"Royalty, lord it looked good on me / Buried in silk in the royal boudoir or going nuclear free / Or playing crokinole with the Princess of Monaco / Telling my jokes to the OPEC leaders, getting it all on video"
"All alone by the table of food in my wrinkled suit and my borrowed tie / Only thinking of something to say in the moment after the girl walks by / Everyone else is having fun or else pretending to/ I eat another crudité..."
Many years ago, I noticed that I pronounced "dr" (dɹ) as "jr" (dʒɹ). For example, I pronounced "dream", "dribble", "drunk", and "drive" as if they were spelled "jream", "jribble", "jrunk", and "jrive".
I didn't like this. It seemed unnecessarily complicated. So, I stopped. Ever since then, I've pronounced "dr" as dɹ. I suppose I thought I was being terribly clever, and that everyone else was bound to admire me, and join me, and give me the keys to the city and a ticker-tape parade. What's actually happened is that no one's noticed I'm doing it. In that regard, it's rather like crossing my 7's. I've been crossing handwritten 7's since I was a small boy, and nobody seems to care one way or the the other.
Now, as I type this, I realize that my smug linguistic superiority has a crack in it. All these years, while I was scrupulously pronouncing "dr" as "dr", I blithely continued pronouncing "tr" as "chr" (tʃɹ, e.g. "chricycle", "chrilobyte", "The Chrubble with Chribbles"). It's the just the unvoiced version of the same thing, and for consistency's sake, ought to be handled the same way. I feel a bit foolish, and I'm not sure how to proceed. Should I extend my solitary crusade to "tr"? Should I revert to the common pronunciation for "dr"? Or should I just stop overthinking this?
(This is my new Wordnik philosophy: Open lists are more fun than closed lists. I intend to go through my old closed lists and open 'em up someday soon.)
I just read reesetee's sausage comment, over a year after he wrote it, and laughed so hard I nearly choked on my food. Note to self: lunching while reading Wordnik can be hazardous to your health!
I was raised saying "car-mull", but at some point, I made a conscious decision to switch over to "care-a-mull". I figured, hey, if both pronunciations are acceptible, I may as well use the one I like better.
I've heard of toffee apples, but like ruzuzu, I can't imagine what they'd be. I picture toffee as a hard, brittle substance, quite unlike the soft caramel of a caramel apple.
I think the change is for the best. I loved "Watch your language" (such a delicious double meaning), but "Community" seems a more accurate description of what we're doing. It'll be easier for newcomers to understand.
Plus, I feel like by calling us a community, the Wordnik admins are giving their blessing to our tomfoolery and in-jokes. I must admit that at times I've worried about that. I mean, here Erin and John and the rest are trying to build a functional website, and we're hanging around tossing fufluns at people. Can you imagine Erin having to explain to a venture capitalist what a "fuflun" is?
So, I feel relieved when I see the admins call us a "Community". It's like they're telling us that we have free license to be silly. :-)
I take umbrage at the imperative command on the pouch. It's so judgmental. "You," it says to me, "are a dirty, mangy, flea-ridden lout. You are unworthy to be in the presence of even this mediocre sandwich. Go! Refresh yourself! And do not return until you do!"
I've clearly set off a bubbling storm of controversy with my question, so, in an effort to bring peace to all sides, I propose we coin a new phrase to refer to these devices. You know, something that everyone can agree on.
How about "aqueous refreshment dispenser"? This would allow us to say things like "I say, old fellow, can you direct me to the nearest aqueous refreshment dispenser?", a turn of phrase that fits well with the monocle and bowler hats that we're all wearing.
I see that fuflun is already listed, but I'm going to go ahead and add the plural form, because that's where all the fun is. (Also, because the more fufluns, the better.)
Wordniks: Do you use "water fountain" or "drinking fountain" to refer to the machine that people drink from?
Yesterday someone asked me for directions to the "water fountain", and the phrase struck me as odd. Why do we specify that it's a "water" fountain? Do we need to differentiate it from fountains that dispense other substances?
Yes, that must be it. Next time someone asks me where the water fountain is, I'll say "It's over there, next to the chocolate fountain."
I did think about adding the second line of the mnemonic, but I decided against it. Here's why: I personally see that line as an unsuccessful attempt to patch up a fundamentally flawed rule. Yes, we could adhere to the full mnemonic and exclude the "sounded as A" words from this list, but that would barely make a dent in the list. There would still be hundreds of exceptions to the mnemonic rule, which is really the whole point of this list: I think the "I before E" rule is claptrap. Balderdash. Elegantfolderol. I made this list in order to demonstrate how silly the rule is.
For a fun perspective on this issue, take a look at the video I linked to in my comment at the bottom of the page.
The title of a TV show. I don't like it -- I feel that it ought to be "Rick Steves's Europe", with the extra S after the apostrophe. Isn't the terminal apostrophe supposed to be reserved for possessive plurals? And Mr. Steves, however voluminous he may be, is only one man.
Thanks, hernesheir! That's a beautiful discovery you've made. Now I can't help but wonder whether there are any collections of four letters that can form seven words...
I was feeling a bit f-ish today, and then I saw that Wordnik had picked this list (my second list ever!) as List of the Day. Thank you, Wordnik! I love you! I am f-ish no more!
In celebration, I'm opening the list to anyone. Feel free to contribute!
Just saw my first pair of Truck Nutz today. The truck was black, which I suppose is a truckly color, but the Nutzs were silvery and sparkly. It was very festive.
As I type this, I'm discovering that what offends me about Truck Nutz, more than anything else, is the spelling.
Dearest darlingest Worknik employees: There's a feature from Ye Olde Wordie that I sorely miss, and would love to see brought back.
It used to be that a person could look at a link on a Wordie page and immediately tell whether that link led to another Wordie page or to an off-site address. (As I recall, the off-side addresses had tiny little icons next to them.)
This would be a useful feature to add to Wordnik, because we Wordnik users (Wordniks? Wordnikkers? Nik-Naks?) tend to bracket lots of words in our comments, and right now there's no way to tell just by looking whether a blue word is an off-site link or just a bracketed word. We become inured to the color blue, and so we tend to overlook the links that our fellow Wordnik users have posted.
Won't you please bring this feature to Wordnik? It's all I want for Christmas, and I've been a good little logophile all year.
"Ointment" currently appears on 16 lists with negative themes ("Words I Dislike", "Words I Hate", "Words I Hate With the Fire of a Thousand Suns", etc.), and only 4 lists with positive themes ("Words I Like", etc.).
The only possible explanation for this shameful attack and scurrilous slander of a lovely and wonderful word is that reesetee and I (and dornyika and janicemc) are the only sane users on Wordnik. The rest of you are all quite clearly insane. And you probably hate freedom, too.
Professional librarian here. I got my Library Science degree not too long ago, and am currently working at a lovely little college library in Virginia.
I quite like the pronunciation. "Ung-went" is a rich and creamy sound, like the best and most expensive ointments. "Un-jent" is a sharp and pungent sound; it makes me think of spicy incense, not creamy ointment.
Not that there's anything wrong with spicy incense, of course. It's just a totally different thing altogether.
Oh, sorry, yarb, that was me. I'm demonstrating my new invention. I call it The Emperor's New Font. The words that you type in this font are only visible to intelligent, sensitive people who wear trendy clothing and appreciate postmodern art.
Why am I doing this? Simple. I'm the ██████ pte-redact-yl!
@P_: I would be honored to be called an avocado. In fact, I find that "Avocado!" makes a better greeting than "Artichoke!", perhaps because it's a smoother-sounding word. "Artichoke!" has too many rough edges to be a sufficiently friendly greeting.
@milos: That's brilliant. And, you know, maybe people are noticing, but it just makes them think even more highly of you. :-)
The OED defines "shat" as "an obsolete term of endearment used in addressing an Irish person", and gives the example "Come hither shat, are you an Irish mon?"
Maybe it's just me, but I don't really find it all that endearing...
I often greet people with "Hi there!", and recently I started wondering why I do this. The word "there" seems to be utterly meaningless in this context, and if it's meaningless, why do I bother to say it? Why not just say "Hi!", and thereby save some time and some breath?
One piece of the answer, I think, is that "hi there!" is an accepted English idiom -- but this only explains why I'm able to use the phrase. It doesn't explain why I choose to use the phrase.
I think the other piece of the answer is that the most important part of my salutation is not the denotation of the words, but rather the tone of voice in which I say them. If I'm greeting you, I want you to know that I'm happy to see you, and the best way for me to do that is to speak in a cheerful tone. Now, if I only speak one syllable ("Hi!"), it might be hard for you to properly read my tone. By doubling the number of syllables, I'm doubling the time you have in which to correctly read my tone, and thereby interpret that I'm happy to see you.
If I'm right, this might also explain other pleasantries. Consider this scripted exchange:
A: Hi there! How are you doing?
B: Pretty good, thanks. How are you doing?
A: I'm doing well, thanks.
When two people engage in this particular exchange, they're not really asking each other how they're doing. You know this implicitly, and so you know not to answer the question "How are you doing?" by describing your woes to the other person. You're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to reply with the next line in the script.
My idea is that the point of this whole exercise is to give the people plenty of syllables to speak, so they can pronounce these syllables in a certain tone of voice and thereby communicate the actual message.
The actual message? In most cases, I think it's something like this:
"I am a human being. I see you and recognize you as a fellow human being, and I welcome you."
When you think about it that way, it makes those boring pleasantries seem rather heartwarming...
Wordnik asks me "Were you looking for for god's sake do Set the piano on FIRE?". I love you, Wordnik, but I will not commit arson for you, no matter what you suggest.
Okay, that makes sense. The two words are pronounced differently after all. Whew!
But this raises a new question. Why are the two words pronounced differently? That is, why does the s in flyswatter not shorten the preceding vowel in the same way that the s in icewater does?
Does this word rhyme with icewater? On paper, , it seems as if it should -- they both end in aɪswɔːɾər -- but I just can't agree. There's something unrhymable about these two words.
I think it has something to do with the location of the s. In "icewater", the s is the coda of the first syllable. In "flyswatter", the s is part of the onset of the second syllable.
But should that really make a difference? If I spoke these two words to someone who'd never heard them before, and didn't know what the words mean or how they're spelled, that person would have no idea whether the s belongs to the first syllable or the second syllable.
This implies, in turn, that rhyming can sometimes depend on the etymology of words, and that conclusion freaks me out.
I was reminded of this list today when I stumbled upon a description of "creative onomatopoeia" in a novel I'm reading. I've reproduced the relevant passage here:
Glint, glisten, glitter, gleam...
Tiffany thought a lot about words, in the long hours of churning butter. Onomatopoeic, she'd discovered in the dictionary, meant words that sounded like the noise of the thing they were describing, like cuckoo. But she thought there should be a word meaning a word that sounds like the noise a thing would make if that thing made a noise even though, actually, it doesn't, but would if it did.
Glint, for example. If light made a noise as it reflected off a distant window, it'd go glint! And the light of tinsel, all those little glints chiming together, woudl make a noise like glitterglitter. Gleam was a clean, smooth noise from a surface that intended to shine all day. And glisten was the soft, almost greasy sound of something rich and oily.
The apostrophe, which represents a glottal stop, is often omitted. I've always figured that that's because English speakers don't really have a concept of a glottal stop, so they overlook it and leave it out.
But maybe that's an insufficient explanation. Sure, English doesn't have glottal stops, but English also doesn't have the vowel combination /aɪiː/ ("ai-ee") and yet most Americans don't have any trouble pronouncing /həˈwaɪiː/ ("huh-wai-ee").
If both of these sounds, the glottal stop and the vowel combination, are absent in English, why do English speakers spurn the one and embrace the other?
Yarb -- sledging and dodging are interesting cases, but I think they belong on their own list. I'm looking for both /g/ and /dʒ/. /ŋ/ is interesting, but it doesn't fit the pattern.
The linguistic feature of British English that allows British football commentators to say things like "Germany are a major threat" and "England are rubbish". Wikipedia has a good explanation of this phenomenon.
Julia Gillard just became the first female Prime Minister of Australia, and in doing so, raised several important questions, such as "Why is her last name pronounced like that?".
From the spelling, and allowing for the non-rhoticity of Australian English, I expected something like 'gɪləd. Turns out it's actually closer to gɪlaːd, with equal weight given to both syllables. Weren't expecting that, were you?
Apparently, her family are Welsh immigrants, which might explain it. (Or maybe not. I don't actually know anything about Welsh accents.)
The standard pronunciation 'round these parts is wɪkə'pidiə (WICK-uh-PEE-dee-uh), but every so often I hear someone pronounce it wɪki'pidiə (WICK-ee-PEE-dee-uh), as in this video. I find this second pronunciation jarring, and eerily disturbing. Am I overreacting?
The letters A, I, L, and R can form six different words: aril, lair, liar, lira, rail, and rial. Are there any other sets of four letters that have this property?
American radio host Garrison Keillor did a version of this song with Americanized lyrics, which you can read here. It's okay, but I much prefer the original version of the song -- like plethora, I get tears and tingles when I hear it.
Well, I'll just chime in with a fourth meaning for this idiom. I've heard this phrase used to refer to any situation in which an individual is unfazed by some unpleasant turn of events. You could say, for instance, "Hubert is such a cheerful fellow that when we told him his Ming vase had been crushed by a falling anvil, the bad news just rolled off him like water off a duck's back."
Milos's meaning is one particular case of this larger meaning, the case in which the unpleasantry happens to be an insult.
I'm with reesetee and dontcry. Cilantro is a soapy disaster in any dish.
This fascinating NYTimes article gives two possible answers to the mystery of cilantrophobia. It might be genetic, or it might just be a question of what we're accustomed too.
I get Errata (the Wordie blog) and the Wordnik blog, both by RSS. Lately they've been mirroring each other, so if you're just getting the Wordnik blog, dontcry, you probably haven't missed much.
I like the sound of this, and it inspires me to coin a new word. "Eminym" shall hereafter mean one's "rapper name".
For example: "Hakeem Seriki's eminym is Chamillionaire. Cordozar Broadus's eminym is Snoop Dogg. Curtis Jackson's eminym is 50 Cent. Marshall Mathers's eminym..." and so on.
This survey actually taught me something, by dint of making me think. It asked me "How can we improve Wordnik to better meet your needs", and I was about to reply "Add a thesaurus!", but then I thought "No, wait, I'd better check to see whether Wordnik already has a thesaurus." And wouldn't you know it, it does! I just hadn't spotted it before. (It's under "Related", up top.)
I used to scoff at Pi Approximation Day. "Twenty-two sevenths?", I'd laugh, while twirling my mustache. "Don't make me laugh!"
It has since been pointed out to me, though, that "3.14", without any subsequent digits, is actually farther from the true value of pi than 22/7 is. This means that we are the approximators, and you guys who celebrate in July are much closer to the Platonic form of pi.
On Pi Day I stumbled across Pilish, which is a kind of constrained writing for poetry. In a Pilish poem, the number of letters in each successive word matches the successive digits of pi. For example:
Now I fall, a tired suburbian in liquid under the trees,
Drifting alongside forests simmering red in the twilight over Europe.
Indeed, I am the rightful owner of the letter P, and am entitled to royalties any time it gets used. (See p, and dog's letter, and remember that I will waive all royalties in perpetuity if presented with a rigorous example of sillypoetry.)
However, it's come to my attention that my ownership rights stemmed from my use of Wordie Pro, and Wordie no longer exists. Therefore, it seems my beloved letter is caught in legal limbo. Until such time as Wordnik Pro is released, I shall have to endure rampant, unregulated use of the letter P.
