It’s peculiar that the same creepy guy from the umbrage page also appears here. (I apologize in advance on the off chance that he’s one of you creepy guys.) He’s not on the adumbrage page—I checked.
(I started thumbing through my copy for it, but Google’s faster.)
“Bankruptcy and repudiation are the spring-boards from which much of our civilization vaults and turns its somersets, but the savage stands on the unelastic plank of famine. Yet the Middlesex Cattle Show goes off here with éclat annually, as if all the joints of the agricultural machine were suent.”
Shirley bilby: Here’s a non-breaking space: “”. I’ve been using them for indentation ever since we lost the blockquote tag. (It’s a flimsy substitute therefor, but adequate for short lines that won’t wrap.)
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Do I win? Will you please stop now? Or is this some sort of Bizarro-World book review in which the entire text of a work must appear under the single word that best describes it?
Good point. (Sorry—couldn’t resist.) When exclaiming not admiration but disgust (or just clearing one’s throat), one might therefore prefer to employ a probang.
“I do not know,” he began, “if you have ever considered the nature of sound. Suffice to say that it consists of a series of waves moving through the air. Not, however, waves like those on the surface of the sea — oh dear no! Those waves are up and down movements. Sound waves consist of alternate compressions and rarefactions.”
“I do not. I doubt if such a word exists, and if it does, it shouldn’t,” retorted Purvis, with the aplomb of Sir Alan Herbert dropping a particularly revolting neologism into his killing-bottle. . . .
The etymology here appears to refer to division loo (although this wouldn’t be bad terminology for the quite practical arrangement bilby described). I assumed the (currently) more common “loo” was anglicized from l’eau, as in the splendidly historical word gardyloo* (garde à l’eau), but the Online Etymology Dictionary† suggests it’s “probably from Fr. lieux d’aisances, ‘lavatory,’ lit. ‘place of ease’.”
* I am compelled to mention this word, as it was one of many that doomed me to a life of logophilia.
I prefer* the phrasing “adroitprevarication”—it has a nice rhythm, and bundles notions of direction and misdirection together in a metaphor of motion. Adroit descends from Latin directus—“straight”—and to prevaricate from Latin praevaricari—literally, “to walk crookedly”, so there’s also an etymological oxymoron hidden inside. Honestly. Trust me.
“The lawyer tries to elicit a description of the attacker from the witness. ‘Elicit’ is always a verb. ‘Illicit,’ in contrast, is always an adjective describing something illegal or naughty.”
“The lawyer tries to elicit a description of the attacker from the witness. ‘Elicit’ is always a verb. ‘Illicit,’ in contrast, is always an adjective describing something illegal or naughty.”
Oh, well done, ruzuzu—now Boston Harbor is full of fish who think they’re British solders, “makings mows” and demanding three centuries of back pay. (I must admit, however, that they are more antic than a Dutch droll.)
“Pleased to meet you, Cephalous mergens, or may I call you a duykerbok?”
“There’s no need for such formality—‘duyker’ is sufficient, but most people know me as an impoon. Although you may call me a deloo, if you like.” Winks demurely*
(It’s also known as the diving-buck, so I guess sixth time’s the charm.)
* I know she seems coquetoonish, but that’s actually an entirely different species (although the same genus).
“Cats were sometimes eaten as a famine food during harsh winters, poor harvests, and wartime. Cat gained notoriety as ‘roof rabbit’ in Central Europe’s hard times during and between World War I and World War II.”
“Cat has also been eaten in Britain. During wartime rationing, cats found their way into ‘rabbit’ stews/pies and hence earned themselves the nickname ‘roof-rabbit’. . . . The following rhyme summed up the keeping of cats in peace-time and the eating of them in times of hardship.
“Cherries in America would abound and be in great variety, very perfect, if some attention to them was observed : but as it is with so little done for them, they are a common, and rather a mean fruit. The sorts preferred in country places seem to be the thick, tough, indegestible sorts, which are now and then the cause of sudden death in people who make too free in eating them.”
“The German syntax is replete with irregularities, one of the means by which that too indegestible language, as the Italians term it, is difficilitated.”
I'd rather have a frontal logonomy than a gonnle ... in front .... Never mind.
Seriously, though, that's completely madeupical, right? You must admit that "www.oed.com.proxygsu-way1.galileo.usg.edu" is a pretty fishy* domain name.
See “Butterfly Etymology”, Matthew Rabuzzi's “butterfly collection” of a “large variety of distinct words for 'butterfly' in various Indo-European languages.”
@Mary Jane: Thanks for your contributions to the list. The list is for words related etymologically or semantically to the concept of “leftness”), not aspersions in general (although many of the former, as it happens, do fall into the latter category). The list's title is, I admit, misleading. (I was tempted by assonance at the expense of clarity.)
As fond as I am of the word “ratbag”*, neither it nor the other words and phrases you added fit the bill. I'm very sorry to remove them (especially since you appear to be new to Wordnik† and I'm loathe to discourage you). Please let me know if you think I'm mistaken.
* Favorited, by the way. The rat is another oft-vilified concept; see, for example, Ruzuzu's open list “Rats”.
When “affect” is accented on the final syllable (a-FECT), it is usually a verb meaning “have an influence on” . . . . Occasionally . . . “affect” means “to make a display of or deliberately cultivate.” . . . When the word is accented on the first syllable (AFF-ect), it means “emotion.” . . .
The real problem arises when people confuse the first spelling with the second: “effect.” This too can be two different words. The more common one is a noun. . . . When you affect a situation, you have an effect on it.
Less common is a verb meaning “to create”: “I’m trying to effect a change in the way we purchase widgets.” . . . Note especially that the proper expression is not “take affect” but “take effect”—become effective. . . .
Tepuis tend to be found as isolated entities rather than in connected ranges, which makes them the host of a unique array of endemic plant and animal species. Some of the most outstanding tepuis are Neblina, Autana, Auyantepui and Mount Roraima. They are typically composed of sheer blocks of Precambrianquartz arenitesandstone that rise abruptly from the jungle, giving rise to spectacular natural scenery. Auyantepui is the source of Angel Falls, the world’s tallest waterfall.
. . . What we call normporn—ideal home magazines, where people dream of three-piece suites and a happy family—I love that about Valentina. She’s part of this extraordinary world, and what she wants is normality.
—Terry Gilliam. Director’s commentary for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
Father: Nothing, nothing—I just like the word. It gives me confidence. Gorn. Gorn. It's got a sort of woody quality about it. Gorn. Go-o-orn. Much better than ‘newspaper’ or ‘litterbin’.
