Hello!
I wanted to tell you about a new website for word lovers called the "Word Browser". It selects randomly from a huge (263,000+) list of English words and sets up links for researching them at all the best reference sites. If you find some gems, you can even save them in a personal favorites list. It's only been active for a few days so I'd love to know what you think.
Here's the address:
http://www.storylines.com/wbThanks, and best regards,
Josh
Dear Josh: I tried you site, and found it potentially a lot of fun. Only one of my first ten words was a bit doubtful - "monotocous". But the 'toc' root had appeared on AWADtalk a short time ago, and I was able to guess correctly that it is a word postentially useful in an obstetriccal patient history, as a bit more elegant than usual "para one" meaning a woman with one child.
And dear Josh: I must say you are a very welcome addition to ADWADtal!
Dear Josh: In my second ten words, the only new one was "clerchus". It wasn't in my dictionary, and when I Used the online dictionary provided, it didn't have it either. Instead it gave "Clearachus"
One entry found for Clearchus.
I went into Yahoo Search and found that "clerchus" was an alternative spelling for "Clearchus".
Main Entry: Cle·ar·chus
Pronunciation: klE-'är-k&s
Function: biographical name
5th cent. B.C. Spartan soldier; gov. of Byzantium (408 B.C.); his severe
policies caused the people to surrender to Athens in his absence
In my third ten words, the only word I did not know was "kyat" which my dictionary says is basic monetary unit of Myanmar.
Hey, Josh, the thing cheats. My fourth group gave "dawbries" which is apparently just an alternate spelling for "dewberries" !
Now I'm in a snit. the fifth group contained "cevadillas". No can find definition. A couple mentions of it being in some kind of eyedrops, so perhaps a botanical medication.
PS. After a long hard search, I finally found that "cevadilla" is an alternate spelling of "Sabadilla".
SABADILLA: A broad-spectrum, short residual (2 days in sunlight) botanical insecticide derived from a South American lily. It can be very toxic to humans in purified form.
As a side rant, I laughed heartily at a homeopathic site, which displayed a long "scientific" homeopathic study of treatment of allergy with "extract of honey bee, cevadilla, etc." with; no definitions whatsoever as to what "extract of honeybee" actuall consisted of, nor any details about it. That's homeopathic science at its best! (end rant)
Nice site.. you might have mentioned it was your site.. and that it was ad free..
a while back people posted 'great sites', that they really were hyping for their personal advancement, they were full of ad... and we had an editor of Oxford Univerisity Press, come and hype the new OED for american english.. but she was up front.. (and said, i am editor of the OAED) and i guess i am really saying this for others who just sometimes read the board, and generaly don't post. we really like being a low ad board!
tsuwm is very low key in hyping his site..and it too is ad free..
who knows, if we all like it, the next thing you know, Max will have added it as a link to his page of AWAD info! welcome aboard Josh!
Dr. Bill! Guess we know how you spent your morning, eh?
Talking to himself!--Love you Doc! [kiss-e]Welcome aBoard Josh! Nice to have you and your site join us. Hope you enjoy us as much as Dr. Bill enjoyed you!
Welcome, Josh. I tried your site, and as usual got immediately sidetracked (hi, WW!). I went to OneLook for something I hardly remember now--oh yes, soily--and was scrolling down when I caught sight of this intriguing word: seizin. (No g.) Here's what it said:
Seizin (n.) Possession; possession of an estate of froehold. It may be either in deed or in law; the former when there is actual possession, the latter when there is a right to such possession by construction of law. In some of the United States seizin means merely ownership. Made me think of "What's the reason for the seizin", etc.!
So--what the heck is a froehold? If you didn't have enough of a toehold on your froehold, would you be subject to a fit of seizin?
I scrolled on down to see if I could LIU in OneLook (couldn't), and got reminded of this other delightful word:
Syzygy (n.) The point of an orbit, as of the moon or a planet, at which it is in conjunction or opposition; -- commonly used in the plural.
Syzygy (n.) The coupling together of different feet; as, in Greek verse, an iambic syzygy.
