Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A series of vertical bars of varying widths, in which each of the digits zero through nine are represented by a different pattern of bars that can be read by a laser scanner. The bars are commonly found on consumer products and are used especially for inventory control.
  • noun A DNA barcode.
  • transitive verb To provide or mark (an item) with a barcode.
  • transitive verb To DNA barcode.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any set of machine-readable parallel bars or concentric circles, varying in width, spacing, or height, encoding information according to a symbology.

Etymologies

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Examples

Comments

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  • I love the sound of this word. So misterious.

    April 22, 2008

  • I have two jobs. Both of them rely heavily on barcodes.

    April 22, 2008

  • The same kind of barcodes? Or are you a geneticist and a cashier?

    April 22, 2008

  • I am neither a geneticist nor a cashier. But you're close!

    April 22, 2008

  • Artist? (N.B. the linked page is fairly image-heavy, so best avoided on 56k.)

    April 22, 2008

  • Beautiful stuff, VO -- thanks for the link!

    But no, I am not an artist.

    April 22, 2008

  • Are you a librarian?

    April 22, 2008

  • Yes indeed, plethora! Well, sort of. I'm working on my master's degree to become a proper librarian. Until then, I'm just a weekend aide at my library's circulation desk.

    That's one job guessed, one to go...

    April 22, 2008

  • Is this page only for people with screen names beginning with P? Oh, wait, VanishedOne was here. ;-)

    Ptero, good luck to you--just thinking about being in school again while working makes me tired. And VO, thanks for the link to one of my favorite sites. :-)

    April 23, 2008

  • /nick psarra

    damn it!

    April 23, 2008

  • ha ha (response)!

    April 23, 2008

  • It's never too late for a new nickname, psarra and preesetee! Just follow the example of pbilby and pchained_pbear.

    April 23, 2008

  • Heehee. Doesn't work here, does it?

    Signed, pReeseTee

    Edit: ptero, we must have posted at exactly the same ptime.

    April 23, 2008

  • Maybe because my mother is a librarian, but that's what comes to mind when I think of barcodes, every time. :)

    As for your other job... I'll have to think about it.

    April 23, 2008

  • You can convey the suggestion of an extra initial P- by wearing a monocle and referring to everyone as Comrade. Although

    /. O\

    < |

     \_/|

          |

    may have to do for the Wordie monocle.

    April 24, 2008

  • Ah, that must be what lethora and rolagus did.

    April 24, 2008

  • Why... why, that looks just like reesetee!!

    April 24, 2008

  • Can't be. I'm a potager. The monocle would fall into the soup. ;-)

    April 24, 2008

  • Nice try to throw us off, there, reesetee. You've been a monocled raconteur all this time. Thankfully, as VO's illustration shows, your monocle chain means you can pull it out of the potage if it falls in..... Wait! Does this mean reesetee is chained too?!

    April 24, 2008

  • Yet again, we come face to face with one of Wordie's eternal mysteries: just what is a reesetee, anyway?

    April 24, 2008

  • I had to add that tag.

    April 25, 2008

  • Oh, forget it, s. It's hopeless. Not even I know what I am anymore.

    Nice barcode, Pro. At long last, Wordie can be scanned.

    April 25, 2008

  • October 7, 2009