The word was coined by William Tyndale . . . in his influential translation of the Bible in 1530. Tyndale formed scapegoat from scape, an obsolete form of escape . . . . Tyndale used this word to translate the Hebrew word ʽazāzēl, . . . which he read as ʽezāzēl, or “the goat that departs”. The actual Hebrew word, however, does not mean “the goat that departs”; it is a proper name of uncertain derivation.
Is there a word that describes a phrase or word that, when all of its voiced consonants are replaced with their respective unvoiced counterparts and conversely, continues to be a bona fide phrase or word? For example, “bat” (/bæt/) and “pad” (/pæd/) become one another under this transformation; as do (the General American pronunciations of) “dog” (/dɔɡ/) and “talk” (/tɔk/).
If not, what would be a good neologism to describe this?
gangerh: These are called “autological” (or homological) words. (This is one of my favorite category of words, so I can’t express how happy I was when I discovered it had a name.)
dagfooyo & jmjarmstrong: The paradox you described is the Grelling–Nelson paradox. Grelling and Nelson defined* “autological” (and its opposite, “heterological”) specifically for the purpose of expressing the paradox. The fact that you both inferred the paradox from the word alone, in my opinion, makes “autological” a single-word koan.
Google (at this time) returns “about 3,390 results” for “Kindrow” that make no mention of “Wordnik”. It primarily (perhaps exclusively) appears as a surname. Thus (as mollusque pointed out), “Wordnik” is a bona fide anadrome (to the extent that it’s a bona fide word).
Google (at this time) returns “about 3,390 results” for “Kindrow” that make no mention of “Wordnik”. It primarily (perhaps exclusively) appears as a surname. Thus, “Wordnik” is a bona fide anadrome.
I was skeptical about “kindrow”, but (at this time) Google returns “about 3,390 results” that make no mention of “Wordnik”. It primarily (perhaps exclusively) appears as a surname, so the capitalized form is probably the correct one. In any case, it makes “Wordnik” a bona fide anadrome.
fbharjo: I was skeptical about “kindrow”, but Google returns “about 3,390 results” that make no mention of “Wordnik”, so it stays. I replaced it, however, with the capitalized form, as it primarily (perhaps exclusively) appears as a surname. Thanks for the word.
fbharjo: I went a little nuts with your list. If any of my additions don’t exactly fit what you were looking for, I won’t be offended if you delete them. Enjoy.
I see you already have “aether”, but do you think “quintessence” and the “luminiferous aether” might look nice here? (Come to think of it, do you suppose “Quintessence and the Luminiferous Æther” might not make a good name for a band?)
Illuvium is material displaced across a soil profile, from one layer to another one, by the action of rainwater. The removal of material from a soil layer is called eluviation. The transport of the material may be either mechanical or chemical. The process of deposition of illuvium is termed illuviation. It is a water-assisted transport in a basically vertical direction, as compared to alluviation, the horizontal running water transfer. The resulting deposits are called illuvial deposits. Cutans are a type of illuvial deposit.
(NB: This page cites no sources. The most information the site gives about itself is in a disclaimer indicating that “All content on this website . . . was submitted by the users and has not been checked for accuracy”.)
I know of only five bona fide English words that end with “-psical”: “autopsical”, “harpsical”, “dropsical”, and the dubious derived forms “nondropsical” and “undropsical”. There are at least 111 words that end with “-sical”.
I know of only five bona fide English words that end with “-psical”: “autopsical”, “harpsical”, “dropsical”, and the dubious derived forms “nondropsical” and “undropsical”. There are at least 111 words that end with “-sical”.
I know of only five bona fide English words that end with “-psical”: “autopsical”, “harpsical”, “dropsical”, and the dubious derived forms “nondropsical” and “undropsical”. There are at least 111 words that end with “-sical”.
I know of only five bona fide English words that end with “-psical”: “autopsical”, “harpsical”, “dropsical”, and the dubious derived forms “nondropsical” and “undropsical”. There are at least 111 words that end with “-sical”.
I was contemplating “coining” this word, but I don’t know what the proper ending should be. Knowing that I couldn’t be the first with the idea, I Googled some variants.
There are “about” 1,270 hits for “omegapsical”, but most (about 1,225) refer to a series of comic book torrents titled “The More than Complete DC in Omegapsical Order”. Filtering out the word “MTCDC” and phrase “More than Complete DC” still yields 46 nicely diverse hits; most appear to be discussions about (or claiming to have coined) the word “omegapsical”.* (It’s defined on Wiktionary’s “List of protologisms” as “Reverse alphabetical order”.)
My personal preference is “omegapsical”, by analogy with “alpabetical” (“according to the sequence of the letters of the alphabet”) as opposed to “alpabetic” (“of or relating to an alphabet”). Is that linguistically or etymologically sound? Does anyone know of a rule for (or even an example of) converting a Greek-derived noun ending with “i” to an adjective?
* At least one of these refers to or is derived from the previously-mentioned torrent. One can whittle it down to 40 results by filtering out “DC”, but as “DC” is an omegapsical sequence and might therefor appear in a relevant discussion, I hesitate to do so.
The long form of the name is the longest officially recognised place name in the United Kingdom and one of the longest in the world, being 58 letters in length (51 letters in the Welsh alphabet, where “ch”, “ng” and “ll” count as single letters).
The village’s long name cannot be considered an authentic Welsh-language toponym. It was artificially contrived in the 1860s to bestow upon the station the honour of having the longest name of any railway station in the United Kingdom: an early example of a publicity stunt. . . .
The village was originally known as “Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll” “St Mary’s church in the hollow of the white hazel.” “Pwllgwyngyll” was the name of the original medieval township where the village stands today.
Does anyone object to the chemical element symbols (“Cd”, “Cl”, “Cm” and “Md”)? (I already added “Di” and “Li” because they’re also names.) How about the unit abbreviations “cm”, “mm” and “Ci”?
(That’s not bad at all.) I’m not brave enough to add them.
My personal opinion is that Us and Vs shouldn’t appear in the same word, so the are no Vs in the list. (That excludes “lixivium”, I’m afraid, although it is a thoroughly gorgeous word.) But I don’t make the rules here.
@mollusque: That’s an odd one, but sure, why not? (Beware that I added an invisible Unicode word joiner after each left square-bracket to keep Wordnik from rendering it as a linktoaword, so you’ll have to kill them if you cut-and-paste this.)