Syzygy (n.) Any one of the segments of an arm of a crinoid composed of two joints so closely united that the line of union is obliterated on the outer, though visible on the inner, side.
Syzygy (n.) The immovable union of two joints of a crinoidal arm. Thanks, Josh, for giving me some smiles today. (What can I say--I'm easily entertained!)
sorry Josh, it's not my cup of tea -- too many dead ends and/or duplications of information. for my time-wasting divertissement (along these lines) give me a word list and onelook and google.
http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/
So I went for ten more words, and got two I did not know and could not find in a couple dictionaries.
1. faws couldn't even find it in the Phrontistery.
2. aspergations - couldn't find it in Phrontistery either. But found "asperge" meaning "to sprinkle"
Another ten words: "iriachs" couldn't find it in Phrontistery either.
Hey tsuwm, forget your tea. I playfully challenge you to find those words not in Phrontistery.
Same to all other AWADtalk participants.
It would be nice if the site also let you put in your own words so you could see the results from all of those sources very easily.
bill, I don't know why you would expect to find these in the Phrontistery; faws are a tribe of Scottish gypsies and iriach is a variant spelling of eriach or eric, Irish blood money.
http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/
Dear tsuwm: Thank you. I am aware that the Phrontistery is not the ultimate source, but it is still more words than many dictionaries. If I can't find it there, I know it is a tough one.
Jazz.,
Good idea! You've always been able to use the text box at the top of the 'table of links' - just type any word and hit refresh and you're off and running. BUT... because that was so inobvious, I added an additional text field (just last night) to go right along with your list on the left.
Hope you like it!
Josh
Thanks for the warm welcome and the intersting word!
Josh
Myanmar? "Burma" please, unless you favor the military oppression that claims the former and outlawed the latter.
;-) The interesting thing about kyat (according to my Burmese friend, Kyaw) is that the ky is pronounced as a 'ch' as 'church' with only the slightest 'y' sound.
Keep on browsin' -
Josh
It's not cheating, it's just being coy. There are lots of alternative spellings to trip you up. Last night I saw "throve" as the past tense of "thrive"!
Lots of 'adopted' words in there too, then you really get into weird spellings. I'm a huge fan of homoeopathy, actually, but Abraham Lincoln apparently was not. He likened it to (exact quote) "the boiled-down shadow of a pigeon"!
Your response is very kind, of troy. I like to fit my web work to be 'big' enough to be useful but not so big to cost a lot. It's chickenfeed to host a site these days, so I'll never up ads. They don't work anyway, which I find ironically beautiful (or should that be beautifully ironic...?) Either way. :-) BTW, what is tsuwm's site?
An afterthought along the same lines (internet ads), I nixed Bartleby from the 'table of links' because they pop up two %$@%-ing ad windows every time you look up a word. (And it was rare to find anything there anyway. Darn sour grapes.)
Syzygy has always been one of my favorite words; it has such beauty of form and function. I don't know about froehold, but I did find froe in the OED - to summarize: 1. A wedge-shaped tool used for cleaving and riving staves, shingles, etc... or, Obs. form of Frow, Dutchwoman. Doesn't exactly sound related to froehold, based on the seizin definition.
He uses a link as a signature file.
you could scroll up, but here is its
http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/ WWFTD stand for the worthless word for the day... a rather eclectic selection of words.. not quite worthless, but of very limited value.. but that does sound as catchy!
You asked for it, you got it:
pyx n.: 1. a box, a coffer, a vase; 2. The vessel in which the host or consecrated bread of the sacrament is reserved.
pyx v.: to put something into a pyx. pyxing vbl. sp.
(OED again)
And thanks for the 'plugs'!
It is a great time sucker for sure! That's why I built it actually: I have a long overnight shift at work. Myself, I enjoy the Easter egg hunt... there's not an egg under every bush. I'm not sure I ken your last sentence - the Word Browser *does* give you a word list and onelook and google...?
>onelook and google...?
