Don't laugh. Where can I find a good on-line dictionary?
I'm a sort of computer anti-geek. As soon as I sit down in front of one I turn into a geek and start having arguments with it. It took me 10 minutes to figure out how to start a new thread.
Go to:
http://onelook.comEarmark it; memorize it. It includes over 800 online dictionaries/word lists as references, including our beloved tsuwm's collection.
Okay, where did the word earmark come from?
Take your standard cow. Take its standard ear. Affix a label to that ear so you know it's your cow. That's earmarking.
Take your standard website. Take its standard address. Affix the label of your 'favorites' to that address. That's earmarking the website as one of your own.
Wow, I didn't know earmarking cattle was that widespread. I'd thought most of them were branded. But I was really more interested in the association with earmarking books. I suppose that came about because turning down the top corner of the page made the page look like it had an ear? Which practice, thanks to some rather fearsome elementary-school teachers, I do not do. Never, under ANY circumstances, do I consider it okay to turn down the page corner in a Book. Books are sacred, not to be defiled, in my mind, thusly. I straighten out pages in library books, even when you get those that have 10 or 20 kind of crunched down together.
Dear Jackie: One of my ancestors in Pembroke, MA in early 1700s
had earmark for his sheep registered with the town clerk,
three holes in the right ear, and a swallow's tail in the left.
All our cattle had a do
uble band of I guess stainless steel folded in half, placed around edge of ear, and end stapled together through the ear.
Die stamped numbers and letters for permanent identification. The kids couldn't take them to fairs without proof that they were disease free, including immunizations. Also indispensible when selling offspring.
We were told not to 'dogear' our library books--but I don't know whether this is a term that's generally used.
What wwh wrote about earmarking is exactly the kind of practice I was referring to: earmarking animals especially for FFA exhibits and fairs. The term, by extension, simply means anything you mark as your own.
Dogears is what I know those folded-down corners of pages as. I hope I don't have to explain why they are called that.
One more vote for dog-ear. However, I tend to hyphenate it, otherwise your brain splits it up funny. do-gear. doge-ar.
hyphenate it
Ya know? I can't remember ever having spelled it before.
Interesting. dogear gets only one hit on Onelook and dog-ear gets eight--at least in the first source listing. I'm not counting the second source listings.
My Canadian Oxford has "dog-eared". No mention of alternate spelling. FWIW.
I like onelook, too, but if you're in a hurry (and are not quite sure how to spell the word) go to
http://m-w.com/. If you've misspelled what you're looking for, Merriam-Webster forgives you and will give you choices.
"Dog-eared" is pretty world-wide English usage. And it means the same thing on both sides of the Big Ditch.
Go figger!
- Pfranz
>the Big Ditch
Is, of course the one separating Auckland from Oakland - at least for now, although I hear that the little pond on the other side is getting bigger.
hyphenate itHey, are we hypenventilating again!?
make that hyphen-ventilating
Onelook also references MW.