"I call it a kaleidophone,” he said.“The idea is that it will convert any rhythmical sound, such as music, into pleasing and symmetrical, but always changing, visual patterns." Prelude to Space, by Arthur C. Clarke
"Grimdark is a subgenre or a way to describe the tone, style, or setting of speculative fiction (especially fantasy) that is, depending on the definition used, markedly dystopian or amoral, or particularly graphic in its depiction of violence. In most grimdark literature the supernatural is a passive force, controlled by humans—unlike supernatural horror where the preternatural forces are most often an active entity with agency." Is it Grimdark or is it Horror?
"In college I took a literature course which examined Marilynne Robinson’s innovative use of spaces–especially the domestic space–in her novel Housekeeping. My teacher also mentioned that the book actually includes a neologism- the word “lucifactions,” used to describe light on water, in the scene where the girls are out on the lake." HTMLGiant
"Sent to large numbers of correspondents using the reply-all button, memails contain no substance. Their sole function is to draw attention to the sender, using the fewest words possible. Recently received examples include "that's just great", "good news", "fantastic", or just plain "yup"." The Guardian
"Mr. Ascheim defines “becomers” not as a generation but as a life stage — “from your first kiss to your first kid,” or people roughly 14 to 34." NYTimes
"Kronos’s promotional videos emphasize the risk of time theft by employees—“In a few minutes late?
Taking a few extra minutes on a break? It adds up”—and some of the firm’s most invasive systems, which require employees to clock in with a finger scan, are meant to prevent “buddy punching,” when an employee clocks in a co-worker who hasn’t yet arrived." Harper's Magazine
brelfie a selfie taken while breastfeeding: "The latest fad clogging up social media, heaping shame on those who dare commit the sin of bottle-feeding, is the brelfie: the tedious habit of posting a breastfeeding selfie, creating yet more #bressure on those who don’t, or can’t." Telegraph
The acting in this film is superb and the language is even better. As Rose and Jimmy wander around town making up scenarios, she uses such descriptions as "figures on a nunswept pier," for the people in her line of vision. Wilmington Town Crier
"doorfoolia is when you start to push open an opaque door at the exact instant someone on the other side of the door pulls the door open so that you stumble forward pushing air." (from Don Moyer of Calamityware)
"Jana Dambrogio, the Thomas F. Peterson conservator at M.I.T. Libraries, is analyzing how letter writers have tried through the ages to keep their correspondence sealed and unread until it reached the intended recipients. She has coined the word “letterlocking” to describe methods of folding and gluing pages to deter snooping." A Trove of ‘Letterlocking,’ or Vintage Strategies to Deter Snoops
"His bizarre allegorical stories fashion fantastical yet oddly believable worlds which deftly fuse 'magic' and 'realism' in a way critics have termed: 'stoicheiotical fidelity'." Blacklist Publishing
family + company: "In Issue No12, we take an insider's look at Zendesk’s impressive growth with co-founder Alexander Aghassipour; ustwo co-creator Matt ‘Mills’ Miller shows us how to create a ‘fampany’ of 250 employees while putting fun first; travelling photographer and designer Dan Rubin examines his new career path – powered by Instagram; science geek Ariel Waldman calls on the web community to participate in space exploration; Basecamp co-founder Jason Fried defies the startup hype and makes a case for longevity in business; and the father of web standards, Jeffrey Zeldman, reflects on the web that was and the web that will be."
"A recent extension of the concept of genocide associates the prospect of nuclear destruction with the threat of 'omnicide' or 'anthropocide'—the killing of all groups and individuals." The Politics of Gender
"And spoffle seems a perfectly suitable word for a soft baffle to muffle the pop and spit of aspirations, given its sound and the words it sounds like." Sesquiotica
First, there’s the fetching hybrid (or halforism?) called the gregueria. The gregueria was invented and named by the 20th Century Spanish writer Ramón Gómez de la Serna. He defined it as “humor plus metaphor,” a poetic joke: The couple of eggs we’re eating look like identical twins, and they’re not even third cousins. —GOMEZ DE LA SERNA from Short Flights
"I was drenched to the skin when a chap in a slicker Splashed up and he yelled, “It's the Midwinter Jicker! The Midwinter Jicker came early this year And it's not going to be very comfy 'round here."" I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew by Dr. Seuss
Thanks vendingmachine! Neither an unintelligible nor a dumb suggestion -- it's on the wishlist to improve! I don't have a date yet.
It's a two-part improvement: one, to make the random words slightly less random in the boring way (to weight them more towards more interesting words) and also to link those "grammatical" definitions to the root form.
"While working at Google, I developed pretotyping, a set of techniques, tools and metrics to help determine if a new product is The Right It, and to do so quickly, objectively and reliably." http://www.albertosavoia.com/
"a real success. "That north show window of Shute & Haskell's is a 'lally-cooler,' " the Jan. 4, 1890, Salina, Kan., Republican noted." NPR History Department
The distortion and devaluing of Black women’s gender identity is a curious feature of what Dr. Moya Bailey has termed “misogynoir,” which refers to the unique hatred of Black women and girls. Salon
"Charlie Loyd and I coined the term ultrastructure, for the cultural, political and regulatory systems around infrastructure, and I wrote these three narratives to think about what my commute would look like with a different ultrastructure, rather than the current default of ceding self-driving cars to private companies and the road to individual vehicles."
"Perhaps the term metrosophy can better express this bond between the metropolitan and philosophical experiences. It is meant to help us see cities not only as hubs of economic activities but also as fountains of abstract meditations." Metrosophy: Philosophy and the City NYT, 6 July 2015
"The overlooked word “woggin”, with many variants, was widely used by Yankee whalers for both the great auk (Pinguinus impennis) and for penguins (Spheniscidae), as documented in numerous logbooks and journals and at least two published sources. Although in use from at least 1762 until the 1860s, this word appears to be entirely unknown in scholarly literature and merits wider recognition both for understanding early accounts and for its potential for revealing new information about the extinct great auk." Whalers and woggins: a new vocabulary for interpreting some early accounts of the great auk and penguins
I would love to take credit for this but I think it might have been something re-juggled on Flickr's end! Let's be very very quiet and hope they don't bump into it again. :-)
"A 17th century English word that means “coming together through the binding of two ropes,” according to a 1627 publication housed at the New York Public Library’s Rare Book Division, was, until this month, dead to the digital world—and to almost every living person." The Word The Internet Didn't Know
"Cohen found that the term “shyster,” slang for someone who acts in an unscrupulous way, was first used in 1843 by a crooked lawyer disparaging his rivals as incompetents. That’s what the word meant in British criminal slang, where it appeared as “shiser.”
The lawyer used the term in a conversation with editor Mike Walsh, who misheard it and published it as “shiseters.” A new word was on the way to being born. Ultimately the word derives from an off-color word in German." The Rolla Daily News
"He referred to a small canvas rucksack he habitually carried (one with a single strap that he slung over his shoulder), as his sacheverell – at least I assume it was spelt like Sacheverell Sitwell’s first name, but I never saw him write it down, and unfortunately he died before I could ascertain the origin of this bizarre ascription – it may be it was his private word entirely, and perhaps related to some incident that had occurred involving him and Edith Sitwell’s brother." The Guardian
"Decompiculture is the cultivation of decomposing organisms. The term decompiculture was coined by Timothy Myles of the Urban Entomology Program at the University of Toronto." The Infinity Burial Project
Hi Warrior_mouse! nice to have you here! To start your own list, click on your username in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, and choose 'New List' from the dropdown. :-)
"It sounds like something out of Footloose, but the Idaho Stop is not a dance.
It is when a cyclist approaches a four-way or T-stop, and seeing no other vehicles or pedestrians in the vicinity, continues through, or slows to a rolling stop rather than a complete one." Global News
"A meronomy or partonomy is a type of hierarchy that deals with part–whole relationships, in contrast to a taxonomy whose categorisation is based on discrete sets." Wikipedia
"A priest, a horse, and a gelatologist walk into a bar ... OK, while this is clearly the start of a terrible joke, gelatology -- the study of laughter -- is a serious business." New Scientist, 13 May 2006
"Reddit is brogressive. Liberal when it benefits their demographic, conservative when it benefits anybody else. Selectively liberal only when it is convenient for them. You'll see the same anti-welfare people pushing for student loan forgiveness and subsidies for education and job training. To be fair, these are all good things. It's just that if you're only liberal when it benefits your demographic, you have to ask yourself whether there is anything more to your values than what is good for your wallet."Reddit/r/news
"Flakka is the latest derivative to come out of the designer-drug phenomena, a lineage that includes Ecstasy, MDMA, Molly and bath salts. Flakka contains the chemical compound alpha-PVP, a powerful and highly addictive synthetic stimulant, said Jim Hall, a Nova Southeastern University epidemiologist who studies substance use and drug outbreaks." Sun-Sentinel
"So have you noticed lately, the in-vogue words, words like - I guess they always were in the dictionary but suddenly you hear them more and more - words like pejorative, charisma certainly, dichotomy - Susskindisms we call them (audience laughter). We use that in the pejorative sense, of course." from Bob and Ray The Two And Only (at about 5:01)
"Simply put an algorist is anyone who works with algorithms. Historically we have viewed algorists as mathematicians. But it also applies to artists who create art using algorithmic procedures that include their own algorithms." Algorists.org
"Notel or 'notetel' - the name is a uniquely North Korean word combining 'notebook' and 'television' - are easily found on the black market for around 300 Chinese yuan ($48), and are also available in some state shops and markets." Reuters
vendingmachine, maggiemae isn't a spammer, she's adding synonyms. Until we have a better way of adding related words, adding them in the comments is the only way.
I'd very much like it if spam was reported directly (with the little thumbs-down icon) instead of with further comments. Actual spammers do not come back to Wordnik to read the comments anyway, and it can sometimes be offputting to nonspammers who simply haven't gotten the hang of the site yet. :-(
Recently, the topic has been re-introduced by David Estlund in his discussions of the legitimacy of “epistocracy”, a “rule of the knowers” or knowledge-based rule, referring to the Greek word episteme. source
""Mooncusser" is the name that Cape Codders gave years ago to people who used to lure storm-tossed ships onto the reefs with a light on the shore." Mystery of the Mooncusser
"The fire service in France is known as Sapeurs-pompiers, except in Marseille, where naval "sailor-firefighters", marins-pompiers, provide fire and rescue services." Wikipedia
"A jumping jack (Canada & US) or star jump (UK and other Commonwealth nations), also called side-straddle hop in the US military, is a physical jumping exercise performed by jumping to a position with the legs spread wide and the hands touching overhead, sometimes in a clap, and then returning to a position with the feet together and the arms at the sides." Wikipedia
"These are the videos that, instead of playing clips back-to-back, smash them all together in one simultaneous, terrifying fog of video art. Let’s call them “superfuses.”" Fusion
"It was only over time, Lynch writes—over the century roughly between 1750 and 1850—that reading became a “private and passional” activity, as opposed to a “rational, civic-minded” one." The New Yorker
"I have read two books more than a 100 times, for different motives and with different consequences. Hamlet I read a 100 times for my dissertation, The Inimitable Jeeves by PG Wodehouse a 100 times for comfort. The experience is distinct from all other kinds of reading. I’m calling it centireading." The Guardian
"FUTURE DAYS is a book about that thing we point at when we say "Krautrock," which is a word that should never have been used and should never survive to the present day. I feel like that truth that the word just stuck and became a practical label isn't reason enough, but the fact remains that there really isn't another word that covers the entire movement. A movement that lasted from 1968 to, what, 1975? "Elektronische" doesn't necessarily cover everything, and neither does "kosmische."" (Warren Ellis, writing in Orbital Operations, 1 February 2015)
Professor Lancy calls the American way of doing pick when green a “neontocracy,” in which adults provide services to relatively few children who are considered priceless, even though they’re useless. The Only Baby Book You’ll Ever Need
We should have pronunciation help on all words this year -- it's a data conversion issue, but we have new data coming in. :-) Sometimes the "hear" links will time out if the page has been open for a while; reloading the page should work!
For the "support" and "feedback" links -- they should open a link in your preferred email program. If they don't, your browser may not be configured to open that kind of link.
And thanks for noticing our DuckDuckGo friends! They have a great search engine and are using our API. :-)
"On the episode of the NBC program Welcome to Sweden that aired in the U.S. on July 31, 2014, the character Bruce Evans says a semla is "kind of like a donut exploding in your mouth."" Wikipedia: Semla
"combination of malt and volcano. In the mashing process of beer brewing a maltcano is formed when sparging and the wort spurts out the top of the malt."
"in Nottingham England the bodega social club is a name of hipster alternative bar. The word bodega has come to mean hipster/trendy/alternative/retro/indie."
"Like the word inherit, but limited to characteristics obtained genetically. You can't hereditate money like you can inherit money, but you can hereditate hair color, or a big nose."
The tags page isn't showing all tags right now, but it's on the list to fix. The bad gateway (bad gateway!) is gone, hopefully for good; and I will look at the links now! And the open list bug is also on the list -- luckily it's just the label that is wrong, not the behavior.