OneLook.com gets you to almost all of the available online dictionaries in one crack (OED excepted) and google.com still seems to be the best of the search engines (any other opinions?). so these two suffice for most of my treasure hunts. (well, add in the OED occasionally :)
edit wouldn't it be kewl if Bob Ware (of OneLook) could work out a deal with OUP to give a look into the OED, say for words that don't turn up in M-W or AHD? (it would seem like great exposure, but it'll never happen!)
btw, Josh, it would help those of us who view posts in flat mode if you gave us some context, so we'd know which of the many posts here you are responding to.
http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/
tsuwm,
I have just seen your site and I'm gobsmacked - I would have guessed you to be a big WB (Word Browser) fan! You have an AMAZING list of words there... where did you get them all? Just as a source of fresh ground chuck I should think the WB would serve you true. But alas, you're a tea drinker, not grill cook. :-) Keep up the great work with wwftd!
A faw is a gypsy, esp. one of a particular tribe of Scottish gypsies. (OED)
Phrontistery is list of fewer than 14,000 words, the WB database is 263,533 words. But since Phr. has the definitions, it quite a lot less frustrating :-) God, the labor he has put into that thing! Phew! I wish his site was searchable, so I could plug into it from the Word Browser!
>OneLook.com gets you ... all dictionaries in one crack
True, but it's slow and I still find lots of stuff only elsewhere (particulary MSN's dictionary, of all places).
>google.com ... be the best of the search engines (any other opinions?)
Agreed! That's why it's at the top of the list ;-)
>wouldn't it be kewl if ... OneLook could work out a deal with OUP ...
That would be great, but as you said unlikely. BTW, Does anyone know the cost of the online subscription? (I wrote to the address at OUP's site, but no response as yet.)
>btw, Josh, it would help ... if you gave ... context
Sorry! Gnu Bee Mist Ache.
Dear Josh: in another thread there was a question about "seizin" and "froehold". I found "seizin" defined, with "froehold" used but not defined. I wonder if "froehold" could be a typo for "freehold".
>cost of the online subscription?
it's $550 per annum for an individual, way beyond my means; but I found that I could get free access through our public library -- I only have to deal with the nuisance of using a proxy server.
http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/
Re:I enjoy the Easter egg hunt...
Oh its been a while! have you any for W2K? or MS office profressional suite XP edition? after all it is easter week!
For those of you who are unaware, a computer easter egg is a bit of coding a bored programmer has added to an application.
One old example was in MS Word (Office 97!) if you typed zzzz, that is 4 z's, (not 2, or 3!) and ran it through the spell check, as an alternate word, it suggested sex--!
easter eggs are named because one of the first created an easter (decorated, colored) egg, that opened, and a rabbit came out. one common use of easter eggs is to list the names of all the programmers that have worked on a project. but some are fun! there was a great one in Excel a few years ago, that mimic a flight simulator routine!
OED
>$550 per annum
Yikes! I guess I'll buy the CD-ROM!
>free access through ... library
I'll have to look into that, but I'll still probably just get the CDROM (about $250 direct from OUP, or somewhat less from ebay, etc.)
Re:I enjoy the Easter egg hunt...
>have you any ... computer easter egg[s]
Try
http://www.eggheaven2000.com
So--what the heck is a froehold?
That must be a typo for freehold, which is an estate for life or in fee; the right to a title in land. To be a freehold (can you guess the etymology?), an estate must possess immobility and indeterminate duration.
US property law is still firmly rooted in the soil of feudal England, and the concepts and terminology of those days are still in use.
Seisen was originally the completion of the feudal investiture through possession. Waaaaay back when, the conveyance of real estate was not complete until the granting lord picked up a clump of the dirt and handed it to the grantee.
aspergations - couldn't find it in Phrontistery either. But found "asperge" meaning "to sprinkle"but dr. bill, surely you know this board has been sprinked with our pixie's
aspergarions for almost two years?
Bill, there is a noun 'asperges' (pron. ass-PER-geez) which is interesting. It is the name for the doodad which is used by a priest, bishop, cardinal, etc. to sprinkle holy water. If you have not actually seen this in use, you have probably at some time or other seen a picture in the newspaper or a magazine of someone blessing the fishing fleet, or the foxhounds, or something, and sprinkling it with the asperges. It's a metal rod (often silver) maybe 8 to 12 in. long, with a perforated bulbous head which is dipped in a small bucket of holy water and then waved to disperse it on something or someone.