What is this world coming to, may I ask, when anyone can use any letter of the alphabet whenever they like, for free?
There's been a lot of bad news coming out of Chile this past week. I keep hearing radio news reports about the earthquake, and I know that when I hear one of these reports, I ought to focus on the tragedy and what I can do to help. Instead, my logophile mind focuses on the word "Chile" -- has anyone else noticed that this word is behaving strangely in the mouths of newscasters?
Most Americans, I think, pronounce it "chilly" (/tʃɪli/). From what I know of Spanish, the local pronunciation is probably closer to "chee-leh" (/tʃile/). I would expect an American newscaster to either use the American pronunciation or an American approximation of the Chilean pronunciation ("chee-lay", /tʃileɪ/, which is what I use).
Instead, every newscaster I've heard has pronounced it "chillay" (/tʃɪleɪ/). Isn't that weird? Why would the first syllable be American and the second syllable Chilean? To my ear, "chillay" is an awkward amalgam, and I cannot fathom why anyone, especially a newscaster, would use it.
Hmm... if the bright blue is determined by our browser defaults, perhaps we could just change our own browser settings? Seems simpler than asking John to fiddle with the site again.
Here's the meaning I've inferred: when you "glomp" someone, you're giving them a sudden surprise hug, and the hug is so enthusiastic that it risks knocking them over.
While aggressive hugs are nothing new (in Real Life or in media) the use of the term "Glomp" to describe them appears to have stemmed from its use as a sound effect in manga translations by Viz Media. (One folk etymology asserts that it stands for "Grab, Latch On, Maintain Pressure" but that is probably a backronym applied to the word after it became popular.) The word itself appears to be a mutation of the established English word "glom" which means "to grab; to latch on" (as found in the words "agglomeration" and "conglomerate") with a final "p" sound added to give it more of a sense of definite action. Can function as an onomatopoeia.
Negasonic Teenage Warhead (real name Ellie Phimister) is a fictional mutant character in the Marvel Comics universe who first appeared in New X-Men vol. 1 #115 (2001). She was a student of Emma Frost... The 1995 Dopes to Infinity album by Monster Magnet contains a song called "Negasonic Teenage Warhead", presumably the source of her name.
I'm a big X-Men fan, and I remember this character from the comics. The in-universe explanation for her weird name was that she'd chosen it herself, which actually makes a lot of sense.
A Narm is a moment that is supposed to be serious, but due to either over-sappiness, poor execution, excessive melodrama, or the sheer absurdity of the situation, the drama is lost to the point of becoming unintentionally funny. It can be extremely subjective.
It is named for the famous scene in the last season of Six Feet Under, where the main character Nate suffers a brain embolism. He suddenly grabs his right arm and repeats "Numb arm!", but it quickly becomes "N'arm! N'arm!" Despite being the climax of one of the best shows HBO has ever created, the scene was overwhelmingly found by fans and reviewers to be funny rather than sad.
Were you to discuss this phenomenon in a scholarly work or literary circles, the word you would probably use is "bathos." Though all the implications of the technical term do not match up exactly, it's a fairly good fit.
What is glurge? Think of it as chicken soup with several cups of sugar mixed in: It's supposed to be a method of delivering a remedy for what ails you by adding sweetening to make the cure more appealing, but the result is more often a sickly-sweet concoction that induces hyperglycemic fits.
In ordinary language, glurge is the sending of inspirational (and supposedly "true") tales, ones that often conceal much darker meanings than the uplifting moral lessons they purport to offer or undermine their messages by fabricating and distorting historical fact in the guise of offering a "true story."
Many of us, it seems, cannot overcome the urge to glurge.
Possibly a contraction of "squeamish" and "ick!" A negative emotional response, more specifically a disturbed or disgusted one. As in: "The relationship between Cordelia and Connor in Angel Season Four gave me a case of the squicks."
I just created a list called "Ends with C or K but not '-ic' or '-ck'", and then I realized I'd cast my net too wide, so I renamed it "Ends with C but not with '-ic'". The change of title worked fine, but, as you can see, the URL didn't change to match the new title.
Is this a feature, or a bug? Either way, it's not really a big deal, but I thought you should know.
I've read that Twitter's user demographics tilt heavily toward Generation X. The youth of the world (Millennials and younger) just don't tweet very much.
Ruzuzu, on a triple word score, would be worth 42 points. This means that she herself is a thing of rare beauty. It also means that she'll have trouble building up momentum.
How am I with thankyou and tanker? The answer is that I pronounce them both with an /æŋk/ in the middle, and I find the alternative (/ænk/) virtually unthinkable.
I do pronounce "Van Gogh" with a front-of-the-mouth /n/, but only because it's two words. I'm sure that if it were just one word ("Vangogh"), it would, but for the stressed syllable, rhyme with mango.
The philosophy of vancouverism intrigues me, not only for its panvocality but also for the insouciant Pacific lifestyle that it engenders. What are the tenets of vancouverism?
With the Winter Olympics going on, this word has been in the news a lot, and I'm hearing it pronounced two different ways: /vænˈkuːvəɹ/ and /væŋˈkuːvəɹ/. The former, with a front-of-the-mouth "n", is favored by Wikipedia and most of the TV commentators, but it doesn't sound quite right to me. I keep wanting to pronounce it in the latter way, with the back-of-the-mouth "ng", to make a smoother transition to the "k" that follows it.
I really want to know how the locals pronounce it, and I'm hoping our resident Vancouverian (Vancouverite? Vancouverer? Vancouverista?) can enlighten us...
Semantically speaking, this song is actually about the person in the lyrics (whoever that is). So, they may be vain, but they're not wrong -- the song is about them.
Why, then, does the singer cast such scorn on this idea, which she secretly knows to be true?
Hey, I just came across this phrase yesterday! It's from The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger, isn't it?
I remember reading the phrase and then thinking "What, exactly, are 'Biblical proportions'? Most Bibles are about seven or eight inches long, aren't they?"
So, this word can refer to people, not just to food? Huh. This comes as a surprise to my American ears. It sounds funny to talk about a "ginger" person.
Also, can someone please explain to me whether "ginger", in this sense, is pejorative?
Because I am not merely a gentleman, but also a pedant, I must point out that the phrase "icy vacuum of outer space" is just poetic license. A vacuum cannot be cold, any more than it can be hot, because heat is a property of matter, and a vacuum contains no matter (well, virtually no matter, anyway).
As for the aesthetic qualities of my underthings, well, a reptile's got to have some secrets, hasn't he?
Oh deary me. Well, I am in a bit of a pickle now, aren't I? The secret is out. However shall I live this down?
No, the truth is, the embarrassing antics described therein were perpetrated by one of my disreputable cousins. Personally, I strive to be a more civilized specimen of the order Pterosauria. While I do indulge in the occasional interspecies affaire d'amour, I always adhere strictly to the rules of gentlemanly conduct, such as removing my hat in the presence of ladies, laying down my jacket across any muddy patches in a lady's path, and never subjecting a lady to the icy vacuum of outer space.
I was curious about M-W's claim to have dated this word to 1948, so I got a second opinion from the OED. The OED says the same thing, it turns out, and goes into further detail:
1948 in Partridge Dict. Forces' Slang. 1962 W. GRANVILLE Dict. Sailors' Slang 53/2 Ginormous, acronymous adjective descriptive of something really impressive: a brush with the enemy; a raid upon the enemy's shipping or coastline, or merely a particularly ‘heavy’ party in the mess.
Oooh, a heavy party in the mess -- sounds like a good time!
Thanks, telofy. I'd love to add it, but my computer is showing this as a closed list. Perhaps you could open it up? (Or, just add alopecanthropy on my behalf?)
This word embarrasses me. I associate it with the failure of my own willpower. I feel guilty when I hear it.
An explanation: As you probably know, the word lie, as in "I lie on the bed/I lay on the bed/I had lain on the bed", is dying out. Its duties have been mostly taken up by lay, a word that used to be transitive only ("I lay the pillow on the bed/I laid the pillow on the bed/I had laid the pillow on the bed"), but now is used intransitively ("I lay on the bed/I laid on the bed/I had laid on the bed".)
For a while, I fought to keep lie alive. I'd make snarky comments to my friends, things like "You can't 'lay' on the bed unless you're a chicken", and then when they gave me the inevitable confused look, I'd launch into a sermon about the glories of the lie/lay distinction. It never really worked, and I was beginning to despair, and then...
...then I asked myself "Why are we preserving this stupid distinction, anyway?" Plenty of verbs work do double-duty as transitive and intransitive verbs, and they all work perfectly well. Why fight this one? Let it take over. Let lie die out. And as a bonus, if lie does die out, it would (1) eliminate confusion with the homonym "lie", meaning "to knowingly give false information", and (2) help reduce the number of irregular verbs in English. Surely that's a noble cause.
So now the conclusion I've reached, and my official position if anyone asks, is that we should use "lay" for both transitive and intransitive purposes, and that "lie" should die a speedy death.
And yet... despite all this thought and effort and determination... I can't bring myself to do it. Apparently, there's a prescriptivist demon deep inside of me, forcing me to abide by the "formal rules" of English. My "lays" and "lies" still drop precisely into place, to match the transitivity of what I'm saying, and I don't know how to make it stop.
One of my coworkers used this word a few days ago, as a past participle of "make". It's a perfectly reasonable construction, I think -- it fits the pattern established by taken and shaken -- but still, I was quite surprised to hear it, especially from a person with a very "professional" dialect.
Just stumbled across the word "alopecanthropy" today -- apparently, it's the technical name for the condition of being a werefox (by analogy with "lycanthropy", the condition of being a werewolf.) My best guess at the pronunciation is 'æləpə'kænθɹəpi, which makes it a good candidate for this list.
So there I was, reading an excellent article in the New York Times, and I thought to myself "pterodactyl, you need to take these words, which already feel quite Wordnik-y, and transfer them over to a proper Wordnik list". And I was all excited at the prospect of introducing this lovely article to my Wordnik friends. And then, belatedly, I noticed the byline...
I doff my cap in gratitude, good sir, to you and to your co-author. And I won't transfer your words to Wordnik -- that honor should be yours and yours alone. :-)
It's worth mentioning that the original song, as it appeared in "Meet Me In St. Louis", was a wistful, melancholy piece. The lyrics we sing today are rather cheerier than the lyrics that Judy Garland sang (as you can hear for yourself). I suspect that the reason why the phrase "merry little Christmas" sounds so dismissive is that it's a remnant of the original cynical lyrics.
This article is fascinating, and definitely worth a read.
Hi jennarenn! This topic is dear to my heart. Thanks for bringing it up!
As I'm sure you know, rewards and punishments constitute "extrinsic motivation". My two cents about extrinsic motivation is that people tend to appreciate its (very real) benefits without appreciating its (very real) dangers.
Extrinsic motivation is an excellent method for getting people to do things that you want them to do. For example, if you want a child to read books, give them a gold star for every book they read. It will work -- the kids will read more books to get more stars.
But extrinsic motivation kills the natural intrinsic motivation, so if the extrinsic motivation ceases, you're left with no motivation at all. For example, if your kids have been reading books in order to get gold stars, then they'll forget about the intrinsic appeal of books, and then once summer vacation (or graduation) rolls around, they'll stop reading.
Now, I don't think we should stop using extrinsic motivators altogether, but I do think we should use them sparingly, especially with young kids. Instead, we ought to be finding and supporting the intrinsic motivations that the kids already have.
"I had been trying to figure out how the strawberries got there after my frequent blackouts, and this book answered that question for me AND told me where to hide the bodies. Thanks Vanessa!
It would have been a five star rating, but it fails to explain the smell of brimstone whenever I open this book, or the man in clown makeup tied up in my basement. (Was the makeup there before I tied him up, or did I apply it? This question keeps me up at night) Still: if you have similar problems, this book is for you."
I'm sorry, I've hosted monsters before, and I just can't recommend it. The last time I hosted a monster, it crushed my guest bed, tracked ichor across my carpets, clogged the shower drain with its beastly fur, and repeatedly left the lid off of the jam jar.
According to this page from the ever-helpful TVTropes.org, this phrase comes from US car ads in the 70s and 80s. It indicates that "...the customer might not get as much fuel efficiency as the ad claimed. The phrase has since been adopted to mean 'you may not get the same thing out of this as me'. The kids' show Beakman's World made the actual phrase into a mini-Catch Phrase as well."
New... a juicy tell-all behind-the-scenes memoir! Relive the heady days of the first Miss Wordie pageant! The lists! The tags! The swimsuit competition! Available now at a bookstore near you!
Don't fret, Wordie PRO users! At least one Wordie PRO feature has successfully transferred over to Wordnik. Those of you who prefer an automatically cute Wordnik can try your free sample here.
I know you guys are swamped with stuff to do, but I want to add something else to your to-do list. Could we please have the personal "Recent Activity" feature back? On Wordie Emeritus, I used that feature to keep track of my recent comments, so I knew which threads I should be watching. Also I used other people's Recent Activity to stalk them. I would love to see this feature imported to Wordnik!
Well, gee, guys, I'm sorry to hear you're feeling down about Wordnik. Personally, I'm feeling great about it, despite the rough transition. I think we're in a great situation here, for two reasons:
1. As John said, even though Wordnik has an overarching goal, the culture and spirit of it are up to us. In fact, pretty much everything about it is up to us.
2. The Wordnik team have proven that they're willing to work their tails off to accommodate our requests. If there's something you don't like about Wordnik, all you have to do is mention it and it gets changed.
I agree with P_ that patience is the way to go (patience and constructive feedback, that is). In the meantime, I think I'll go joyriding with uselessness as he swerves around those potholes... it looks like fun!
One of my teachers at the university used this word in an assignment description. I'm not sure how I should feel about this. On the one hand, it's either an awkward coinage or an error, but on the other hand, it does include the sequence "pthly", which I can't help but respect.
Hey, Wordniks -- how do you pronounce this word? Is it just beau + regard? If so, then don't you think it's weird that the first vowel sound is not the same as in "bore", "core", "door", and so on? Frankly, I can't think of any other word in which this particular vowel comes directly before an R. Can you?
I agree with Prolagus -- I miss the one-entry-per-thread layout of the "active threads" page, and I'd love to see the Zeitgeist page adopt the same layout.
(Incidentally, this is my first comment on Wordnik. Hi everyone!)
Oh my stars and garters... this phrase (in CAPITAL LETTERS!) is the title of a book. A real book! And you absolutely must read its reviews on Amazon.
"I had hoped this would have advise for handling situations where one finds strawberries on various parts of their anatomy. I've had strawberries on my buttocks for some time now and don't know what to do. Unfortunately this book focuses solely on the nipples. Hopefully the author will pen a followup."
A European explorer is on safari in deepest Africa, and one night, he hears the sound of drumming off in the distance. "What does the drumming mean?", he asks his native guide. The guide says "It means that the natives are restless."
The next night, they hear the drumming again. It's louder, and closer. Fearfully, the explorer asks again "What does the drumming mean?", and again, the guide replies "It mean that the natives are restless."
The third night, the drumming is even louder and closer, and the explorer, now shaking in his boots, asks a third time "What does the drumming mean?". Again the guide replies "It means that the natives are restless."
"But WHY?!", screams the explorer. "Why are the natives so restless?!"
"Because," the guide says, "they can't stand all this drumming."
Oh, now I understand! Theta doesn't represent /θ/, it represents an aspirated /t/... so the "Th" in "Thomas" also represents an aspirated /t/... but English doesn't distinguish between aspirated and non-aspirated consonants, so we pronounce it with a standard English /t/ (which probably gets aspirated anyway, because it's word-initial).
