inherit nature of the concept, because of hush, so it must be from the sounds?
December 21, 2009
seanahan commented on the word racist
Many people believe that a hate crime is worse than a crime, and I assume the laws in this case are such. The point is, is murder for racism worse that murder for fun?
December 21, 2009
seanahan commented on the word settler
In America, I would say that settler has a generally positive connotation.
December 21, 2009
seanahan commented on the word copacetic
We have a true mystery on our hands. It certainly seems like some of the expressions are crazier than others. The Native American would be from Washington state, which is way outside the bounds of where it was used. The Yiddish also seems ridiculous. French is somewhat reasonable, especially given the usage in Louisiana by people like Satchmo. Without finding some 19th century writing (very unlikely), we will never know.
December 21, 2009
seanahan commented on the word racist
My question is, who cares if he was racist? He should go to jail, both as punishment for his crime, and as a deterrent to others who might commit similar crimes. It's not illegal to hate an entire race, but it is illegal to attack them.
December 21, 2009
seanahan commented on the word surfline
Even in small print I read this as surf-line the first time. I can't imagine any native English speaker actually linking that fline is an acceptable morpheme.
December 21, 2009
seanahan commented on the word ǃʼOǃKung
Uselessness, that does actually sound kind of ethnocentric to me. I bet the Hawaiians think we went out of way to have too many hard to pronounce sounds. I would be interested to find out if the languages with "clicks" are closer to each other than all other languages (evolutionarily speaking, a clade), or if that has arisen independently multiple times.
December 21, 2009
seanahan commented on the word firearm
Yes, but guns make us safer.
November 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word narwhal
From googling, it appears that "pod" is the more common term for narwhals. As with all of the exhaltation of larks, these are highly subjective and people like us are constantly coming up with new ones. All it takes (especially with the internet) is for someone to come up with a good one and have the meme catch on.
November 6, 2009
seanahan commented on the word cadiz
I'm trying to unravel the picaresque pun.
November 6, 2009
seanahan commented on the word stimthought
"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us...We need the kind of books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us." - Kafka
October 31, 2009
seanahan commented on the word esteem
That's quite a stretch.
October 31, 2009
seanahan commented on the word fabulous
The word fabulist still has some zing.
October 31, 2009
seanahan commented on the word victualry
see seidel for citation.
October 31, 2009
seanahan commented on the word seidel
Plus one for victualry.
October 31, 2009
seanahan commented on the word fundagelical
In common American parlance, they are use interchangeably.
October 26, 2009
seanahan commented on the word chinese room argument
This is an important thought experiment, because it raises numerous questions about the nature of language, knowledge, and intelligence. Given that language is combinatorial, there are more possible utterances than could be stored in the brain, we must have rules to generate language. For a computer to "understand" language, it must have some sort of what to generate new utterances.
Unfortunately, David Cole doesn't seem to grasp the intricacies of this, and completely misinterprets what Searle's argument actually is.
October 19, 2009
seanahan commented on the user john
The scarier thing is to come up with something which I think is endlessly witty and rush to Wordie to post it, only to realize that I myself posted it two years ago. I don't look forward to my dotage.
October 19, 2009
seanahan commented on the word dexterity
I would say very rare; it seems the author forgot the word posterity.
October 19, 2009
seanahan commented on the word antihelmintic
It's conversations like this that make me love Wordie.
October 19, 2009
seanahan commented on the word castanets
and, I'll play the clarinet
use clam shells for castanets
we play with our bags on our shoulders
my sweet lady lioness
October 19, 2009
seanahan commented on the word simperer
I think that would make a good first line to a poem.
October 19, 2009
seanahan commented on the word quiet
It isn't trepidation on my part John. I've been off the grid for 96 hours and I returned to Wordie to only 3 pages of comments. We need to start up some new puzzles or contests.
October 12, 2009
seanahan commented on the word boulevardier
The dictionary definitions seem to disagree with WordNet. They seem to have a connotation of someone who goes around town partying, as opposed to just visiting.
October 9, 2009
seanahan commented on the word majoritarian
Doesn't this encompass most types of elections?
October 8, 2009
seanahan commented on the word epithalamium
"No one is born a baitman, I don't think, but the rings of Saturn sing epithalamium the sea-beasts dower." -- Roger Zelazny, "The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of his Mouth"
October 6, 2009
seanahan commented on the word saunterer
The etymology appears to be madeupical.