The word comes from the Latin text of a verse of a Psalm: Asperges me Domine hyssopo et mundabor which the AV translates as Purge me O Lord with hyssop and I shall be clean. This was chanted during the Lavabo, the ritual washing of the hands by the priest in the Mass, and was transferred to the act of aspergation (using the asperges).
The word 'asparagus' came from "asperges" because of that vegetable's resemblance to the implement. One of the most roundabout derivations I know of.
The word 'asparagus' came from "asperges" because of that vegetable's resemblance to the implement.
Wow, Byb, thank you--I was wondering about that, and was going to kid Dr. Bill by asking hadn't he ever had aspergations for supper!
I admire you a very great deal, you know that?
Dear BobY: I can cast no fault-finding aspersions on your scholarship. Nor would I wish to.Thank you.
I really appreciate all the feedback I've gotten from the folks here, this is a great forum. If you're still interested, here's another update to the Word Browser...
There was the suggestion that it might be nice if the word list were "scannable". Thus was born the "Alphabetical Word Browser". If you'd like to check it out, the home page has a link to it:
http://www.storylines.com/wb
Basically it is the entire word list divided up into 526 "pages" of 500 words each. There are options at the top for browsing the words at a select few reference and other sites; I'll be adding more over time. Other features such as saving to your own word list are not there yet, but coming soon. (In the meantime the "random" interface is still there). As always, feedback (both positive and negative) is encouraged; I'm curious to know if people find one interface friendlier than the other.
Thanks again,
Josh
Dear Josh: I like the random ten words best. It is a big enough bite, and interesting words are included sufficiently often. However, I have to look at many, many groups before I find a word suitable for making a post.Helen of Troy has suggested that we all should be on the lookout for interesting words in the books and magazines we read, and post the text in which we find them
If we all did that, the Board would be a much more enjoyable place.
Oh, Dr Bill, you are too kind! i am not Helen of Troy i am Helen/of Troy- each is an alternate name. you only have to go to Max's gallery, and you'll see-- i will claim a winning personality, and good sense of humor, and lots of other admirable traits.. but not not evan a milli helen of beauty--(if Helen of Troy's beauty could launch a 1000 ships, a milli helen could launch one ship, 2 milli helen's 2, and so on.
Old Yankee saying: Handsome is as handsome does.
Old Yankee saying: Handsome is as handsome does.
Now that's interesting. In the south we say "Beauty is as beauty does."
In the south we say "Beauty is as beauty does."
Forrest Gump says "stupid is as stupid does."
Guess that's just general wisdom that actions speak louder than words.
apropos of nothing, gump comes from a Scandinavian word for buttocks or rump and is low cant for a complete nitwit.
errare est humanum
Apropos of still less, Andy Gump was longtime comic strip character, with very small lower jaw.
Also, "gumption"
2 courage and initiative; enterprise and boldness: the current sense
gump comes from a Scandinavian word for buttocks or rump and is low cant for a complete nitwit.
Thank you, tsuwm. Reckon it was appropriate, then. I must be about the only person who didn't like that movie. Maybe it's just that I don't like Tom Hanks--I didn't like Sleepless in Seattle, either. Though maybe it's that I'm a bit hypersensitive to insults to people who are 'different'. I HATED The Waterboy!
Josh:
There's actually a more technical definition for pyxing. At one time quality control at a mint required that a certain percentage of the coins produced be examined for quality (and not incidentally for content of precious metal.) The assayer would randomly go through the output and put the required number into a pyx, a locked strongbox with a slot for dropping the coins into. It was later transferred under seal to the assayer's office where the contents were tested for quality of stamping, metal content, and weight. Pyxing is thus a random sampling process.
I add my welcome in echo of those before me.
TEd
Ted,
That's great - thanks for the expanded definition. So the Word Browser itself could almost be called a "Word Pyxer" ;-) It sure 'picks' fascinating ones sometimes. ;-)
-Josh
Ted wrote:
>There's actually a more technical definition for pyxing.
>[...] Pyxing is thus a random sampling process."