Here’s the list generated by the previously described pipe. (It’s not comprehensive, of course, and I haven’t filtered out palindromes.) Please feel free to add any of these words to this list (provided they are real words). I sorted the longest first. (Curiously, the first one is also a palindrome.) Most of them seem reasonable, although some of the shorter ones are silly. (I’m skeptical of the value of including every single letter of the alphabet, both upper- and lowercase, in a spelling dictionary.)
Your “palate” is the roof of your mouth, and by extension, your sense of taste. A “palette” is the flat board an artist mixes paint on (or by extension, a range of colors). A “pallet” is either a bed (now rare) or a flat platform onto which goods are loaded.
Your “palate” is the roof of your mouth, and by extension, your sense of taste. A “palette” is the flat board an artist mixes paint on (or by extension, a range of colors). A “pallet” is either a bed (now rare) or a flat platform onto which goods are loaded.
Your “palate” is the roof of your mouth, and by extension, your sense of taste. A “palette” is the flat board an artist mixes paint on (or by extension, a range of colors). A “pallet” is either a bed (now rare) or a flat platform onto which goods are loaded.
Impune . . . means “unpunished” (as in “with impunity”) and has nothing whatsoever to do with “impugn” which means “to attack (the reputation of)” or something like that, being related to pugno = “to fight” (as in “pugnacious”, “pugilist” etc)
It appears (from, e.g., almost every sentence cited on the first page of usage examples for “impune”*) that almost every person who writes the word “impune” in English intends the word “impugn”.
* The only two exceptions use the word in the Latin† motto “Nemo me impune lacessit” (or a fragment thereof).
† That is to say the language of the motto is Latin; it’s the motto of the Order of the Thistle, a chivalric order associated with Scotland.
Impune . . . means “unpunished” (as in “with impunity”) and has nothing whatsoever to do with “impugn” which means “to attack (the reputation of)” or something like that, being related to pugno = “to fight” (as in “pugnacious”, “pugilist” etc)
It appears (from, e.g., almost every sentence cited on the first page of usage examples for this word*) that almost every person who writes the word “impune” in English intends the word “impugn”.
* The only two exceptions use the word in the Latin† motto “Nemo me impune lacessit” (or a fragment thereof).
† That is to say the language of the motto is Latin; it’s the motto of the Order of the Thistle, a chivalric order associated with Scotland.
Just to further muddy the waters, “ingenuous” is (according to, e.g., the American Heritage Dictionary,) also an obsolete form of “ingenious” (technically making the former a contranym). I love English.
A “brasserie” is a food-and-drink bar, “brassier” is more like brass, a “brassiere” is a woman's undergarment or bra, while a “brazier” or “brasier” is a cooking utensil that holds live coals.
A “brasserie” is a food-and-drink bar, “brassier” is more like brass, a “brassiere” is a woman's undergarment or bra, while a “brazier” or “brasier” is a cooking utensil that holds live coals.
A “brasserie” is a food-and-drink bar, “brassier” is more like brass, a “brassiere” is a woman's undergarment or bra, while a “brazier” or “brasier” is a cooking utensil that holds live coals.
A “brasserie” is a food-and-drink bar, “brassier” is more like brass, a “brassiere” is a woman's undergarment or bra, while a “brazier” or “brasier” is a cooking utensil that holds live coals.
A “brasserie” is a food-and-drink bar, “brassier” is more like brass, a “brassiere” is a woman's undergarment or bra, while a “brazier” or “brasier” is a cooking utensil that holds live coals.
By far the most common of these words is “eminent,” meaning “prominent, famous.” “Imminent,” in phrases like “facing imminent disaster,” means “threatening.” . . . Positive events can also be imminent: they just need to be coming soon. The rarest of the three is “immanent,” used by philosophers to mean “inherent” and by theologians to mean “present throughout the universe” when referring to a god.
By far the most common of these words is “eminent,” meaning “prominent, famous.” “Imminent,” in phrases like “facing imminent disaster,” means “threatening.” . . . Positive events can also be imminent: they just need to be coming soon. The rarest of the three is “immanent,” used by philosophers to mean “inherent” and by theologians to mean “present throughout the universe” when referring to a god.
By far the most common of these words is “eminent,” meaning “prominent, famous.” “Imminent,” in phrases like “facing imminent disaster,” means “threatening.” . . . Positive events can also be imminent: they just need to be coming soon. The rarest of the three is “immanent,” used by philosophers to mean “inherent” and by theologians to mean “present throughout the universe” when referring to a god.
Thanks for adding “chaise longue” to my list of “Correctly spelled words that look like misspellings of other words”. I recreated the list with a new URL (the original URL was grammatically confused) and migrated all the words except yours—for some reason (perhaps because it was the only multiple-word phrase in the list), I can’t move it. So I added it to the new list myself.
A domovoi (Russian: домово́й; literally, "he of the house") is a house spirit in Slavic folklore. Domovois (the Russian plural form is domoviye) are masculine, typically small, and sometimes covered in hair all over. According to some traditions, the domovoi take on the appearance of current or former owners of the house and have a grey beard, sometimes with tails or little horns. There are tales of neighbours seeing the master of the house out in the yard while in fact the real master is asleep in bed. It has also been said that domovoi can take on the appearance of cats or dogs, but reports of this are fewer than of that mentioned before.
This is frequently confused with “reprehensible”, e.g.:
But stealing is stealing, and just because it’s easier to steal the videogames you want than it is to steal a car doesn't mean it’s any less apprehensible.
Comments by dan337
Dan337 commented on the word Kundry
Well played.
September 25, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word adumbration
Embarrassed, Dan slinks off into an [umbra.]
September 25, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word adumbration
It’s peculiar that the same creepy guy from the umbrage page also appears here. (I apologize in advance on the off chance that he’s one of you creepy guys.) He’s not on the adumbrage page—I checked.
September 25, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word éclat
(I started thumbing through my copy for it, but Google’s faster.)
“Bankruptcy and repudiation are the spring-boards from which much of our civilization vaults and turns its somersets, but the savage stands on the unelastic plank of famine. Yet the Middlesex Cattle Show goes off here with éclat annually, as if all the joints of the agricultural machine were suent.”
— Henry David Thoreau. “Economy”. Walden. 1854.
September 24, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word alnwick
Don’t provoke me into starting an “Alnwick and Sundry” list.
September 24, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word d'autres chats à fouetter
See avoir d'autres chats à fouetter.
September 24, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word nobody expects the French Inquisition!
Thanks. I can’t express how valuable the idiom avoir d'autres chats à fouetter will be to me.