October 6, 2009
seanahan commented on the word umblowupable
unexplodable, perhaps?
October 6, 2009
seanahan commented on the word libatious
It appears that libational is the adjectival form.
October 5, 2009
seanahan commented on the word default
I'd say the "standard" option could do what you wanted. As for pronunciation, Americans would all probably know the correct pronunciation, but in casual speech let the vowel be shortened.
October 5, 2009
seanahan commented on the word pseudophagus
This sounds to me like someone simulates eating. Perhaps it could be used to describe bulimia.
October 5, 2009
seanahan commented on the word presdifigurators
It's pretty funny, because accountants deal with digits, numbers, not fingers, but the parallel is etymologically obvious. If they used the original word, it would be a clever pun on moving the digits around to mean what they wanted. Instead you have this ugly word that no one will ever use.
October 5, 2009
seanahan commented on the word glocal
This word is awful.
October 2, 2009
seanahan commented on the word william safire
The greatest of the language mavens.
September 28, 2009
seanahan commented on the word trove
Also a GNU package.
September 28, 2009
seanahan commented on the word sarah
Calm down Sarah, different people can spell names different ways. I too know what it is to have a name that is spelled a number of different ways, but you can't tell people that they are spelling their name wrong.
September 28, 2009
seanahan commented on the word wordnikie suggestion box
How will the links between pages work in Wordnikie? I like the current system of brackets in Wordie, but perhaps a more expressive system could be made. It would be nice to link to the Wordnik page normally, or to link to the comments section when referencing another comment, as well as to have special ways to reference lists or tags.
September 28, 2009
seanahan commented on the word schwa
I think we should change the pronunciation of these word to actually use the sound in question. Schwə.
September 28, 2009
seanahan commented on the word the fuck
Is this really any different that "What are you fucking doing?"
September 28, 2009
seanahan commented on the word bags
Is this a British slang?
September 21, 2009
seanahan commented on the word anecdotage
I'd never heard this word before and when reading the entry on anecdotic thought of it. Apparently I'm not the first.
September 20, 2009
seanahan commented on the word antipromethean
Similar connotation to anarchist? Or does this have more of a anti-technological meaning?
September 20, 2009
seanahan commented on the word chillax
Often followed by brah, which is I think a weird way to say bro.
September 20, 2009
seanahan commented on the word first time word hearing
selection bias.
September 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word random
I have a lot of statistics, but I still find myself using random colloquially to mean a variety of things. Sometimes I refer to things as stochastic just to mix it up.
September 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word ungodly
I feel like unholy can be used to describe a lot of stuff, but ungodly is typically used to describe time.
September 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word selectmen
Monovocalic, yet all of vowels are pronounced differently. Is there a tag for that?
September 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word ™
I often see "The Next Big Thing™" used in an ironic way.
September 14, 2009
seanahan commented on the word chasing pavements
The power of dictionaries illustrated. Adele's Chasing Pavements banned from certain U.S. radio stations, basically because somebody posted a made up definition of the term on Urban Dictionary. that is was slang for analingus.
September 11, 2009
seanahan commented on the word wordnik
I don't mind foreign words, especially those which have cool etymological connections to English. What I don't really care for is scrolling through pages of comments of simple definitions in characters I don't recognize. These unfortunately just end up being background noise to me, and distract from my real mission, which is to read all the awesome comments. I don't think much would be lost by having some segregation between different languages. As for numbers, dates, punctuation, etc., those could remain in a language neutral section, or be tagged multiply for all languages where they are valid.
September 11, 2009
seanahan commented on the word psycho-fact
The common connotation of psycho makes this unfortunate.
September 11, 2009
seanahan commented on the word stickman
See also croupier.
September 11, 2009
seanahan commented on the word sceptic (skeptic)
Huh?
September 9, 2009
seanahan commented on the word toward and froward
This is very interesting, because pronouncing it makes it clear it is "to-ward and fro-ward", each pronounced with two syllables, and giving us the etymology of toward. It is rather a simple etymology, but due to its prepositional nature, I never thought about it.
September 9, 2009
seanahan commented on the word erection
That tenet seems to inform us as to why he is an "ex".
