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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Have you ever opened a dictionary to look up a word, only to find yourself distracted by another word on the page? The definition of that word steers you to yet another, some two hundred pages ahead, and before you know it your fingers are cavorting as if in a random dance on the leaves of the lexicon.
This week's words in AWAD were chosen by following precisely that route. You could call it Brownian Motion, Browsing the Web, or Looking Words Up In a Dictionary. I think many of us here fit this category. And, probably, many of us have our own names for this process. I call it "reading the dictionary". What do you call it?
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
reading the dictionary sounds good to me!
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
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I've tended to cal it chasing the sun after the title of a book on lexicography that I once read (see this article for an explanation of why the book was so named). But it seems to me that chercher les mots might be a goodly moniker, too. A take on another book title yields After Lemmata.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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yes, reading (or browsing) the dictionary; although moreso recently, I've been Looking Something Up (with Something being deliberately veiled).
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 618
addict
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addict
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 618 |
Perusing the dictionary...
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
(with Something being deliberately veiled). Ooh, ooo! Hogwash a-comin', I'll betcha! I hope!
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I think the deliberate veiling of Something is just so that you can avoid being caught out by someone who notices that although you said you were looking up zymurgy you're reading stuff in the Js.
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 95
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 95 |
Word surfing
or
The Definition Two-Step
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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I think the deliberate veiling of Something is just so that you can avoid being caught out by someone who notices that although you said you were looking up zymurgy you're reading stuff in the Js. exisely.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
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