a small book with loose sheets of paper, or a very small computer, for recording information, addresses, meetings etc, a famous trademark being Filofax.
I bet the most famous quotation about this word appeared in chapter 6 of <Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows>, when Harry said to Ginny, "Someone else might kill off Voldemort while she(Mrs Weasley)’s holding us here making vol-au-vents?"
"on(=pon) the(=de) replay" as in one of the interview with Rihanna. It's Barbadian English, anyway~ In the lyrics there is also "...pon the dancefloor"
Probably coined by the Nobelist Frank Wilczek in one of his articles published in 2006 on 《Physics World》, an internet version can be seen here. Certainly this follows electronics and its more recent derivatives like photonics and even phononics. Although the formation is a bit like cliche, this is really a cool idea to physicists at first sight~
I understand what you mean by "codes" and the meaning of "meaningless" and can agree with that. But I fear that logically saying "meaningless has meaning" or "meaningless is meaningful" would result in a similar example of Grelling-Nelson paradox, which happens to the pair--autological and heterological. Maybe there's no paradox, it's just that I haven't thought it through~
I can agree with your dislike about the word-formation. I think I'm not wordie enough to find what they are using in cognitive science now. However, I do think what Mr Shermer means by "meaningless" is about the absence of physical/mathematical meaning, or physically significant meaning, except using one's imagination~
You may ask whether "meaningless" is autological, or whether "meaningless" is meaningless, that's a good question, but that's linguistics~
Michael Shermer defined it in the December 2008 issue of Scientific American as "the tendency to find meaningful patterns in meaningless noise". For more see here.
An indeed interest idea, but I don't think it's brand new, even though I couldn't find any precursing phrases with similar meaning~
So seanahan, I think the most distinct difference I'm able to grasp from these two words is(I'm not a psychology major, anyway~) whether it is dominated by consciousness. retrospective falsification is an unconscious behavior and I came upon that in a documentary on (mildly debunking) extrasensory perception(ESP). A psychologist disagreeing with the possibility of someone predicting the future(especially some disastrous events) gave another explanation on the "predictors"' claims using this phrase. He said that the predictors may unconsciouslly rearranged their memory to better fit their claims, without self-awareness. There is a Chinese phrase that I can think of called "事�?�诸葛亮" has a similar connotation to retrospective falsification but with derogative tone. (I'm wondering if there are wordies for other languages like Chinese and there might be crosslinks between different languages which I don't think Wikipedia has even achieved, maybe I could make one~) And from my understanding of cognitive dissonance I think it should be a conscious behaviour, even though it is still very vague to know, let alone to prove, how is conscious and how is unconscious. Additionally, they may be different in emphases and effective situations or context(trivial).
Concepts are all degenerated at the very beginning(maybe the singularity before the Big Bang), uh hmm...
a recurring pattern that contains itself within itself(and can also contain even smaller replica ad infinitum), like a picture within a picture, a TV within a TV(as in some sitcom or music video), etc. More information can be found hither and thither
Comments by isoglossian
isoglossian commented on the user meeralee
You've made a wonderful collection of lists~
January 17, 2010
isoglossian commented on the word orbitronics
I came across this in Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 066601 (2005), Orbitronics: The Intrinsic Orbital Current in p-Doped Silicon, but don't know whether it's the first to mention this term.
July 17, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word atomtronics
First appeared in Phys. Rev. A 75, 023615 (2007), Atomtronics: Ultracold-atom analogs of electronic devices
July 17, 2009
isoglossian commented on the list self-concept
suggest the addition of self-awareness
June 30, 2009
isoglossian commented on the list jmjarmstrongs-list
Where there is a "-phile", there is a "-phobe", not always~
June 27, 2009
isoglossian commented on the list colour-light
suggest adding the word "celadon", also a beautiful color with translucent texture~
June 10, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word personal organizer
a small book with loose sheets of paper, or a very small computer, for recording information, addresses, meetings etc, a famous trademark being Filofax.
--Adapted from LDOCE
June 7, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word oxford comma
To seanahan, either Wikipedia or the language needs improvement~
To rolig, I agree with you and every now and then I take pleasure in overinterpreting these ambiguities~
May 21, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word verisimilitude
I always wonder if there is some kind of word-formation technique corresponding to this word. I'll be verihappy if there is~
May 17, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word oxford comma
I found one example from Wikipedia for avoiding ambiguity. Consider the following sentences:
To my parents, Ayn Rand and God.