Huh, good point. I always interpreted the "h" in "Thomas" as a silent letter, which doesn't represent any phoneme in the word, but it could very well be part of a digraph representing /t/. I suppose that, to resolve this question, we'd have to go into the name's etymology.
Let me just take a moment to express my love for Wordnik's new Zeitgeist page, especially the tagline. "Watch your language." It's brilliant, and elegant. Thank you, John!
Mollusque, I doff my cap to you, and bow to your prowess with words. How lovely it is to have you on Wordie!
Bilby, I'm pretty sure that abscondent is French, not English, which means that you get double bonus points for (a) noticing that I forgot to specify English, and (b) using this loophole to add a ten-letter word. Well done!
Has anyone else noticed that "encourage" has lost the meaning of "give courage to" and is now just a synonym for "urge"? I don't understand this trend. Why change the meaning of "encourage", thus losing the original utility of the word, just to create a cumbersome synonym (two extra syllables!) for a word that's perfectly fine on its own?
What exactly does it mean to bust a gut? After you bust a gut, are you then down a gut, like a hockey team might be "down a man"? Must you then carry on with your remaining unbusted guts?
For too long I have been treading gingerly through life, eschewing any risk for fear that I might somehow err. Well, no longer. Thanks to telofy and Wordie PRO!, I now have license to err. That's right, boys and girls -- if I screw up now, no big deal! I just laugh about it and get on with my life.
Well, I guess it depends on your dialect, Milos. Personally, I have a schwa for the "o" in "encyclopedic", but if you don't, I'll cheerfully add it to the list.
John just plugged this list on Twitter (thanks John! I like it too!), so I'm going to return the favor. If you guys aren't following Wordie on Twitter, you should be. It's like John's panning for gold in our stream of consciousness. :-)
This story falls into the category of Horrifying But True: today at work I heard a customer call her young daughter "Lucifer". I remember it with dreadful clarity. It wasn't Lucy. It wasn't Jennifer. It was Lucifer.
I searched the customer's face for any sign that it might be a joke, or a slip of the tongue, but no -- she was totally deadpan, and the daughter didn't seem at all surprised. I'm forced to conclude, against my will, that the girl's name was actually "Lucifer".
When my friends and I formed an a cappella group, I wanted to call us either "The Smithereens" or "Tequila Mockingbird", but then I found out that both of those bands already exist. (Darn.) Our little singing group eventually settled on "The Doomed Petunias", in reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
As much as I love this list, I can't seem to find a good title for it. Currently it's called "Alternative Names for Baby Girls", which, while descriptive, is hopelessly bland.
My two cents, John, is that your idea is perfect. A zeitgeist page, where we can go for the full firehose of current activity, would fit the bill nicely.
In upstate New York, highway names in Buffalo take "the" (as in "Take the one-ninety to get to the falls") but not in Rochester ("Take five-ninety to get to the lake"). I'd always wondered about that, and now Milos has provided a possible solution -- maybe Buffalo's aberration is the result of its proximity to Canada...
Oh my gourd... that's really, actually ERIN MCKEAN. Here! On our page! The only person, other than Nancy Pearl, who I want an action figure of!
I am starstruck. I am weak at the knees. You could knock me over with a, a, one of those long fluttery things that grow on birds. Thingies. Feathers! Yes!
From skipvia and reesetee: Make sure that Wordnik allows fart jokes.
From yarb... well, I'll just quote him: "What makes wordie fun is having the majority of the 'homepage' devoted to comments, and the rest to other recent activity. Commenting and perpetual motion is the lifeblood of it - you've got to keep that interface as the default, not just tuck it away as an option."
No suggestions yet? Come now, good Wordies. Surely we have some suggestions for this new Wordnikie venture. We can't all be suffering from some kind of Wordnikie's aphasia.
Oh, John, I'm so happy for you! Congratulations! I can't wait to see what you and the Wordnik people cook up. :-)
Now, a question: How involved would you like us regulars to be in this process? Are you looking for suggestions from us? If so, we might want to start a Wordnikie Suggestion Box, just to keep all our suggestions in one place.
That's my tag, and I'm sticking to it. Golf and wolf don't rhyme, and Rolf doesn't count, because... because it doesn't have a flag. No flag, no rhymic recognition. You can't have it! That's the rule that I've just made up. And I'm backing it up with this gun that was lent from the National Rifle Association...
When I spoke of country names allowing citizens to hold up their heads with pride, it was mostly a rhetorical flourish that came upon me in the heat of my passion, like an attack of the vapours. Of course one can take pride in the phrase "United States of America" -- it is, as you say, a good expression of our national ideals.
However, this lovely phrase is not suited to be a name, in much the same way that a lovely humuhumunukunukuapua'a is not suited to play the alpenhorn. In order to play the alpenhorn, you need to have certain attributes, such as alpenlegs, alpenarms, and a good alpenpucker. Even a very gifted humuhumunukunukuapua'a will not have these things. Far better to leave the poor little fish in the water, don't you think? And remove that tiny lederhosen, too. It's not at all fetching.
When something needs to be referred to frequently and unambiguously, we give it a name. (For example, this is why we name hurricanes. We're not being cutesy, we just need a fast and accurate way to distinguish them from each other.) In order to be a good name, a word or phrase must have certain attributes. It should be should be fairly short, and it should be a proper noun. A descriptive phrase, even an excellent descriptive phrase like "The United States of America", will not have these things.
If we grant that the states are, in fact, united, what are they united into? When the Constructicons united, they formed Devastator, a single unified entity. Clearly, the same is true of the United States. We've created a single big something out of many little somethings. And, this something needs to be referred to frequently and unambiguously. In short, it needs a name.
Oh, lordy. I love my country, but I really, really hate its name.
Imagine a nice young couple who get married and start a family. These doting parents love their children, so they name them "Girl #1", "Girl #2", and "Boy #1".
Wait, what?! These aren't names, they're descriptions! Those poor kids deserve more than descriptions -- they deserve names. Same goes for countries. Citizens ought to be able to hold up their heads with pride and say "I come from X", where X is a NAME of a PLACE, like "Canada" or "Hungary", or "Kyrgyzstan".
And then there's us. You know those states? In North America? How they're all united and everything? Yeah, them. Well, we don't have a name for them, so let's just call them the "united states" of America.
Gosh darn it. We are going to BEAT this! And in the meantime, if you're looking for us, we'll be over in the corner, commiserating with the United Arab Emirates and the Central African Republic.
Oh, you should totally follow that link. It includes such gems as this:
“I am not attempting this record for the money,�? he said before his quest. “It is enough for me to know that I can inspire an entire generation of young people, mostly boys, to grow long body hairs and achieve their own dreams.�?
Afterwards, Williams posed proudly.
“This is more or less the most attention my nipple has ever received,�? he noted.
Bilbo is fine, but I have problems with the other two. "Charo" is not her first name, so we can't say she's "commonly known by her first name". And while "Socrates" is technically the man's first (and last) name, the fact that we call him "Socrates" is neither interesting nor surprising. (What else would we call him?)
As I originally conceived it, the list was restricted to real people, but I hereby cheerfully open it up to fictional people, because why should real people have all the fun?
Hi, SoSheShall -- you can view the list in alphabetical order, if you want. The sorting options are at the top of the page, just to the right of "comment feed" and "cloud". Just click on the little arrows next to "alpha".
This list will prove useful the next time I chat up an end table.
"Ah, my dear, your design is sophisticated and elegant. I hope you don't think me too forward, but I must ask -- are you a fusion of classic and modern styles?"
I was just about to leave a comment on this page, involving a lame pun on the coincidental similarity between the name "Oliver Heaviside" and the "Heaviside Layer" (from the musical Cats), but first I googled "Heaviside Layer", and discovered, to my shock and delight, that there actually is a Heaviside Layer. It's part of Earth's ionosphere, and it was named after our man Oliver. T.S. Eliot just borrowed the term to describe his mystical feline heaven.
Wikipedia also gives the following interesting information (without any citations to support it):
"In later years... Heaviside would sign letters with the initials "W.O.R.M." after his name though the letters did not stand for anything. Heaviside also reportedly started painting his fingernails pink and had granite blocks moved into his house for furniture."
Regarding the relationship of brevity and wit: Contrast the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest to the Lyttle Lytton, and tell me which tickles your personal funny bone the most...
Teeth is indeed an excellent page, but it's also quite long, and this list is made up mostly of short little gems that I've found (including you don't beep at a polar bear match, which is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE WORDIE PAGE EVER). Brevity is, for me, the soul of wit.
By the way, does anyone have any idea what "hot the bottle" refers to? Apparently it's a typo of yarb's, but I have no idea where this typo originally appeared.
Regarding dontcry's question about New Zealand: There is a Zealand (in Denmark), but it's not the source of the name "New Zealand". That honor goes to a province in the Netherlands.
There's something strange and troubling about this word. In modern usage, "purpose" is a noun, and yet it take affixes as if it were some other part of speech.
Example 1: "Purposely". The suffix "-ly" is supposed to take an adjective and turn it into an adverb. But "purpose" is not an adjective.
Example 2: "Repurpose". The prefix "re-" is supposed to take a verb and turn it into another verb. But "purpose" is not a verb.
This is really creepy. "Purpose" is some kind of uncanny monster. I'm getting the cold shivers just thinking about it.
Me, I use "you guys". I used to think it was sexist, but I've come to the conclusion that, in this particular phrase, "guys" is gender-neutral. I use "you guys" even when everyone I'm referring to is female, and I've seen women do the same thing.
I think the phrase has become gender-neutral out of necessity; we needed a plural "you", and "you guys" was just too convenient.
Bear in mind, folks, that "birdo" is not pronounced "bird-oh", but rather "BEERrdo". In Esperanto, i sounds like "ee", r is slightly trilled, and o is short, without any trace of a w at the end.
Perhaps the person who uses this phrase is using Michael Pollan's definition of "food":
"...You’re much better off eating whole fresh foods than processed food products. That’s what I mean by the recommendation to eat “food.�? Once, food was all you could eat, but today there are lots of other edible foodlike substances in the supermarket. These novel products of food science often come in packages festooned with health claims, which brings me to a related rule of thumb: if you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a good indication that it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat."
-- "Unhappy Meals", as published in the New York Times.
Using this definition of "food", the phrase "food advocate" makes sense (it has roughly the meaning that chained_bear gave, below). The problems start, though, when you assume that your listeners are using the same definition of "food" that you are.
Plenty of info about this issue at these pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Reading this new info, I'm surprised to learn that Armstrong came up with the line himself, and that he did so only a few hours before he spoke it. I'd always assumed that the historic line was planned well in advance by NASA.
Holy flapjacks, yarb -- that's brilliant! I think we should immediately begin building beacons. Also, I think the beacon-builders should be given bacon, so that they may breakfast beside their beacons.
Also, you've just given me an idea for a new list. :-)
Chained_bear, I love that you included the missing "a". You know, the sentence makes no sense without it, but yet most people don't even notice that it's missing. I guess we're just so used to hearing it without the "a" that we've gotten used to the awkward construction.
I know it's all Neil Armstrong's fault for flubbing his line, but I don't blame him. He was understandably distracted at the time. :-)
Hi c_b! My concept for this list is very broad, and also rather vague, so feel free to include both of your examples.
I guess the only thing I don't want to see is quotations that happened to have been transmitted, but aren't really "messages". Everything's transmitted these days, so including them all would flood the list with every famous line since the start of the Information Age. So, for example, you can't add "Ask not what your country would do for you, ask what you can do for your country", even though it was certainly transmitted. It's a quotation, not a message.
"'England expects that every man will do his duty' was a signal sent by Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson from his flagship HMS Victory as the Battle of Trafalgar was about to commence on 21 October 1805..."
I saw this word in a newspaper article today. I presume it means something like "the political philosophy of Barack Obama", but it's not the meaning that interests me, it's the construction of the word.
Adding the suffix "ism" to a word that ends in a vowel, such as "Obama", seems intuitively wrong. I'd definitely prefer "Obamism", or possibly "Obamatism". I'm not sure why I feel this way, but I suspect it has something to do with the way English handles adjacent vowels.
I want to second Prolagus's thanks for the "Most active threads" page, and I also want to thank John (again) for the "Most commmented on" section on the front page. Between those two features, I'm actually able to keep a handle on the great roiling mass that is Wordie.
(Also I really like the idea of a quick and easy way to make links to people's profiles. It'd be nice to not have to type out the HTML tags and URL every time!)
My favorite feature of Wordie PRO is the way it automatically cutifies all the words, by displaying each one as the caption to a random picture of a cat.
I'll add my vote to the growing North American consensus -- here in upstate New York, "Geezer" refers to someone who's really, really old. The word is informal, comical, and slightly pejorative.
I keep saying "neurotic" over and over again, trying to figure out what vowel I have for the first syllable. The problem is that the vowel is colored by the r that follows it. It could be a schwa, but honestly, I can't really tell.
Perhaps I should stop repeating "neurotic" to myself. I don't want the other people in this computer lab to worry...
It occurs to me, mollusque, that I surrounded my IPA transcription with slash marks (/), which refer to phonemes. This was a mistake. I was actually talking about phones, so I should have used square brackets, like this: dɪsən'hɪbəɾɪŋ.
As far as phonemes go, well, you're right. I only have ɪ's for you.
Thank you all for your effusive response! I love you guys. :-)
That said, I must note that most of your submissions do, in fact, have schwas, at least in my dialect. Per my own rules, I'll still add them if you can give me an example of a dialect that pronounces them without schwas.
In the meantime, special gold stars go to yarb and sionnach for "judaize" and "grotesquely", both of which fit the bill nicely.
VHEMT's website offers lots of interesting information, including the pronunciation of the acronym ("vehement") and their official slogan ("May we live long and die out.")
Comments by pterodactyl
Show previous 200 comments...
pterodactyl commented on the word chaparral
Here, ruzuzu, try this link. I guarantee you will never hear the word "chaparral" the same way again. :-)
March 19, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word crokinole
"Royalty, lord it looked good on me / Buried in silk in the royal boudoir or going nuclear free / Or playing crokinole with the Princess of Monaco / Telling my jokes to the OPEC leaders, getting it all on video"
-- "King of Spain", by Moxy Früvous
March 19, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word crudité
"All alone by the table of food in my wrinkled suit and my borrowed tie / Only thinking of something to say in the moment after the girl walks by / Everyone else is having fun or else pretending to/ I eat another crudité..."
-- "Big Bad World One", by Jonathan Coulton
March 19, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word dr
Many years ago, I noticed that I pronounced "dr" (dɹ) as "jr" (dʒɹ). For example, I pronounced "dream", "dribble", "drunk", and "drive" as if they were spelled "jream", "jribble", "jrunk", and "jrive".
I didn't like this. It seemed unnecessarily complicated. So, I stopped. Ever since then, I've pronounced "dr" as dɹ. I suppose I thought I was being terribly clever, and that everyone else was bound to admire me, and join me, and give me the keys to the city and a ticker-tape parade. What's actually happened is that no one's noticed I'm doing it. In that regard, it's rather like crossing my 7's. I've been crossing handwritten 7's since I was a small boy, and nobody seems to care one way or the the other.
