MetaFilter posts tagged with words

Silent Conversation

litleozy — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:34:52 -0800

Silent conversation, a truly beautiful flash game that has you trying to touch as many words of a poem as you can. (Yes it does have Williams Carlos Williams) via bontegames

A post for all the epeoloatrists

Kattullus — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:45:54 -0800

Do you know what you would see a hypothecary about? Have stared down into a joola? Ever come across a jigget of sheep? Has someone called you a slubberdegullion to your face? Learn these and many more words from blogger Robin Bloor's fun 10 Words You Don't Know series of posts. Perhaps the most entertaining is the one where Bloor provides explanatory limericks with his definitions.

You say poe-TAY-toe.

not_on_display — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:03:53 -0800

Forvo: All the words in the world, pronounced by native speakers. At the time of this post, the tally stands at: 327,492 words; 239,165 pronunciations; in 220 languages; with 25,040 users submitting.

wetness ... pours onto my paper out of my pen

divabat — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:32:05 -0800

Suheir Hammad, a Palestinian-American poet and activist now based in New York, writes about being a Muslim immigrant and also a woman challenging conventions. Spotted by Russell Simmons for Def Poetry Jam, she has performed pieces about love in the time of war, exoticising beauty, and a touching ode to her father, among many others. Suheir has just produced and released her first feature film Salt of This Sea, up for the Cannes Films Festival and possibly an Oscar, and recently performed in Ramallah for the 2009 Palestinian Festival of Literature.

Neologisms + Aves = wordbirds

Stewriffic — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:02:25 -0800

wordbirds: word coinages illustrated by photos of birds. Glutenglutton Aplorable Mealbreaker Apoca-lips

Find the word you can't think of

Miko — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:26:33 -0800

Tip of My Tongue: Find that word you've been thinking about all day but just can't seem to remember.

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.

Base 26

hortense — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:17:06 -0800

Java Demo: "four-letter words have a special status in the english language and culture. counting in at over 1650 words,...this small project is an attempt to give a spacial overview of the entirety of this part of english language heritage, as well as to explore and visualize relations between all those words."

Look at all the pretty words

Dumsnill — Tue, 12 May 2009 07:58:56 -0800

A few weeks from now, English will have it's millionth word. Or will it? Probably not.

Should the rules of Scrabble be changed?

twoleftfeet — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:10:34 -0800

Za and qi are now worth more than money, power, and sex. But quizzicality is better than them all.

Death of the dirty word

weapons-grade pandemonium — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 17:43:14 -0800

Why would an evolutionary biologist study words? It turns out there is an astonishing parallel between the evolution of words in a lexicon and the evolution of genes in an organism. The word two, for example, has been around much longer than most, and will likely be with us for millennia, whereas the comparatively rare and recent word dirty has undergone many mutations, and will probably be extinct in a few hundred years. Professor Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading, UK, tells us why on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's program As It Happens. Pull slider to 16:00 to start the seven minute interview.

Constellations of Words:Explore the Etymology and Symbolism of the Constellations

sidr — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:27:54 -0800

Constellations of Words : Explore the Etymology and Symbolism of the Constellations

Yes yes! Pick me!

Tufa — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:44:17 -0800

Save the Words. Do lost words still have meaning? Just because society has neglected them doesn't make them any less of a word. How do you get lost words back in the dictionary? With lexicographers scanning publications and other communication for words not currently housed in the dictionary, all you need do is use your adopted words as often as possible. Go, Adopt a Word. Like graocracy.* * - government by an old woman or women. My adoptee: hymnicide: killing of hymns through alterations.

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.

Defining Imagery

netbros — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 07:59:38 -0800

The Photographic Dictionary defines words through the personal meaning found in each picture. M is for mask, E is for ephemeral, T is for twin, A if for alone.

“You say?” Apparently they do.

tractorfeed — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:18:04 -0800

It's not even Thanksgiving yet and already the 2008 "best of" lists have begun. Here's a list of the Top 60 popular Japanese words/phrases of 2008. "Morning banana" doesn't mean what you think it does. Is Sarah Palin an obaka-aidoru - おバカアイドル ? (via)

Meh

swift — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:32:59 -0800

Meh. (Previously).

You Betcha

digaman — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 20:41:01 -0800

This f*cking election. A babble tower.

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.

Lord Love a Duck!

freshwater_pr0n — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:14:29 -0800

Ever wonder what a quocker-wodger was? Just what did they mean when they said that you were all kippers and curtains? Worldwidewords.org has the answer. "More than 1600 pages on the origins, history, evolution and idiosyncrasies of the English language worldwide." Word geeks, say goodbye to the rest of your afternoon.

Stephan Kinsella's rulings on term coolness

colinmarshall — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:30:17 -0800

Annoying and/or pretentious terms: "jejune", "pyjamas", "piping hot", "social justice". Cool terms: "cogitate", "cul-de-sac", "high dudgeon", "orangutan".

another time sink

netbros — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:44:55 -0800

another day, another word

From the original Greek, meaning 'I like big donuts'

blue_beetle — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:36:59 -0800

A Brief History of English, with Chronology by Suzanne Kemmer is one of many articles at Words in English, a website designed as "a resource for those who want to learn more about this fascinating language – its history as a language, the origins of its words, and its current modern characteristics."

Fan-diddly-damn-tastic!

strangeguitars — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 08:56:03 -0800

Fan-diddly-damn-tastic! The whirly-twirly-leapy-flippy world of nonce words. When something is crappy, do you ever yearn for synonyms such as crapitudinous, crapfestacular, and craposcopic? (via ADS-L)

"Telescopic Text"

dobbs — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:30:30 -0800

I made tea. {Flash, I think. Via notcot.}