If you have a minute could you let me know the browser and OS you are using? (e.g. Chrome on a Mac, Safari on iPhone)
I'm so glad y'all are here ... a quick update. Moving the servers (as part of our push to be a separate, not-for-profit) has broken a couple of things, including email notifications and the Community page, and the deploy process. :-(
So we're working to get the deploy process fixed so that we can fix the other things. Please don't hesitate to email me if you find anything else we should know about it.
Moving the servers has felt like nothing so much as pulling an old house off its foundations and trucking it down the street, and then trying to reconnect it all on the new site. (And then finding out the previous foundation used different gauges of pipe for everything.)
"McCawley, alias Quang, proposes a category of quasi-verbs, which Bopp expands to quasi-adjectives and quasi-adverbs, while Shad goes as far as proposing an entirely separate category of “frigatives”, to contain all and only swears." A Linguist Explains the Syntax of the F-Word
"Tsukuroi, or the art of repair, is so revered in Japan that it is believed to create a new form of beauty, as the bowl demonstrates." Fixing Stuff, Repairing The World NYT 12/3/2014
Gene Demby pointed out on Twitter that this dynamic was recently examined in “the first systemic empirical investigation into superhumanization, the attribution of supernatural extrasensory, and magical mental and physical qualities to humans.” The New Republic
"The major peculiarity of the chemical is its "endochronicity": when it is mixed with water, it starts dissolving before it contacts with water." Wikipedia
"Now, at bedtime, it's not unusual for someone in my family to crack a grin and tell us he's off to strap on his snoremonica." From here: screwballcomics.blogspot.com
"Again, here's where I'm completely talking out of my smugnorance because I've never actually experienced the miracle of phone bumping — such as it is, assuming there is such a thing — and perhaps it's far more stable and reliable a method than this virgin knows." —Christopher Butler, Don't Think About the Future
"Lovecraft transcribed the pronunciation of Cthulhu as Khlûl′-hloo and said that "the first syllable of Khlûl′-hloo is pronounced gutturally and very thickly. The u is about like that in full; and the first syllable is not unlike klul in sound, hence the h represents the guttural thickness."" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu source: H. P. Lovecraft, Selected Letters V, pp. 10 – 11.
"This interesting name derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century "tigel", meaning tile, plus "wyrhta", a craftsman (a derivative of "wyrcan", to work or make), and was originally given as an occupational name to a maker of tiles." SurnameDB
"The setat was equal to one square khet, where a khet measured 100 cubits. The setat could be divided into strips one khet long and ten cubit wide (a Kha)." Ancient Egyptian units of measure, Wikipedia
a genre of films or media that features stereotypical characterization and glorification of "computer hacking" or "hackers" often including technologically implausible procedures.
Hi alexz, I had this same exact issue on my iPhone4S, and it turns out there was a cache of some kind that was keeping the fix from loading in my mobile browser. Do you know how to clear the browser cache for Android?
This is a test. This station is conducting a test of the Emergency List System. This is only a test. If this were a real list there would be words here.
"Steady on, but it may appeal to those suffering from alogotransiphobia, the fear of being caught on public transport with nothing to read. A word coined in 1987 by a journalist, a novelist and a Washington DC saloon-keeper." cited in Authorisms, by Paul Dickson in the Times of London, July 7 2014
Hi pterodactyl! Deleted, and I'll look into why you weren't able to delete them yourself ... when you hover over a word on this list, do you see a little gray X off to the right? Clicking on that should delete a word.
'No ;they are like the British lollipop or suckabob,' asserted the young man boldly,' without tinsel or glitter, but honest and genuine, and' (from The Mystery of Mirbridge, by James Payn)
HI qms—I think the process is that anyone can add words to an open list but that only the creator of the list can remove words. I've gone ahead and used my Special Moderator Powers to remove capital-P Panacea.
"This was no funnel cloud. “It’s composed solely of insects,” Scarpa wrote. “It’s not known for sure what kind of bugs made up this swarm, but they may be red locusts.” Scarpa noted that the mosquitornado approximated 1,000 feet in height." DeathandTaxesMag.com
Catherine Hayward, fashion director at Esquire, is another grey-ite. She has what she calls a "mallard streak" of grey at the front of her head, which lends a sexy, Anne Bancroft aura. FT.com
"It’s only a few clicks beyond her red-carpet looks (Lanvin, Jil Sander when Raf Simons ran the place), Chanel ads, and W-magazine fashion spreads (an amusing one was Juergen Teller’s 2008 shoot of different urban archetypes: a punk, a society lady, etc.) to see how she connects with those other fellow travelers, bohemeonauts like the late film director Derek Jarman; Luca Guadagnino, with whom she made I Am Love, in 2009; Wes Anderson, who directed her in The Grand Budapest Hotel; and Bong Joon-ho, the South Korean director with whom she did the upcoming sci-fi epic Snowpiercer." Vulture.com
'It has become known as wackaging, a blend from wacky packaging that was invented by the Guardian journalist Rebecca Nicholson in 2011." World Wide Words, issue 876
hi qms! Great question. Right now we at Wordnik do not write any definitions ... we only show those from published dictionary sources. So if anthropophage isn't in one of our sources, we won't have a definition for it. I hope this makes sense!
"There’s a lot we don’t know about our possible futures, but one thing we do: it’s got a software glitch in it, in the voicemail system, which is sending their voicemails back to our time. As these futurismo objects we call chronofacts. Huh. Weird." Future Coast
"But now a new report from BI Intelligence finds that "reverse showrooming," or "webrooming,"—when consumers go online to research products, but then head to a bricks-and-mortar store to complete their purchase—is actually more common than showrooming and retailers are ready to capitalize on the trend." Reverse Showrooming
"Brand is precisely the sort of swaggering manarchist I usually fancy. His rousing rhetoric, his narcissism, his history of drug abuse and his habit of speaking to and about women as vapid, ‘beautiful’ afterthoughts in a future utopian scenario remind me of every lovely, troubled student demagogue whose casual sexism I ever ignored because I liked their hair." A discourse on brocialism
Hi Louise! I just left a note for you on GetSatisfaction, but just in case -- is there a chance you could have used a different email address previously? It sounds like you might have had a Facebook-connected account. If you could send me the names of any of your old lists I should be able to track down what's going on!
"One of the very few formal scientific studies to look at the psychological consequences of blurting was performed in 2001 of the University of Texas at Austin. Authors William B. Swann and Peter J. Rentfrow not only organised a complex series of experiments to investigate the effects of various levels of blurting, but also devised the Brief Loquaciousness and Interpersonal Responsiveness Test (BLIRT) to quantify its effects. - See more at: http://www.improbable.com/2011/10/28/blirtatiousness/#sthash.lPQwpvgv.dpuf" Improbable Research
"A prime example of academic Zizekophobia is The Truth of Zizek, a recent work that should perhaps be charged with false advertising. It is not really concerned with the truth of Zizek, but rather the truth about Zizek, as in “we’ve dug up all the dirt on Zizek.” The contributors are obviously driven to distraction by Zizek’s view that the faddish postmodernism that has proliferated in academia is implicitly the most advanced form of capitalist ideology, and that we need to make the “fateful step from ludic ‘post-modern’ radicalism to the domain in which the games are over." from Acting Up on Zizek
Yes! We're going back through our old words of the day so that we can start showing words of the day on weekends, too. :-) Also, a lot of our early words of the day were pretty fun, but we had way fewer subscribers then, so they missed out ...
Soring is an abusive and prohibited practice illegal under the U.S. Horse Protection Act of 1970 that is associated in part with the production of "big lick" movement in Tennessee Walking Horses. It involves using chemical agents such as mustard oil, diesel fuel, kerosene, salicylic acid, and other caustic substances on the pasterns, bulbs of the heel, or coronary bands of the horses, causing burning or blistering of the horses' legs in order to accentuate their gaits. These chemicals are harmful, usually quite toxic and sometimes carcinogenic, such that trainers must use a brush and wear gloves when applying them. The treated area is then often wrapped in plastic while the chemicals are absorbed. The chemical agents cause extreme pain, and usually lead to scarring. A distinctive scarring pattern is a tell-tale sign of soring, and therefore attempts may be made to cover the scarring with a dye, or the horse's legs may be treated with salicylic acid before the animal is stalled (as many cannot stand up after the treatment) while the skin of the scars sloughs off. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soring
"I've just learned a term so marginal it's not even in the newly revised M section of the OED, but useful enough to occur frequently in books about West Africa: moriman, plural morimen (sometimes written "mori man," "mori men"). It refers to people in Sierra Leone who earn a living from writing Arabic charms for magical amulets, and of course I wanted to know its origin. Assiduous googling made it clear that mori is a Mende word for 'Muslim' (morimo or moremo is "Muslim/mori man"), but the only suggestion I could find about its origin is in a footnote on page 211 of The Mende Language: Containing Useful Phrases, Elementary Grammar, Short Vocabularies, Reading Materials (London: Kegan Paul, 1908) by F. W. H. Migeod (available at Archive.org): "Mori, corruption of Moor, means magician, or Arabic charm writer, etc." Now, Moor goes all the way back to Latin Maurus 'inhabitant of North Africa,' so it's not unthinkable (as dear Prof. Cowgill used to say) that some related form is the source of the Mende word, but I have no idea whether it's plausible." from Language Hat.
Thanks Renee! You're on the list, and will get our next monthly newsletter, which will go out next week. You should also begin receiving the word of the day email next week as well.
I saw this in the context of (I think) promotional material, especially promotional material put up illegally in public places: "At the same time, Mercury did a snipe poster campaign in retail stores and on the streets with the image of the band and call letters of stations playing "Laid."" Billboard Feb 19, 1994
and "It shall be unlawful for any person, persons, firm or corporation
to post, stick, tack, or otherwise affix or cause to be posted,
stuck, tacked or otherwise affixed any bill, snipe, poster, banner,
notice or advertisement to or upon any building, outbuilding or
part thereof, or upon any wall, fence, gate, post, sidewalk, tree,
telegraph pole, telephone pole, awning or shelter pole in the City
of Oakland, except on a regularly authorized bulletin board, bill-
board or structure built especially for that purpose, and then only
on consent in v/riting from the owner or authorized agent of the
I keep meaning to let you guys know that cat is the word looked up by the service we use (Pingdom) to test that the website is up and running. It's looked up every few minutes all day every day without fail (unless, of course, we're NOT up and running, in which case it does fail).
It's like Schroedinger's Cat, actually -- until we look it up we don't know if Wordnik is alive or dead. :-)
Oh, thanks! The green words aren't synonyms ... they are words that are used in similar contexts. For example, mustard and mayonnaise aren't synonyms, but people talk about them in similar ways.
Of course, even with that explanation the same-context words for Godzilla don't make all that much sense, either. Good thing we're working on updating that data, huh?
marky you're totally right, as usual. There is definitely a better way ... I can't find your email with the suggestion right now, could you resend to feedback and I'll make a ticket for it?
An alphome is a set of alphabetically ordered letters of which at least one arrangement is a word. For instance GHIMNOTU is an alphome because it can be rearranged to spell mouthing.
hi bilby! Yes, I would love it if we could select the examples. There are some hard questions about sorting/indexing that have to get straightened out. :-(
Hi Michel! We noticed you signed up for our Word of the Day, but our email address for you isn't working. Would you mind emailing us at feedback@wordnik.com so we can get you signed up?
Hi mpgrassfield, if you email us at feedback@wordnik.com (or use the feedback tab on this page) we can change your username for you. Just let us know what name you would like.
James Halliday, otherwise known as “substack”, has been making what he calls computer generated beepstep using two new modules: baudio (npm: baudio, License: MIT) and plucky (npm: plucky, License: MIT). DailyJS
Dear Prolagus, thank you! I know it is frustrating not to be able to find what you need.
We're working on a lot of these things but progress is (a lot) slower than we'd like.
Can you give me more feedback on what you'd like the comment boxes to be like? And I'm not sure I understand the problem with clickable text with a link is -- is it a problem with putting in a href= type tags?
Thank you again for the feedback. I know it comes from a good place ... I wish I had firm dates for certain improvements and updates.
"to slide or expose your passport, driver's license, company-issued ID card, and/or credit card to a machine that identifies you and/or your account." via Dennis Sonifer
"We firmly believe that there is a time for tortoiseshell and a setting ideally suited for faux suede—which we insist ought to be called “fuede.”" Bureau of Trade
"As mentioned earlier, you will need a heat press, but you then have the task of displaying the printed textile. If you are going to suspend it you may need capability for putting it into frames, creating hems for silicon strips known as kaydars, or to create eyelets, so you need some sewing and cutting capability." Printweek
The story is that “flow” is especially possible for people with an *autoletic* personality. That is, people with high levels of curiosity, persistence, low self-centeredness, and a high rate of performing activities for intrinsic reasons only. (from Dan Russell)
Oh, so glad you like the new terms of service! The vulgar and pornographic out is so that we can eject folks who add irrelevant vulgar and pornographic material. On-topic vulgar material is fine, as we maintain the use-mention distinction here at Wordnik.
dear pgmcc -- we don't seem to have an active email address for you; would you please email us at feedback at wordnik.com to update your email address?
