gwil has adopted no words, looked up 0 words, created 0 lists, listed 0 words, written 10 comments, added 0 tags, and loved 0 words.
gwil has adopted no words, looked up 0 words, created 0 lists, listed 0 words, written 10 comments, added 0 tags, and loved 0 words.
Comments by gwil
Gwil commented on the word winsey
In "The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel." by Baroness Orczy, the title character says, "Ever since mademoiselle first tripped past me at the angle of the Pont Neuf dressed in winsey kirtle and wearing sabots on her feet...." Since a kirtle is a garment, I thought that winsey would be a type of cloth.
October 22, 2015
Gwil commented on the word arborvirus
In WordNet, "arborvirus" is listed as a synonym of "arbovirus". The spelling "arbovirus" is much more common. Either word is an acronym for ARthropod-BOrne VIRUS. I would avoid the spelling "arborvirus", because it's too likely to make you think of a "tree virus" (Latin "arbor": tree; arboretum, arborvitae, etc.)
October 23, 2012
Gwil commented on the word oughtst
Less common variant spelling of "oughtest"
May 3, 2012
Gwil commented on the word preception
Every single example of preception in the examples and tweets lists today is just a typo for perception, judging from the contexts. Webster's Third International gives a technical meaning for preception in Roman law. Aside from that, there's no need to use preception. Precept means the same thing and is shorter and more familiar.
February 24, 2012
Gwil commented on the word antithisis
I came across the following question on Yahoo Answers:
"I need a clever antithisis?
"i have to come up with a 'clever antithisis' not an antithesis...but an ANTITHISIS.
"for example scissors/join to divide, garbage/keeps to dispose
"the actions have to be done at the same time and it has to be in this format _____: _____ to _____
"its an object, action, and it has to be doing the opposite of something and the same time...like the actions should be working in sequence.
"please and thank you
"p.s. this is for an english class...so PG only"
The wording of this question suggests that the teacher stressed that there is a difference between 'antithesis' and 'antithisis'. Now, the description fits the definition of 'antithesis'; I looked for 'antithisis' in four unabridged dictionaries and couldn't find it; and even in a web search for 'antithisis', all the examples I found were clearly intended to be 'antithesis'.
February 10, 2011
Gwil commented on the word scoil
"What had that got to do with it, if you had to go into the Chapel in a jersey and pants, and every other kid in a new suit, kid gloves and tan shoes and a scoil cap." - The Confirmation Suit, by Brendan Behan
"The school's name, Scoil Rince Slieveloughane (pronounced skole rinka shleeve lockane) is Irish for Hillside Lake Dancing School." - http://www.srsirishdance.com/ (accessed 2010-10-07)
October 7, 2010
Gwil commented on the word inscrutibility
My dictionary spells it "inscrutability", with an 'a'.
June 27, 2009
Gwil commented on the word boobledink
To the best of my knowledge, Boobledink first appeared in a "Nancy" comic book or strip by Ernie Bushmiller, probably around the 1940s. The story: Nancy and Sluggo were speculating on the consequences if the father of his country had been named George Boobledink instead of Washington.
Dr. Louise Hart has also used the word "boobledink", which she apparently coined independently sometime around 1980. In a 1993 book, she writes, "I made up a name - 'Boobledink' - to express mild displeasure. If ... someone would poke a finger in the icing of a birthday cake, I'd say, 'You Boobledink' ...."
"Boobledink" seems to be a proper noun in these instances, but I don't see why it couldn't be used as a common noun meaning something between a klutz and a clown.
June 27, 2009
Gwil commented on the word statoid
In 1999, I published a book listing all the primary administrative subdivisions of the countries of the world. In different countries, they are called states, provinces, regions, departments, governorates, oblasts, and many other names. For convenience, I used the word "statoid" to refer to any of those things. Sample sentence:
The world has about 200 countries, and over 4,000 statoids.
Since then I've created a website (http://www.statoids.com/), which has made the word more popular among the small coterie of geographical trivia enthusiasts.
The word "statoid" has also been used to mean an inconsequential statistical datum, in the same way that a factoid is an interesting but irrelevant fact.
If you do a Google search for statoid, almost all of the hits refer to my website directly or indirectly.
June 27, 2009
Gwil commented on the word parsable
"Parsable" means "susceptible to being parsed". The odd thing about it is that it isn't listed in most desk dictionaries. I've heard it often enough in computer circles, but just knowing that it's "parse" with a -ble suffix isn't enough to determine whether it's parsable, parseable, or parsible. ("Parseible" would be impossible.) There are people who spell it all three ways. After extensive lookups, I found that it's listed in two unabridged dictionaries as "parsable", and that also seems to be the majority opinion on the Internet.
June 27, 2009