Now, as I type this, I realize that my smug linguistic superiority has a crack in it. All these years, while I was scrupulously pronouncing "dr" as "dr", I blithely continued pronouncing "tr" as "chr" (tʃɹ, e.g. "chricycle", "chrilobyte", "The Chrubble with Chribbles"). It's the just the unvoiced version of the same thing, and for consistency's sake, ought to be handled the same way. I feel a bit foolish, and I'm not sure how to proceed. Should I extend my solitary crusade to "tr"? Should I revert to the common pronunciation for "dr"? Or should I just stop overthinking this?
March 18, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I'm in.
March 18, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word Zeitgeist
Hi jennarenn and frindley! Wonderful to see you again!
March 14, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the list that-could-have-gone-better
I've opened the list to everyone. Have fun!
(This is my new Wordnik philosophy: Open lists are more fun than closed lists. I intend to go through my old closed lists and open 'em up someday soon.)
March 12, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the list set-phasers-to
Eddie Izzard discussed this exact topic in one of his stand up shows. You can see it here, at the 6:36 mark.
March 12, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the list remarkable-wikipedia-categories
Have you guys seen the Wikipedia:Unusual articles page?
March 6, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word luncheon
I just read reesetee's sausage comment, over a year after he wrote it, and laughed so hard I nearly choked on my food. Note to self: lunching while reading Wordnik can be hazardous to your health!
March 5, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the user pterodactyl
Hi, hernesheir! Hope you're having a wonderful day!
March 5, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word BLT on a roll
I think "on a roll" is more standard. Compare "ham on rye", "beef on weck".
March 5, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word unch
Unch derives from the French l'uncheon, meaning "the elegant midday meal that is eaten on an unchecked tablecloth".
March 5, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word pain au chocolat
*leans away from the microphone, toward the chocolate pain, to breathe in the delicious aroma*
February 26, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word caramel
I was raised saying "car-mull", but at some point, I made a conscious decision to switch over to "care-a-mull". I figured, hey, if both pronunciations are acceptible, I may as well use the one I like better.
February 22, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word caramel apple
Also, see the pronunciation discussion on caramel.
February 22, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word caramel apple
I've heard of toffee apples, but like ruzuzu, I can't imagine what they'd be. I picture toffee as a hard, brittle substance, quite unlike the soft caramel of a caramel apple.
February 22, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word Zeitgeist
I think the change is for the best. I loved "Watch your language" (such a delicious double meaning), but "Community" seems a more accurate description of what we're doing. It'll be easier for newcomers to understand.
Plus, I feel like by calling us a community, the Wordnik admins are giving their blessing to our tomfoolery and in-jokes. I must admit that at times I've worried about that. I mean, here Erin and John and the rest are trying to build a functional website, and we're hanging around tossing fufluns at people. Can you imagine Erin having to explain to a venture capitalist what a "fuflun" is?
So, I feel relieved when I see the admins call us a "Community". It's like they're telling us that we have free license to be silly. :-)
February 20, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word airplane breakfast
I take umbrage at the imperative command on the pouch. It's so judgmental. "You," it says to me, "are a dirty, mangy, flea-ridden lout. You are unworthy to be in the presence of even this mediocre sandwich. Go! Refresh yourself! And do not return until you do!"
February 18, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word water fountain
*dons mask, snorkel, and swim fins, then "falls" into chocolate fountain*
February 18, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word water fountain
You don't need a good reason to fall into a chocolate fountain. You do, however, need a good reason to get out of one.
February 18, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word monocled raconteur
Brackets around "squinched", please. :-)
February 18, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word water fountain
I've clearly set off a bubbling storm of controversy with my question, so, in an effort to bring peace to all sides, I propose we coin a new phrase to refer to these devices. You know, something that everyone can agree on.
How about "aqueous refreshment dispenser"? This would allow us to say things like "I say, old fellow, can you direct me to the nearest aqueous refreshment dispenser?", a turn of phrase that fits well with the monocle and bowler hats that we're all wearing.
February 18, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the list 50-ways-to-leave-your-lover
Now a public list, because I ♥ public lists.
February 16, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word Sea mink
*groan*
February 16, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the list glossary-of-wordnikian
I see that fuflun is already listed, but I'm going to go ahead and add the plural form, because that's where all the fun is. (Also, because the more fufluns, the better.)
February 16, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word water fountain
Wordniks: Do you use "water fountain" or "drinking fountain" to refer to the machine that people drink from?
Yesterday someone asked me for directions to the "water fountain", and the phrase struck me as odd. Why do we specify that it's a "water" fountain? Do we need to differentiate it from fountains that dispense other substances?
Yes, that must be it. Next time someone asks me where the water fountain is, I'll say "It's over there, next to the chocolate fountain."
(...oh, I wish...)
February 15, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word phonestheme
Ooh, thanks, bilby, for discovering this word! I've just created a slew of phonestheme lists, and now I know what to call them!
January 30, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word afghanistani
That looks familiar -- was it the NPR Sunday Puzzle this week?
January 27, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word Numa Numa
A.k.a "Dragostea Din Tei". O-Zone's immortal tribute to the art of decorative landscaping.
"My, a hoe,
My, a ha-ha!"
January 27, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the list interjections-spelled-with-only-hs-and-vowels
The H is not compulsory. Run wild, you crazy kids.
January 18, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the list interjections-spelled-with-only-hs-and-vowels
Sure, Y is fine with me. I'd probably also accept W if you twisted my arm.
January 18, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the list breaking-free-from-i-before-e
Hi WDitot -- Thanks for your suggestion!
I did think about adding the second line of the mnemonic, but I decided against it. Here's why: I personally see that line as an unsuccessful attempt to patch up a fundamentally flawed rule. Yes, we could adhere to the full mnemonic and exclude the "sounded as A" words from this list, but that would barely make a dent in the list. There would still be hundreds of exceptions to the mnemonic rule, which is really the whole point of this list: I think the "I before E" rule is claptrap. Balderdash. Elegant folderol. I made this list in order to demonstrate how silly the rule is.
For a fun perspective on this issue, take a look at the video I linked to in my comment at the bottom of the page.
January 16, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word skirling
I've only ever heard this word used to describe the sound of bagpipes. Have any of you heard it used to describe something else?
January 10, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the list cities-and-towns-of-five-or-more-syllables
Ancient cities are A-OK.
January 9, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the list correctly-spelled-words-that-look-like-misspellings-of-other-words
Fantastic idea for a list! Favorited.
January 8, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the list here-i-dreamt-i-was-an-archetype
Thanks, folks! I'm glad you like the list. I've made it a public list, so feel free to contribute.
For more archetypes and tropes, see TVTropes.org.
January 6, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word WTF
Acronym Finder suggests several other things it might stand for, but I suspect that many of them were submitted facetiously.
January 5, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word launder
Wordniks: Do you speak of "laundering" your clothes, or "washing" your clothes?
January 4, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the word Rick Steves' Europe
The title of a TV show. I don't like it -- I feel that it ought to be "Rick Steves's Europe", with the extra S after the apostrophe. Isn't the terminal apostrophe supposed to be reserved for possessive plurals? And Mr. Steves, however voluminous he may be, is only one man.
January 3, 2011
pterodactyl commented on the user pterodactyl
Thanks, hernesheir! That's a beautiful discovery you've made. Now I can't help but wonder whether there are any collections of four letters that can form seven words...
December 27, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Dildo Key
This source suggests that it was named after the Dildo Cactus. This makes me wonder who named the cactus, and why.
December 23, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word meh
Thanks, you guys! And I think it's interesting that meh, feh, and bleh all have similar meanings.
December 18, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word meh
I'm pretty sure this word is rhymeless. Can anyone prove me wrong?
December 17, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list words-that-end-in-ish-but-aren-t-adjectives
I was feeling a bit f-ish today, and then I saw that Wordnik had picked this list (my second list ever!) as List of the Day. Thank you, Wordnik! I love you! I am f-ish no more!
In celebration, I'm opening the list to anyone. Feel free to contribute!
December 14, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word shelled
*assists with rummaging*
I found several lists:
Autoantonyms, by milosrdenstvi
Autoantonyms by oroboros
Words that mean the opposite of themselves by tez
There's also this off-site list.
December 9, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word ruly
I'm going to take this opportunity to plug reesetee's Prosie "How I Met My Wife", which I dearly love.
December 9, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word truck nutz
Just saw my first pair of Truck Nutz today. The truck was black, which I suppose is a truckly color, but the Nutzs were silvery and sparkly. It was very festive.
As I type this, I'm discovering that what offends me about Truck Nutz, more than anything else, is the spelling.
December 7, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word myth
A female unmarried moth. A female married moth would be a mythos.
December 7, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word bracketed word
Comment which redirects the discussion, with a flimsy segue, to Dara Torres.
December 4, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word bracketed word
Comment taking umbrage at previous comments.
December 4, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word bracketed word
Comment commenting on previous comment, in the form of a wry pun.
December 4, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word bracketed word
Comment giving a usage example of the phrase "bracketed word".
December 4, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the user feedback
Dearest darlingest Worknik employees: There's a feature from Ye Olde Wordie that I sorely miss, and would love to see brought back.
It used to be that a person could look at a link on a Wordie page and immediately tell whether that link led to another Wordie page or to an off-site address. (As I recall, the off-side addresses had tiny little icons next to them.)
This would be a useful feature to add to Wordnik, because we Wordnik users (Wordniks? Wordnikkers? Nik-Naks?) tend to bracket lots of words in our comments, and right now there's no way to tell just by looking whether a blue word is an off-site link or just a bracketed word. We become inured to the color blue, and so we tend to overlook the links that our fellow Wordnik users have posted.
Won't you please bring this feature to Wordnik? It's all I want for Christmas, and I've been a good little logophile all year.
Hugs and kisses,
pterodactyl
December 4, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word extra lemurs
Once you have a sufficient number of lemurs, any additional lemurs are just silly.
December 3, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word ointment
Brackets around "ointmenting", please. :-)
December 3, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word baseful
Having some basis in fact. The opposite of baseless.
December 3, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word ointment
Gasp! I take umbrage, mollusque, at your baseful accusations.
December 3, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word ointment
Ruzuzu, you're either with us, or against us. If our great nation becomes apathetic about words like ointment, then the terrorists have won.
December 3, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word ointment
"Ointment" currently appears on 16 lists with negative themes ("Words I Dislike", "Words I Hate", "Words I Hate With the Fire of a Thousand Suns", etc.), and only 4 lists with positive themes ("Words I Like", etc.).
The only possible explanation for this shameful attack and scurrilous slander of a lovely and wonderful word is that reesetee and I (and dornyika and janicemc) are the only sane users on Wordnik. The rest of you are all quite clearly insane. And you probably hate freedom, too.
December 2, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word book-number
*raises hand*
Professional librarian here. I got my Library Science degree not too long ago, and am currently working at a lovely little college library in Virginia.
Librarianship is the best job EVER.
December 2, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word unguent
I quite like the pronunciation. "Ung-went" is a rich and creamy sound, like the best and most expensive ointments. "Un-jent" is a sharp and pungent sound; it makes me think of spicy incense, not creamy ointment.
Not that there's anything wrong with spicy incense, of course. It's just a totally different thing altogether.
C_b, would you consider "unguent" for inclusion on your Creative Onomatopoeia list?
December 2, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word doggerelist
Calvin Trillin describes himself as a doggerelist ("one who writes doggerel") in this book.
November 29, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word applecart
They can be vicious when they're upset.
November 24, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word the united states of america
If you're still not seeing it, ruzuzu, then let me just be the first to compliment you on your trendy clothing.
November 22, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word hovercraft
Famously full of eels.
November 21, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word the united states of america
Oh, sorry, yarb, that was me. I'm demonstrating my new invention. I call it The Emperor's New Font. The words that you type in this font are only visible to intelligent, sensitive people who wear trendy clothing and appreciate postmodern art.
Why am I doing this? Simple. I'm the ██████ pte-redact-yl!
November 21, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the user ruzuzu
AvoCAAAAAAAAADO!!!
November 16, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word hi there!
@P_: I would be honored to be called an avocado. In fact, I find that "Avocado!" makes a better greeting than "Artichoke!", perhaps because it's a smoother-sounding word. "Artichoke!" has too many rough edges to be a sufficiently friendly greeting.
@milos: That's brilliant. And, you know, maybe people are noticing, but it just makes them think even more highly of you. :-)
November 16, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Artichoke!
An alternative salutation. See hi there!
November 15, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word hi there!
Perhaps it doesn't even matter what words you use to greet someone. Perhaps the only thing that matters is your tone of voice.
I could easily test this. If I greeted you with a smile and a cheerful "Artichoke!", spoken in the friendliest of tones, how would you respond?
November 15, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word shat
The OED defines "shat" as "an obsolete term of endearment used in addressing an Irish person", and gives the example "Come hither shat, are you an Irish mon?"
Maybe it's just me, but I don't really find it all that endearing...
November 13, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word shat
I agree with milos. It is fascinating. I wonder how recently it emerged, and whether it's contemporaneous with "spat" (as the past tense of "spit").
November 13, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the user ruzuzu
Hi there! How are you doing?
November 13, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word hi there!
A brief rumination about pleasantries:
I often greet people with "Hi there!", and recently I started wondering why I do this. The word "there" seems to be utterly meaningless in this context, and if it's meaningless, why do I bother to say it? Why not just say "Hi!", and thereby save some time and some breath?
One piece of the answer, I think, is that "hi there!" is an accepted English idiom -- but this only explains why I'm able to use the phrase. It doesn't explain why I choose to use the phrase.
I think the other piece of the answer is that the most important part of my salutation is not the denotation of the words, but rather the tone of voice in which I say them. If I'm greeting you, I want you to know that I'm happy to see you, and the best way for me to do that is to speak in a cheerful tone. Now, if I only speak one syllable ("Hi!"), it might be hard for you to properly read my tone. By doubling the number of syllables, I'm doubling the time you have in which to correctly read my tone, and thereby interpret that I'm happy to see you.
If I'm right, this might also explain other pleasantries. Consider this scripted exchange:
A: Hi there! How are you doing?
B: Pretty good, thanks. How are you doing?
A: I'm doing well, thanks.
When two people engage in this particular exchange, they're not really asking each other how they're doing. You know this implicitly, and so you know not to answer the question "How are you doing?" by describing your woes to the other person. You're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to reply with the next line in the script.
My idea is that the point of this whole exercise is to give the people plenty of syllables to speak, so they can pronounce these syllables in a certain tone of voice and thereby communicate the actual message.
The actual message? In most cases, I think it's something like this:
"I am a human being. I see you and recognize you as a fellow human being, and I welcome you."
When you think about it that way, it makes those boring pleasantries seem rather heartwarming...
November 13, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list intentional-malapropisms
I'm fond of "I beg your parsnip".
November 9, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word for god's sake, don't set the piano on fire
Wordnik asks me "Were you looking for for god's sake do Set the piano on FIRE?". I love you, Wordnik, but I will not commit arson for you, no matter what you suggest.
November 9, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word flyswatter
Okay, that makes sense. The two words are pronounced differently after all. Whew!
But this raises a new question. Why are the two words pronounced differently? That is, why does the s in flyswatter not shorten the preceding vowel in the same way that the s in icewater does?
November 9, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word icewater
Does this word rhyme with "flyswatter"?
See comment at flyswatter.
November 8, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word flyswatter
Does this word rhyme with icewater? On paper, , it seems as if it should -- they both end in aɪswɔːɾər -- but I just can't agree. There's something unrhymable about these two words.
I think it has something to do with the location of the s. In "icewater", the s is the coda of the first syllable. In "flyswatter", the s is part of the onset of the second syllable.
