MetaFilter posts tagged with vocabulary and words

All the news that's fit to cromulate

escabeche — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:01:45 -0800

The 50 words that generate the most click-throughs to the dictionary from the New York Times. The Nieman Journalism Lab reveals the words that sent NYT readers running to the Merriam-Webster. Key fact: Maureen Dowd is overly fond of the word "louche." If the post is TL;DR for you, here's the list in Wordle.

a selcouth galimatias

nickyskye — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 21:33:36 -0800

International House of Logorrhea, at The Phrontistry, a free online dictionary of weird and unusual words to help enhance your vocabulary. Generous language resources, 2 and 3 letter Scrabble words l The Compass DeRose Guide to Emotion Words l all kinds of glossaries for color terms, wisdom, love and attraction, scientific instruments, manias and obsessions, feeding and eating, carriages and chariots, dance styles and all kinds of fun word stuff. Previously and previously.

A Presidential Word-a-Day

Tarn — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:00:01 -0800

The wonderful wordsmith, Anu Garg, at Wordsmith.org has posted five words this week: "To barrack"."Bidentate"."Meeken". "Palinode". "Obambulate". Definitions inside. "Obambulate", verb intr.: To walk about. "Palinode", noun: A poem in which the author retracts something said in an earlier poem. "To barrack", verb tr., intr.: 1. To shout in support: to cheer. 2. To shout against: to jeer. noun: A building used to house soldiers. "Bidentate", adjective: Having two teeth or toothlike parts. "Meeken", verb tr., intr.: To make or become meek or submissive.

The Wikipedia of dictionaries

anjamu — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 01:18:40 -0800

Wikiwords is a collaborative project to create a dictionary of all terms in all languages.

I can't believe quonsar didn't win.

DeepFriedTwinkies — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 20:38:23 -0800

The American Dialect Society has announced the 2005 word of the year. Sadly, muffin top, crotchfruit, Cruizasy (PDF file), and the obviously wonderful popesquatting were big old losers.

Dictionary

robbyrobs — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 07:09:31 -0800

Merrian-Webster open dictionary "Have you spotted a new word or a new sense for an old word that hasn't made it into the dictionary yet? Well, here's your chance to add your discovery (and its definition) to Merriam-Webster's Open Dictionary"

The Little Prince in a 100 Languages

gregb1007 — Tue, 17 May 2005 19:01:08 -0800

If listening to sound of different languages is something you may be interested in, visit the multimedia language project website hosted by the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg. It features the sound files of a small blurb from Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince read outloud in a 100 different languages. The blurbs are also textually transcribed. [See more inside]

Word play

qwerty155 — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 03:57:13 -0800

Collins Word Exchange "At Collins we pride ourselves on reflecting current language, used by real English speakers across the world." Collins have launched a public forum designed for (amongst other things) discussing 'new' words and the legitamacy of their inclusion in official dictionaries. Chav is probably on its way, but I'm no intellectual snob, but bounce-backability? Even I'd balk at that one.
And, just remember kids, flip-flopper is not valid for use in scrabble

Dude, where's my safely heterosexual intimacy?

owenville — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 08:56:05 -0800

Deconstructing Dude A linguist from the University of Pittsburgh has published a scholarly paper deconstructing and deciphering the word "dude," contending it is much more than a catchall for lazy, inarticulate surfers, slackers and teenagers. An admitted dude-user during his college years, Scott Kiesling said the four-letter word has many uses, all of which express closeness between men in a safely heterosexual manner. How about you? Do you do the dude? If so, does that mean you're white [PDF]?

More on arithmetic in the Amazon

myl — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 03:37:38 -0800

More on arithmetic in the Amazon The 10/15 issue of Science has the official publication of Peter Gordon's work on numerical cognition among the Pirahã, and a companion article by Pierre Pica et al. on similar research among another Amazonian tribe, the Mundurukú. What with the U.S. election and the discovery of H. Floresiensis, this is not getting nearly as a much play as the pre-publication back in August of Peter Gordon's work. Brian Butterworth has an piece in the Guardian about both articles, and I've put some links, quotes and diagrams here. Compared to the reports on the Pirahã, the Mundurukú people, language, and experiments are all somewhat different, although the conclusions are broadly similar.

It'll go over well in Nantucket...

Vidiot — Wed, 18 Aug 2004 00:42:12 -0800

The OEDILF is an audacious project which is attempting to write a limerick for every word in the English language. 642 limericks have been completed so far. Here's an overview of the project. Is it possible? Here's what editor-in-chief Chris J. Stolin says:

Skeptics say it's inconceivable.
A new OED? Unbelievable!
But I feel secure
That if we only endure,
It's a goal that is wholly achievable!

