6/27/2008
I'm new here, just joined, this is a great place I want to know how to pronounce ''pusillanimous''. and I want the definition of ''blooter'', used often on the O'Reilly factor news program (FOX). Great place this is.
Carol

Can't be bothered cutting and pasting IPA symbols right now, but I would pronounce it pyoo-sill-annie-muss (where the 'u' in 'muss' is a schwa). The emphasis is on the first and third/fourth syllables - PU-sill-ANI-mous. I am Australian, however, and perhaps Americans pronounce it differently.

I've never heard of a 'blooter' though.

pusillanimous


As for "blooter," I'd suggest you google it. There are several meanings.

while it's always possible to get answers to these sorts of questions here, I am constrained to point out that there are two relatively quick ways to accomplish this on your own online dime:
1) OneLook provides multiple resources for definitions, often with pronunciations; but even better are those sites (such as Merriam-Webster and American Heritage) which have links to audible files whence you can hear the word (in standard Am. Eng.)
2) for more obscure terms (although OneLook has a couple of entries for 'blooter'), you might try going straight to Google
note search string which narrows things nicely to your context.

[NB: please note that both of the previous underlined terms are "links" to the respective resources.]

if both of these fail, what you have is a *really* obscure term, and if you then ask here, likely as not your question will get answered (and odds are good your word will eventually get indexed by *both of the aforementioned resources).

Welcome eye: I often have good luck Googling, eg,

blooter intitle:words intitle:origins

Surely my post wasn't overlooked. Guess it was too succinct. Thanks for the expanded version, tsuwm, that was a much better reply.

there's a twenty-five minute difference in our respective time-stamps; I suppose that's a good indication of how long I spent composing the damn thing, Shirley!

To everyone who responded, I so deeply appreciate. One of you even sent me to a website that actually pronounced the word for me. Thank You so much. I'm a little old, and just learning about searches and computers. Oh my God, if I had it only had this when I was young...................

I think you'll find, eye-nrs, that many people on these boards are "a little old", and some "a lot old". I would be willing to bet that you have skills and knowledge that many of us lack. Technology isn't everything, but it sure is cool, isn't it? Welcome! :0)

"Oh my God, if I had it only had this when I was young"
For reasons I cannot explain, I am reminded of a former AWADian, Dr. Bill who was not a technological guru, but nevertheless was persistent and forward-thinking, and always eager to learn new things. (He might have considered it facetious, but most real hackers would have recognized a kindred spirit in him.)

The resources we have available to us now are staggering, but our grand-children will say the same thing - only sooner.

"Oh my God, if I had it only had this when I was young"

The world at our fingertips ...

Personal electronics.

Google.

Wikipedia.

Project Gutenberg.

Mapquest and Google Earth.

Youtube.

Of course, there's a fair amount of stupidity to wade through, as well.

yes...but, do you think its making us lazy...all the answers so quickly available!

In practice, unfortunately, many times, yes. That's unfortunate. We can't trust a great deal of what we find on the net. We need to learn how to filter out the crap - and we're not good at that.

I do. There is some thinking, more among students I'd wager, that they don't need to bother learning math functions because the calculator can do it for them. And some schools no longer teach cursive handwriting.

The Industrial Age was supposed to make our lives easier, and so too the Electronic Age. I just hope we make better use of this new "ease" than we did in the 20th. century.