But should that really make a difference? If I spoke these two words to someone who'd never heard them before, and didn't know what the words mean or how they're spelled, that person would have no idea whether the s belongs to the first syllable or the second syllable.
This implies, in turn, that rhyming can sometimes depend on the etymology of words, and that conclusion freaks me out.
November 8, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word phenomena
Me too me too!
November 5, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list silent-p
Hey, I resemble that remark.
November 3, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word popcorn
To answer uselessness's question, three years late... this is what I think of when I hear the word "popcorn".
October 27, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word off-putting
It seems like this ought to mean "procrastinating on", as in, for example, "I really need to clear off my coffee table, but I've been off-putting it."
October 27, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the user john
Felicitations to you and kad!
October 26, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word here there and everywhere
"Not here, there and everywhere,
Didn't even like the Beatles with their long long hair."
-- Moxy Früvous, "Green Eggs and Ham"
October 20, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list punctuation-junction
I want to hug this list. But I daren't, because of all the sharp pointy things in it.
September 25, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list sports-teams-wed-like-to-see
"Maine Yaks" gave me a great big belly laugh. Thanks, ruzuzu!
September 18, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word glitterglitter
See this list.
September 9, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word glint!
See this list.
September 9, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list creative-onomatopoeia
I was reminded of this list today when I stumbled upon a description of "creative onomatopoeia" in a novel I'm reading. I've reproduced the relevant passage here:
--The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett.September 9, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Hawai'i
The apostrophe, which represents a glottal stop, is often omitted. I've always figured that that's because English speakers don't really have a concept of a glottal stop, so they overlook it and leave it out.
But maybe that's an insufficient explanation. Sure, English doesn't have glottal stops, but English also doesn't have the vowel combination /aɪiː/ ("ai-ee") and yet most Americans don't have any trouble pronouncing /həˈwaɪiː/ ("huh-wai-ee").
If both of these sounds, the glottal stop and the vowel combination, are absent in English, why do English speakers spurn the one and embrace the other?
September 4, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list here-i-dreamt-i-was-an-archetype
Yes, David, it is. I see your love and share it back to you. :-)
September 3, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list kingly-epithets
I love this list. It makes me laugh to picture what each of these idiosyncratic royals would look like.
Plus, it reminds me of the classic "Name Suggestions for Ultra-Compact Cars" and Name Suggestions for Even Bigger SUVs and Trucks".
September 3, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word silly rabbits
Silly rabbit -- definitions are for Wordniks!
September 2, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list monosyllabic-words-i-can-t-find-rhymes-for
"Elk milk", for example, is a rhyming phrase for me. (So is "whelk milk", but that's kind of gross.)
September 2, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list monosyllabic-words-i-can-t-find-rhymes-for
Oh man, I still say "melk" for "milk". Perhaps it's a Midwestern thing -- I spent many of my formative years in Illinois.
September 2, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list monosyllabic-words-i-can-t-find-rhymes-for
Elk... oh yeah.
Oh well.
September 1, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list monosyllabic-words-i-can-t-find-rhymes-for
Oh fond memories... this was one of the first lists I ever created. I remember well the friendly welcome that the Wordies gave me. :-)
I revisit the list now on the happy occasion of having noticed that the word "whelk" is rhymeless. Yes! Another word for the list!
Any more contributions?
September 1, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list tip-top-toponymic
Oooh, I love this list!
Also, by the way... I think it's spelled "manila".
August 20, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the user ruzuzu
*adds to love*
The only thing better than ruzuzu's lists are ruzuzu's comments. Her convivial wit and humor are one of the reasons why I keep coming back to Wordnik.
August 3, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list garbage-day
I also renamed my list of words with both hard and soft C's.
July 31, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list garbage-day
Renamed the list. It is "Garbage Day" no more.
July 31, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list garbage-day
Yarb -- sledging and dodging are interesting cases, but I think they belong on their own list. I'm looking for both /g/ and /dʒ/. /ŋ/ is interesting, but it doesn't fit the pattern.
July 31, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list garbage-day
Thanks! I like this list too. But I don't like its name -- any suggestions for a new name?
July 29, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Only Bungling Astronomers Forget Generally Known Mnemonics
See Oh, Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me.
July 28, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Oh, Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me
A mnemonic for the spectral types of stars -- O B A F G K M.
July 28, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list mnemonic-devices
My astronomy professor taught us "Oh, Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me", then immediately said "...but that's stupid", and taught us "Only Bungling Astronomers Forget Generally Known Mnemonics" instead.
July 28, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Candwich
I'm confused by the pop-top on the can. How do you get the sandwich out through that small hole?
July 13, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Julia Gillard
Perhaps one of our resident Australians could shed some light on the matter?
June 25, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word notional agreement
The linguistic feature of British English that allows British football commentators to say things like "Germany are a major threat" and "England are rubbish". Wikipedia has a good explanation of this phenomenon.
June 25, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Julia Gillard
Julia Gillard just became the first female Prime Minister of Australia, and in doing so, raised several important questions, such as "Why is her last name pronounced like that?".
From the spelling, and allowing for the non-rhoticity of Australian English, I expected something like 'gɪləd. Turns out it's actually closer to gɪlaːd, with equal weight given to both syllables. Weren't expecting that, were you?
Apparently, her family are Welsh immigrants, which might explain it. (Or maybe not. I don't actually know anything about Welsh accents.)
June 25, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Okie
Informal demonym for a person from Oklahoma (the formal demonym is "Oklahoman").
June 22, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Yooper
Informal demonym for a person from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Derived from the pronunciation of the abbreviation "U.P."
June 22, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Nutmegger
Informal demonym for a person from Connecticut (the Nutmeg State).
June 22, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Tico
Informal way of referring to a person from Costa Rica (the formal demonym is "Costa Rican", or "Costarricense" in Spanish).
June 20, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word wikipedia
The standard pronunciation 'round these parts is wɪkə'pidiə (WICK-uh-PEE-dee-uh), but every so often I hear someone pronounce it wɪki'pidiə (WICK-ee-PEE-dee-uh), as in this video. I find this second pronunciation jarring, and eerily disturbing. Am I overreacting?
June 3, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list a-bazillion-imaginary-numbers
Today's Savage Chickens cartoon provides a useful illustration for this list, and suggests some new additions (droves, smattering, modicum...).
June 1, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word aril
The letters A, I, L, and R can form six different words: aril, lair, liar, lira, rail, and rial. Are there any other sets of four letters that have this property?
May 15, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word amplexus
When I heard the news of the UK's new coalition government, the first thing I thought of was this page. Thank you, bilby!
May 12, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list tunie-and-the-band-played-waltzing-matilda
American radio host Garrison Keillor did a version of this song with Americanized lyrics, which you can read here. It's okay, but I much prefer the original version of the song -- like plethora, I get tears and tingles when I hear it.
May 8, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word like water off a duck's back
Well, I'll just chime in with a fourth meaning for this idiom. I've heard this phrase used to refer to any situation in which an individual is unfazed by some unpleasant turn of events. You could say, for instance, "Hubert is such a cheerful fellow that when we told him his Ming vase had been crushed by a falling anvil, the bad news just rolled off him like water off a duck's back."
Milos's meaning is one particular case of this larger meaning, the case in which the unpleasantry happens to be an insult.
I've never heard c_b's meaning or dario's meaning 'round these parts.
April 30, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word beans beans good for your heart the more you eat the more you fart
The more you toot, the better you feel, so eat your beans at every meal.
(plethora and I clearly went to the same playground.)
April 30, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word cilantrophobe
Hey, you're right -- there's the NY Times link down at the bottom of the page! Why didn't I spot that before?
*beams proudly* I'm a cilantrofool!
April 22, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word cilantrophobe
I'm with reesetee and dontcry. Cilantro is a soapy disaster in any dish.
This fascinating NYTimes article gives two possible answers to the mystery of cilantrophobia. It might be genetic, or it might just be a question of what we're accustomed too.
April 21, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word mad props
I get Errata (the Wordie blog) and the Wordnik blog, both by RSS. Lately they've been mirroring each other, so if you're just getting the Wordnik blog, dontcry, you probably haven't missed much.
April 21, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word mad props
I use this phrase a lot, and while I tell myself I'm using it ironically, I suspect I just genuinely like the sound of it.
April 21, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word eminym
See comment at nymonym.
April 21, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Eminym
See comment at nymonym.
April 21, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word nymonym
I like the sound of this, and it inspires me to coin a new word. "Eminym" shall hereafter mean one's "rapper name".
For example: "Hakeem Seriki's eminym is Chamillionaire. Cordozar Broadus's eminym is Snoop Dogg. Curtis Jackson's eminym is 50 Cent. Marshall Mathers's eminym..." and so on.
My eminym is P-Dacty. What's yours?
April 21, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word take our survey
Dint is one of my favorite words. I use it every chance I get. :-)
April 15, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word take our survey
This survey actually taught me something, by dint of making me think. It asked me "How can we improve Wordnik to better meet your needs", and I was about to reply "Add a thesaurus!", but then I thought "No, wait, I'd better check to see whether Wordnik already has a thesaurus." And wouldn't you know it, it does! I just hadn't spotted it before. (It's under "Related", up top.)
Thank you, little orange survey!
April 14, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word that that
Th-th-th-that's all folks!
April 11, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word heterozygosity
And, on rare occasions, W (as in cwm or crwth). Thank you, Wales!
April 6, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word egrote
See also malinger.
April 5, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list words-so-useful-that-they-would-be-overused-if-anyone-would-use-them
This is an excellent title for a list. And an excellent list. Bravo!
April 5, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list mis-abled
For example, "comfortable" does not mean "able to be comforted".
April 5, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list i-didnt-expect-to-see-that-letter-doubled
Nobody expects to see flying dinosaurs on a social network for word-nerds! Our chief weapon is surprise, fear and surprise...
March 27, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list i-didnt-expect-to-see-that-letter-doubled
Several words taken, with grateful thanks, from this list.
March 27, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word ʙ˟
Alternately: I'm mooning everyone who comes through this revolving door.
March 20, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Pi Day
I would, but sheep don't have mustaches.
March 18, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Pi Day
I used to scoff at Pi Approximation Day. "Twenty-two sevenths?", I'd laugh, while twirling my mustache. "Don't make me laugh!"
It has since been pointed out to me, though, that "3.14", without any subsequent digits, is actually farther from the true value of pi than 22/7 is. This means that we are the approximators, and you guys who celebrate in July are much closer to the Platonic form of pi.
Boy, do I feel sheepish.
March 18, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word kangaroolity
How, then, might one determine the muliebrity of a kangaroo?
March 16, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Pi Day
On Pi Day I stumbled across Pilish, which is a kind of constrained writing for poetry. In a Pilish poem, the number of letters in each successive word matches the successive digits of pi. For example:(3 1 4 1 5 9 2 6 5 3 5 8 9 7 9 3 2 3 8 4 6)
March 16, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word cloche
I haven't the cash for a cloche. And I'd feel crushed if it clashed.
March 16, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Pearl Harbour
Unless, of course, you're willing to let us Yankees talk about "Sydney Harbor", which would only be fair. :-)
March 16, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Pearl Harbour
Yes it is.
March 16, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list sometime-definite-article-countries
Great list!
How do you feel about subnational entities, such as territories? The territory formally known as the Yukon is now (usually) just Yukon.
March 12, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Chile
Indeed, I am the rightful owner of the letter P, and am entitled to royalties any time it gets used. (See p, and dog's letter, and remember that I will waive all royalties in perpetuity if presented with a rigorous example of silly poetry.)
However, it's come to my attention that my ownership rights stemmed from my use of Wordie Pro, and Wordie no longer exists. Therefore, it seems my beloved letter is caught in legal limbo. Until such time as Wordnik Pro is released, I shall have to endure rampant, unregulated use of the letter P.
What is this world coming to, may I ask, when anyone can use any letter of the alphabet whenever they like, for free?
I hate freedom.
March 6, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Chile
My great love for sionnach and his shillelagh is only slightly diminished by his failure to bracket "frosts my eyeballs". :-)
March 6, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Chile
Madmouth, that's an excellent point about vowel length, and a nice tidy answer to my question. Thanks!
So now, a new question, for everybody: How do you pronounce "Chile" (when referring to the country)?
March 6, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Chile
I'd also be interested to hear how newscasters outside of the U.S. are pronouncing it.
March 5, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Chile
There's been a lot of bad news coming out of Chile this past week. I keep hearing radio news reports about the earthquake, and I know that when I hear one of these reports, I ought to focus on the tragedy and what I can do to help. Instead, my logophile mind focuses on the word "Chile" -- has anyone else noticed that this word is behaving strangely in the mouths of newscasters?
Most Americans, I think, pronounce it "chilly" (/tʃɪli/). From what I know of Spanish, the local pronunciation is probably closer to "chee-leh" (/tʃile/). I would expect an American newscaster to either use the American pronunciation or an American approximation of the Chilean pronunciation ("chee-lay", /tʃileɪ/, which is what I use).
Instead, every newscaster I've heard has pronounced it "chillay" (/tʃɪleɪ/). Isn't that weird? Why would the first syllable be American and the second syllable Chilean? To my ear, "chillay" is an awkward amalgam, and I cannot fathom why anyone, especially a newscaster, would use it.
Can anyone explain this?
March 5, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list oh--google--youre-so-droll
More Google drollery can be found at Autocomplete Me.
March 5, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list oh--google--youre-so-droll
Bilby, do you get many maple trees passing by your house?
That's passing strange.
March 5, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list constellations-genitives
Favorited. :-)
March 4, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the user dontcry
Hmm... if the bright blue is determined by our browser defaults, perhaps we could just change our own browser settings? Seems simpler than asking John to fiddle with the site again.
March 3, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list negasonic-teenage-warhead
chrissy, thank you for making this list! It's really neat to see all these names together in one place.
February 26, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word glomp
Here's the meaning I've inferred: when you "glomp" someone, you're giving them a sudden surprise hug, and the hug is so enthusiastic that it risks knocking them over.
TVTropes indulges in some etymological speculation:
February 25, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list negasonic-teenage-warhead
Quoting Wikipedia:
I'm a big X-Men fan, and I remember this character from the comics. The in-universe explanation for her weird name was that she'd chosen it herself, which actually makes a lot of sense.February 25, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the user feedback
Don't feel you have to rush to fix the new profile comments feature -- it's really fun to to read one's earliest comments. :-)
(squidduggery -- hah!)
February 25, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word narm
A Narm is a moment that is supposed to be serious, but due to either over-sappiness, poor execution, excessive melodrama, or the sheer absurdity of the situation, the drama is lost to the point of becoming unintentionally funny. It can be extremely subjective.
It is named for the famous scene in the last season of Six Feet Under, where the main character Nate suffers a brain embolism. He suddenly grabs his right arm and repeats "Numb arm!", but it quickly becomes "N'arm! N'arm!" Despite being the climax of one of the best shows HBO has ever created, the scene was overwhelmingly found by fans and reviewers to be funny rather than sad.
Were you to discuss this phenomenon in a scholarly work or literary circles, the word you would probably use is "bathos." Though all the implications of the technical term do not match up exactly, it's a fairly good fit.
--TVTropes.org
February 25, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word glurge
What is glurge? Think of it as chicken soup with several cups of sugar mixed in: It's supposed to be a method of delivering a remedy for what ails you by adding sweetening to make the cure more appealing, but the result is more often a sickly-sweet concoction that induces hyperglycemic fits.
In ordinary language, glurge is the sending of inspirational (and supposedly "true") tales, ones that often conceal much darker meanings than the uplifting moral lessons they purport to offer or undermine their messages by fabricating and distorting historical fact in the guise of offering a "true story."