September 24, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word penguin
Ah. I found a thinner one (“ ”), propping up a table leg. With some cropping, your fledgy friend can use this for his visa:
.+.
/( )\
-- --
September 24, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word penguin
Shirleybilby: Here’s a non-breaking space: “ ”. I’ve been using them for indentation ever since we lost the blockquote tag. (It’s a flimsy substitute therefor, but adequate for short lines that won’t wrap.)Here’s Apsley looking almost into the camera:
.+.
/( )\
-- --
(I’ve got some other widths around here somewhere . . . .)
September 24, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word inchoate
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Do I win? Will you please stop now? Or is this some sort of Bizarro-World book review in which the entire text of a work must appear under the single word that best describes it?
September 24, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word bling
Google Books’ premature presbyopia render it useless for finding early citations of this particular word. I am nonetheless cheered to be reminded of H.G. Wells’ classic story, “The Country of the Bling”:
http://books.google.com/books?id=sok7HQAACAAJ
September 24, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word !
Good point. (Sorry—couldn’t resist.) When exclaiming not admiration but disgust (or just clearing one’s throat), one might therefore prefer to employ a probang.
September 23, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word cachous
“I am the walrusser.”
September 22, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word rhetoric
!
September 22, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word botel
. . . Than a floating bijouterie?
September 22, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word oz
“. . . If ever a vis there was, &c.”
— Harry Arȝ
September 22, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word stile
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia:
1. A former spelling of style.
Pointedly clears throat. Scans room over bifocals.
2. A former and more correct spelling of style.
(Thanks for the find, ruzuzu.)
September 22, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word sporadic
Words that represent “the sound of the thing signified” are onomatopoeic (or, if you prefer, onomatopœic or onomatopoetic); the property itself (as well as its use) is called onomatopoeia. (Wordnik is crawling with lists of examples.)
September 20, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word new interface
Running in circles, arms flailing Gaaah! My Wordnik is broken!
Oh, it’s back. I’m OK. Just gotta lie down for a second.
September 20, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word bacon
Expanding on whichbe’s suggestion, see also
http://bacolicio.us/http://www.wordnik.com/words/bacon
and, of course,
http://bacolicio.us/http://bacolicio.us/
September 20, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word biracial
Printed—especially with Latin alphas—it has a lovely, delicately imperfect symmetry.
September 19, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word hoi polloi
Applauds bilby [working the unworkable] The construction bilby describes is also known as tmesis.
September 19, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word spatterdash
I’m skeptical of attempts to introduce novel punctuation marks, but if someone comes up with a spatterdash, the name alone might sway me.
September 18, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word apocope
I want to build a table on this word, invite over adelaide (she’s too “modern” for capitalization) and her pal the abbé, and serve them edda.
September 18, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word rarification
“I do not know,” he began, “if you have ever considered the nature of sound. Suffice to say that it consists of a series of waves moving through the air. Not, however, waves like those on the surface of the sea — oh dear no! Those waves are up and down movements. Sound waves consist of alternate compressions and rarefactions.”
“Rare-what?”
“Rarefactions.”
“Don’t you mean ‘rarefications’?”
“I do not. I doubt if such a word exists, and if it does, it shouldn’t,” retorted Purvis, with the aplomb of Sir Alan Herbert dropping a particularly revolting neologism into his killing-bottle. . . .
— Arthur C. Clarke. “Silence, Please”.
September 18, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word frequentative
More examples may be found (or recorded) on the lists “Frequentative”and “Infrequentative”.
September 18, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word splatterdash
Spatterdash written with a leaky pen.
September 18, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word qooq
A reflection of poop, or a rotation of boob.
September 18, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word boob
See also the rotation qooq, and the reflections dood and (as long as we’re all tittering like adolescent schoolboys) poop.
September 18, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word swell
It’s comforting to know that a dandy swell is the same thing as a swell dandy.
September 18, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word redistribute the poverty
September 18, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word gardyloo
See also (the probably unrelated) loo.
September 17, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word loo
Slowly backing away Golly, bilby, that sounds . . . swell . . . , but I gotta go . . . uh . . . manicure my . . . um . . . thesauri . . . now. On a different website! Planet! Yeah. OK, gotta go, bye! Flees
September 17, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word abandannad
For those who don’t read Arabic, here’s Google’s eloquent translation of sinnoch’s sciscitating verse:
What say? Who me? Rich
Amended and ad? Alawaz? For? About the heart? Na? E?
Mother? DNA? Zdyark? ? J father? J. Waller? Quba?
Heart? Know? O Adhul? B? Disease? E?
More ...
Photo provided
September 17, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word Scrabble word
“How ironic! You came here with a mouse in a bottle, now you are the mouse!”
September 17, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word kurunj
Barbara Walters: “What kind of Scrabble™ word are you, if you think you’re a valid Scrabble word?”
Katharine Hepburn: “I hope I’m not leguminous.”
September 17, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word semitorque
Thank you. I have no further questions.
September 17, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word loo
The etymology here appears to refer to division loo (although this wouldn’t be bad terminology for the quite practical arrangement bilby described). I assumed the (currently) more common “loo” was anglicized from l’eau, as in the splendidly historical word gardyloo* (garde à l’eau), but the Online Etymology Dictionary† suggests it’s “probably from Fr. lieux d’aisances, ‘lavatory,’ lit. ‘place of ease’.”
* I am compelled to mention this word, as it was one of many that doomed me to a life of logophilia.
† The other (less reliable) OED
September 17, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word loo
(Damn your typo, sionnach—I thought “hidesous” might be an actual word, presumably involving hidden old French copper nickels. Now, if you’ll pardon me, I must visit the lavoratory.)
September 17, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word knapbottle
At first glance, I though the definition read “The bladder champion (Silene Inflata).” What, I thought, did Silene do to win such an honor?
(By way of useful comments, see also bladder campion, Silene inflata, Silene vulgaris, Pink family, and inflated calyx.)
September 16, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word knapbottle
I have no further questions.
September 16, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word pedantize
I try to get up an hour or two early every morning to pedantize before breakfast.
September 9, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word mendaciloquence
I prefer* the phrasing “adroit prevarication”—it has a nice rhythm, and bundles notions of direction and misdirection together in a metaphor of motion. Adroit descends from Latin directus—“straight”—and to prevaricate from Latin praevaricari—literally, “to walk crookedly”, so there’s also an etymological oxymoron hidden inside. Honestly. Trust me.
(Or see http://OneLook.com/?w=mendaciloquence if you don't.)