An easy way to sound like a creep is to add the word “ladies” to the end of things you say. It can be harmless too, but it just makes you a creep. “Yeah after college I spent two years in the peace corps, ladies?” The more harmless it is, the more of a creep you become. “I broke my arm. I need help, ladies?” FYDemetriMartin
""Entire clinical trials are run not as trials at all, but as under-the-counter advertising campaigns designed to persuade doctors to prescribe a company’s drug." Back in 2004, I coined the term experimercials for these pretend trials. See PubMed ID 15169734.
In the notice, the company accuses r/photobucketplunder of "fuskering," or "fusking," the act of using a piece of software to search through a private Photobucket album based on the likelihood that the photographs follow one of a few common naming systems. Gawker
In the notice, the company accuses r/photobucketplunder of "fuskering," or "fusking," the act of using a piece of software to search through a private Photobucket album based on the likelihood that the photographs follow one of a few common naming systems. Gawker
"Podfic is an audio recording of fanfic, read aloud by a fan (or several). The term is also used as a verb; someone may ask to podfic someone else's story." Fanlore.org
thanks oroboros! The bad news is that this is a known bug. The good news is that we have a fix for it, and it should be rolled out to the site early next week!
Thanks again for reporting this -- I'm sorry for the hassle.
Social entrepreneurs are known for the creativity and innovation they bring to bear on the gaps in development. Whether tackling water or education, energy or sanitation, social entrepreneurs develop inventive ways to bring new solutions to social challenges. But, in all this creativity, they may be missing one of the larger issues at hand: “employership,” or, the generation of jobs where none existed before. India Real Time
The phrase “Galapagos syndrome” or the tongue-twisting literal translation “Galapagozation,” became common here in the mid-to-late 2000s when talking about Japanese mobile phones, which were extremely advanced for the time, yet couldn’t be used outside the country. WSJ, May 30, 2012
Yeah, that was me. :-( It looked okay in beta. I added the rollover to see who added to an open list, but the # of comments code is messing with the width. I'll fix it tonight.
“We get swamped by people who bring us ‘meteorwrongs,’” says Carl Agee, director of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico. He says it’s extremely rare for alleged space rocks to turn out to be bona fide. WIRED May 2012
A "Twitter documentary", according to the PR email I got from Glamour magazine: "Wait, there’s more: a Twittermentary! Watch the magic unfold by following @glamourmag #makingsept."
"Dangerism is a term which refers to the practice of maximising the perception of risk and the cultivation of fear and the accommodation of those fears by a "hardening" of safety measures, which then, in turn feed back into a greater yet perception of risk in an increasingly strident feedback howl, until an activity comes to be regarded (however irrationally) as being almost unthinkably dangerous." Aberdeen Cars
"Hate on the web is banding together as "twitchfork mobs".
A combination of Twitter and pitchfork, the term was first recorded in Urban Dictionary in 2009 but gained currency in the past year as a way of describing viral mobs who bombard their targets with verbal bile and threats of physical harm - mostly anonymously."
Forget a pampering makeover to help heal your broken heart this Valentine's Day. Go for a "digital breakover" instead, using a growing number of tech tools to save you from yourself or to sob on a safe shoulder in the ether. HuffPo
"Doxing is the process of gaining information about someone or something by using sources on the Internet and using basic deduction skills. Its name is derived from “Documents” and in short it is the retrieval of “Documents” on a person or company." Treasure Sec
Néo-Breton is a 'xenolect', that is, a slightly foreignized and largely synthetic, consciously normalized variety. From Elvish to Klingon, Michael Adams, 2011
His aesthetic response to these losses was to scrawl very short poems -- what he called 'mirlitonnades' -- on any scrap of paper he could salvage: an envelope, beer mat, even a label from a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky. Biographer James Knowlson notes that Beckett initially named these verse 'rimailles' or 'versicules' before settling on 'mirlitonnades', which some editors have translated as 'bird calls'; but, given the definition of mirliton in the Oxford English Dictionary, the name also recalls the buzzing or nasal quality of the sound produced by a musical instrument that resembles a kazoo. (From Elvish to Klingon, Michael Adams, Oxford 2011)
(pronounced in a peculiar way, something like "ceighp", the "eigh" being quickly given as in "weight") to sulk, and show that you are sulking; to cry obstinately and causelessly, but in a subdued way, like bleeding inwardly.
To shoot a marble cunnithumb is to place it in the middle of the bent forefinger instead of poising it at the tip of the finger. It is considered a childish or effeminate way of playing marbles, and the marble is not discharged with anything like the proper force.
a round flat piece of stone, but now more generally a piece of sheet iron, with a handle over the top, upon which various kinds of tea-cakes are baked. The article is not seen nearly so often as formerly.
A word used in scolding a child; also a sort of exclamation of surprise, or when sudden pain is felt. Thus, if a man took up a piece of iron which he unexpectedly found was too hot to hold he would, very likely, in dropping it make use of the exclamation.
"Railroading fabric is nothing more than running the fabric 90 degrees from its normal direction. You simply turn the fabric sideways." Fabric Workshop
"A shrill local rants against tourists, referring to them as wash-ashores; whereas anyone who lives here knows that a washashore is a resident who came from somewhere else." Where Am I Now When I Need Me
"Millenium Grove was the 1850's revival campground, "Silicon Sandbar" the nascent electronics industry around Hyannis, a "washashore" is a phony Indian word for anyone not a native Cape Codder, "rural character" is a frequent wishful thinking phrase in the newspapers." Cape Cod Year 2
Hi Allegria! When you're logged in, you can add any word to your favorites list just by "love"-ing it (click on the LOVE link to show a word some love). Your favorites can then be seen here: http://www.wordnik.com/users/allegria/favorites
If you want to make another list (say, Allegria's Wordarama), choose "New List" from the drop-down (click on your username in the black menu bar).
Hi susaneiland! If you're able to leave a comment, you're already logged in. Do you see your username in the top right corner of the screen, next to the search box?
"Stickers is an actual woodworking term, not an ad hoc one. The little bits of wood you place between boards to allow air to circulate all around them, and helps to keep wood from warping from having only one side exposed to the air, are called stickers." Sippican Cottage
Hi Reader! I'm sorry to take so long to reply to your comment ... you can find more information about using Wordnik at our "About" link, here: About Wordnik. Or you can always email us at feedback@wordnik.com.
Thanks for the feedback! We're having trouble with the buttons (signup, logout) showing up in IE8 ... we're working to fix it. To log out, use this url: http://wordnik.com/logout
A brand name that has become a generic name for its product category, e.g. Kleenex and Xerox. A word was needed to describe the result of genericide, which is the process by which a brand name becomes a generic name for an entire product category. AllExperts.com
My shirt has my company name logo-d on the back, and “Massage Therapist” with the company phone number on the back. Everyone can watch my ass as I attempt to sprint. Great. But really, what I hope they’re looking at is my t-shirt. What a great combination. Losing fat and gaining clients.
Reps also tell me that the C-Max is an MAV or Multi Activity Vehicle. It’s a fancy new word to mean a passenger vehicle that’s a bit sleeker than either an SUV or minivan. Ford C-Max
Oh, thank you hernesheir, those are all good points ... the eight syllables one is fixed in the new site, here's a sneak preview (http://cl.ly/343Z0J3g1T162H0k2Z3a)
Although it's not showing all 140 words. I've put in a query about that.
Hi folks! We should (fingers crossed) have a preview version of the updated site ready in a day or so. If you would like to be on the list to see the preview version, would you email me at erin at wordnik?
"Whereas the red-ocean strategy focuses on engaging and defeating the competition, blue-ocean strategy suggests that there is more opportunity in creating uncontested market space." It's all about the client: consulting for results
Comments by erinmckean
Show previous 200 comments...
erinmckean commented on the word colook
"a collector of book series" (from Aspendale Primary School, Melbourne)
December 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word bovie
"a book that's turned into a movie" (from Aspendale Primary School, Melbourne)
December 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word peacher
"a parent teacher" (from Aspendale Primary School, Melbourne)
December 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word doit
"an abbreviation of do it" (from Aspendale Primary School, Melbourne)
December 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word gongry
"go away because I'm angry" (from Aspendale Primary School, Melbourne)
December 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word cericks
"cemented bricks" (from Aspendale Primary School, Melbourne)
December 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word fomojis
"food emojis" (from Aspendale Primary School, Melbourne)
December 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word gasquid
"gas that turns into liquid" (from Aspendale Primary School, Melbourne)
December 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word friscuit
"a biscuit with fruit" (from Aspendale Primary School, Melbourne)
December 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word wastiler
"someone who goes for a walk and strolls and whistles at the same time" (from Aspendale Primary School, Melbourne)
December 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word replastic
"When the rubbish people recycle plastic and use it for different things" (from Aspendale Primary School, Melbourne)
December 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word kerboffle
"confused" (from Aspendale Primary School, Melbourne)
December 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word kerbobble
"a large crowd" (from Aspendale Primary School, Melbourne)
December 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word wusles
"weak muscles" (from Aspendale Primary School, Melbourne)
December 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word freakar
a "freaky creature" (from Aspendale Primary School, Melbourne)
December 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word kaleidophone
"I call it a kaleidophone,” he said.“The idea is that it will convert any rhythmical sound, such as music, into pleasing and symmetrical, but always changing, visual patterns." Prelude to Space, by Arthur C. Clarke
November 22, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word grimdark
"Grimdark is a subgenre or a way to describe the tone, style, or setting of speculative fiction (especially fantasy) that is, depending on the definition used, markedly dystopian or amoral, or particularly graphic in its depiction of violence. In most grimdark literature the supernatural is a passive force, controlled by humans—unlike supernatural horror where the preternatural forces are most often an active entity with agency." Is it Grimdark or is it Horror?
November 5, 2015
erinmckean commented on the list politicians-nicknames
Hmm. I was just able to add my favorite, Governor Moonbeam
November 3, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word spiplomat
"Hey, there's another American on Ring City who's not a spy, a diplomat, or that deadly combination, the spiplomat." from Constellation Games
October 31, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word lert
I used to have a poster that read "Be a lert. The world needs more lerts!"
October 29, 2015
erinmckean commented on the list missing-word-candidates
that's a great idea, bilby! I'll see what I can do!
October 27, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word lucifaction
"In college I took a literature course which examined Marilynne Robinson’s innovative use of spaces–especially the domestic space–in her novel Housekeeping. My teacher also mentioned that the book actually includes a neologism- the word “lucifactions,” used to describe light on water, in the scene where the girls are out on the lake." HTMLGiant
October 27, 2015
erinmckean commented on the list richard-serra---verb-list-compilation--actions-to-relate-to-oneself
carbonization, time, context, location, mapping, friction, symmetry, equilibrium, reflection, tides, refraction, polarization, ionization, inertia, electromagnetic, waves, tension, gravity, entropy, nature, grouping, layering, and felting were all preceded by of, the rest by to.
Source: Richard Serra, "Verb List Compilation: Actions to Relate to Oneself"
October 25, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word winsey
It is an alternate spelling of the word wincey which is a kind of cloth. :-)
October 22, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word memail
"Sent to large numbers of correspondents using the reply-all button, memails contain no substance. Their sole function is to draw attention to the sender, using the fewest words possible. Recently received examples include "that's just great", "good news", "fantastic", or just plain "yup"." The Guardian
October 15, 2015
erinmckean commented on the user ValerieNyre
Hi Valerie! Information about the Wordnik API is at developer.wordnik.com. Documentation is here: http://developer.wordnik.com/docs.html
October 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word becomers
"Mr. Ascheim defines “becomers” not as a generation but as a life stage — “from your first kiss to your first kid,” or people roughly 14 to 34." NYTimes
October 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word buddy punching
"Kronos’s promotional videos emphasize the risk of time theft by employees—“In a few minutes late?
Taking a few extra minutes on a break? It adds up”—and some of the firm’s most invasive systems, which require employees to clock in with a finger scan, are meant to prevent “buddy punching,” when an employee clocks in a co-worker who hasn’t yet arrived." Harper's Magazine
October 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the list a-selfie-list
brelfie a selfie taken while breastfeeding: "The latest fad clogging up social media, heaping shame on those who dare commit the sin of bottle-feeding, is the brelfie: the tedious habit of posting a breastfeeding selfie, creating yet more #bressure on those who don’t, or can’t." Telegraph
September 28, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word nunswept
The acting in this film is superb and the language is even better. As Rose and Jimmy wander around town making up scenarios, she uses such descriptions as "figures on a nunswept pier," for the people in her line of vision. Wilmington Town Crier
September 25, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word nunswept
"So are you going to write it all down? What'll you call it?"