September 9, 2009
seanahan commented on the word busy-ness
A webpage that is very busy. Unfortunately, business is already taken.
September 9, 2009
seanahan commented on the word wordnik
You're not joking about the busy-ness of that page, wowza. Hopefully we can figure out a way to keep the minimalist approach.
September 9, 2009
seanahan commented on the word lobstertainment
The episode titled "That's Lobstertainment!" is about Dr. Zoidberg, a failed stand-up comic, and his washed up silent hologram star uncle, Harold Zoid, named from the silent movie star Harold Lloyd.
September 4, 2009
seanahan commented on the word inaudible
It just doesn't seem fair to include simple prefixation in his word count, especially since there were so many words he deserves full credit for.
September 3, 2009
seanahan commented on the word inaudible
"in" is a fairly productive prefix, and it surely must have existed in Shakespeare's time. Is it fair to credit Shakespeare with it, even if it is first attested in his play?
September 2, 2009
seanahan commented on the word penis
You're sitting on a gold mine Trebek.
September 2, 2009
seanahan commented on the word 45c
see CCFCCP.
September 2, 2009
seanahan commented on the word 1337
Apparently there are a lot of h4x0rs on Wordie.
September 2, 2009
seanahan commented on the word corpus
Now my brain is stuck on porpoise christi.
September 2, 2009
seanahan commented on the word 2t(f √e)
tooty fruity.
September 1, 2009
seanahan commented on the word cereal killer
Also a character in the movie Hackers.
August 28, 2009
seanahan commented on the word foots
Is this British?
August 27, 2009
seanahan commented on the word swellop
You remember madeupical words from 20 years ago? Or you first used it back then?
August 27, 2009
seanahan commented on the word tonsure
Looking at Project Gutenberg, I find
August 26, 2009
seanahan commented on the word batman
A very litigious town.
August 21, 2009
seanahan commented on the word galileo
Hussein is a very common name in the Middle East, the King of Jordan, for example. Maybe that has something to do with it.
August 21, 2009
seanahan commented on the word lamarckian
It should probably be "failed theory" or something like that.
August 21, 2009
seanahan commented on the word 5 by 5
Anybody know the etymology of this? I first heard this from Faith of BtVS.
August 21, 2009
seanahan commented on the word cowp
What is a "(rubbish) tip"?
August 19, 2009
seanahan commented on the word ricin
Yes, but it's all natural.
August 19, 2009
seanahan commented on the word key lime pie
So gooooood.
August 19, 2009
seanahan commented on the word mandatory
Wow, that pronunciation is really jarring, I've never heard it said like that before. I'm not sure if it is a British thing or a comic thing.
August 18, 2009
seanahan commented on the word twumor
Famously, the Jeff Goldblum death rumor.
August 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word vyacheslav kalashnikov
More disappointingly, his number is 28, and not 47, which would give him an awesome nickname and sell a bunch of jerseys.
August 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word thegn
See also thane, a freeman granted land by the king for military service, or a baron/lord in Scotland.
August 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word palabraphile
Uh, I think logophile is the English translation.
August 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word nintendocide
There has to be a better word for this.
August 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word geekolator
This word is ugly and non-obvious. Also, it seems like it might be somewhat offensive to people.
August 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word shinbone
The shinbone's connected to the kneebone.
August 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word breadbasket
Again, WordNet is NOT a dictionary. It seems to be saying this is a synonym for stomach, which is reasonable.
August 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word scissors
Uh, alleviate is a verb, so it has no quantity. I think that "every word" means "every noun" in that sentence.
August 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word good faith
I think that would be good graces.
August 8, 2009
seanahan commented on the word bitchard
UD is a homeless man's Wordie.
August 5, 2009
seanahan commented on the word understandment
Does this word really exist? It occurs quite a bit, but the general consensus is that understanding is always correct.
August 3, 2009
seanahan commented on the word frigor mortis
See frigor.
July 29, 2009
seanahan commented on the word frigor
Thus frozen to death is frigor mortis.
July 29, 2009
seanahan commented on the word linguaphile
See also philologist.
July 29, 2009
seanahan commented on the word googlarian
What does this mean though?
July 27, 2009
seanahan commented on the word original seven
Based on the movie "The Magnificent Seven".