* Ignoring, of course, the important principle that dictionaries should always use the simplest language possible.
September 8, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word illicit
“The lawyer tries to elicit a description of the attacker from the witness. ‘Elicit’ is always a verb. ‘Illicit,’ in contrast, is always an adjective describing something illegal or naughty.”
— Paul Brians. “Elicit/Illicit”. Common Errors in English Usage
September 8, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word elicit
“The lawyer tries to elicit a description of the attacker from the witness. ‘Elicit’ is always a verb. ‘Illicit,’ in contrast, is always an adjective describing something illegal or naughty.”
— Paul Brians. “Elicit/Illicit”. Common Errors in English Usage
September 8, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word cloudwords
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE
September 8, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word jimson weed
Oh, well done, ruzuzu—now Boston Harbor is full of fish who think they’re British solders, “makings mows” and demanding three centuries of back pay. (I must admit, however, that they are more antic than a Dutch droll.)
September 7, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word automobubbling
Present participle of automobubble.
See http://www.archive.org/details/InMyMerr1932
September 7, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word craptastic
See also craptacular.
September 5, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word craptastick
Did you mean craptastic?
(Shaking fist You win this round, Bilby, but I’ll be back!)
September 5, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word fine-structure constant
α ≈ 1/137.035999.
I'd like to point out that this is my [137th comment on Wordnik. Thank you.]
September 5, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word duykerbok
This species lost the name lottery five times.
“Pleased to meet you, Cephalous mergens, or may I call you a duykerbok?”
“There’s no need for such formality—‘duyker’ is sufficient, but most people know me as an impoon. Although you may call me a deloo, if you like.” Winks demurely*
(It’s also known as the diving-buck, so I guess sixth time’s the charm.)
* I know she seems coquetoonish, but that’s actually an entirely different species (although the same genus).
September 5, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word ampassy
This was the original working title for an 80s James Bond film until a typography change replaced the titular character with an octothorpe.
September 5, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word ampersandal
(noun.) An ampersandiform sandal.
September 5, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word ampersandiform
(adjective.) Shaped like an ampersand, e.g., “An ampersandiform cat curled about her feet.”
cf. ampersandaliform.
September 5, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word ampersandaliform
(adjective.) Shaped like an ampersandal.
cf. ampersandiform.
September 5, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word pote
Thus potable doesn’t mean “able to be poted”. A clue to the discrepancy may be found at potate.
I wanted to work in a joke using the word [potatable, but I just don’t have time.]
September 4, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word quaff
This seems to mostly happen to potions.
September 4, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word jimson weed
In college, I knew some anthropology students who attempted to make jimson weed tea (not for the flavor). Don’t try this at home.
Wikipedia has a summary of the history to which ReeseTee alludes.
September 4, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word I dislike ampersands
“& 2, Brute?”
Whoa, hey—lookout! . . . Ghaaah! (A mob of angry senators amperstampedes over Dan.)
September 4, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word ampersand
I know what you mean. History, typography and function aside, there’s something about the sound of it. It makes me want to eat scampi sandwiches in a Southampton forest of sandalwood and palissander with a Sandemanian Sandinista campesino sandhiller champertor named Alessandra Amanda Sandusky Sanderson, then amble a sandstone path unhampered by sandburs through a campestral garden of rampe, sandwort, icosandria, sandberry, and pachysandra. When dampness champs our sandals we’ll swim like champion lampreys to a sandaliform sandbar, and damply scamper onto the ample sand. Sanderlings, sandgrouse and sandpipers will abandon as we expand and tamp a sandcastle, amplify examples of sandhi and anacamptic blandiloquence, and watch the amber night turn lampyridine, not to decamp until a pampero sandstorm (or rampant stampeding tamanduas) demand.
September 3, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word Wordnikphilia
See monoflipper anxiety.
September 3, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word zenzizenzizenzic
Working on a fix for Wordnikphilia? Or monoflipper anxiety?
September 3, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word roof rabbit
Cat meat.
“Cats were sometimes eaten as a famine food during harsh winters, poor harvests, and wartime. Cat gained notoriety as ‘roof rabbit’ in Central Europe’s hard times during and between World War I and World War II.”
— “Cat meat”. Wikipedia.
“A little meat is on sale at prohibitive prices. House cats are sold under the more appetizing title of roof rabbit.”
— “Arrival of American Flour at Riga Ends the Bolsheviki Reign of Terror”. United States Bulletin, Vol. 3, No. 593. 1919 June 23 (page 13)
“Cat has also been eaten in Britain. During wartime rationing, cats found their way into ‘rabbit’ stews/pies and hence earned themselves the nickname ‘roof-rabbit’. . . . The following rhyme summed up the keeping of cats in peace-time and the eating of them in times of hardship.
Oh kittens, in our hours of ease
Uncertain toys and full of fleas,
When pain and anguish hang o’er men,
We turn you into sausage then.
”— Sarah Hartwell. “Cats—Friend or Food?”
September 3, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word indegestible
Obsolete spelling of indigestible.
See additional citation at difficilitate.
September 3, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word difficilitate
September 3, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word ____________________________________________________________________________
Wordnik informs me that this is found in contexts similar to those in which “bibliography” is found. Perhaps, but “____________________________________________________________________________” has better pictures.
August 27, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word incrediblejourneysintotheknown
?
August 27, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word logonomy
I'd rather have a frontal logonomy than a gonnle ... in front .... Never mind.
Seriously, though, that's completely madeupical, right? You must admit that "www.oed.com.proxygsu-way1.galileo.usg.edu" is a pretty fishy* domain name.
* Read "phishy". Or, at very least, "suspiciousy".
July 12, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word butterfly
See “Butterfly Etymology”, Matthew Rabuzzi's “butterfly collection” of a “large variety of distinct words for 'butterfly' in various Indo-European languages.”
July 9, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list sinister
@Mary Jane: Thanks for your contributions to the list. The list is for words related etymologically or semantically to the concept of “leftness”), not aspersions in general (although many of the former, as it happens, do fall into the latter category). The list's title is, I admit, misleading. (I was tempted by assonance at the expense of clarity.)
As fond as I am of the word “ratbag”*, neither it nor the other words and phrases you added fit the bill. I'm very sorry to remove them (especially since you appear to be new to Wordnik† and I'm loathe to discourage you). Please let me know if you think I'm mistaken.
* Favorited, by the way. The rat is another oft-vilified concept; see, for example, Ruzuzu's open list “Rats”.
† Me, too.
July 9, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word some bizarre euphemism for an impromptu poem
See Is not the mounted liger.