"Figures on a Nunswept Pier." The Mirage
September 25, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word doorfoolia
"doorfoolia is when you start to push open an opaque door at the exact instant someone on the other side of the door pulls the door open so that you stumble forward pushing air." (from Don Moyer of Calamityware)
September 25, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word letterlocking
"Jana Dambrogio, the Thomas F. Peterson conservator at M.I.T. Libraries, is analyzing how letter writers have tried through the ages to keep their correspondence sealed and unread until it reached the intended recipients. She has coined the word “letterlocking” to describe methods of folding and gluing pages to deter snooping." A Trove of ‘Letterlocking,’ or Vintage Strategies to Deter Snoops
September 21, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word typogram
"A typogram is a word that, through the manipulation of the letterform itself, illustrates the meaning of the word." IAMALI Design
September 20, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word cognitonaut
"Cognitonaut is not something I own. It is something that anyone can be; an explorer of ideas." Bravo Child
September 19, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word stoicheiotical
"His bizarre allegorical stories fashion fantastical yet oddly believable worlds which deftly fuse 'magic' and 'realism' in a way critics have termed: 'stoicheiotical fidelity'." Blacklist Publishing
September 18, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word NATU
"This summer, a new, trendier one, emerged: NATU, for Netflix, Airbnb, Tesla and Uber." Monday Note
September 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word GAFA
"Here in Europe, the enemy is designated by acronyms. A year ago it was GAFA, for Google Amazon, Facebook, Apple." Monday Note
September 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word AFAB
"assigned female at birth"
September 4, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word hypercartoonism
"Arguably I would say that your work is a form of hypercartoonism. It’s really sharp the same way hyperrealism is." Lisa Frank on Lisa Frank
September 2, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word fampany
family + company: "In Issue No12, we take an insider's look at Zendesk’s impressive growth with co-founder Alexander Aghassipour; ustwo co-creator Matt ‘Mills’ Miller shows us how to create a ‘fampany’ of 250 employees while putting fun first; travelling photographer and designer Dan Rubin examines his new career path – powered by Instagram; science geek Ariel Waldman calls on the web community to participate in space exploration; Basecamp co-founder Jason Fried defies the startup hype and makes a case for longevity in business; and the father of web standards, Jeffrey Zeldman, reflects on the web that was and the web that will be."
September 2, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word anthropocide
"A recent extension of the concept of genocide associates the prospect of nuclear destruction with the threat of 'omnicide' or 'anthropocide'—the killing of all groups and individuals." The Politics of Gender
August 31, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word mawalala
"And he told me about ngondi, the kinds of weather: mawalala is rain far off in the distance that doesn't ever come." The Poisonwood Bible
August 28, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word BINGO
"Big International NGO"
August 28, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word DILLIGAF
I read "Reasonably well-known in Australia" and thought that it was applying to bilby and not DILLIGAF ...
August 24, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word socionym
"names for categories of people (race, sexual orientation, nationality, etc.)" American Dialect Society
August 24, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word spoffle
"And spoffle seems a perfectly suitable word for a soft baffle to muffle the pop and spit of aspirations, given its sound and the words it sounds like." Sesquiotica
August 24, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word zombient
"relaxed but still unsettling tracks from horror (or horror-themed) games." N4G
August 24, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word epitrochasm
OED has this as "A hurried accumulation of several points."
August 22, 2015
erinmckean commented on the list dmh
I am learning so much from this list!
August 21, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word gregueria
First, there’s the fetching hybrid (or halforism?) called the gregueria. The gregueria was invented and named by the 20th Century Spanish writer Ramón Gómez de la Serna. He defined it as “humor plus metaphor,” a poetic joke:
The couple of eggs we’re eating look like identical twins, and they’re not even third cousins.
—GOMEZ DE LA SERNA
from Short Flights
August 19, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word jicker
To go quickly about any thing, to walk along smartly. Supplement to The Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language
August 19, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word jicker
"I was drenched to the skin when a chap in a slicker Splashed up and he yelled, “It's the Midwinter Jicker! The Midwinter Jicker came early this year And it's not going to be very comfy 'round here."" I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew by Dr. Seuss
August 19, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word onomatapology
"All the noises of an apology without the actual remorse" via @LindaHolmes
August 12, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word catachresist
Someone who uses words improperly, or who abuses metaphor.
August 12, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word erinmckean
Thanks vendingmachine! Neither an unintelligible nor a dumb suggestion -- it's on the wishlist to improve! I don't have a date yet.
It's a two-part improvement: one, to make the random words slightly less random in the boring way (to weight them more towards more interesting words) and also to link those "grammatical" definitions to the root form.
Thank you!
August 11, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word echoborg
To be technical, Sophia is an “echoborg” – a living, breathing person who has temporarily given themselves over to become a robot’s mouthpiece. BBC
August 5, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word pretotyping
"While working at Google, I developed pretotyping, a set of techniques, tools and metrics to help determine if a new product is The Right It, and to do so quickly, objectively and reliably." http://www.albertosavoia.com/
August 5, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word ufflers
"Bargemen not in constant employ, who assist occasionally in towing. East." A Dictionary of Archaic & Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Volume 2
July 31, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word barrad
How is this word not on any hat lists?
July 29, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word lally-cooler
"a real success. "That north show window of Shute & Haskell's is a 'lally-cooler,' " the Jan. 4, 1890, Salina, Kan., Republican noted." NPR History Department
July 26, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word fauxcal
= false local "love this Berlin dev because you know the locals and fauxcals are losing their shit over ANY hint of gentrification" @rsporter
July 26, 2015
erinmckean commented on the list the-verbing-nouns
does sleeping policeman count?
July 21, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word misogynoir
It's miso-gy(n)-noir, noir as in black
July 17, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word misogynoir
The distortion and devaluing of Black women’s gender identity is a curious feature of what Dr. Moya Bailey has termed “misogynoir,” which refers to the unique hatred of Black women and girls. Salon
July 16, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word I think I broke Wordnik
Thanks for the heads-up! :-) I'll see what I can do to make our comments more resilient, style-wise.
July 15, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word ultrastructure
"Charlie Loyd and I coined the term ultrastructure, for the cultural, political and regulatory systems around infrastructure, and I wrote these three narratives to think about what my commute would look like with a different ultrastructure, rather than the current default of ceding self-driving cars to private companies and the road to individual vehicles."
July 13, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word faq
Hi Prolagus! You can use < a href > tags to add links in the comments.
July 10, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word metrosophy
"Perhaps the term metrosophy can better express this bond between the metropolitan and philosophical experiences. It is meant to help us see cities not only as hubs of economic activities but also as fountains of abstract meditations." Metrosophy: Philosophy and the City NYT, 6 July 2015
July 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word woggins
"The overlooked word “woggin”, with many variants, was widely used by Yankee whalers for both the great auk (Pinguinus impennis) and for penguins (Spheniscidae), as documented in numerous logbooks and journals and at least two published sources. Although in use from at least 1762 until the 1860s, this word appears to be entirely unknown in scholarly literature and merits wider recognition both for understanding early accounts and for its potential for revealing new information about the extinct great auk." Whalers and woggins: a new vocabulary for interpreting some early accounts of the great auk and penguins
July 6, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word erinmckean
I would love to take credit for this but I think it might have been something re-juggled on Flickr's end! Let's be very very quiet and hope they don't bump into it again. :-)
July 1, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word parbunkells
Probably connected to parbuckle.
June 22, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word parbunkells
"A 17th century English word that means “coming together through the binding of two ropes,” according to a 1627 publication housed at the New York Public Library’s Rare Book Division, was, until this month, dead to the digital world—and to almost every living person." The Word The Internet Didn't Know
June 22, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word shyster
"Cohen found that the term “shyster,” slang for someone who acts in an unscrupulous way, was first used in 1843 by a crooked lawyer disparaging his rivals as incompetents. That’s what the word meant in British criminal slang, where it appeared as “shiser.”
The lawyer used the term in a conversation with editor Mike Walsh, who misheard it and published it as “shiseters.” A new word was on the way to being born. Ultimately the word derives from an off-color word in German." The Rolla Daily News
June 15, 2015
erinmckean commented on the list minty-fresh
Ooh, also accolated.
June 12, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word lameries
used in The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus: "I'd parry with oily fathery lameries."
June 11, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word sacheverell
"He referred to a small canvas rucksack he habitually carried (one with a single strap that he slung over his shoulder), as his sacheverell – at least I assume it was spelt like Sacheverell Sitwell’s first name, but I never saw him write it down, and unfortunately he died before I could ascertain the origin of this bizarre ascription – it may be it was his private word entirely, and perhaps related to some incident that had occurred involving him and Edith Sitwell’s brother." The Guardian
June 11, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word gerontosaur
seems to be another way of saying 'dinosaur', in the sense of 'out of touch old person'.
June 10, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word decompiculture
"Decompiculture is the cultivation of decomposing organisms. The term decompiculture was coined by Timothy Myles of the Urban Entomology Program at the University of Toronto." The Infinity Burial Project
June 8, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word frustratedly
Thanks Warrior_mouse! I'm so sorry -- we do hope to make listing easier on mobile soon. In the meantime, I wish you a speedy recovery!
June 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the user Warrior_mouse
Hi Warrior_mouse! nice to have you here! To start your own list, click on your username in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, and choose 'New List' from the dropdown. :-)
June 6, 2015
erinmckean commented on the user qms
At Wordnik we are truly blessed
To have, as lyricist, qms.
Although a recent awkward injury
may make his typing a bit gingery
we still daily receive of his best.
May 30, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word Idaho stop
"It sounds like something out of Footloose, but the Idaho Stop is not a dance.
It is when a cyclist approaches a four-way or T-stop, and seeing no other vehicles or pedestrians in the vicinity, continues through, or slows to a rolling stop rather than a complete one." Global News
May 27, 2015
erinmckean commented on the list set-1--1
I can't wait to read this novel.
May 25, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word infomania
Panicked, I reached out to hoarding experts, who often refer to any kind of obsessive digital collecting as “infomania.” http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/17/i-m-a-digital-hoarder.html
May 18, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word pogosticking
Submitting and resubmitting forms to check answers can lead to a form of the frustrating and often unsuccessful behavior sometimes called “pogosticking.” http://alistapart.com/article/inline-validation-in-web-forms
May 18, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word jumpsie
The children grew up with boys zigzagging the street on home-built bikes and girls playing jumpsie with elastic ropes made of rubber bands. (http://www.sfchronicle.com/the-mission/a-changing-mission/)
May 18, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word echo-boom
Millennials are generally the children of baby boomers, what some demographers call the “echo-boom.” Fortune
May 18, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word sinceriously
A word being used by actor/director Stephen Amell to raise money/awareness for charity campaigns. He defines it as:
1. The ability to speak freely, openly and honestly about anything; if you're going to say something, say it sinceriously.
2. To initiate any action while spreading as much good karma as possible.
May 14, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word fleuron
Whoops, misnamed field! Fixed. :-)
May 6, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word plu 4627
Looks like the PLU (price look up) codes are available here: http://www.plucodes.com/
May 4, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word joggly
"Perhaps a bit crowded and joggly for rifle work," said Holmes. The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons.
May 3, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word metapotamia
used to mean "the land of meta" as in "I, as you might have guessed, can stay in metapotamia all day long." (from The Listserve, 3 May 2015)
May 2, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word partonomy
"A meronomy or partonomy is a type of hierarchy that deals with part–whole relationships, in contrast to a taxonomy whose categorisation is based on discrete sets." Wikipedia
April 24, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word ethnomycological
"We performed an ethnomycological study in a community in Tlaxcala, Central Mexico to identify the most important species of wild mushrooms growing in an oak forest, their significance criteria, and to validate the Cultural Significance Index (CSI)." The cultural significance of wild mushrooms in San Mateo Huexoyucan, Tlaxcala, Mexico
April 23, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word you're something of a hotdog, aren't you
hey Prolagus, great to see you!
I miss those pronunciations too! I hope we'll have them back soon.
April 15, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word gelatology
"A priest, a horse, and a gelatologist walk into a bar ... OK, while this is clearly the start of a terrible joke, gelatology -- the study of laughter -- is a serious business." New Scientist, 13 May 2006
April 11, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word deceptonym
"a word whose sound belies its meaning. Example: "doughty." It means brave, but—come on, seriously?" Kathyrn Schulz
April 11, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word gistify
"For those of you who aren't able to commit to the full 33 minutes right now, let me gist-ify this for you because it's important." Upworthy
April 8, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word brogressive
"Reddit is brogressive. Liberal when it benefits their demographic, conservative when it benefits anybody else. Selectively liberal only when it is convenient for them. You'll see the same anti-welfare people pushing for student loan forgiveness and subsidies for education and job training. To be fair, these are all good things. It's just that if you're only liberal when it benefits your demographic, you have to ask yourself whether there is anything more to your values than what is good for your wallet."Reddit/r/news
April 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word holophrasm
"On the contrary, it is so simple and self-contained that it is a holophrasm, a word that can serve as a complete sentence." What Part of “No, Totally” Don’t You Understand?