Many of us, it seems, cannot overcome the urge to glurge.
--Snopes.com
February 25, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word squick
Possibly a contraction of "squeamish" and "ick!" A negative emotional response, more specifically a disturbed or disgusted one. As in: "The relationship between Cordelia and Connor in Angel Season Four gave me a case of the squicks."
--TVTropes.org
February 25, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word suppository
I like it too.
February 23, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list ends-with-c-or-k--but-not--ic--or--ck
Oooh, you lexicomaniac, you. :-)
I love your ideas, and I think you should add them all to the list. If that doubles the length of the list, well, so be it!
February 23, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the user feedback
I just created a list called "Ends with C or K but not '-ic' or '-ck'", and then I realized I'd cast my net too wide, so I renamed it "Ends with C but not with '-ic'". The change of title worked fine, but, as you can see, the URL didn't change to match the new title.
Is this a feature, or a bug? Either way, it's not really a big deal, but I thought you should know.
February 23, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list ends-with-c-or-k--but-not--ic--or--ck
Really? I can't think of any other than maniac and insomniac.
February 23, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list starts-with-a-silent-letter
Ooh, I love that list. Here's a link, for Wordieternity (Wordnikternity just doens't have the same ring to it): Silence is golden.
February 23, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word geononymity
I've read that Twitter's user demographics tilt heavily toward Generation X. The youth of the world (Millennials and younger) just don't tweet very much.
February 23, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list starts-with-a-silent-letter
You can listen to "Crazy ABC's" here.
February 23, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the user pterodactyl
Five seconds after learning the word "cnidarian", I started a new list to put it on. Thank you!
February 23, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word wait on
I've heard that "wait on line" is standard New York City dialect. Can anyone confirm or disconfirm?
February 23, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word hawala
Interpolate too many sweets and now has a tummyache.
February 18, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word illude
Ruzuzu, on a triple word score, would be worth 42 points. This means that she herself is a thing of rare beauty. It also means that she'll have trouble building up momentum.
February 18, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Vancouver
How am I with thankyou and tanker? The answer is that I pronounce them both with an /æŋk/ in the middle, and I find the alternative (/ænk/) virtually unthinkable.
I do pronounce "Van Gogh" with a front-of-the-mouth /n/, but only because it's two words. I'm sure that if it were just one word ("Vangogh"), it would, but for the stressed syllable, rhyme with mango.
The philosophy of vancouverism intrigues me, not only for its panvocality but also for the insouciant Pacific lifestyle that it engenders. What are the tenets of vancouverism?
February 15, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the user yarb
Hey yarb -- we're having a discussion over at Vancouver, about the proper way to pronounce the name of that delightful city. Can you enlighten us?
February 14, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word Vancouver
With the Winter Olympics going on, this word has been in the news a lot, and I'm hearing it pronounced two different ways: /vænˈkuːvəɹ/ and /væŋˈkuːvəɹ/. The former, with a front-of-the-mouth "n", is favored by Wikipedia and most of the TV commentators, but it doesn't sound quite right to me. I keep wanting to pronounce it in the latter way, with the back-of-the-mouth "ng", to make a smoother transition to the "k" that follows it.
I really want to know how the locals pronounce it, and I'm hoping our resident Vancouverian (Vancouverite? Vancouverer? Vancouverista?) can enlighten us...
February 14, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list breaking-free-from-i-before-e
...and here is an excellent explanation of the whole "I-before-E" problem.
February 7, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word You probably think this song is about you
Semantically speaking, this song is actually about the person in the lyrics (whoever that is). So, they may be vain, but they're not wrong -- the song is about them.
Why, then, does the singer cast such scorn on this idea, which she secretly knows to be true?
February 4, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word a retail catastrophe of Biblical proportions
Hey, I just came across this phrase yesterday! It's from The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger, isn't it?
I remember reading the phrase and then thinking "What, exactly, are 'Biblical proportions'? Most Bibles are about seven or eight inches long, aren't they?"
January 29, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word ginger
So, this word can refer to people, not just to food? Huh. This comes as a surprise to my American ears. It sounds funny to talk about a "ginger" person.
Also, can someone please explain to me whether "ginger", in this sense, is pejorative?
January 28, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the user pterodactyl
Because I am not merely a gentleman, but also a pedant, I must point out that the phrase "icy vacuum of outer space" is just poetic license. A vacuum cannot be cold, any more than it can be hot, because heat is a property of matter, and a vacuum contains no matter (well, virtually no matter, anyway).
As for the aesthetic qualities of my underthings, well, a reptile's got to have some secrets, hasn't he?
January 27, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the user pterodactyl
Oh deary me. Well, I am in a bit of a pickle now, aren't I? The secret is out. However shall I live this down?
No, the truth is, the embarrassing antics described therein were perpetrated by one of my disreputable cousins. Personally, I strive to be a more civilized specimen of the order Pterosauria. While I do indulge in the occasional interspecies affaire d'amour, I always adhere strictly to the rules of gentlemanly conduct, such as removing my hat in the presence of ladies, laying down my jacket across any muddy patches in a lady's path, and never subjecting a lady to the icy vacuum of outer space.
January 26, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word kid
Hmm... how about the verb "to butt"? Goats butt, so I guess you could call a goat a "butter", which would make a kid a "little butter".
January 25, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word ginormous
I was curious about M-W's claim to have dated this word to 1948, so I got a second opinion from the OED. The OED says the same thing, it turns out, and goes into further detail:
Oooh, a heavy party in the mess -- sounds like a good time!January 24, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word alopecanthropy
The condition of being a werefox. Formed by analogy with "lycanthropy", the condition of being a werewolf, using alopec-, "fox".
January 21, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list double-dactyls
Thanks, telofy. I'd love to add it, but my computer is showing this as a closed list. Perhaps you could open it up? (Or, just add alopecanthropy on my behalf?)
January 19, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word lie
This word embarrasses me. I associate it with the failure of my own willpower. I feel guilty when I hear it.
An explanation: As you probably know, the word lie, as in "I lie on the bed/I lay on the bed/I had lain on the bed", is dying out. Its duties have been mostly taken up by lay, a word that used to be transitive only ("I lay the pillow on the bed/I laid the pillow on the bed/I had laid the pillow on the bed"), but now is used intransitively ("I lay on the bed/I laid on the bed/I had laid on the bed".)
For a while, I fought to keep lie alive. I'd make snarky comments to my friends, things like "You can't 'lay' on the bed unless you're a chicken", and then when they gave me the inevitable confused look, I'd launch into a sermon about the glories of the lie/lay distinction. It never really worked, and I was beginning to despair, and then...
...then I asked myself "Why are we preserving this stupid distinction, anyway?" Plenty of verbs work do double-duty as transitive and intransitive verbs, and they all work perfectly well. Why fight this one? Let it take over. Let lie die out. And as a bonus, if lie does die out, it would (1) eliminate confusion with the homonym "lie", meaning "to knowingly give false information", and (2) help reduce the number of irregular verbs in English. Surely that's a noble cause.
So now the conclusion I've reached, and my official position if anyone asks, is that we should use "lay" for both transitive and intransitive purposes, and that "lie" should die a speedy death.
And yet... despite all this thought and effort and determination... I can't bring myself to do it. Apparently, there's a prescriptivist demon deep inside of me, forcing me to abide by the "formal rules" of English. My "lays" and "lies" still drop precisely into place, to match the transitivity of what I'm saying, and I don't know how to make it stop.
January 19, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word maken
One of my coworkers used this word a few days ago, as a past participle of "make". It's a perfectly reasonable construction, I think -- it fits the pattern established by taken and shaken -- but still, I was quite surprised to hear it, especially from a person with a very "professional" dialect.
Has anyone else heard this word before?
January 19, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list double-dactyls
Just stumbled across the word "alopecanthropy" today -- apparently, it's the technical name for the condition of being a werefox (by analogy with "lycanthropy", the condition of being a werewolf.) My best guess at the pronunciation is 'æləpə'kænθɹəpi, which makes it a good candidate for this list.
January 19, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the user shanedas
Oh, Shane, my boy -- what would your poor dear mother think if she saw you spamming like this?
January 8, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the list adjectives-with-2-syllables-that-end-in-y
An alternative name for this list might be "Snow White and the 128 Dwarves".
January 5, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word have yourself a merry little christmas
I just found a video clip of the original "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", and man, it's a tearjerker.
I can't shed any light on the carol/song distinction -- can anyone else enlighten us?
December 21, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the user grantbarrett
So there I was, reading an excellent article in the New York Times, and I thought to myself "pterodactyl, you need to take these words, which already feel quite Wordnik-y, and transfer them over to a proper Wordnik list". And I was all excited at the prospect of introducing this lovely article to my Wordnik friends. And then, belatedly, I noticed the byline...
I doff my cap in gratitude, good sir, to you and to your co-author. And I won't transfer your words to Wordnik -- that honor should be yours and yours alone. :-)
December 21, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word have yourself a merry little christmas
It's worth mentioning that the original song, as it appeared in "Meet Me In St. Louis", was a wistful, melancholy piece. The lyrics we sing today are rather cheerier than the lyrics that Judy Garland sang (as you can hear for yourself). I suspect that the reason why the phrase "merry little Christmas" sounds so dismissive is that it's a remnant of the original cynical lyrics.
This article is fascinating, and definitely worth a read.
December 21, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word ð
Ðat's a good point, a.
December 20, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the user feedback
Hooray, the Most Commented On words are back! Thanks, John! You are truly similar to beans!
December 13, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word What to look for in a classroom
Hi jennarenn! This topic is dear to my heart. Thanks for bringing it up!
As I'm sure you know, rewards and punishments constitute "extrinsic motivation". My two cents about extrinsic motivation is that people tend to appreciate its (very real) benefits without appreciating its (very real) dangers.
Extrinsic motivation is an excellent method for getting people to do things that you want them to do. For example, if you want a child to read books, give them a gold star for every book they read. It will work -- the kids will read more books to get more stars.
But extrinsic motivation kills the natural intrinsic motivation, so if the extrinsic motivation ceases, you're left with no motivation at all. For example, if your kids have been reading books in order to get gold stars, then they'll forget about the intrinsic appeal of books, and then once summer vacation (or graduation) rolls around, they'll stop reading.
Now, I don't think we should stop using extrinsic motivators altogether, but I do think we should use them sparingly, especially with young kids. Instead, we ought to be finding and supporting the intrinsic motivations that the kids already have.
December 13, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word [anything] - gate
Hi, thtownse -- here is the list you requested.
You might also enjoy this article from the Snowclones Database.
December 13, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word what are these strawberries doing on my nipples i need them for the fruit salad
Well, on behalf of my stars and my garters, you're welcome. :-)
And again, I urge everyone to read the book's reviews on Amazon. Here's another tidbit for you:
December 13, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the user feedback
Sorry for the repeat post, but I still can't see the Most Commented On words. Am I the only one experiencing this problem?
December 12, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the user feedback
Bug report: On the Zeitgeist page, I'm not seeing the Most Commented On words. There isn't even an empty space where they should be.
I can see the Most Commented On lists just fine, just not the words.
I'm using Firefox 3.5.5 on a Mac.
December 10, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list robots--famous
Karel Čapek not a robot? Well, sure, that's what he wants you to think...
December 8, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the user hostmonster
I'm sorry, I've hosted monsters before, and I just can't recommend it. The last time I hosted a monster, it crushed my guest bed, tracked ichor across my carpets, clogged the shower drain with its beastly fur, and repeatedly left the lid off of the jam jar.
Might I recommend a puppy, instead?
December 7, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word eleven
Good question, Milos. I'd like to know, too.
Right now, all I know is that ELEVEN PLUS TWO is an anagram of TWELVE PLUS ONE.
December 7, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the user feedback
Thank you, Wordnik team, for the "Past Comments" feature you just implemented!
*hugs you all*
December 7, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word YMMV
According to this page from the ever-helpful TVTropes.org, this phrase comes from US car ads in the 70s and 80s. It indicates that "...the customer might not get as much fuel efficiency as the ad claimed. The phrase has since been adopted to mean 'you may not get the same thing out of this as me'. The kids' show Beakman's World made the actual phrase into a mini-Catch Phrase as well."
December 5, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word hyphen
I imagine that, for an underscore, the experience of becoming a hyphen would be very uplifting.
December 3, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word bootlegger
Strikingly similar: "He was the best laxative salesman in the country, but he was just a regular guy."
December 3, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word bootlegger
Oh, bilby, I almost spat out my tea. Thank you!
(...wait, why am I thanking him for almost wasting good tea?)
December 3, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word I, Miss Wordie
New... a juicy tell-all behind-the-scenes memoir! Relive the heady days of the first Miss Wordie pageant! The lists! The tags! The swimsuit competition! Available now at a bookstore near you!
December 1, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word i miss wordie
See also I, Miss Wordie.
December 1, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word automatic cutification
Don't fret, Wordie PRO users! At least one Wordie PRO feature has successfully transferred over to Wordnik. Those of you who prefer an automatically cute Wordnik can try your free sample here.
December 1, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word synesis
As, for example, in the phrase "My family are all coming home for Thanksgiving." See the Wikipedia entry for a full description.
November 29, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word wordnik
Oooh, I just realized that I used synesis in that last comment. Synesis makes me happy. :-)
November 29, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the user feedback
Dear Wordnik development team,
I know you guys are swamped with stuff to do, but I want to add something else to your to-do list. Could we please have the personal "Recent Activity" feature back? On Wordie Emeritus, I used that feature to keep track of my recent comments, so I knew which threads I should be watching.
Also I used other people's Recent Activity to stalk them.I would love to see this feature imported to Wordnik!Lots of love,
pterodactyl
November 29, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word wordnik
Well, gee, guys, I'm sorry to hear you're feeling down about Wordnik. Personally, I'm feeling great about it, despite the rough transition. I think we're in a great situation here, for two reasons:
1. As John said, even though Wordnik has an overarching goal, the culture and spirit of it are up to us. In fact, pretty much everything about it is up to us.
2. The Wordnik team have proven that they're willing to work their tails off to accommodate our requests. If there's something you don't like about Wordnik, all you have to do is mention it and it gets changed.
I agree with P_ that patience is the way to go (patience and constructive feedback, that is). In the meantime, I think I'll go joyriding with uselessness as he swerves around those potholes... it looks like fun!
November 29, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word silence
Ooh, bilby, what a nice pronunciation! You enunciate this word perfectly.
November 28, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word waxed paper
Two years later, our migration to Wordnik has finally settled this issue once and for all. See? Just click on "Definitions"...
November 26, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word cuttlefish
*listens to pronunciation*
Oho, so that's how you differentiate "cuttlefish" from "cuddlefish" -- you aspirate the T's! Oooooh, sionnach, you sly fox!
November 26, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word indepthly
One of my teachers at the university used this word in an assignment description. I'm not sure how I should feel about this. On the one hand, it's either an awkward coinage or an error, but on the other hand, it does include the sequence "pthly", which I can't help but respect.
November 26, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word beauregard
Hey, Wordniks -- how do you pronounce this word? Is it just beau + regard? If so, then don't you think it's weird that the first vowel sound is not the same as in "bore", "core", "door", and so on? Frankly, I can't think of any other word in which this particular vowel comes directly before an R. Can you?
November 26, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word cuttlefish
In my dialect, "cuttlefish" and "cuddlefish" are homophones, and I'm having trouble imagining a dialect in which they aren't.
I'm also having trouble imagining what kind of meeting would warrant repeated uses of the word "cuttlefish".