July 3, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word call of the void
See l'appel du vide.
July 3, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word honorigible
See comment at speechitating.
July 3, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word speechitating
From SMBC:
(Click through for the full-size comic.)
July 3, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word affective
See usage note at affect.
June 28, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word effective
See usage note at affect.
June 28, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word effect
See usage note at affect.
June 28, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word affect
June 28, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word C₂₀H₁₂O₅
See fluorescein.
March 23, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word C20H12O5
See fluorescein.
March 22, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word tepui
A tepui (or tepuy) (pronounced /ˈtɛpwi/) is a table-top mountain or mesa found in the Guiana Highlands of South America, especially in Venezuela. The word tepui means “house of the gods” in the native tongue of the Pemon, the indigenous people who inhabit the Gran Sabana.
Tepuis tend to be found as isolated entities rather than in connected ranges, which makes them the host of a unique array of endemic plant and animal species. Some of the most outstanding tepuis are Neblina, Autana, Auyantepui and Mount Roraima. They are typically composed of sheer blocks of Precambrian quartz arenite sandstone that rise abruptly from the jungle, giving rise to spectacular natural scenery. Auyantepui is the source of Angel Falls, the world’s tallest waterfall.
March 21, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word norm-porn
See citation at normporn.
March 9, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word norm porn
See citation at normporn.
March 9, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word normporn
(Most sources seem to prefer the spellings “norm-porn” or “norm porn”.)
March 9, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word woody
See also tinny and gorn.
February 21, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word gorn
February 21, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word scapegoat
February 19, 2011
Dan337 commented on the user Dan337
Is there a word that describes a phrase or word that, when all of its voiced consonants are replaced with their respective unvoiced counterparts and conversely, continues to be a bona fide phrase or word? For example, “bat” (/bæt/) and “pad” (/pæd/) become one another under this transformation; as do (the General American pronunciations of) “dog” (/dɔɡ/) and “talk” (/tɔk/).
If not, what would be a good neologism to describe this?
February 14, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word sustainism
I just happen to have one of the many art history textbooks that fell through that leaky Norwegian time hole last year (as well as a couple of paradoxes and more soylent green than I can use*), and it turns out SPOILER ALERT for people who prefer to experience time chronologically that Schwarz & Elfers are (will be) successful at naming† the next major cultural movement. Here is a brief except:
1687-1789: Rationalism
1770-1830: Romanticism
1830-1905: Realism
1880-1905: Art Nouveau
1880-1965: Modernism
1965-2010: Postmodernism
1990-2040: Post-Postmodernism
2010-2055: Sustainism
2055-2063: Neoconsumerism
2063-2063: Cataclysm
2063-Present: Zombiism
— “Chapter 1: Brains. Brains!”
* If you want some, just stop by.
† That is, they (will) get credit for naming it (erroneously, as mollusque pointed out).
February 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list indian-spices--1
You can’t convince me that “turmeric” doesn’t belong here. (Gotta go—It’s curry-makin’ time.)
February 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list words-that-make-an-example
gangerh: These are called “autological” (or homological) words. (This is one of my favorite category of words, so I can’t express how happy I was when I discovered it had a name.)
February 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word autological
dagfooyo & jmjarmstrong: The paradox you described is the Grelling–Nelson paradox. Grelling and Nelson defined* “autological” (and its opposite, “heterological”) specifically for the purpose of expressing the paradox. The fact that you both inferred the paradox from the word alone, in my opinion, makes “autological” a single-word koan.
See also Russell's paradox.
* I don’t know whether these words were already in use before Nelson and Grelling’s 1908 paper, so I can’t guarantee that they coined them.
February 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list headgear
bilby: Je vous remercie beaucoup.
January 31, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word crested rat
Synonyms: maned rat, skullcap.
See lophiomys, lophiomyidæ.
January 31, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word maned rat
Synonyms: crested rat, skullcap.
See lophiomys, lophiomyidæ.
January 31, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word mandyas
January 30, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word little habit
January 30, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word rhasum
January 30, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word calloyer
January 30, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word Mount Athos
January 30, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word Athos
January 30, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word rhasophoria
January 30, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list allographic-homophones
“gaiter” & “gator” (This pair is brought to you by the fact that I just had to look up “jeggings”.)
January 30, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list plurale-tantum
(reesetee: Thanks. It was setting off my irony detector.)
January 30, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word disappointing children
It’s a noble and thankless profession. bilby: Do you mean a plural boom intercessionary vang or a plural gaff intercessionary vang?
January 29, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word walrusser
Comparative of walrus, e.g.: “Of the two, John is the walrusser. Coo coo ca-choo.”
January 29, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list correctly-spelled-words-that-look-like-misspellings-of-other-words
Pardon me. Would you please direct me to the levorotary?
January 29, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word mad as a hatter
Comparative form of mad as a hat.
January 29, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list plurale-tantum
This is lovely. I know it’s a mere trivium sic, but shouldn’t the list be called “pluralia tantum”?
January 29, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list cromulent
Re “elephant fresh”: I forgot about that one. Thanks!
January 28, 2011
Dan337 commented on the user yarb
Thank for adding “appendice” to my list; I particularly enjoyed the associated comments.
P.S.: Have you tried “nuncle”? It’s Shakespearean, rebracketed, and proscribed, so you can hardly loose.
January 28, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list words-that-must-be-destroyed
The comments associated with “appendice” are required reading. (Thank you, yarb.)
January 28, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word Italic god
Designating a style of deity which slopes toward the right.
January 28, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list laeo--laevo--levo
Howdy. You might enjoy my list “Sinister Ascriptions”.
January 28, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word Wordnik
Google (at this time) returns “about 3,390 results” for “Kindrow” that make no mention of “Wordnik”. It primarily (perhaps exclusively) appears as a surname. Thus (as mollusque pointed out), “Wordnik” is a bona fide anadrome (to the extent that it’s a bona fide word).
January 28, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list anadromes
Of course, this means that “Wordnik” is also a bona fide anadrome.
January 28, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word Kindrow
Google (at this time) returns “about 3,390 results” for “Kindrow” that make no mention of “Wordnik”. It primarily (perhaps exclusively) appears as a surname. Thus, “Wordnik” is a bona fide anadrome.
January 28, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word kindrow
I was skeptical about “kindrow”, but (at this time) Google returns “about 3,390 results” that make no mention of “Wordnik”. It primarily (perhaps exclusively) appears as a surname, so the capitalized form is probably the correct one. In any case, it makes “Wordnik” a bona fide anadrome.