April 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word tombstone
My source told me it might be jargon specific to the Art Institute of Chicago. :-)
April 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word silkpunk
fiction "filled with technologies inspired by predecessors from Classical Chinese antiquity" from Ken Liu
April 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the list punk-genres
another new one: silkpunk
April 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word agebetical
used in a kid's phrase, meaning 'chronologically': line up in agebetical order
April 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word tombstone
the placard next to a work of art in a museum or gallery that shows the bare details: title, creator, date
April 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word heartner
a romantic partner (from heart + the -ner of partner
April 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word capavailabilities
availability/capability (coined by Hattie McDonnell)
April 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word flakka
"Flakka is the latest derivative to come out of the designer-drug phenomena, a lineage that includes Ecstasy, MDMA, Molly and bath salts. Flakka contains the chemical compound alpha-PVP, a powerful and highly addictive synthetic stimulant, said Jim Hall, a Nova Southeastern University epidemiologist who studies substance use and drug outbreaks." Sun-Sentinel
April 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word Susskindism
"So have you noticed lately, the in-vogue words, words like - I guess they always were in the dictionary but suddenly you hear them more and more - words like pejorative, charisma certainly, dichotomy - Susskindisms we call them (audience laughter). We use that in the pejorative sense, of course." from Bob and Ray The Two And Only (at about 5:01)
April 6, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word bannion
author definition: "It is a flower, an invented one, description is in The Summer Tree." @guygavrielkay tweet
March 30, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word orthonym
"A word you can't spell no matter how often you look it up." Kathryn Schulz
March 30, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word lapsonym
"A word you can't define no matter how often you look it up." Kathryn Schulz
March 30, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word bannion
"And it seemed that amid all the burdens and sorrows, joy could still flower like a bannion in the wood." from The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay
March 30, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word algorist
"Simply put an algorist is anyone who works with algorithms. Historically we have viewed algorists as mathematicians. But it also applies to artists who create art using algorithmic procedures that include their own algorithms." Algorists.org
March 30, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word notel
"Notel or 'notetel' - the name is a uniquely North Korean word combining 'notebook' and 'television' - are easily found on the black market for around 300 Chinese yuan ($48), and are also available in some state shops and markets." Reuters
March 27, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word retailer
vendingmachine, maggiemae isn't a spammer, she's adding synonyms. Until we have a better way of adding related words, adding them in the comments is the only way.
I'd very much like it if spam was reported directly (with the little thumbs-down icon) instead of with further comments. Actual spammers do not come back to Wordnik to read the comments anyway, and it can sometimes be offputting to nonspammers who simply haven't gotten the hang of the site yet. :-(
March 22, 2015
erinmckean commented on the user vendingmachine
So sorry -- had to delete last comment as it was breaking the community page after I deleted the spammy comment. :-(
March 19, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word epistocracy
Recently, the topic has been re-introduced by David Estlund in his discussions of the legitimacy of “epistocracy”, a “rule of the knowers” or knowledge-based rule, referring to the Greek word episteme. source
March 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word gificle
"an article composed of (or heavily relying on) gifs". Seen first here from @NicoleBlades: tweet
March 9, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word sklonklish
MARGARET: (GENUINE) Susan, if I had a million more sisters, I'd want them all exactly like you.
SUSAN: You're just saying that because I'm so sklonklish. Good night, Margaret. (from The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer)
March 5, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word mooncusser
""Mooncusser" is the name that Cape Codders gave years ago to people who used to lure storm-tossed ships onto the reefs with a light on the shore." Mystery of the Mooncusser
March 3, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word sapeurs-pompiers
"The fire service in France is known as Sapeurs-pompiers, except in Marseille, where naval "sailor-firefighters", marins-pompiers, provide fire and rescue services." Wikipedia
March 3, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word star jump
"A jumping jack (Canada & US) or star jump (UK and other Commonwealth nations), also called side-straddle hop in the US military, is a physical jumping exercise performed by jumping to a position with the legs spread wide and the hands touching overhead, sometimes in a clap, and then returning to a position with the feet together and the arms at the sides." Wikipedia
March 3, 2015
erinmckean commented on the list fabulous-creatures
Ooh! Also wasserman.
March 3, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word lontar
A Balinese Lontar, is an ancient manuscript made out of dried palm leaves used for centuries to tell stories. Best of Bali
February 27, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word out of control
No such thing as overposting! Especially not when the posts are so GOOD ... :-)
Please, keep up the great work!
February 26, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word superfuse
"These are the videos that, instead of playing clips back-to-back, smash them all together in one simultaneous, terrifying fog of video art. Let’s call them “superfuses.”" Fusion
February 25, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word teixobactin
"Here we report a new antibiotic that we term teixobactin, discovered in a screen of uncultured bacteria." Nature
February 24, 2015
erinmckean commented on the list hats-off
found another! barrad
February 23, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word live baiting
Hey qms here is a video of a rabbit stampede for you: YouTube
February 17, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word passional
"It was only over time, Lynch writes—over the century roughly between 1750 and 1850—that reading became a “private and passional” activity, as opposed to a “rational, civic-minded” one." The New Yorker
February 16, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word centireading
"I have read two books more than a 100 times, for different motives and with different consequences. Hamlet I read a 100 times for my dissertation, The Inimitable Jeeves by PG Wodehouse a 100 times for comfort. The experience is distinct from all other kinds of reading. I’m calling it centireading." The Guardian
February 15, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word erinmckean
Thanks vendingmachine! You can reach me at feedback@wordnik.com. :-)
February 12, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word girlretro
They do! I know there's a list but I'm not sure where it is right now. Maybe alexz put it together?
I'll fix this one asap.
Turns out the Flickr issue is on their side -- they may be blocking a range of IPs that includes ours. :-( I'm digging further.
February 11, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word erinmckean
I'm trying to fix that now but seem to have broken other things in the process. Please bear with us (hangs up TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES sign)
February 11, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word Krautrock
"FUTURE DAYS is a book about that thing we point at when we say "Krautrock," which is a word that should never have been used and should never survive to the present day. I feel like that truth that the word just stuck and became a practical label isn't reason enough, but the fact remains that there really isn't another word that covers the entire movement. A movement that lasted from 1968 to, what, 1975? "Elektronische" doesn't necessarily cover everything, and neither does "kosmische."" (Warren Ellis, writing in Orbital Operations, 1 February 2015)
February 1, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word neontocracy
Professor Lancy calls the American way of doing pick when green a “neontocracy,” in which adults provide services to relatively few children who are considered priceless, even though they’re useless. The Only Baby Book You’ll Ever Need
February 1, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word feedback
Thanks oroboros!
We should have pronunciation help on all words this year -- it's a data conversion issue, but we have new data coming in. :-) Sometimes the "hear" links will time out if the page has been open for a while; reloading the page should work!
For the "support" and "feedback" links -- they should open a link in your preferred email program. If they don't, your browser may not be configured to open that kind of link.
And thanks for noticing our DuckDuckGo friends! They have a great search engine and are using our API. :-)
January 12, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word residualing
when a oven or hob is turned off and you are still cooking on the residual heat.
January 12, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word eatable
If something is edible, you can eat it (and won't die), if something is eatable you actually WANT to eat it.
January 8, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word semla
"On the episode of the NBC program Welcome to Sweden that aired in the U.S. on July 31, 2014, the character Bruce Evans says a semla is "kind of like a donut exploding in your mouth."" Wikipedia: Semla
January 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word maltcano
"combination of malt and volcano. In the mashing process of beer brewing a maltcano is formed when sparging and the wort spurts out the top of the malt."
January 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word bodega
"in Nottingham England the bodega social club is a name of hipster alternative bar. The word bodega has come to mean hipster/trendy/alternative/retro/indie."
January 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word mistool
"Combination of mistake and tool meaning to use the wrong tool for a job. E.g. Using a brush to dig a hole."
January 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word excessise
"to indulge excessively in an action or event"
January 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word pupcake
a generic term for any cute or adorable thing. "Oh, what a pupcake!"
January 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word deathline
An assignment deadline that fills you with dread in the face of impending doom.
January 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word repartweet
"a particularly witty twitter exchange"
January 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word nilch
A blend of nil and zilch.
January 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word grazibood
Messed up or disorderly; for instance when socks are wrinkly inside one's shoes, or when one's seat belt gets twisted.
January 7, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word hereditate
"Like the word inherit, but limited to characteristics obtained genetically. You can't hereditate money like you can inherit money, but you can hereditate hair color, or a big nose."
January 4, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word awescredible
A blend of awesome and incredible.
January 4, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word stummy
A blend of stomach and tummy.
January 4, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word contursensus
A jumble or confusion of emotions, from Latin conturbo, meaning 'jumble, disturb' as well as the Latin word for perception, sensus.
January 4, 2015
erinmckean commented on the word focustration
A blend of focus and concentration.
December 31, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word feedback
Hi oroboros! Sorry I missed this. :-(
The tags page isn't showing all tags right now, but it's on the list to fix. The bad gateway (bad gateway!) is gone, hopefully for good; and I will look at the links now! And the open list bug is also on the list -- luckily it's just the label that is wrong, not the behavior.
If you have a minute could you let me know the browser and OS you are using? (e.g. Chrome on a Mac, Safari on iPhone)
December 30, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word sheeling
Something shiny, silvery, sparkly and scythe-like when traveling at high speeds
(either the viewer or the thing itself). via Capra J'neva
December 29, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word procatinate
"Looking at photos or watching any kind of cat videos instead of doing what you should be doing." via Neon Wortschatz
December 29, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word hanitizer
A blend of hand + sanitizer.
December 29, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word community
I'm so glad y'all are here ... a quick update. Moving the servers (as part of our push to be a separate, not-for-profit) has broken a couple of things, including email notifications and the Community page, and the deploy process. :-(
So we're working to get the deploy process fixed so that we can fix the other things. Please don't hesitate to email me if you find anything else we should know about it.
Moving the servers has felt like nothing so much as pulling an old house off its foundations and trucking it down the street, and then trying to reconnect it all on the new site. (And then finding out the previous foundation used different gauges of pipe for everything.)
Onwards!
December 26, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word frigative
"McCawley, alias Quang, proposes a category of quasi-verbs, which Bopp expands to quasi-adjectives and quasi-adverbs, while Shad goes as far as proposing an entirely separate category of “frigatives”, to contain all and only swears." A Linguist Explains the Syntax of the F-Word
December 14, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word goetta
This looks delicious! Like scrapple.
December 10, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word tsukuroi
"Tsukuroi, or the art of repair, is so revered in Japan that it is believed to create a new form of beauty, as the bowl demonstrates." Fixing Stuff, Repairing The World NYT 12/3/2014
December 4, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word superhumanization
Gene Demby pointed out on Twitter that this dynamic was recently examined in “the first systemic empirical investigation into superhumanization, the attribution of supernatural extrasensory, and magical mental and physical qualities to humans.” The New Republic
December 2, 2014
erinmckean commented on the list the-unphonetic-alphabet
I think "R as in repeat" is especially diabolical ...
November 21, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word endochronicity
"The major peculiarity of the chemical is its "endochronicity": when it is mixed with water, it starts dissolving before it contacts with water." Wikipedia
November 19, 2014
erinmckean commented on the list elbow-words
I totally forgot that I made this list.
November 18, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word snoremonica
"Now, at bedtime, it's not unusual for someone in my family to crack a grin and tell us he's off to strap on his snoremonica." From here: screwballcomics.blogspot.com
November 9, 2014
erinmckean commented on the list punk-genres
found a new one! crust punk
November 7, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word smugnorance
"Again, here's where I'm completely talking out of my smugnorance because I've never actually experienced the miracle of phone bumping — such as it is, assuming there is such a thing — and perhaps it's far more stable and reliable a method than this virgin knows." —Christopher Butler, Don't Think About the Future
October 30, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word roblet
a goblin that leads people astray in the dark (OED)
October 29, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word bozzard
A ghost. (English Dialect Dictionary)
October 29, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word incisiveness
Thank you! I've fixed it.
You can always leave a comment, or email feedback@wordnik.com with any typo reports!
October 28, 2014
erinmckean commented on the list wakese--2
found one -- bellock!
October 18, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word Cthulhu
"Lovecraft transcribed the pronunciation of Cthulhu as Khlûl′-hloo and said that "the first syllable of Khlûl′-hloo is pronounced gutturally and very thickly. The u is about like that in full; and the first syllable is not unlike klul in sound, hence the h represents the guttural thickness."" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu source: H. P. Lovecraft, Selected Letters V, pp. 10 – 11.
August 21, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word rail house
from a column by Vic Fleming, who researched this phrase:
1: A railway car that has been converted into a residence for railway workers, usually located in a rail yard.
2. A railway-related structure that has some of the qualities associated with a residence and that is located beside a train track.
3: A residential structure located near a railroad track.
4: A restaurant or bar with a railroad theme, or one that is near a railroad track.