July 25, 2009
seanahan commented on the word underpants gnomes
Step 3: Profit
July 25, 2009
seanahan commented on the word incognegro
Really? That's the best the boys at Harvard could come up with?
July 25, 2009
seanahan commented on the word rod
In rod we trust.
July 25, 2009
seanahan commented on the word tanking
This is general sports jargon. I've heard it used with regards to several sports.
July 25, 2009
seanahan commented on the word antipode
This is from the Greek, meaning opposite feet. On a sphere, people on the other side will be upside down, with their feet the opposite way of yours.
July 23, 2009
seanahan commented on the word idolater
Really? Hater? You're attaching a lot of connotation to this one.
July 23, 2009
seanahan commented on the word luciferous
Actually, Lucifer is considered to be the "Day Star", and often "Light bringer". You only consider him "dark", because of the popular black/evil white/good conception.
July 23, 2009
seanahan commented on the word pre-emptive counter attack
How is this different from pre-emptive attack?
July 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word writ
etymoline says it's from the write.
July 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word spindle cell
I think some people are descended from bears.
July 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word poseur
That's a silly argument, you'll end up with things like ghoti.
July 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word monism
Wow, she died young. Also, should you be calling a 6 year old an idiot?
July 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word dish dog
Also the name of a movie.
July 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word green collar worker
It should be a "person who works in a job..."
July 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word panties
So what do people think about the phrase moist panties?
July 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word axlotl
Ah Bilby, the Axlotl is not from the sea, but lives in a lake.
July 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word gusset
I don't think I've ever heard this word in America, except when watching the British show Coupling.
July 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word rhizaria
And of course this Supergroup is composed only of the best and brightest members of those phyla.
July 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word blindfold chess
Bg5.
July 8, 2009
seanahan commented on the word scientician
Is Lisa gonna marry a carrot?
July 8, 2009
seanahan commented on the word wow
To put that more succinctly, "Get off my lawn!"
July 8, 2009
seanahan commented on the word explodable
Does this mean that astronomers have a subtle distinction between explodable and explosive?
July 8, 2009
seanahan commented on the word dustup
I think this should be a compound, or at least hyphenated.
July 8, 2009
seanahan commented on the word axlotl
Actually, since the axlotl is a salamander, there was not pun.
July 8, 2009
seanahan commented on the word killer whale
link?
July 3, 2009
seanahan commented on the word hit the piss
I'm here, but there isn't anything.
July 1, 2009
seanahan commented on the word feldstein's advice
I heard this as "Murphy's Law applied".
July 1, 2009
seanahan commented on the word xer
I disagree strenuously. It has always been Gen xer.
July 1, 2009
seanahan commented on the word goom
Where did the r come from?
July 1, 2009
seanahan commented on the word confidence trick
Often referred to as a confidence game, right?
July 1, 2009
seanahan commented on the word vomitoxin
I think there are some who would say that moist is more disgusting.
July 1, 2009
seanahan commented on the list native-tongue
Which word are you referring to?
You probably want to add that comment to the comment section for the specific word, not this list.
June 25, 2009
seanahan commented on the word coccochromatic
Not to be confused with rococcochromatic.
June 25, 2009
seanahan commented on the word repress
Is there any regime that has lasted forever? What is the longest continuing government in the world? Pretty much every country I can think of in Europe has abandoned the monarchy in the last two hundred years. Most of Asia has undergone significant changes since World War I (or II). Africa can't have that many stable regimes, most have probably been overturned in the last half century. One could argue that all governments are inherently unstable.
June 25, 2009
seanahan commented on the word וְ�?ָהַבְתָּ, �?ֵת יְהוָה �?ֱלֹהֶיךָ, בְּכָל-לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל-נַפְשְ�?ךָ, וּבְכָל-מְ�?ֹדֶךָ.
Shevek, I think you need to know about something about the internet in general, and somewhat here at Wordie. We abhor censorship. There is no better way than to get people to say and write something than to tell them to stop.
June 23, 2009
seanahan commented on the list words-you-hope-you-won-t-hear-in-your-doctor-s-office-even-though-they-sound-pleasant-enough
inoperable?
June 23, 2009
seanahan commented on the word stochastically
Used frequently in statistics as well.
June 23, 2009
seanahan commented on the word all y'all
I hear this in Texas all the time.