January 28, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list anadromes
fbharjo: I was skeptical about “kindrow”, but Google returns “about 3,390 results” that make no mention of “Wordnik”, so it stays. I replaced it, however, with the capitalized form, as it primarily (perhaps exclusively) appears as a surname. Thanks for the word.
January 28, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list stripes-and-bands
fbharjo: I went a little nuts with your list. If any of my additions don’t exactly fit what you were looking for, I won’t be offended if you delete them. Enjoy.
January 28, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word weft
The American Heritage Dictionary briefly experimented with employing dogs as writers.
January 28, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word jam butty
See jam sandwich.
January 27, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list substancestry
I see you already have “aether”, but do you think “quintessence” and the “luminiferous aether” might look nice here? (Come to think of it, do you suppose “Quintessence and the Luminiferous Æther” might not make a good name for a band?)
January 27, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word luminiferous aether
Wikipedia’s “Timeline of luminiferous aether” is an edifying read.
January 27, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word crepusculum
See also “crepuscle”, “crepuscular”, “crepuscular arch”, “crepuscular ray”, “crepuscule”, “crepusculine”, and “crepusculous”.
January 26, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word crepusculous
See also “crepuscle”, “crepuscular”, “crepuscular arch”, “crepuscular ray”, “crepuscule”, “crepusculine”, and “crepusculum”.
January 26, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word crepuscule
See also “crepuscle”, “crepuscular”, “crepuscular arch”, “crepuscular ray”, “crepusculine”, “crepusculous”, and “crepusculum”.
January 26, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word crepuscular ray
See also “crepuscle”, “crepuscular”, “crepuscular arch”, “crepuscule”, “crepusculine”, “crepusculous”, and “crepusculum”.
January 26, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word crepuscular arch
See also “crepuscle”, “crepuscular”, “crepuscular ray”, “crepuscule”, “crepusculine”, “crepusculous”, and “crepusculum”.
January 26, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word crepuscular
See also “crepuscle”, “crepuscular arch”, “crepuscular ray”, “crepuscule”, “crepusculine”, “crepusculous”, and “crepusculum”.
January 26, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word crepuscle
See also “crepuscular”, “crepuscular arch”, “crepuscular ray”, “crepuscule”, “crepusculine”, “crepusculous”, and “crepusculum”.
January 26, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word crepusculine
See also “crepuscle”, “crepuscular”, “crepuscular arch”, “crepuscular ray”, “crepuscule”, “crepusculous”, and “crepusculum”.
January 26, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list excellent-potential-cat-names
@bilby: Nice one, by the way: “Schrödinger” is an excellent name for a potential cat. (I added the German spelling; I have a thing for umlauts.)
January 26, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word crepuscule
Perhaps the most well-known popular usage of this word occurs in the title “Crepuscule with Nellie”.
January 26, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word illuvium
January 26, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list words-made-of-roman-numerals
I installed some better lexicons, so here are some expanded word lists. The batch with no “U”s contains 84 words:
There are 62 that employ “U” but not “V”:We end with the six bigeners:January 26, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list words-made-of-roman-numerals
@mollusque: I take it back. That word looks mighty fine on this list.
January 26, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word fantastipotamus
It’s a perfectly cromulent word.
January 25, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word harpsical
(NB: This page cites no sources. The most information the site gives about itself is in a disclaimer indicating that “All content on this website . . . was submitted by the users and has not been checked for accuracy”.)January 25, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word dropsical
I know of only five bona fide English words that end with “-psical”: “autopsical”, “harpsical”, “dropsical”, and the dubious derived forms “nondropsical” and “undropsical”. There are at least 111 words that end with “-sical”.
January 25, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word harpsical
I know of only five bona fide English words that end with “-psical”: “autopsical”, “harpsical”, “dropsical”, and the dubious derived forms “nondropsical” and “undropsical”. There are at least 111 words that end with “-sical”.
January 25, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word autopsical
I know of only five bona fide English words that end with “-psical”: “autopsical”, “harpsical”, “dropsical”, and the dubious derived forms “nondropsical” and “undropsical”. There are at least 111 words that end with “-sical”.
January 25, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word omegapsical
I know of only five bona fide English words that end with “-psical”: “autopsical”, “harpsical”, “dropsical”, and the dubious derived forms “nondropsical” and “undropsical”. There are at least 111 words that end with “-sical”.
January 25, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word omegapsic
The only occurrence of “omegapsic” I can find on the web is a post by Dr. Ewart Shaw (dated 1999-06-04) in rec.puzzles. Dr. Shaw defines “omegapsic” as the “opposite of ‘alphabetic’”.
See further discussion at “omegapsical”.
January 25, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word omegapsical
I was contemplating “coining” this word, but I don’t know what the proper ending should be. Knowing that I couldn’t be the first with the idea, I Googled some variants.
There are (at this time) only two hits for “omegapsic”; both lead to the same post by Dr. Ewart Shaw (dated 1999-06-04) in rec.puzzles, so this is actually only one occurrence. (Dr. Shaw defines “omegapsic” as the “opposite of ‘alphabetic’”.)
There are “about” 1,270 hits for “omegapsical”, but most (about 1,225) refer to a series of comic book torrents titled “The More than Complete DC in Omegapsical Order”. Filtering out the word “MTCDC” and phrase “More than Complete DC” still yields 46 nicely diverse hits; most appear to be discussions about (or claiming to have coined) the word “omegapsical”.* (It’s defined on Wiktionary’s “List of protologisms” as “Reverse alphabetical order”.)
One of these defines “omegapsical” as “anti-alphabetical”.)
These are not, however, the only possibilities. Were there a noun form, it would be, I suppose, “omegapsi”, by (approximate) analogy to “alpabet”. To the best of my knowledge, “omegapsiac”, “omegapsial” or “omegapsine” would be just as reasonable. More outlandish options include “omegapsescent”, “omegapsesque”, “omegapsiacious”, “omegapsial”, “omegapsian”, “omegapsiant”, “omegapsiary”, “omegapsiate”, “omegapsible”, “omegapsicious”, “omegapsient”, “omegapsiescent”, “omegapsiesque”, “omegapsiferous”, “omegapsific”, “omegapsiific”, “omegapsiist”, “omegapsile”, “omegapsine”, “omegapsioid”, “omegapsiose”, “omegapsiotic”, “omegapsious”, “omegapsist”, “omegapsive”, “omegapsoid”, “omegapsotic”, or simply “omegapsi” (the noun used as an adjective). I admit to being slightly fond of the completely absurd “omegapsionic”, or better yet, “omegapsionical”.