5. A descriptive term used in some business names of establishments near railroad tracks.
August 20, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word melancholoholic
Heard this in a line from a song: "maybe I'm a chronic melancholoholic" by TRWBADOR (yes that's the name). (link)
August 18, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word tellwright
"This interesting name derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century "tigel", meaning tile, plus "wyrhta", a craftsman (a derivative of "wyrcan", to work or make), and was originally given as an occupational name to a maker of tiles." SurnameDB
August 14, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word khet
"The setat was equal to one square khet, where a khet measured 100 cubits. The setat could be divided into strips one khet long and ten cubit wide (a Kha)." Ancient Egyptian units of measure, Wikipedia
August 8, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word haxsploitation
a genre of films or media that features stereotypical characterization and glorification of "computer hacking" or "hackers" often including technologically implausible procedures.
July 24, 2014
erinmckean commented on the list we-test-our-lists-again
Hi alexz, I had this same exact issue on my iPhone4S, and it turns out there was a cache of some kind that was keeping the fix from loading in my mobile browser. Do you know how to clear the browser cache for Android?
July 18, 2014
erinmckean commented on the list we-test-our-lists-again
bilby I prefer you stay in a state of quantum superposition. Okay by you?
July 17, 2014
erinmckean commented on the list we-test-our-lists-again
hi alexz ... I just pushed an update to the site that should fix the n-1 list count problem on the community page.
More fixes in the offing, I have carefully noted all the comments on this list. :-)
July 16, 2014
erinmckean commented on the user amartin
Hi! I think the word you are looking for is zhuzh.
July 13, 2014
erinmckean commented on the list we-test-our-lists-again
This is a test. This station is conducting a test of the Emergency List System. This is only a test. If this were a real list there would be words here.
July 11, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word hump-gutteral
"The flesh of a sheep that has died a natural death, as distinguished from braxy, which intimates that the animal has died of disease."
July 11, 2014
erinmckean commented on the list strangely-exigent-phrases
Thirty-Machete Cheddar Element is probably one of the loveliest phrases I've ever run across. It's right up there with the Jerry McGeogheghan Galvanised Iron Workers' Apprentices' Left Hook Chowder Association.
July 10, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word alogotransiphobia
"Steady on, but it may appeal to those suffering from alogotransiphobia, the fear of being caught on public transport with nothing to read. A word coined in 1987 by a journalist, a novelist and a Washington DC saloon-keeper." cited in Authorisms, by Paul Dickson in the Times of London, July 7 2014
July 8, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word lorem ipsum
Back in the days of yore there would be placeholder images marked in big letters FPO -- for position only.
July 3, 2014
erinmckean commented on the list ends-in-a-silent-b
Hi pterodactyl! Deleted, and I'll look into why you weren't able to delete them yourself ... when you hover over a word on this list, do you see a little gray X off to the right? Clicking on that should delete a word.
June 30, 2014
erinmckean commented on the list ends-in-a-silent-b
done!
June 29, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word suckabob
'No ;they are like the British lollipop or suckabob,' asserted the young man boldly,' without tinsel or glitter, but honest and genuine, and' (from The Mystery of Mirbridge, by James Payn)
June 19, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word elfie
A selfie taken by an elephant: https://twitter.com/bbcnews/status/472037020777603072
June 3, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word lablit
Used to refer to realistic fiction about science and scientists.
June 2, 2014
erinmckean commented on the list fictional-pills
HI qms—I think the process is that anyone can add words to an open list but that only the creator of the list can remove words. I've gone ahead and used my Special Moderator Powers to remove capital-P Panacea.
June 1, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word mosquitornado
"This was no funnel cloud. “It’s composed solely of insects,” Scarpa wrote. “It’s not known for sure what kind of bugs made up this swarm, but they may be red locusts.” Scarpa noted that the mosquitornado approximated 1,000 feet in height." DeathandTaxesMag.com
May 28, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word mallard streak
Catherine Hayward, fashion director at Esquire, is another grey-ite. She has what she calls a "mallard streak" of grey at the front of her head, which lends a sexy, Anne Bancroft aura. FT.com
May 27, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word velorution
= bike revolution (from velocipede and revolution)
May 24, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word TERF
TERF is an acronym for 'Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists'.
May 14, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word FOMO
Acronym: Fear Of Missing Out
May 9, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word Snuffaluffphagy
Snuffaluffphagy: The scientific term for eating a Muppet. from John Scalzi's Whatever blog.
May 4, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word siphon
Not atmospheric pressure ... gravity! See here: http://phys.org/news/2014-04-physicist-dictionary-definition-dodgy.html
April 24, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word witches' broom
thanks ry! Can you give me a bit more info on the glitchiness? An email would be awesome if you have time!
I'm looking into a bunch of related encoding issues right now ...
April 15, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word AMRAP
acronym for 'as many reps as possible' often used by Crossfit enthusiasts.
April 13, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word bohemeonaut
"It’s only a few clicks beyond her red-carpet looks (Lanvin, Jil Sander when Raf Simons ran the place), Chanel ads, and W-magazine fashion spreads (an amusing one was Juergen Teller’s 2008 shoot of different urban archetypes: a punk, a society lady, etc.) to see how she connects with those other fellow travelers, bohemeonauts like the late film director Derek Jarman; Luca Guadagnino, with whom she made I Am Love, in 2009; Wes Anderson, who directed her in The Grand Budapest Hotel; and Bong Joon-ho, the South Korean director with whom she did the upcoming sci-fi epic Snowpiercer." Vulture.com
April 8, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word wackaging
'It has become known as wackaging, a blend from wacky packaging that was invented by the Guardian journalist Rebecca Nicholson in 2011." World Wide Words, issue 876
April 7, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word lillthraps
A Yorkshire word meaning "Female frippery". English Dialect Dictionary
April 7, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word hogamadog
"The huge ball of snow made by boys in rolling a snowball over soft snow." —English Dialect Dictionary
April 3, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word Shell fabric only. Solid colorways (non-wool): 1 test per fabrication Heathers: test all colorways Wool: test all colorways Report: (A): fiber content by weight as whole
done!
March 25, 2014
erinmckean commented on the list glitches-in-wordnik
As much as I love the surreality of this list, I'm going through and correcting the errors. :-)
Thank you for listing them!
March 10, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word anthropophage
hi qms! Great question. Right now we at Wordnik do not write any definitions ... we only show those from published dictionary sources. So if anthropophage isn't in one of our sources, we won't have a definition for it. I hope this makes sense!
February 26, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word chronofact
"There’s a lot we don’t know about our possible futures, but one thing we do: it’s got a software glitch in it, in the voicemail system, which is sending their voicemails back to our time. As these futurismo objects we call chronofacts. Huh. Weird." Future Coast
February 21, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word webrooming
"But now a new report from BI Intelligence finds that "reverse showrooming," or "webrooming,"—when consumers go online to research products, but then head to a bricks-and-mortar store to complete their purchase—is actually more common than showrooming and retailers are ready to capitalize on the trend." Reverse Showrooming
February 15, 2014
erinmckean commented on the word Mexicoke
Mexican Coca-Cola, which is made with cane sugar, not fructose.
November 4, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word manarchist
"Brand is precisely the sort of swaggering manarchist I usually fancy. His rousing rhetoric, his narcissism, his history of drug abuse and his habit of speaking to and about women as vapid, ‘beautiful’ afterthoughts in a future utopian scenario remind me of every lovely, troubled student demagogue whose casual sexism I ever ignored because I liked their hair." A discourse on brocialism
November 3, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word macktivist
test
October 29, 2013
erinmckean commented on the user LouiseS
Hi Louise! I just left a note for you on GetSatisfaction, but just in case -- is there a chance you could have used a different email address previously? It sounds like you might have had a Facebook-connected account. If you could send me the names of any of your old lists I should be able to track down what's going on!
October 24, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word blirt
"One of the very few formal scientific studies to look at the psychological consequences of blurting was performed in 2001 of the University of Texas at Austin. Authors William B. Swann and Peter J. Rentfrow not only organised a complex series of experiments to investigate the effects of various levels of blurting, but also devised the Brief Loquaciousness and Interpersonal Responsiveness Test (BLIRT) to quantify its effects. - See more at: http://www.improbable.com/2011/10/28/blirtatiousness/#sthash.lPQwpvgv.dpuf" Improbable Research
October 15, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word zizekophobia
"A prime example of academic Zizekophobia is The Truth of Zizek, a recent work that should perhaps be charged with false advertising. It is not really concerned with the truth of Zizek, but rather the truth about Zizek, as in “we’ve dug up all the dirt on Zizek.” The contributors are obviously driven to distraction by Zizek’s view that the faddish postmodernism that has proliferated in academia is implicitly the most advanced form of capitalist ideology, and that we need to make the “fateful step from ludic ‘post-modern’ radicalism to the domain in which the
games are over." from Acting Up on Zizek
October 7, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word papelard
Yes! We're going back through our old words of the day so that we can start showing words of the day on weekends, too. :-) Also, a lot of our early words of the day were pretty fun, but we had way fewer subscribers then, so they missed out ...
September 15, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word gnargh
I prefer to spell this with two r's, gnarrgh.
August 21, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word feedback
Thanks ry -- it's not you, it's us. I'll add that to the fixit list.
August 16, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word literally
So many comments about this one lately ... Stand Down, Semantics Nerds
August 15, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word soring
Soring is an abusive and prohibited practice illegal under the U.S. Horse Protection Act of 1970 that is associated in part with the production of "big lick" movement in Tennessee Walking Horses. It involves using chemical agents such as mustard oil, diesel fuel, kerosene, salicylic acid, and other caustic substances on the pasterns, bulbs of the heel, or coronary bands of the horses, causing burning or blistering of the horses' legs in order to accentuate their gaits. These chemicals are harmful, usually quite toxic and sometimes carcinogenic, such that trainers must use a brush and wear gloves when applying them. The treated area is then often wrapped in plastic while the chemicals are absorbed. The chemical agents cause extreme pain, and usually lead to scarring. A distinctive scarring pattern is a tell-tale sign of soring, and therefore attempts may be made to cover the scarring with a dye, or the horse's legs may be treated with salicylic acid before the animal is stalled (as many cannot stand up after the treatment) while the skin of the scars sloughs off. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soring
August 8, 2013
erinmckean commented on the user testette
oh interesting!
August 2, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word feedback
Thank you! I'll use that as a test case for bringing back the breaks ...
August 2, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word feedback
thanks!
We're hoping to bring back the comment editing soon ... please let us know of anything else you see that's wonky!
August 2, 2013
erinmckean commented on the list fans-and-superfans
On a suggestion from danama.
July 31, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word Directioner
Oh, belieb me, Belieber is already here. Great idea for a list! List here: fans-and-superfans
July 31, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word higgledy-piggledy
Should definitely see the list double-dactyls
July 29, 2013
erinmckean commented on the user erinmckean
Thanks oroboros! The HTML, she is broken. I expect it will be working again in 2-3 weeks, electrons willing. I'm sorry for the delay ... :-(
(Any formatting that you enter is there, it's a problem on the display end.)
July 20, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word perviously
I think you might mean previously.
July 20, 2013
erinmckean commented on the user CarlosG
Hi CarlosG! If you want to add citations, leaving them as comments on the entry (such as cli-fi) is just fine.
Thank you!
June 6, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word determs
The Cincinnati tax-exempt determinations unit, which employees refer to as "determs," is considered by employees one of the less-attractive IRS posts.
Division in Dispute Followed Own Course, May 16, 2013
May 23, 2013
erinmckean commented on the user replysurbhi81
hi bilby so it seems we had a y2k-type error in our all-time comments total, we're missing a place at the end. :-) It's on the fixit list.
May 20, 2013
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
thanks marky -- we're seeing some high loads that we're looking into now, too.
April 23, 2013
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
thanks marky! We're looking into it, there's a chance there was a regression on the server side of things ...
April 22, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word genethliac
dearest ruzuzu
our genethliac wishes
for a happy day
April 22, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word moriman
"I've just learned a term so marginal it's not even in the newly revised M section of the OED, but useful enough to occur frequently in books about West Africa: moriman, plural morimen (sometimes written "mori man," "mori men"). It refers to people in Sierra Leone who earn a living from writing Arabic charms for magical amulets, and of course I wanted to know its origin. Assiduous googling made it clear that mori is a Mende word for 'Muslim' (morimo or moremo is "Muslim/mori man"), but the only suggestion I could find about its origin is in a footnote on page 211 of The Mende Language: Containing Useful Phrases, Elementary Grammar, Short Vocabularies, Reading Materials (London: Kegan Paul, 1908) by F. W. H. Migeod (available at Archive.org): "Mori, corruption of Moor, means magician, or Arabic charm writer, etc." Now, Moor goes all the way back to Latin Maurus 'inhabitant of North Africa,' so it's not unthinkable (as dear Prof. Cowgill used to say) that some related form is the source of the Mende word, but I have no idea whether it's plausible." from Language Hat.
April 15, 2013
erinmckean commented on the list port-man-teaus
I've just seen "man-gagement" in the sense of "man-gagement rings"
April 15, 2013
erinmckean commented on the user Renee1
Thanks Renee! You're on the list, and will get our next monthly newsletter, which will go out next week. You should also begin receiving the word of the day email next week as well.