June 23, 2009
seanahan commented on the word anger management
When I get really angry, I will often type off long ranting posts. When I was younger, I would send them, but these days just the typing is cathartic enough and I usually just close the window.
June 23, 2009
seanahan commented on the word familial
Very similar to filial.
June 18, 2009
seanahan commented on the word querty me
Ick. What if they have a regular phone keypad?
June 18, 2009
seanahan commented on the word umbrella
I've been saying it over and over again, but I don't really think I stress either syllable. There might be a slightly stronger stress on the second, but not by much.
June 18, 2009
seanahan commented on the word bend down boutique
See kenning, (I didn't know this).
June 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word tenharim
A Brazilian language.
June 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word just a blip on the radar
Apparently we've lost the bleeps, the sweeps, and the creeps.
June 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word twitpocalypse
I like Twitter, I think it is a good idea, if properly used. Just like blogs Twitter is a medium that can be very effective and useful, as well as crazy and annoying. It is the nomenclature that upsets me. Twit is an insult, and for a while there were a lot of passed tense twat jokes which were mildly amusing. A tweet is a noise a bird makes, and in college when I tried to pass out drunk at 4 in the morning the birds kept me awake. Add to that all of the really awful portmanteau words like this, and the fact that the twit prefix has become relatively productive in a short period of time and the whole twitter phenomenon needs to die and be resurrected with a new name.
June 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word noumenal
Kant is perplexing in all seasons, which makes sense, given that he is known for critiquing the idea of reasonable arguments.
June 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word boxen
Occasionally used as a humorous plural of box, especially when referring to a computer as a box. As in, "I have two Linux boxen in my apartment."
June 14, 2009
seanahan commented on the word noumenal
Even reading the definition I'm not sure quite what this means.
June 14, 2009
seanahan commented on the word cardsharper
Is this an old usage? I would say cardsharp, although the current terminology would probably be hustler, or in poker jargon, a mechanic.
June 14, 2009
seanahan commented on the word eoan
From Eos, Greek goddess of dawn.
June 14, 2009
seanahan commented on the word twitpocalypse
Apparently this was avoided, which is good, and we can all forget this abomination of a word.
June 14, 2009
seanahan commented on the list femanimales
Be careful to remember that the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
June 14, 2009
seanahan commented on the word lwop
Is this like dine and dash?
June 14, 2009
seanahan commented on the list spam--2
Apparently I can't tag this page, but I was going to tag vomit inducing.
June 14, 2009
seanahan commented on the word autodefenestration
It's not in the dictionary because no one ever uses it. Also because it is really more than is necessary to describe an act that can be fairly easily described in English.
June 14, 2009
seanahan commented on the word the pen is on the table
When I was first learning Spanish, my Mom asked me to speak it to a fluent neighbor, and the only thing I could think of was "levanta los manos", which he (jokingly) took to mean I was attempting to rob him.
June 14, 2009
seanahan commented on the word web 2.0
Don't worry, all of the people who truly get such things are breathlessly awaiting the The 1,048,576th word in the English language.
June 14, 2009
seanahan commented on the word you can borrow all 5,485 of my books
Mollusque, most of my books are about words, or at least, word oriented. At least, they contain mostly words, so I assume that is related to the subject.
June 14, 2009
seanahan commented on the word usufruct
Dude, you are so fruct.
June 13, 2009
seanahan commented on the word gay downfall of the roman empire
I still blame it on the vampires.
June 13, 2009
seanahan commented on the word decellularize
Sorry, I stand corrected.
June 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word fah
Also, "a long lone way to go".
June 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word manboobs
Requires a manssiere.
June 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word word
It is.
June 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the list reduplicating-animals
Does homo sapiens sapiens count?
June 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word diuturnal
Not to be confused with diurnal.
June 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word decellularize
Or in England, demobilize.
June 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word rudely apparelled children
I'm almost three times that age and if I visited my parents wearing that shirt my Mom would slap me.
June 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word scarf
I'm just waiting for this to come up on Fox or MSNBC after recent newsworthy events.
June 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word flak
Very interesting etymology from etymonline, "acronym for Fliegerabwehrkanone 'airplane defense cannon.'"
June 5, 2009
seanahan commented on the word madeupicalist
Someone who is an expert is creating madeupical words.
