|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Here's a practical source where you can quickly enter a word, and a definition, example sentence, and long list of synonyms and similar words appear. Additionally, there appear to be possibly many literary references for each word. Enter pariah, for example, and you'll see the word's use by writers such as Twain and Kipling. The site doesn't offer anything on etymology that I've come across in a few minutes of browsing. My apologies in advance if this site is for primarily commercial purposes. http://www.thefreedictionary.comEdit: Well, there are advertisements here and links to sales, but those are easily avoided if your mouse finger's under control.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230 |
I remember receiving this one in the mail, but all the pop-ups annoyed me, iirc, so I didn't add it to my list.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
That's really cool--thanks, WW! I like the little cartoon drawings, too. I asked it about pot, and it gave several meanings I hadn't thought of, and this one which I hadn't heard of:
8. pot - a resistor with three terminals, the third being an adjustable center terminal; used to adjust voltages in radios and TV sets
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
Many centuries ago, when I was a young disc jockey, we referred to the large knobs on a radio mixer board -- the ones that turned volume up and down -- as "pots."
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
short for potentiometer I think
TEd
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
short for potentiometer
Yup. It's been in my active vocabulary since 1965 or earlier.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,598 Likes: 1
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,598 Likes: 1 |
...and the "volume" control, if my source is accurate (and I don't see how this could be just another Urban Legend) comes from the fact that the perceived loudness coming from a loudspeaker is directly related to the VOLUME of air it displaces as the electromagnet drives the cone back and forth.
(Doesn't this whole sub-thread belong in the Joke/Antenna forum instead?)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
just another Urban Legend
Volume has had this sense in music since 1822 according to the OED
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
When I wuz at school, we had us a science teacher who was into ham radio like a rat up a drainpipe. We got chapter and verse on radio/electrical/electronic terminology, including pots and the derivation of volume, plus more about valves (tubes to you USns) than I ever wanted to know, even when I was wiring them up for real in my first home-made amp, which was a doozy, 200 watts RMS.
It went, as Nigel Tufnell would say, up to eleven. I had to abandon it (sob) when the valves I was using became unavailable. Funny thing is that now, some thirty years later, they are making the damned things again!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
I have an audiophile chum who has invested many thousands of dollars (US) into a stereo system which is located like a shrine in his home. If one is foolish enough to ask even the simplest question about it, thereby showing the tiniest bit of interest, he is likely to run on at length about topics which induce an hypnotic state in mere (non-audiophile) mortals. One of his favourite dissertations is about tubes (valves) versus solid-state thingies. He will carry on about softness and gentility and other non-scientific considerations, which justify the expenditure of wheelbarrows full of money on sets which contain tubes (valves). My recommendation: don't ask.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
I have an audiophile chum who has invested many thousands of dollars (US) into a stereo system which is located like a shrine in his home. If one is foolish enough to ask even the simplest question about it, thereby showing the tiniest bit of interest, he is likely to run on at length about topics which induce an hypnotic state in mere (non-audiophile) mortals. One of his favourite dissertations is about tubes (valves) versus solid-state thingies. He will carry on about softness and gentility and other non-scientific considerations, which justify the expenditure of wheelbarrows full of money on sets which contain tubes (valves). My recommendation: don't ask. That was wonderfully written, my friend. 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
Thank you, Jackie, for a kind and encouraging comment. These have been in short supply on this board of late, which detracts from the friendly and positive tone which is the ideal.
The Old Padre
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 389
enthusiast
|
|
enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 389 |
Me too. You too Jackie and many others, indeed all of you here, at most times (although there are lots of discussions that are well over my head), who have helped me laugh, learn and think better.
Bees (honey) and Owls (wisdom) for all.
Smart can be good,
Kind wisdom always is.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
"short for potentiometer"
I was just getting ready to type this very sentence.
Happily I can say it was not in my vocabulary till a long time after 1965.
k
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
"There are many instances where only a portion of an output voltage from a signal source is needed. If we allowed the full output voltage from a home CD player to be driven into the input of an amplifier, the amplifier would play at or near full power at all times. This would become quite annoying in a very short period of time. To reduce the overall volume, we need to allow only a fraction of the full signal through to the amplifier. To control the level of the signal, we use a potentiometer. A potentiometer (also know as a 'pot') is a modified resistor. Potentiometers can be used to allow a change in the resistance in a circuit or as a variable voltage divider (in the case of a volume control). If you have a rotary volume control on your TV or radio, it is (more than likely) a potentiometer being used as a variable voltage divider.* A potentiometer generally has 3 terminals. 2 of the terminals are connected to the opposite ends of a resistive element. The 3rd terminal (usually, is physically in-between the other 2 terminals) is called the wiper. The wiper is a contact (actually, generally many very small contacts) that slides along the resistive element. " http://www.eatel.net/~amptech/elecdisc/potentio.htm
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,430
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
686
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