April 5, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word dartcapitation
the process of removing the whistling tip of a Nerf foam dart, to improve accuracy.
March 22, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word snipe
I saw this in the context of (I think) promotional material, especially promotional material put up illegally in public places: "At the same time, Mercury did a snipe poster campaign in retail stores and on the streets with the image of the band and call letters of stations playing "Laid."" Billboard Feb 19, 1994
and "It shall be unlawful for any person, persons, firm or corporation
to post, stick, tack, or otherwise affix or cause to be posted,
stuck, tacked or otherwise affixed any bill, snipe, poster, banner,
notice or advertisement to or upon any building, outbuilding or
part thereof, or upon any wall, fence, gate, post, sidewalk, tree,
telegraph pole, telephone pole, awning or shelter pole in the City
of Oakland, except on a regularly authorized bulletin board, bill-
board or structure built especially for that purpose, and then only
on consent in v/riting from the owner or authorized agent of the
property on which the advertisement is to be placed." General municipal ordinances of the city of Oakland, California, in effect November 1, 1912
March 13, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word nomophobia
nomophobia: fear of being without a cell phone (from "no" + "mobile" + phobia)
March 13, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word attitudical
In the sense of "showing or having a bad attitude."
March 4, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word hormental
A blend of hormonal and mental.
March 4, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word randonee
Randonee (according to the OED) comes from a French word meaning "a long uninterrupted walk."
February 27, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word kenopsia
oh hernesheir & bilby, I didn't know how much I needed this word. Thank you!
February 22, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word boodler
Thanks for the heads-up -- can you let me know what link you're trying to share? This one, or the wordnik.com/word-of-the-day link?
February 13, 2013
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
Hi bilby! We've found the fix, and it will be deployed next week ...
February 8, 2013
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
Hi bilby! We've found the fix, and it will be deployed next week ...
February 8, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word apiaster
This is a bird.
February 6, 2013
erinmckean commented on the list trending-words
I keep meaning to let you guys know that cat is the word looked up by the service we use (Pingdom) to test that the website is up and running. It's looked up every few minutes all day every day without fail (unless, of course, we're NOT up and running, in which case it does fail).
It's like Schroedinger's Cat, actually -- until we look it up we don't know if Wordnik is alive or dead. :-)
February 6, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word undermimed
I'd rather be undermimed than overmimed.
January 31, 2013
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
oh weird. Okay, will try to fix! Any way you could send a screenshot?
January 30, 2013
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
Okay -- so this is what I'm seeing, which I'm assuming is not what you're seeing? (Small matter of username aside?)
http://cl.ly/image/3d2W2c171E0L
January 29, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word diarrhoea
We use Flickr's safe filter ... which is, as you say, a good thing.
January 29, 2013
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
Hi bilby! that should have a black background, I will try to see where it went ... can you let me know what browser you're using?
January 29, 2013
erinmckean commented on the user smartypant
Hi Smartypant! Your user information is active -- if you're logged out, your lookups won't register, so please do log in.
January 28, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word wordmap
Oh, thanks! The green words aren't synonyms ... they are words that are used in similar contexts. For example, mustard and mayonnaise aren't synonyms, but people talk about them in similar ways.
Of course, even with that explanation the same-context words for Godzilla don't make all that much sense, either. Good thing we're working on updating that data, huh?
January 22, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word wordmap
We've added wordmaps to many of the words on Wordnik -- check them out in the Related section. This is still a beta feature, so feedback welcome!
January 22, 2013
erinmckean commented on the user mary-ann_sturdy
Thanks Mary-Ann ... we're updating our sources soon and with any luck cire will join the ranks of words with traditional dictionary definitions. :-)
January 22, 2013
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
marky you're totally right, as usual. There is definitely a better way ... I can't find your email with the suggestion right now, could you resend to feedback and I'll make a ticket for it?
Thanks!
January 21, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word alphome
An alphome is a set of alphabetically ordered letters of which at least one arrangement is a word. For instance GHIMNOTU is an alphome because it can be rearranged to spell mouthing.
January 11, 2013
erinmckean commented on the word feedback
hi bilby! Yes, I would love it if we could select the examples. There are some hard questions about sorting/indexing that have to get straightened out. :-(
January 2, 2013
erinmckean commented on the user michel.reginster1
Hi Michel! We noticed you signed up for our Word of the Day, but our email address for you isn't working. Would you mind emailing us at feedback@wordnik.com so we can get you signed up?
January 2, 2013
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
thanks marky -- that would be useful. I'm not sure if we have API support for that right now, I will check!
December 22, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user mpgrassfield
Hi mpgrassfield, if you email us at feedback@wordnik.com (or use the feedback tab on this page) we can change your username for you. Just let us know what name you would like.
Thanks!
December 22, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word beepstep
James Halliday, otherwise known as “substack”, has been making what he calls computer generated beepstep using two new modules: baudio (npm: baudio, License: MIT) and plucky (npm: plucky, License: MIT). DailyJS
December 21, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
Oh, yes, I know those! I will see how easy that is to add. It must be, or it wouldn't be everywhere ...
December 19, 2012
erinmckean commented on the list the-karamazov-bros-blab
I agree! But I was slightly hoping for something related to the *FLYING* Karamozov Bros. :-)
December 19, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
Dear Prolagus, thank you! I know it is frustrating not to be able to find what you need.
We're working on a lot of these things but progress is (a lot) slower than we'd like.
Can you give me more feedback on what you'd like the comment boxes to be like? And I'm not sure I understand the problem with clickable text with a link is -- is it a problem with putting in a href= type tags?
Thank you again for the feedback. I know it comes from a good place ... I wish I had firm dates for certain improvements and updates.
December 19, 2012
erinmckean commented on the list sup-bro
I feel I should add brostep. Great suggestion!
December 14, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word slidentify
"to slide or expose your passport, driver's license, company-issued ID card, and/or credit card to a machine that identifies you and/or your account." via Dennis Sonifer
December 11, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word worm burden
This is also a great name for a band.
December 6, 2012
erinmckean commented on the list sweet-tooth-fairy
ooh, ry do it. I'm in.
December 5, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word Irish nachos
"Irish Nachos are like regular nachos but instead of tortilla chips there are crispy sliced of baked potatoes on the bottom!" What's Gaby Cooking?
November 30, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word fuede
"We firmly believe that there is a time for tortoiseshell and a setting ideally suited for faux suede—which we insist ought to be called “fuede.”" Bureau of Trade
November 28, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word kaydars
"As mentioned earlier, you will need a heat press, but you then have the task of displaying the printed textile. If you are going to suspend it you may need capability for putting it into frames, creating hems for silicon strips known as kaydars, or to create eyelets, so you need some sewing and cutting capability." Printweek
November 28, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word thesdex
a combination thesaurus and index in one document.
November 26, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word sesquilingualism
"Mastery of one and a half languages" (Herbert Pilch)
November 26, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word autoletic
The story is that “flow” is especially possible for people with an *autoletic* personality. That is, people with high levels of curiosity, persistence, low self-centeredness, and a high rate of performing activities for intrinsic reasons only. (from Dan Russell)
November 21, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word shoepeau
a shoe-hat, like this one: http://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/ci/web-large/DT10720.jpg
November 20, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user wcw11653
Thank you for letting us know! Could anyone have used your browser while you were logged in?
November 19, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word offboard
the opposite of "onboard" -- to remove someone from an organization or company.
October 18, 2012
erinmckean commented on the list wi-fi-names
Oh, that's a great list!
October 18, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word stroobly
Of hair: untidy, straggly. (Pennsylvania German)
October 16, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word terms of service
Oh, so glad you like the new terms of service! The vulgar and pornographic out is so that we can eject folks who add irrelevant vulgar and pornographic material. On-topic vulgar material is fine, as we maintain the use-mention distinction here at Wordnik.
As to what is pornological? Well, I know it when I see it.
October 11, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
Thanks marky -- it's our top-priority issue. Seems like a problem with lists over 1000 items right now. :-(
October 6, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user pgmcc
dear pgmcc -- we don't seem to have an active email address for you; would you please email us at feedback at wordnik.com to update your email address?
October 6, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word ambletexterous
"Able to walk and text at the same time" (via email from Rod Kimball)
October 4, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word dry labbing
She told police she identified some drug samples as narcotics simply by looking at them instead of testing them, a process known as "dry labbing." WSJ
October 3, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word ladies
An easy way to sound like a creep is to add the word “ladies” to the end of things you say. It can be harmless too, but it just makes you a creep. “Yeah after college I spent two years in the peace corps, ladies?” The more harmless it is, the more of a creep you become. “I broke my arm. I need help, ladies?” FYDemetriMartin
October 1, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word experimercials
""Entire clinical trials are run not as trials at all, but as under-the-counter advertising campaigns designed to persuade doctors to prescribe a company’s drug." Back in 2004, I coined the term experimercials for these pretend trials. See PubMed ID 15169734.
Bernard Carroll." Economist
September 30, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word goopoo
It is sometimes called a syllabic abbreviation. Wikipedia
September 20, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word 8-bit day
8-bit day is the 256th day of the year. Tantek
September 19, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word sharf
a cross between a scarf and a shawl (Skud)
September 18, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word AVA
AVA can stand for American Viticultural Area.
September 7, 2012
erinmckean commented on the list mobying-along
Thank you! I need to pick up Moby Dick again ...
August 21, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user WilliamBG
Also, you might like these lists: https://www.wordnik.com/lists/scriptie-master-and-commander and http://www.wordnik.com/lists/master-and-commander
August 20, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user WilliamBG
Hi William! Welcome to Wordnik! You can create a list by clicking on your username in the upper right corner of the screen, and choosing "New List".
Please let me know if you have any other questions!
August 20, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word fuskering
In the notice, the company accuses r/photobucketplunder of "fuskering," or "fusking," the act of using a piece of software to search through a private Photobucket album based on the likelihood that the photographs follow one of a few common naming systems. Gawker
August 19, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word fusking
In the notice, the company accuses r/photobucketplunder of "fuskering," or "fusking," the act of using a piece of software to search through a private Photobucket album based on the likelihood that the photographs follow one of a few common naming systems. Gawker
August 19, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
lazy loading sounds like a good idea ... I'll look into it! Thanks!
July 29, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word harassle
a blend of "hassle" and "harass"?
July 26, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word podfic
"Podfic is an audio recording of fanfic, read aloud by a fan (or several). The term is also used as a verb; someone may ask to podfic someone else's story." Fanlore.org
July 5, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word bro-brand
"The male version of a tramp stamp shall hereby be know as a bro-brand" @gourneau
June 26, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
great! thanks for taking a look!
June 20, 2012
erinmckean commented on the list outcasts
hi deinonychus -- I'm working on one here (favorites--52) but I'm having trouble getting it to work. One of these days ... :-(
June 19, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user erinmckean
Thank you! These are all good suggestions ... I will look into the Community page stats issue asap.
June 18, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
thanks oroboros! The bad news is that this is a known bug. The good news is that we have a fix for it, and it should be rolled out to the site early next week!
Thanks again for reporting this -- I'm sorry for the hassle.
June 17, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
List improvements are on the roadmap -- that's what we want to focus on. :-) I'm targeting the end of the summer, fingers crossed!
June 16, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word employership
Social entrepreneurs are known for the creativity and innovation they bring to bear on the gaps in development. Whether tackling water or education, energy or sanitation, social entrepreneurs develop inventive ways to bring new solutions to social challenges. But, in all this creativity, they may be missing one of the larger issues at hand: “employership,” or, the generation of jobs where none existed before. India Real Time
June 16, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
Weird! Thanks for the update, I will try to sort it out!
June 11, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
hi marky -- I'm still seeing it, can you let me know which browser it's gone missing in?
June 11, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word upsetting thermometer
Not as upsetting as the upsetting thermocouple.
June 8, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user jonesey95
Thank you for adding the citations from Zuleika Dobson -- I really enjoyed that book. :-)
June 6, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word pyrrhic
Thanks rolig! There's also a Wiktionary definition at Pyrrhic.
June 6, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word Galapagozation
The phrase “Galapagos syndrome” or the tongue-twisting literal translation “Galapagozation,” became common here in the mid-to-late 2000s when talking about Japanese mobile phones, which were extremely advanced for the time, yet couldn’t be used outside the country. WSJ, May 30, 2012
May 31, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
Yeah, that was me. :-( It looked okay in beta. I added the rollover to see who added to an open list, but the # of comments code is messing with the width. I'll fix it tonight.
May 30, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word meteorwrong
“We get swamped by people who bring us ‘meteorwrongs,’” says Carl Agee, director of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico. He says it’s extremely rare for alleged space rocks to turn out to be bona fide. WIRED May 2012
May 29, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word star-algebra
Oh, thanks for letting us know, this is a good edge case. :-)
May 22, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word gatorade
Thanks for making me laugh out loud, Prolagus. Next time I'm up to my ass in alligators I will haul out the gator-juicer ...