November 25, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the user feedback
Oh, wow, "Most Commented On" is back! THANK YOU!!!!
November 23, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word Kansas City
Or, as they say in nebraksa, an internatile airpot and a bus despot.
November 21, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word suggestions
Hip hip hooray! John, thank you for all the blood, sweat, and tears you're putting into this. We really appreciate it. :-)
November 16, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word suggestions
I agree with Prolagus -- I miss the one-entry-per-thread layout of the "active threads" page, and I'd love to see the Zeitgeist page adopt the same layout.
(Incidentally, this is my first comment on Wordnik. Hi everyone!)
November 15, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the user chained_bear
"Spawn II" is a catchy name, but it clearly needs a subtitle. For example:
November 9, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word what are these strawberries doing on my nipples i need them for the fruit salad
Oh my stars and garters... this phrase (in CAPITAL LETTERS!) is the title of a book. A real book! And you absolutely must read its reviews on Amazon.
November 5, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word wookieepedia
See also Wickerpedia.
October 30, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word laneway
I'm with mollusque. I've never heard this word used, except in the lyrics to this song (written by a Torontonian).
What's the difference between a street and a laneway?
October 27, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word studnet
What usually comes out when I try to type "student" on my QWERTY keyboard. Perhaps my subconscious is trying to tell me something...
October 26, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word drummer
A European explorer is on safari in deepest Africa, and one night, he hears the sound of drumming off in the distance. "What does the drumming mean?", he asks his native guide. The guide says "It means that the natives are restless."
The next night, they hear the drumming again. It's louder, and closer. Fearfully, the explorer asks again "What does the drumming mean?", and again, the guide replies "It mean that the natives are restless."
The third night, the drumming is even louder and closer, and the explorer, now shaking in his boots, asks a third time "What does the drumming mean?". Again the guide replies "It means that the natives are restless."
"But WHY?!", screams the explorer. "Why are the natives so restless?!"
"Because," the guide says, "they can't stand all this drumming."
October 26, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list looks-like-a-digraph-but-isn-t
Oh, I see. Yeah, that makes sense.
I'm opening up the list to anyone. Dive right in!
October 21, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list looks-like-a-digraph-but-isn-t
Milos, I'm with you on hothead and upheaval, but you've lost me with lunkhead and packhorse. Is kh a digraph?
October 21, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list looks-like-a-digraph-but-isn-t
Oh, now I understand! Theta doesn't represent /θ/, it represents an aspirated /t/... so the "Th" in "Thomas" also represents an aspirated /t/... but English doesn't distinguish between aspirated and non-aspirated consonants, so we pronounce it with a standard English /t/ (which probably gets aspirated anyway, because it's word-initial).
Fascinating. Thanks, rolig!
October 21, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list looks-like-a-digraph-but-isn-t
Huh, good point. I always interpreted the "h" in "Thomas" as a silent letter, which doesn't represent any phoneme in the word, but it could very well be part of a digraph representing /t/. I suppose that, to resolve this question, we'd have to go into the name's etymology.
October 20, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word digraph
While we're on the subject of digraphs, perhaps I should mention my list of false digraphs...
October 20, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list pterodactyl-s-game-of-postal-abbreviations
Yeah! Just so long as it isn't the Marineland in Florida -- then he'd have to deal with all the Floridians.
October 20, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word zeitgeist
Let me just take a moment to express my love for Wordnik's new Zeitgeist page, especially the tagline. "Watch your language." It's brilliant, and elegant. Thank you, John!
October 20, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list pterodactyl-s-game-of-postal-abbreviations
Mollusque, I doff my cap to you, and bow to your prowess with words. How lovely it is to have you on Wordie!
Bilby, I'm pretty sure that abscondent is French, not English, which means that you get double bonus points for (a) noticing that I forgot to specify English, and (b) using this loophole to add a ten-letter word. Well done!
October 20, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word mp
This is the official postal abbreviation for the Northern Mariana islands, because obviously, "Mariana" is spelled with a silent P.
October 20, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list pterodactyl-s-game-of-postal-abbreviations
I will doff my cap to the first person who can add an eight-letter word to this list.
October 20, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list crash-blossoms
Yes! I want more!
October 19, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word least resistance
Hee hee!
October 12, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word tread
So, bilby has a thing for water striders, does he?
*raises a meaningful eyebrow*
Does anyone have a "What exactly is a bilby, anyhow?" list that we could add this to?
October 9, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word lasso
I've heard both /læˈsu�?/ and /'læsoʊ/.
October 9, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word encourage
Has anyone else noticed that "encourage" has lost the meaning of "give courage to" and is now just a synonym for "urge"? I don't understand this trend. Why change the meaning of "encourage", thus losing the original utility of the word, just to create a cumbersome synonym (two extra syllables!) for a word that's perfectly fine on its own?
October 3, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word imperial shag
I just stumbled across this on Wikipedia, and immediately thought of reesetee.
(...no, because it's a BIRD.)
September 29, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word falkland islands
What exactly does it mean to bust a gut? After you bust a gut, are you then down a gut, like a hockey team might be "down a man"? Must you then carry on with your remaining unbusted guts?
And what about when you bust a move, or bust a rhyme?
(Also: that site is hilarious, c_b. Thanks! :-) )
September 29, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word sarah
Sorry, Prolagus -- I can't hear the difference between your two Forvo links. Could you spell it out for us?
September 28, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word wanker
Nope, no punchline. Just an honest question.
September 27, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word marathon of gratuitous sarcasm
Well, clearly we all have better things to do than just sit around commenting on Wordie. :-)
September 26, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word marathon of gratuitous sarcasm
Oh, sure. This page is totally original.
September 26, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word wanker
From my American point of view, "wanker" seems much more tame (and silly) than "jerk", and even a bit sillier than "tosser".
Hey, what is the difference between "wanker" and "tosser", anyway?
September 26, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the user pterodactyl
I'm covered by dint of having favorited License to Err. :-)
September 25, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word schwa man
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
September 25, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the user pterodactyl
For too long I have been treading gingerly through life, eschewing any risk for fear that I might somehow err. Well, no longer. Thanks to telofy and Wordie PRO!, I now have license to err. That's right, boys and girls -- if I screw up now, no big deal! I just laugh about it and get on with my life.
And I gotta say, its a wonderful feeling. :-)
September 25, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list schwa-free
Well, I guess it depends on your dialect, Milos. Personally, I have a schwa for the "o" in "encyclopedic", but if you don't, I'll cheerfully add it to the list.
September 25, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list schwa-free
John just plugged this list on Twitter (thanks John! I like it too!), so I'm going to return the favor. If you guys aren't following Wordie on Twitter, you should be. It's like John's panning for gold in our stream of consciousness. :-)
September 25, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word pilot
Oooh, good idea! (I assume you're referring to this list?)
September 24, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word senator charles rangel
(Sorry to quibble, but Rangel isn't a senator. He's a representative -- hence the congressional district. I'm with you on the voice, though!)
September 24, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word pilot
Talk Like A Pilot every 19th of May! (If you need help, refer to this video.)
September 24, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word adze
"Go Nadz"?
September 22, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word lucifer
This story falls into the category of Horrifying But True: today at work I heard a customer call her young daughter "Lucifer". I remember it with dreadful clarity. It wasn't Lucy. It wasn't Jennifer. It was Lucifer.
I searched the customer's face for any sign that it might be a joke, or a slip of the tongue, but no -- she was totally deadpan, and the daughter didn't seem at all surprised. I'm forced to conclude, against my will, that the girl's name was actually "Lucifer".
Sheesh. That poor girl!
September 21, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list little-miss-different
Thanks, gangerh!
September 18, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word jason and the golden fleas
Brilliant!
September 18, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word panties
*whispers to you*
Manties...
September 17, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list words-that-are-also-excellent-band-names-if-the-rules-below-are-correctly-applied
When my friends and I formed an a cappella group, I wanted to call us either "The Smithereens" or "Tequila Mockingbird", but then I found out that both of those bands already exist. (Darn.) Our little singing group eventually settled on "The Doomed Petunias", in reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Now, I want to start a band just so I can name it "St. Vincent and the Grenadines". (I would, of course, be St. Vincent.) But instead of starting a band, I'm just going to start another list.
September 17, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word pamphlet
Me too. :-)
September 17, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list little-miss-different
As much as I love this list, I can't seem to find a good title for it. Currently it's called "Alternative Names for Baby Girls", which, while descriptive, is hopelessly bland.
Any suggestions, guys?
September 15, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list people-commonly-known-by-their-first-names
I don't think such a list exists, bilby -- want to start one? I'll throw in Lenin to get the party started...
September 14, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word wordnikie suggestion box
My two cents, John, is that your idea is perfect. A zeitgeist page, where we can go for the full firehose of current activity, would fit the bill nicely.
September 13, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word dispeopler
If I said you had a beautiful penguin, would you hold it against me?
September 12, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word burnt toast and a slab of old cheddar
A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat!
September 12, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word frommage
The act of rubbing up against cheese for sexual pleasure (thank you, Yarb!). See femmage.
September 12, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word the
In upstate New York, highway names in Buffalo take "the" (as in "Take the one-ninety to get to the falls") but not in Rochester ("Take five-ninety to get to the lake"). I'd always wondered about that, and now Milos has provided a possible solution -- maybe Buffalo's aberration is the result of its proximity to Canada...
September 11, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word wordnik
Oh my gourd... that's really, actually ERIN MCKEAN. Here! On our page! The only person, other than Nancy Pearl, who I want an action figure of!
I am starstruck. I am weak at the knees. You could knock me over with a, a, one of those long fluttery things that grow on birds. Thingies. Feathers! Yes!
*waves madly* Hi, Erin!
September 10, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word wordnikie suggestion box
Well, I'll start things off by compiling some of the suggestions from the Wordnik page.
From seanahan: Keep the minimalist approach.
From Milosrdenstvi: Don't lose the Wordie spirit.
From skipvia and reesetee: Make sure that Wordnik allows fart jokes.
From yarb... well, I'll just quote him: "What makes wordie fun is having the majority of the 'homepage' devoted to comments, and the rest to other recent activity. Commenting and perpetual motion is the lifeblood of it - you've got to keep that interface as the default, not just tuck it away as an option."
September 10, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word wordnikie suggestion box
No suggestions yet? Come now, good Wordies. Surely we have some suggestions for this new Wordnikie venture. We can't all be suffering from some kind of Wordnikie's aphasia.
September 10, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word wordnik
Oh, John, I'm so happy for you! Congratulations! I can't wait to see what you and the Wordnik people cook up. :-)
Now, a question: How involved would you like us regulars to be in this process? Are you looking for suggestions from us? If so, we might want to start a Wordnikie Suggestion Box, just to keep all our suggestions in one place.
September 10, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word big fuck off-yellow underwater light transformer
See big fuck-off yellow underwater light transformer. And this list.
September 8, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word fuck-off
As opposed to, say, a big fuck off-yellow underwater light transformer?
September 8, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word golf
That's my tag, and I'm sticking to it. Golf and wolf don't rhyme, and Rolf doesn't count, because... because it doesn't have a flag. No flag, no rhymic recognition. You can't have it! That's the rule that I've just made up. And I'm backing it up with this gun that was lent from the National Rifle Association...
September 7, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word the united states of america
Usa! I love it! (Does that make us Usans?)
September 1, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word the united states of america
Hi chained_bear! Thanks for bracketing history dork out -- it lead me to yeta, a truly excellent page. Yeta helped helped me realize that, no matter what They Might Be Giants say about James K. Polk, he was not a nice man. No siree bob. I hope we can incite many more history dork outs out of you!
Now, to the arguing!
*dons special sparkly Argument Cap*
When I spoke of country names allowing citizens to hold up their heads with pride, it was mostly a rhetorical flourish that came upon me in the heat of my passion, like an attack of the vapours. Of course one can take pride in the phrase "United States of America" -- it is, as you say, a good expression of our national ideals.
However, this lovely phrase is not suited to be a name, in much the same way that a lovely humuhumunukunukuapua'a is not suited to play the alpenhorn. In order to play the alpenhorn, you need to have certain attributes, such as alpenlegs, alpenarms, and a good alpenpucker. Even a very gifted humuhumunukunukuapua'a will not have these things. Far better to leave the poor little fish in the water, don't you think? And remove that tiny lederhosen, too. It's not at all fetching.
When something needs to be referred to frequently and unambiguously, we give it a name. (For example, this is why we name hurricanes. We're not being cutesy, we just need a fast and accurate way to distinguish them from each other.) In order to be a good name, a word or phrase must have certain attributes. It should be should be fairly short, and it should be a proper noun. A descriptive phrase, even an excellent descriptive phrase like "The United States of America", will not have these things.
If we grant that the states are, in fact, united, what are they united into? When the Constructicons united, they formed Devastator, a single unified entity. Clearly, the same is true of the United States. We've created a single big something out of many little somethings. And, this something needs to be referred to frequently and unambiguously. In short, it needs a name.
August 29, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word the united states of america
Oh, lordy. I love my country, but I really, really hate its name.
Imagine a nice young couple who get married and start a family. These doting parents love their children, so they name them "Girl #1", "Girl #2", and "Boy #1".
Wait, what?! These aren't names, they're descriptions! Those poor kids deserve more than descriptions -- they deserve names. Same goes for countries. Citizens ought to be able to hold up their heads with pride and say "I come from X", where X is a NAME of a PLACE, like "Canada" or "Hungary", or "Kyrgyzstan".
And then there's us. You know those states? In North America? How they're all united and everything? Yeah, them. Well, we don't have a name for them, so let's just call them the "united states" of America.
Gosh darn it. We are going to BEAT this! And in the meantime, if you're looking for us, we'll be over in the corner, commiserating with the United Arab Emirates and the Central African Republic.
August 28, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word any last words
Shoot, coward. You are only going to kill a man.
August 27, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word ყ
*wants a hat like that*
August 25, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word nipple hair
Oh, you should totally follow that link. It includes such gems as this:
August 25, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list people-commonly-known-by-their-first-names
Bilbo is fine, but I have problems with the other two. "Charo" is not her first name, so we can't say she's "commonly known by her first name". And while "Socrates" is technically the man's first (and last) name, the fact that we call him "Socrates" is neither interesting nor surprising. (What else would we call him?)
August 23, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list people-commonly-known-by-their-first-names
As I originally conceived it, the list was restricted to real people, but I hereby cheerfully open it up to fictional people, because why should real people have all the fun?
August 23, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word nuked lunch
I don't think fast food really counts as food. It's a Faked Lunch.
August 22, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list people-commonly-known-by-their-first-names
Help me out, guys... there must be more names we can put on this list!
August 22, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word arlo guthrie
The Motorcycle Song.
August 22, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the user pterodactyl
"The pterodactyl was likely a powerful flyer with highly maneuverable wings and a developed capacity for flight control."
*preens*
August 20, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list hecko-reesetee
Ah! I hear music! It's that old Beatles tune, Micheckle!
August 16, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list pickle-and-such
Hey, no worries. Welcome to Wordie!
August 16, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list pickle-and-such
Hi, SoSheShall -- you can view the list in alphabetical order, if you want. The sorting options are at the top of the page, just to the right of "comment feed" and "cloud". Just click on the little arrows next to "alpha".
And thank you for your contributions!
August 15, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list words-that-positively-describe-furniture
This list will prove useful the next time I chat up an end table.
"Ah, my dear, your design is sophisticated and elegant. I hope you don't think me too forward, but I must ask -- are you a fusion of classic and modern styles?"