To my parents, Ayn Rand, and God.
the second comma before "and" in the second sentence should be the oxford/harvard comma~
May 17, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word hue and cry
Recently it has featured in M-W's Word of the Day, see here
May 16, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word astronomical seeing
also known as "atmospheric seeing"~More on Wiki. I came upon this in the series of articles by Hanbury Brown & Twiss~
May 11, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word vol-au-vent
I bet the most famous quotation about this word appeared in chapter 6 of <Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows>, when Harry said to Ginny, "Someone else might kill off Voldemort while she(Mrs Weasley)’s holding us here making vol-au-vents?"
May 11, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word footloose and fancy-free
free both physically and emotionally
May 8, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word pon
"on(=pon) the(=de) replay" as in one of the interview with Rihanna. It's Barbadian English, anyway~ In the lyrics there is also "...pon the dancefloor"
May 1, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word plasmonics
Can every "-on" have its equivalent "-onics"? There should be a technologically accessible source to make "-onics" physically feasible~
May 1, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word anyonics
Probably coined by the Nobelist Frank Wilczek in one of his articles published in 2006 on 《Physics World》, an internet version can be seen here. Certainly this follows electronics and its more recent derivatives like photonics and even phononics. Although the formation is a bit like cliche, this is really a cool idea to physicists at first sight~
April 30, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word ovoviviparousness
Might be a single word containing most vs. Another I could think of is vavavoom~
April 30, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word quid pro quo
somewhat similar to the concept of placebo~
April 30, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word shi chen ba zi
also known as "Four Pillars of Destiny" and in Chinese, "时辰八字" or "生辰八字"
April 30, 2009
isoglossian commented on the list poetic-exotic
I suggest the addition of marmoreal~
April 30, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word pon
...globalized by Rihanna's "Pon de Replay"~
April 30, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word tapetum lucidum
Please see its Wiki entry here
April 25, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word patternicity
I understand what you mean by "codes" and the meaning of "meaningless" and can agree with that. But I fear that logically saying "meaningless has meaning" or "meaningless is meaningful" would result in a similar example of Grelling-Nelson paradox, which happens to the pair--autological and heterological. Maybe there's no paradox, it's just that I haven't thought it through~
April 25, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word zweideutigkeit
after Wolfgang Pauli~
April 25, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word smart power
How smart is "smart power"?
April 25, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word patternicity
I can agree with your dislike about the word-formation. I think I'm not wordie enough to find what they are using in cognitive science now. However, I do think what Mr Shermer means by "meaningless" is about the absence of physical/mathematical meaning, or physically significant meaning, except using one's imagination~
You may ask whether "meaningless" is autological, or whether "meaningless" is meaningless, that's a good question, but that's linguistics~
April 25, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word heterological
heterological should be neither autological or heterological, see the Wiki entry of Grelling-Nelson paradox.
April 25, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word patternicity
Michael Shermer defined it in the December 2008 issue of Scientific American as "the tendency to find meaningful patterns in meaningless noise". For more see here.
An indeed interest idea, but I don't think it's brand new, even though I couldn't find any precursing phrases with similar meaning~
April 25, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word retrospective falsification
So seanahan, I think the most distinct difference I'm able to grasp from these two words is(I'm not a psychology major, anyway~) whether it is dominated by consciousness. retrospective falsification is an unconscious behavior and I came upon that in a documentary on (mildly debunking) extrasensory perception(ESP). A psychologist disagreeing with the possibility of someone predicting the future(especially some disastrous events) gave another explanation on the "predictors"' claims using this phrase. He said that the predictors may unconsciouslly rearranged their memory to better fit their claims, without self-awareness. There is a Chinese phrase that I can think of called "事�?�诸葛亮" has a similar connotation to retrospective falsification but with derogative tone. (I'm wondering if there are wordies for other languages like Chinese and there might be crosslinks between different languages which I don't think Wikipedia has even achieved, maybe I could make one~) And from my understanding of cognitive dissonance I think it should be a conscious behaviour, even though it is still very vague to know, let alone to prove, how is conscious and how is unconscious. Additionally, they may be different in emphases and effective situations or context(trivial).
Concepts are all degenerated at the very beginning(maybe the singularity before the Big Bang), uh hmm...
April 11, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word self-similarity
The Wiki definition.
April 11, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word mise en abyme
a recurring pattern that contains itself within itself(and can also contain even smaller replica ad infinitum), like a picture within a picture, a TV within a TV(as in some sitcom or music video), etc. More information can be found hither and thither
April 10, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word retrospective falsification
Thanks, VanishedOne, I got it. Are there other codes or lists of them?
April 10, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word kinetosis
It is also called motion sickness, with representations like car sickness, seasickness, etc(but don't mess it up with homesickness). See here
April 10, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word retrospective falsification
Definition is found here
April 9, 2009
isoglossian commented on the word retrospective falsification
The unconscious distortion of past experience to conform to present psychological needs.
April 9, 2009