(via languagehat.)

tk

the fire you left me — Wed, 23 Jun 2004 14:41:06 -0800

"Hey fagdaddy why u killl teammates?" A cobbeled session in word parsing.

You will learn something, I guarontee!

Ufez Jones — Thu, 04 Sep 2003 11:31:07 -0800

The Encyclopedia of Cajun Culture features everything from Acadiana to Zydeco. Two of the more interesting entries I've found are the Un-Cajun Committee and the unknown to me genre of Swamp Pop

Lost Words

ttrendel — Wed, 03 Sep 2003 14:41:38 -0800

The Compendium of Lost Words

Compendium of lost words

adamrice — Sat, 16 Aug 2003 10:57:11 -0800

Compendium of lost words You may have been wondering what "triclavianism" means. You may have been disappointed when dictionary.com couldn't help. Look no further.

Must eschew talk about fatness, Iraq, liquor, tobacco - else regret.

talos — Thu, 31 Jul 2003 05:59:00 -0800

Apronyms: Apt Phrases, Redolent Of Novel Yet Meaningful Sense.
"An apronym is a special kind of acronym where the initials spell out a word or phrase relevant to the expanded version". This in contrast to you run-of the-mill acronyms. Yes, the link might come in handy for the perpetuation of this, already legendary, thread.

Bitch Slap (noun) enters the mainstream...

mfoight — Tue, 17 Jun 2003 05:30:38 -0800

Bitch Slap (noun), buggeration (noun), and trash-talking (noun) are now in the OED. The latest quarterly update of the Oxford English Dictionary is now available. (Scroll to the bottom of the list for the most shocking and transgressive new words).

world languages

stbalbach — Wed, 02 Apr 2003 12:44:13 -0800

The World has at least 6,800 active languages and countless more dialects ranging from Alacatlatzala to Zoque Tabasco. These are the Top 10 languages.

Pronouncing words

Mack Twain — Sat, 29 Mar 2003 10:01:39 -0800

Qatar Home of Central Command and Al Jazzera television, it's a small oil-rich country we've all heard of, and that's the problem: I hear Qatar called Cutter, Gutter, Katar, and Kwatar. How do the Qataris' pronounce it; is it possible to accurately pronounce foreign words in English? Who decides? More inside...

New OED Words

mfoight — Mon, 17 Mar 2003 05:39:13 -0800

Dungeons and Dragons, bigorexia, arse-licker, bass-ackward... The online OED (Oxford English Dictionary) quarterly adds a host of new words to the canon of what has become the standard dictionary of the english language(s). Some of the new and spicey words are: arsehole, arseholed, arse-lick,arse-licker, ass-backward, ass-backwards, bass-ackward, bass-ackwards, dragon lady, Dungeons and Dragons, telenovela, and transgenderist!! Thank the gods of language for these new words! So what is you favorite new word and why?

ugly_n_sticky — Sun, 10 Nov 2002 09:14:00 -0800

What do moedy, cruxtaposition, daugahyde and posolutely have in common? Don't bother looking up at dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster OnLine or britannica.com. All these words are newly made up words and only the pseudodictionary knows them. Don't know what NSFW means? Want to submit a new word creation of yours? You have no clue and want to brush up your vocabulary? Try the randomerizor and get smart!

geoff. — Mon, 21 Oct 2002 13:13:28 -0800

Worthless Word for the Day. Ever feel as if an "obscure, abstruse and/or recondite word" was forced into a newspaper/magazine/quote? Now there's a site that finally finds and provides wwftd! Impress your friends.

NedKoppel — Mon, 07 Oct 2002 19:00:55 -0800

Taticular Nucyoular Weapons Dubya mispronounced the word "nuclear" "\nu"cle*ar\" in his speech 17 times this evening (take your own tally here). Wait. That's not a simple mispronunciation. It's a "folk etymology." Thanks, Ike. (Thanks, Homer.) Thanks also to Merriam-Webster. Apparently, this scourge of English is in the dictionary.

andrewzipp — Tue, 09 Jul 2002 07:27:33 -0800

Logophilia Heard any good words lately? Emo, tribal marketing, google bombing, adultescent, go commando, alpha girl, hand salsa, shoegaze, alcopop, suicide magnet.

XiBe — Sat, 10 Nov 2001 08:55:20 -0800

While trying to write some silly poetry, I found this good resource for finding all things "rhymes". Glad I found a counterpart to my French Dictionnaire de Rimes.
I love words sites.