August 7, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word wild ass
Onager?
August 4, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word person of the forest
No, wait... orangutan?
August 4, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word person of the forest
Sasquatch?
August 4, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word testicle
Is the other one avocado?
August 4, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word baling
I think that's a reasonable assumption.
August 4, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word electret
Why I love Wordie, reason #817:
I was just about to leave a comment on this page, involving a lame pun on the coincidental similarity between the name "Oliver Heaviside" and the "Heaviside Layer" (from the musical Cats), but first I googled "Heaviside Layer", and discovered, to my shock and delight, that there actually is a Heaviside Layer. It's part of Earth's ionosphere, and it was named after our man Oliver. T.S. Eliot just borrowed the term to describe his mystical feline heaven.
Wikipedia also gives the following interesting information (without any citations to support it):
August 4, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word yod-dropping
*sees a chance to promote own list*
If you're interested in yod-dropping, why not check out this list? You'll love it! (Or your money back!)
July 22, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word mature
Garrison Keillor pronounces it "mah-tour", which sounds very sophisticated to my ear.
I think most people around here (including me) pronounce it "mah-chur".
July 22, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word vladimir putin
It's so true!
July 19, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word spindle cell
I think bears evolved from untonsured monks.
July 19, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list why-i-spend-so-much-time-on-wordie
Regarding the relationship of brevity and wit: Contrast the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest to the Lyttle Lytton, and tell me which tickles your personal funny bone the most...
July 18, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list why-i-spend-so-much-time-on-wordie
Teeth is indeed an excellent page, but it's also quite long, and this list is made up mostly of short little gems that I've found (including you don't beep at a polar bear match, which is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE WORDIE PAGE EVER). Brevity is, for me, the soul of wit.
Teeth is definitely a Conversation for the Ages, though. (And something you would find Only on Wordie.)
July 18, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word conversations
You guys are why I spend so much time on Wordie. :-)
July 17, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word long john silver
In a large number of today's value- and health-conscious consumers Long John Silver's is well positioned to reel.
Oh no! I'm a value- and health-conscious consumer! Does this mean that soon there will peg-legged pirates prancing about inside my pancreas?
July 15, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list bad-guys
Evildoer!
July 13, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word lack of swing mystifies england
Chained_bear, if you're right, then England don't mean a thing.
July 11, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word hot the bottle
By the way, does anyone have any idea what "hot the bottle" refers to? Apparently it's a typo of yarb's, but I have no idea where this typo originally appeared.
July 11, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word go from me, you are black hole
Oh dear. A pants situation. We've got to get a reading on that.
July 9, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word reeseteeless days
*shudder*
Dark days indeed.
July 6, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the user reesetee
Sound the trumpets, good Wordies -- our reeseteeless days are over!
July 6, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word chimpanzee
Oooh! Has anyone else noticed that "chimpanzee" is a three-syllable schwa-free word?
*happy grin*
July 3, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word hot the bottle
Yes, it's true. I failed to bracket "typographical goodness in a crunchy meat snack".
*hangs head in shame*
However, some good has come of this. With your contribution of "crunchy meat sack", this page is rapidly becoming a Typo Hall of Fame. :-)
July 1, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word xer
I'm with rolig. The hyphen has to be there, else it doesn't make sense.
July 1, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word hot the bottle
Mmm... bacon of fine typing. Typographical goodness in a crunchy meat snack!
July 1, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list a-dram-too-many
Three sheets to the wind?
June 30, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word old south
Regarding dontcry's question about New Zealand: There is a Zealand (in Denmark), but it's not the source of the name "New Zealand". That honor goes to a province in the Netherlands.
(Full story here.)
June 22, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word mnemonic
Mousescout -- I love your idea, but I tried it and couldn't make the letters fit the music. Could you please post instructions?
June 22, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word purpose
There's something strange and troubling about this word. In modern usage, "purpose" is a noun, and yet it take affixes as if it were some other part of speech.
Example 1: "Purposely". The suffix "-ly" is supposed to take an adjective and turn it into an adverb. But "purpose" is not an adjective.
Example 2: "Repurpose". The prefix "re-" is supposed to take a verb and turn it into another verb. But "purpose" is not a verb.
This is really creepy. "Purpose" is some kind of uncanny monster. I'm getting the cold shivers just thinking about it.
June 21, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list you-plural
Thanks, c_b, for mentioning the discussion on y'all -- rereading it let me rediscover this map, which is the perfect illustration for this list.
I can place myself on the map without any problems -- upstate New York is overwhelmingly a "you guys" zone, and I follow the local usage.
What about you guys? Where are you on that map? Do you match the local usage?
June 20, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list you-plural
Me, I use "you guys". I used to think it was sexist, but I've come to the conclusion that, in this particular phrase, "guys" is gender-neutral. I use "you guys" even when everyone I'm referring to is female, and I've seen women do the same thing.
I think the phrase has become gender-neutral out of necessity; we needed a plural "you", and "you guys" was just too convenient.
June 19, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word birdo
Bear in mind, folks, that "birdo" is not pronounced "bird-oh", but rather "BEERrdo". In Esperanto, i sounds like "ee", r is slightly trilled, and o is short, without any trace of a w at the end.
June 19, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list words-without-a-rhyme
My favorites are "wolf" and "else", because they're so common.
I've collected some more on this list.
June 17, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word matrices
What's the correct way to pluralize "dominatrix"? My college friends and I used "dominatrices", but that may have just been wishful thinking.
And what about "aviatrix"?
June 15, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word food advocate
Perhaps the person who uses this phrase is using Michael Pollan's definition of "food":
Using this definition of "food", the phrase "food advocate" makes sense (it has roughly the meaning that chained_bear gave, below). The problems start, though, when you assume that your listeners are using the same definition of "food" that you are.
That's my theory, anyway.
June 13, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word that's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind
Plenty of info about this issue at these pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Reading this new info, I'm surprised to learn that Armstrong came up with the line himself, and that he did so only a few hours before he spoke it. I'd always assumed that the historic line was planned well in advance by NASA.
June 8, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word gondor calls for aid
Holy flapjacks, yarb -- that's brilliant! I think we should immediately begin building beacons. Also, I think the beacon-builders should be given bacon, so that they may breakfast beside their beacons.
Also, you've just given me an idea for a new list. :-)
June 6, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word that's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind
Chained_bear, I love that you included the missing "a". You know, the sentence makes no sense without it, but yet most people don't even notice that it's missing. I guess we're just so used to hearing it without the "a" that we've gotten used to the awkward construction.
I know it's all Neil Armstrong's fault for flubbing his line, but I don't blame him. He was understandably distracted at the time. :-)
June 6, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list famous-transmitted-messages
Hi c_b! My concept for this list is very broad, and also rather vague, so feel free to include both of your examples.
I guess the only thing I don't want to see is quotations that happened to have been transmitted, but aren't really "messages". Everything's transmitted these days, so including them all would flood the list with every famous line since the start of the Information Age. So, for example, you can't add "Ask not what your country would do for you, ask what you can do for your country", even though it was certainly transmitted. It's a quotation, not a message.
June 5, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word the horse does not eat cucumber salad
First words spoken into the Reis telephone.
June 5, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word england expects that every man will do his duty
"'England expects that every man will do his duty' was a signal sent by Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson from his flagship HMS Victory as the Battle of Trafalgar was about to commence on 21 October 1805..."
--Wikipedia
June 5, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word u-ie
I've heard this in the States, too, but only as "pull a u-ie" or "hang a u-ie", not "chuck a u-ie".
May 31, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word bamf!
thwip!
May 25, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word carrefour
I agree with rolig. I'm a native English speaker, and I've never heard this word before.
May 25, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word ghungroo
About a meter, bilby. About a meter.
May 24, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word woodwose
France may have had a king who dressed up as a woodwose, but we elected Woodwose Wilson president! This makes us better than the French.
May 21, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word wildermess
Reminds me of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
May 18, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word obamaism
I saw this word in a newspaper article today. I presume it means something like "the political philosophy of Barack Obama", but it's not the meaning that interests me, it's the construction of the word.
Adding the suffix "ism" to a word that ends in a vowel, such as "Obama", seems intuitively wrong. I'd definitely prefer "Obamism", or possibly "Obamatism". I'm not sure why I feel this way, but I suspect it has something to do with the way English handles adjacent vowels.
How do you guys feel about it?
May 5, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word boutros boutros ghali
See also Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
May 5, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word heteronormative
I'm with bilby. This one's new to me.
May 5, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word sandwich generation month
I read it as referring to the spontaneous generation of sandwiches.
Wouldn't that be nice?
May 2, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word national accordion awareness month
Bilby, I think the effects of lack of accordion awareness pale in comparison to the effects of an 11-month year.
*has epiphany* Oh, so that's why your seasons don't match ours! Our years have different periods, and we're out of phase right now!
May 1, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list palabrarium
Oooh, ooh, yarb, pick me, pick me! Mi nur parolas iomete da Esperanto (kaj tio malbone), sed mi vere estas strangulo!
May 1, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word führer
Rolig, I'm impressed that you already knew the word furor at such a young age.
Impressed, but not surprised. :-)
April 29, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list double-dactyl-words
See also this list.
April 29, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list double-dactyls
See also this list.
April 29, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list schwa-free
When I say "kleptomaniac", the second vowel is an o in my mind, but it comes out of my mouth as a schwa.
Nevertheless, I know that some people pronounce the o as an o, so onto the list it goes!
April 29, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list double-dactyls
Indianapolis!
April 28, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word features
I want to second Prolagus's thanks for the "Most active threads" page, and I also want to thank John (again) for the "Most commmented on" section on the front page. Between those two features, I'm actually able to keep a handle on the great roiling mass that is Wordie.
(Also I really like the idea of a quick and easy way to make links to people's profiles. It'd be nice to not have to type out the HTML tags and URL every time!)
April 27, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word cutify
Yeah -- like something the Butcher would say: "I will cutify you if you don't hand over a tonnage of money."
(But I was originally thinking 'kjutəfaɪ.)
April 26, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word automatic cutification
My favorite feature of Wordie PRO is the way it automatically cutifies all the words, by displaying each one as the caption to a random picture of a cat.
For a limited time, users of regular, non-PRO Wordie can try a free sample of this feature.
(Grateful thanks to chained_bear for the magnificent source material.)
April 26, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word cutify
To make cute.
April 26, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word ursus horribilis
As often happens, the true Wordie action is on the misspelling: ursus horribilus.
April 25, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the user pterodactyl
Truth is, pterodactyls are actually adorable. I mean, just look at those cute reptilian eyes!
April 25, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word chiasmus
♩I might be drunk, but at least I'm not insaaaaaane! ♩
April 25, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the user pterodactyl
*clicks link*
*starts to grin*
Gosh. I could really get into that kind of propaganda.
(Even though it it's technically false.)
April 23, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word last page
What happens if I go sideways?
April 21, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word monkey
If you watch this video over and over and over, you will definitely become hypnotized.
April 21, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word charging baby tapirs!
See also charging baby tapirs! what are you doing here, if you like things a bit more surreal.
April 16, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list schwa-free
*stares open-mouthed*
It's... it's...
It's too much for the human mind to comprehend.
*faints*
April 16, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list schwa-free
*applauds*
Mollusque, you're amazing. Radioassaying! I had to look it up to be sure -- you've found a SIX SYLLABLE word that's pronounced without schwas!
*very impressed indeed*
April 16, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word geezer
I'll add my vote to the growing North American consensus -- here in upstate New York, "Geezer" refers to someone who's really, really old. The word is informal, comical, and slightly pejorative.
April 16, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list schwa-free
I keep saying "neurotic" over and over again, trying to figure out what vowel I have for the first syllable. The problem is that the vowel is colored by the r that follows it. It could be a schwa, but honestly, I can't really tell.
Perhaps I should stop repeating "neurotic" to myself. I don't want the other people in this computer lab to worry...
April 15, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list schwa-free
It occurs to me, mollusque, that I surrounded my IPA transcription with slash marks (/), which refer to phonemes. This was a mistake. I was actually talking about phones, so I should have used square brackets, like this: dɪsən'hɪbəɾɪŋ.
As far as phonemes go, well, you're right. I only have ɪ's for you.
April 14, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list schwa-free
Disinhibiting, in my dialect, is /dɪsən'hɪbəɾɪŋ/. How do you guys pronounce it?
April 14, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list schwa-free
Why, thank you, chained_bear! As an incorrigible pedant myself, I felt I needed to accommodate my nitpicking brethren. :-)
April 14, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word schwa
I'm gaga for schwas, but sometimes even I can't take any more. For those times, there is a place for me.
April 14, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list schwa-free
Sweet Buddha on a bicycle, that was fast, sionnach!
*applauds*
April 14, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list schwa-free
Now, how about a four-syllable word?...
April 14, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list schwa-free
Thank you all for your effusive response! I love you guys. :-)
That said, I must note that most of your submissions do, in fact, have schwas, at least in my dialect. Per my own rules, I'll still add them if you can give me an example of a dialect that pronounces them without schwas.
In the meantime, special gold stars go to yarb and sionnach for "judaize" and "grotesquely", both of which fit the bill nicely.
April 14, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the user chained_bear
Hi c_b! I think I just stumbled across you on another site. Wow -- small Internet!
April 14, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list schwa-free
WORDIE CHALLENGE:
Find me a word for this list that's three or more syllables long.
Proper nouns don't count.
April 14, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word soapy
Kudos to sionnach for his scrupulous adherence to the -cky rule (as seen in "picnicking" and "panicky"), even in silly contexts like this one. :-D
April 14, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word bumfuck nowhere
You can read more of these in the "Places" section of the "Placeholder name" article on Wikipedia.
April 11, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word uav
How is this pronounced?
April 10, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word raccoons in space
*hums theme song*
April 9, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word schmuck
Perhaps it's used the same way dick is, as in "That guy's a dick".
April 7, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word schmo
I remember hearing that this word is a minced oath version of schmuck. Can anyone confirm or disconfirm?
April 7, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word bilbao
Gangerh -- I'll catch up with you at the Verbal Arms later. I haven't yet finished with Grace. :)
April 7, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the list johntgraham-s-list
John T. Graham:
Lousy, stinking stupid verminous cock-sucking sons of bitches!
pterodactyl:
What? I came here for Wordie banter!!
John T. Graham:
OH! Oh! I'm sorry! This is abuse!
pterodactyl:
Oh! Oh I see!
John T. Graham:
Aha! No, you want room 12A, next door.
pterodactyl:
Oh...Sorry...
John T. Graham:
Not at all!
(under his breath) stupid git.
April 5, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word disgruntled employee benefits
*kvetches*
April 4, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word frankly my deer
Doe!
April 2, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word pianistan
*puts bread in your jar*
April 1, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word elk
You know I need someone's... ELLLLLLK!
March 29, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word twt
A Welsh fart.
March 29, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word flemish
Reminds me of a joke I just heard:
Q. What's the difference between a French kiss and a Belgian kiss?
A. A Belgian kiss is like a French kiss, but with more Flem.
March 28, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word the exception that proves the rule
Here's an interesting article about this phrase.
March 26, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word vhemt
VHEMT's website offers lots of interesting information, including the pronunciation of the acronym ("vehement") and their official slogan ("May we live long and die out.")
March 25, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word sit-down
I find bilby quite striking indeed. It's those ears!
(See shaken baby syndrome, of all places.)
March 25, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word come by
*considers this page for almost a minute, then suddenly gets sionnach's point*
Hee hee hee hee hee!
March 21, 2009
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