June 2, 2009
seanahan commented on the word anecdotalist
It's actually madeupicalist.
June 2, 2009
seanahan commented on the word whom
I can come up with another reason for you to do so Bilby. Or you can wait until Summer.
June 2, 2009
seanahan commented on the word delish
Agreed, stabby comes to mind.
May 31, 2009
seanahan commented on the word garbist
This is a strange word.
May 31, 2009
seanahan commented on the word whom
Wait whoop? I pronounce this with a w.
May 31, 2009
seanahan commented on the word stylophone
Yes, because iPhone itself was already trademarked by Cisco.
May 30, 2009
seanahan commented on the word spillionaire
I'm not too wild about this one, it seems unlikely that they made a million dollars.
May 30, 2009
seanahan commented on the word ergodynamic
A fairly common mistake for ergonomic, but I like to think it is a combination of ergonomic and aerodynamic.
May 30, 2009
seanahan commented on the word doo-rag
A bandanna worn over the top of the head. Image search is useful here.
May 27, 2009
seanahan commented on the word duologic
I'm not entirely certain what this means.
May 27, 2009
seanahan commented on the word dozenal
Don't forget bakers. Oh wait, they advocate base thirteen.
May 27, 2009
seanahan commented on the word daggering
If we had to pick which Wordie posted a comment containing "groin-locked couples enact rapid-speed dry-humping", would anyone have picked Bilby?
May 27, 2009
seanahan commented on the word hossenfeffer
Anybody remember which day of the week this is supposed to be?
May 27, 2009
seanahan commented on the word middy
Also, this should be affectionate slang for the Midianites.
May 27, 2009
seanahan commented on the word beanbrain
I like the definition, but this sounds too much like you're calling me a birdbrain.
Edit: I indeed do know which of the two toos to use.
May 26, 2009
seanahan commented on the word pocketbook
It's a metaphoric sense. It's outdated, but I've heard it.
May 26, 2009
seanahan commented on the word residual anxiety
autocorrelation, heteroscedasticity
May 26, 2009
seanahan commented on the word flies
Often used in linguistics to illustrate the difficulty of understanding languages.
May 26, 2009
seanahan commented on the word sialagogue
It means to make one salivate.
May 26, 2009
seanahan commented on the word erudite
That's a particularly unerudite way to learn it.
May 26, 2009
seanahan commented on the word stretcher
It's in there. Something is weird with the way they are ordering the definitions from the raw WordNet data.
May 26, 2009
seanahan commented on the word ouagadougou
See also Upper Volta.
May 26, 2009
seanahan commented on the word gödel's theorem
This refers to Godel's Incompleteness Theorem.
May 26, 2009
seanahan commented on the word mr ass itch
earworm?
May 26, 2009
seanahan commented on the word whensoas
I believe you're looking for Wenceslas.
May 22, 2009
seanahan commented on the word logochasm
Well you just have to define logoclasm after using it. I would say this the gulf between what one person means by a certain word and what another means.
May 22, 2009
seanahan commented on the word xyzygy
I've adopted this orphan.
May 22, 2009
seanahan commented on the word oxford comma
To Isoglossian, that Wikipedia page is terrible.
They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid and a Catholic priest.
They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid, and a Catholic priest.
In the first case, Wikipedia says it is clear there are 3 people, but I'm not so sure, I could easily read this as an appositive. In the second case, there could be one person, Betty, or 3 people. I don't see how the comma effects the ambiguity at all. There are several easy ways to fix this by changing the words, but the comma does nothing.
To Rolig, I don't understand how "bacon, lettuce, and tomato" could possibly upset the flow of written text. People rarely if ever read the commas directly as pauses in speech, they let the flow of the words come naturally to them.
May 19, 2009
seanahan commented on the word date grape
Several problems. First, to be "made famous", it had to exist beforehand, and I would think Mad TV made it up. Second, it would actually have to be "famous", which I don't think it is. Third, it sounds more like something you bring a girl when you pick her up for a date, instead of follows, a grape.
May 19, 2009
seanahan commented on the word oxford comma
Can you cite such an example? I can't think of any off the top of my head.
May 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word austrasia
Interesting, shouldn't this be the southern part?
May 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word quixotic
Chasing one's tail seems like a quixotic activity.