My personal preference is “omegapsical”, by analogy with “alpabetical” (“according to the sequence of the letters of the alphabet”) as opposed to “alpabetic” (“of or relating to an alphabet”). Is that linguistically or etymologically sound? Does anyone know of a rule for (or even an example of) converting a Greek-derived noun ending with “i” to an adjective?
* At least one of these refers to or is derived from the previously-mentioned torrent. One can whittle it down to 40 results by filtering out “DC”, but as “DC” is an omegapsical sequence and might therefor appear in a relevant discussion, I hesitate to do so.
January 25, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word galactagogue
I was about to ask whether the action of a galactagogue is “galactagogy” or “galactagoguery”, but it appears Time beat me to the punch.
January 25, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word aisle
January 24, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word isle
January 24, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
See also “Llanfairpwllgwyngyll”.January 24, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list words-made-of-roman-numerals
Does anyone object to the chemical element symbols (“Cd”, “Cl”, “Cm” and “Md”)? (I already added “Di” and “Li” because they’re also names.) How about the unit abbreviations “cm”, “mm” and “Ci”?
January 23, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list words-made-of-roman-numerals
Here are the extra words yielded (from the very limited lexicons I’m using) by mollusque’s suggestion:
(That’s not bad at all.) I’m not brave enough to add them.My personal opinion is that Us and Vs shouldn’t appear in the same word, so the are no Vs in the list. (That excludes “lixivium”, I’m afraid, although it is a thoroughly gorgeous word.) But I don’t make the rules here.
January 23, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list words-made-of-roman-numerals
Here’s a cheat:
Here’s what it gives me. (I removed single-character “words”.) It looks like we’ve got most of them. You may get better results with a better lexicon.I find it alarming that these lexicons don’t include “cm” and “mm”.January 23, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list words-that-must-be-destroyed
Obviously, “semordnilap” is the plural of “emordnilap” (and “emordnilaps” is also fine). So of what is “semordnilaps” the plural? Sloppy thinking, that’s what.
January 23, 2011
Dan337 commented on the user Dan337
@mollusque: That’s an odd one, but sure, why not? (Beware that I added an invisible Unicode word joiner after each left square-bracket to keep Wordnik from rendering it as a link to a word, so you’ll have to kill them if you cut-and-paste this.)
That gives you the transformed words; you’ll have to deduce the originals. And the words areJanuary 23, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list anadromes
Here’s the list generated by the previously described pipe. (It’s not comprehensive, of course, and I haven’t filtered out palindromes.) Please feel free to add any of these words to this list (provided they are real words). I sorted the longest first. (Curiously, the first one is also a palindrome.) Most of them seem reasonable, although some of the shorter ones are silly. (I’m skeptical of the value of including every single letter of the alphabet, both upper- and lowercase, in a spelling dictionary.)
January 22, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list anadromes
You might need to substitute “/usr/share/dict/words” or something similar on your system.January 22, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word pallet
January 8, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word palette
January 8, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word palate
January 8, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word impune
“Nemo me impune lacessit” is also the Montrésor family motto in “The Cask of Amontillado”. Here’s a link to a page containing the text of that story, which I include because it also has nice pop-up definitions for less-common words and phrases:
January 6, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word impugn
It appears (from, e.g., almost every sentence cited on the first page of usage examples for “impune”*) that almost every person who writes the word “impune” in English intends the word “impugn”.* The only two exceptions use the word in the Latin† motto “Nemo me impune lacessit” (or a fragment thereof).
† That is to say the language of the motto is Latin; it’s the motto of the Order of the Thistle, a chivalric order associated with Scotland.
January 6, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word impune
It appears (from, e.g., almost every sentence cited on the first page of usage examples for this word*) that almost every person who writes the word “impune” in English intends the word “impugn”.* The only two exceptions use the word in the Latin† motto “Nemo me impune lacessit” (or a fragment thereof).
† That is to say the language of the motto is Latin; it’s the motto of the Order of the Thistle, a chivalric order associated with Scotland.
January 6, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list contranyms--1
Thanks for the tip. Oroboros’s list is broader in scope than I wanted, but I might borrow a word or two from it.
January 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the list correctly-spelled-words-that-look-like-a-misspellings-of-other-words
Thanks. I moved the list and all the words to a new URL
(because the original URL was grammatically confused). (Moral: Be certain you correctly spell the name of a list when you create it.)January 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word ingenuous
Just to further muddy the waters, “ingenuous” is (according to, e.g., the American Heritage Dictionary,) also an obsolete form of “ingenious” (technically making the former a contranym). I love English.
January 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word eulogy
January 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word elegy
January 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word brasier
January 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word brazier
January 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word brasserie
January 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word brassier
January 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word brassiere
January 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word stationery
January 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word stationary
January 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word immanent
Please follow the link for handy mnemonics and more usage notes.January 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word imminent
Please follow the link for handy mnemonics and more usage notes.January 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word eminent
Please follow the link for handy mnemonics and more usage notes.January 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the user bilby
Thanks for adding “chaise longue” to my list of “Correctly spelled words that look like misspellings of other words”. I recreated the list with a new URL (the original URL was grammatically confused) and migrated all the words except yours—for some reason (perhaps because it was the only multiple-word phrase in the list), I can’t move it. So I added it to the new list myself.
January 1, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word домово́й
Russian for domovoi
September 20, 2010
Dan337 commented on the word domovoi
Per Wikipedia,
September 20, 2010
Dan337 commented on the word debulition
Definition:
August 26, 2010
Dan337 commented on the word disconcantinated
Example:
In Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol (page 219), Iain Gately quotes the July 17, 1974 Virginia Chronicle:
(This is the only example I can find on the web; I find none whatsoever for “disconcantinate”. But one could hardly ask for a finer example.)
August 26, 2010
Dan337 commented on the word crotalophorus
Example:
In Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol (page 219), Iain Gately quotes the July 17, 1974 Virginia Chronicle:
August 26, 2010
Dan337 commented on the word debulition
Example:
In Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol (page 219), Iain Gately quotes the July 17, 1974 Virginia Chronicle:
August 26, 2010
Dan337 commented on the word ostentiferous
Example:
In Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol (page 219), Iain Gately quotes the July 17, 1974 Virginia Chronicle:
Pure gold (but difficult to spell-check).
August 26, 2010
Dan337 commented on the word apprehensible
This is frequently confused with “reprehensible”, e.g.:
August 23, 2010