May 22, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word Twittermentary
A "Twitter documentary", according to the PR email I got from Glamour magazine: "Wait, there’s more: a Twittermentary! Watch the magic unfold by following @glamourmag #makingsept."
May 18, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word scabstache
A scab across the upper lip, caused by overenthusiastic shaving.
May 11, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word dangerism
"Dangerism is a term which refers to the practice of maximising the perception of risk and the cultivation of fear and the accommodation of those fears by a "hardening" of safety measures, which then, in turn feed back into a greater yet perception of risk in an increasingly strident feedback howl, until an activity comes to be regarded (however irrationally) as being almost unthinkably dangerous." Aberdeen Cars
May 10, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user erinmckean
Thanks Heather! The floating words were a little too slow for the homepage, but I hope they will get their own dedicated page soon.
I'll see if I can't work Vahowwge into my daily conversation ...
May 10, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word cat
We use this word to test that everything is up and running, so it gets looked up a lot. We could filter it out, but we like cats. :-)
May 10, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word twitchfork
"Hate on the web is banding together as "twitchfork mobs".
A combination of Twitter and pitchfork, the term was first recorded in Urban Dictionary in 2009 but gained currency in the past year as a way of describing viral mobs who bombard their targets with verbal bile and threats of physical harm - mostly anonymously."
Great Lakes Advocate
May 9, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
Thanks marky ... I've made a ticket. That really bugs me, too.
April 30, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word breakover
Forget a pampering makeover to help heal your broken heart this Valentine's Day. Go for a "digital breakover" instead, using a growing number of tech tools to save you from yourself or to sob on a safe shoulder in the ether. HuffPo
April 26, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word doxing
"Doxing is the process of gaining information about someone or something by using sources on the Internet and using basic deduction skills. Its name is derived from “Documents” and in short it is the retrieval of “Documents” on a person or company." Treasure Sec
April 25, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word slenthem
The slenthem (also slentem or gender panembung) is a Javanese metallophone which makes up part of a gamelan orchestra. (Wikipedia
April 23, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word xenolect
Néo-Breton is a 'xenolect', that is, a slightly foreignized and largely synthetic, consciously normalized variety. From Elvish to Klingon, Michael Adams, 2011
April 22, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word mirlitonnades
His aesthetic response to these losses was to scrawl very short poems -- what he called 'mirlitonnades' -- on any scrap of paper he could salvage: an envelope, beer mat, even a label from a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky. Biographer James Knowlson notes that Beckett initially named these verse 'rimailles' or 'versicules' before settling on 'mirlitonnades', which some editors have translated as 'bird calls'; but, given the definition of mirliton in the Oxford English Dictionary, the name also recalls the buzzing or nasal quality of the sound produced by a musical instrument that resembles a kazoo. (From Elvish to Klingon, Michael Adams, Oxford 2011)
April 22, 2012
erinmckean commented on the list eight-is-enough
I suggest "octopush"!
April 11, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word daffock
a woman's dress that is too short.
April 11, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word cuyp
(pronounced in a peculiar way, something like "ceighp", the "eigh" being quickly given as in "weight") to sulk, and show that you are sulking; to cry obstinately and causelessly, but in a subdued way, like bleeding inwardly.
April 11, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word cunni-thum
To shoot a marble cunnithumb is to place it in the middle of the bent forefinger instead of poising it at the tip of the finger. It is considered a childish or effeminate way of playing marbles, and the marble is not discharged with anything like the proper force.
April 10, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word cumberlin
a troublesome fellow, one that cumbers the earth, and does no good.
April 10, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word bad luck top end
short of intellect; slightly crazy.
"Thah's getten bad luck top end, tha cumberlin." J.C. Clough
April 10, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word backstun
a round flat piece of stone, but now more generally a piece of sheet iron, with a handle over the top, upon which various kinds of tea-cakes are baked. The article is not seen nearly so often as formerly.
April 10, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word backarding
a change from excessive joy and feasting to mourning.
April 10, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word avandrill
a daffodil, in the county of Chester.
April 10, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word apse upon thee
A word used in scolding a child; also a sort of exclamation of surprise, or when sudden pain is felt. Thus, if a man took up a piece of iron which he unexpectedly found was too hot to hold he would, very likely, in dropping it make use of the exclamation.
April 10, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word antipranty
frisky, restive, said of a horse.
April 10, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word anglesea
the name given to a peculiar curl of the hat brim.
April 10, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word allegar skrikers
thin gruel flavored with vinegar.
April 10, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word Igree
a compressed form of "I agree":
A: "We should go to the movies!"
B: "Igree!"
April 7, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user jsp
Thanks jsp ... could you let us know *which* app? Wordnik doesn't actually make any apps, but many apps use our APIs ...
April 7, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user jsp
Hi jsp! Thanks for the feedback! Are you talking about the Wordnik.com site, or the word of the day, or perhaps about an app that uses our API?
April 6, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word railroading
"Railroading fabric is nothing more than running the fabric 90 degrees from its normal direction. You simply turn the fabric sideways." Fabric Workshop
March 17, 2012
erinmckean commented on the list things-that-make-a-sound-in-a-bell
I would like to give this list a ringing endorsement.
March 15, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word whorts
Whorts = "winter shorts"
March 3, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word legidepity
Legitimizing something in the process of legitimizing something else.
March 3, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word Copenhagenizing
The process of making other cities more like Copenhagen, especially in regards to bike routes and green spaces.
March 3, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word mirkning
late twilight OED
February 9, 2012
erinmckean commented on the list let-s-go-strap-on-the-ole-air-chine-and-bore-holes-in-the-sky
what about "aluminum shower"? Morbid but interesting ...
February 3, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user ruzuzu
oh thank you, good catch!
February 1, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word washashore
"A shrill local rants against tourists, referring to them as wash-ashores; whereas anyone who lives here knows that a washashore is a resident who came from somewhere else." Where Am I Now When I Need Me
January 24, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word washashore
"Millenium Grove was the 1850's revival campground, "Silicon Sandbar" the nascent electronics industry around Hyannis, a "washashore" is a phony Indian word for anyone not a native Cape Codder, "rural character" is a frequent wishful thinking phrase in the newspapers." Cape Cod Year 2
January 24, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user allegria
Hi Allegria! When you're logged in, you can add any word to your favorites list just by "love"-ing it (click on the LOVE link to show a word some love). Your favorites can then be seen here: http://www.wordnik.com/users/allegria/favorites
If you want to make another list (say, Allegria's Wordarama), choose "New List" from the drop-down (click on your username in the black menu bar).
I hope this helps!
January 24, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user feedback
hey marky! we don't have a way to disable Flickr right now ... sorry about that.
January 23, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word vulpeculated
"And the night before widow Wamford was vulpeculated of her brood goose." The words of John Eachard
January 23, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word STOP SOPA
Yes - more information on our blog: http://blog.wordnik.com/stop-sopa-and-pipa
(if you're desperate, mouse over the definitions in Chrome, anyway to see them)
January 18, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user susaneiland
Hi susaneiland! If you're able to leave a comment, you're already logged in. Do you see your username in the top right corner of the screen, next to the search box?
January 17, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user jennarenn
hi jennarenn -- the email for wordplay is an aol one, and it includes the string "frogs". Is that enough to narrow it down?
January 17, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word Am-hole
derogatory term for rude Seattle Amazon employees: Seattle PI blog
January 15, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word stickers
"Stickers is an actual woodworking term, not an ad hoc one. The little bits of wood you place between boards to allow air to circulate all around them, and helps to keep wood from warping from having only one side exposed to the air, are called stickers." Sippican Cottage
January 15, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word scorp
A scorp is a type of knife with a curved, circular blade that's ideal for scooping out bowls, spoons, or masks. Woodcarving: 20 great projects for beginners & weekend carvers
January 15, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word buffling
"business waffling" -- using jargon in an effort to sound smarter or to confuse others.
January 12, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user Reader
Hi Reader! I'm sorry to take so long to reply to your comment ... you can find more information about using Wordnik at our "About" link, here: About Wordnik. Or you can always email us at feedback@wordnik.com.
January 11, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word kerykeion
Ooh, thanks for pointing this one out!
January 6, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word spam
Thanks hernesheir! We're doing an extravigorous spam crackdown and sweep this weekend. :-)
January 6, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word qft
"quoted for truth"
January 6, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user JMcGoo
Thanks for the feedback! We're having trouble with the buttons (signup, logout) showing up in IE8 ... we're working to fix it. To log out, use this url: http://wordnik.com/logout
January 5, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word snapback
A baseball cap with a back snap fastener.
January 4, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word ladies-putting
Ah. Yet another remnant of the great definition muddle of 2010. I remember it well. Should be tidied away soon.
January 4, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user hunter2
Shhhhhhh! Don't say that! (looks around cautiously)
January 4, 2012
erinmckean commented on the user teachus
Hi teachus! How can we help?
January 4, 2012
erinmckean commented on the word rattapallax
It is true that the rivers went nosing like swine,
Tugging at banks, until they seemed
Bland belly-sounds in somnolent troughs,
That the air was heavy with the breath of these swine,
The breath of turgid summer, and
Heavy with thunder's rattapallax,
That the man who erected this cabin, planted
This field, and tended it awhile,
Knew not the quirks of imagery,
That the hours of his indolent, arid days,
Grotesque with this nosing in banks,
This somnolence and rattapallax,
Seemed to suckle themselves on his arid being,
As the swine-like rivers suckled themselves
While they went seaward to the sea-mouths.
Frogs Eat Butterflies, Snakes Eat Frogs, Hogs Eat Snakes, Men Eat Hogs, Wallace Stevens
December 30, 2011
erinmckean commented on the user parthibansekar
Hi parthibansekar -- here's how to get the Word of the Day via email: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny_5pYeQ5-E
December 30, 2011
erinmckean commented on the word disimprovement
'Disimprovement’ is a wonderful word invented by an Irish client of ours. It means making things worse by trying to make them better. Gossage
December 22, 2011
erinmckean commented on the word LHAF
“I just Made Up A New Txt Abbr. just Now --------> LHAF !! " Laughing Hard As Fukk" @GaTrademark
December 22, 2011
erinmckean commented on the word MAME
MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator.
December 22, 2011
erinmckean commented on the list overused-by-zeke--1
just the one? :-)
December 21, 2011
erinmckean commented on the word feedback
Thanks oroboros -- seems like a transient error. Cash money should be cash money again now.
December 14, 2011
erinmckean commented on the word bro-gurt
“Man flavored yogurt... We call it bro-gurt” @Theafritz1
December 7, 2011
erinmckean commented on the user erinmckean
Thanks marky! We really appreciate all the feedback you've given us as we work to make Wordnik better ...
December 7, 2011
erinmckean commented on the word not like a word
aw, zeke, I know you like a challenge!
December 3, 2011
erinmckean commented on the word feedback
Thanks folks! I'm making tickets for all these requests and comments.
Prolagus, we'll get those tag-comments back eventually. Tags don't have their own pages now, so it's a matter of figuring out where to put them ...
November 29, 2011
erinmckean commented on the word new interface
Just enjoying that I can comment that there's a new new interface on the new interface page.
Thanks so much to all who are giving us feedback, especially via the new feedback tab!
(<-- over there)
November 29, 2011
erinmckean commented on the word generonym
A brand name that has become a generic name for its product category, e.g. Kleenex and Xerox. A word was needed to describe the result of genericide, which is the process by which a brand name becomes a generic name for an entire product category. AllExperts.com
November 28, 2011
erinmckean commented on the word exercisvertising
My shirt has my company name logo-d on the back, and “Massage Therapist” with the company phone number on the back. Everyone can watch my ass as I attempt to sprint. Great. But really, what I hope they’re looking at is my t-shirt. What a great combination. Losing fat and gaining clients.
Exercisvertising. Word. ThrivingMassageBiz.com
November 28, 2011
erinmckean commented on the word MAV
Reps also tell me that the C-Max is an MAV or Multi Activity Vehicle. It’s a fancy new word to mean a passenger vehicle that’s a bit sleeker than either an SUV or minivan. Ford C-Max
November 28, 2011
erinmckean commented on the word feedback
Oh, thank you hernesheir, those are all good points ... the eight syllables one is fixed in the new site, here's a sneak preview (http://cl.ly/343Z0J3g1T162H0k2Z3a)
Although it's not showing all 140 words. I've put in a query about that.
November 28, 2011
erinmckean commented on the word feedback
Hi Rolig! Only a few folks have access to the preview, which is the only place where you can see the "feedback" tab right now.
November 25, 2011
erinmckean commented on the word new interface
Hi folks! We should (fingers crossed) have a preview version of the updated site ready in a day or so. If you would like to be on the list to see the preview version, would you email me at erin at wordnik?
November 16, 2011
erinmckean commented on the word red-ocean strategy
"Whereas the red-ocean strategy focuses on engaging and defeating the competition, blue-ocean strategy suggests that there is more opportunity in creating uncontested market space." It's all about the client: consulting for results
November 11, 2011
Show 200 more comments...