May 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word ancillary
Most often used to describe benefits, I would say.
May 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word oxford comma
Well Ezzackly, you now have an enemy.
May 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word countenance
I don't know much about physiognomy, but it appears not to be related, other than a generally similar meaning.
May 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word specious
SLH, if you click the links above you can get the definitions and you won't need to copy them.
May 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word dextrosinistral
That limerick is to be found on the OEDILF .
May 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word copyleft
I can see both of them here from a different computer, same Firefox, but using Linux this time.
May 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word titter
The adult version of twitter.
May 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word entweeted
To become fully ensconced in twitter.
May 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word entwatted
Not to be confused with entweeted.
May 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word codec
I wonder if this was originally a play after codex.
May 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word wordie acid trip
When the comments, words, and/or lists you're reading make you think you are in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
May 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word admire
It's like a crazy Wordie acid trip.
May 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the list words-with-more-than-60-definitions
It's pretty interesting I think, I imagine if you plot average frequency of words vs. # of wordnet definitions (which I might just do this weekend) you'll see a very low number for the most common words (determiners and prepositions), with the most polysemous words coming after that, followed by a drastic drop off of number of senses.
May 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word appetizingness
I guess I could see how I might accidentally lead myself down the garden path and end up saying this word, but I would feel dirty about it and probably pretend I used it sarcastically.
May 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word hurtle
I've heard it used a number of times in an astronomical context.
May 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word success
I'm not sure if these last few comments were some sort of hyper-post-modern neo-classical absurd off, or if I'm just really very confused.
May 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word eggtaggle
That assumes that Wordie is a waste of time, something I will never agree with.
May 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word anachronistic
It seems like a fairly poetic way to describe a generally ugly word.
May 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word swister
I have nothing to declare but the genius of that comment.
May 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word copyleft
I can't see it.
May 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word to the bad
That's an interesting expression, not quite understandable out of context, but perfectly understood once the gambling connection comes in.
May 15, 2009
seanahan commented on the word national pi day
You can act irrationally if you want to, but you have to act transcendentally as well.
May 11, 2009
seanahan commented on the word piking
So, flaking?
May 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word guac
I don't mind this as much as using queso to refer to melted cheese, but not shredded cheese.
May 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word formulative
Could it be from the similarity to formative? This seems to mean something very similar.
May 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word groddess
See entry for grod.
May 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word queerious
It's ok. Hang out at Wordie for a while and I'm sure you'll come up with some more.
May 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word whom
The only time I hear this word is in quotations, like Donne or King James. I think this is the main reason people don't use it. If they do use it in writing, the spellcheck must be doing it for them. I understand the rule that governs it, but am unable to make myself use it in speech. Most people I know never use it, or wouldn't know how to use it even if they did. Finally, it doesn't seem to be any loss at all to the language.
May 10, 2009
seanahan commented on the word paradoxically
I did that in college with anthropomorphic.
May 9, 2009
seanahan commented on the word whom
Eh, I consider this word to be defunct.
May 9, 2009
seanahan commented on the word devolution
It's strange, I live in Texas and almost nobody is that crazy. It is a matter of a few batshit people who care a great deal running essentially unopposed that are screwing it up for the rest of us. Either that, or I've driven away anyone willing to argue with me so that it seems that people around me all think like I do.
May 9, 2009
seanahan commented on the word wifebeater
Bilby, how can you drop a comment like "insulted by Nobel laureates" and then not mention who?
May 9, 2009
seanahan commented on the word national pi day
I still think that July 22 is more accurate than March 14.
May 8, 2009
seanahan commented on the word trampoline
I would think they would double the frog's jumping ability.
May 8, 2009
seanahan commented on the list rectal-foreign-bodies
Most disturbing list ever.
May 8, 2009
seanahan commented on the word demente
The definitions are provided by WordNet, and are only available for a subset of English. For other languages, please feel free to add a definition and/or citation.
May 8, 2009
seanahan commented on the word ayuntamiento
Sort of like congress can be used in English.
May 6, 2009
seanahan commented on the word intracontinental wordie awareness fortnight
This highly important time is coming up in the next few weeks.
May 2, 2009
seanahan commented on the word femme
I probably hear this the most often as part of femme fatale.
May 2, 2009
Show 200 more comments...