Online Etymology Dictionary A Few of Our Favorite Words: Can You Use These in a Sentence? Credit: Ablestock/Jupiterimages The Scripps National Spelling Bee provides some lexicographical drama that anyone can enjoy—really, who doesn’t enjoy seeing a kid have his or her dreams dashed on national television? (OK, we’re not really that hard-hearted, particularly since Britannica provides the winner with in excess of $2,600 in reference products and a lifetime subscription to our online site.) As the 275 kids, about evenly split among girls and boys ranging in age from 8 to 15 years old (most are between ages 12 and 14), get ready to battle it out for spelling supremacy this week in Washington, D.C., and amaze us (and embarrass us?) So, without further adieu, here are some of our favorite words. We invite you add your own favorites—or try to use these in a sentence—in the space below.
Thursday, April 27, 2006 I Want to Be A Brand Consultant ...And make big bux coming up with completely idiotic names for things and chuckling all the way to the bank as suits make fools of themselves announcing their new name. Hence Wii, which I will henceforth commence to pronounce as "vih-ee;" clearly it is an Anglicization of the plural of the nonexistant Latin noun "vius". Just as I insist on pronouncing Glu as "gluh." Revolution was a good strong name. Almost as bad as "Verizon" (theoretically a conflation of "veritas" and "horizon", but equally pronounceable as "very zahn"); there was something wrong with Bell Atlantic? Or "Cingular" for that matter. Years ago, I had a friend who worked in the banking industry in New York, and had joke names for just about every bank then in the city. I'm at something of a loss for Ubisoft, though. Update: Yes, Mike, we are going to talk about the foolishness of the name, you gormless 'tendo fanboy. posted by Greg at 10:49 PM "It Started With Paper"
Ten Most Difficult Words to Translate Sometimes even the finest translators come up against words that defy translation. Many languages include words that don’t have a simple counterpart in another language. When translators come across such a word, they usually describe it so that it makes sense in the target language. Mamihlapinatapei From Yagan, the indigenous language of the Tierra del Fuego region of South America. Jayus From Indonesian, meaning a joke so poorly told and so unfunny that one cannot help but laugh. Prozvonit In both Czech and Slovak language, this word means to call a mobile phone only to have it ring once so that the other person would call back, allowing the caller not to spend money on minutes. Kyoikumama In Japanese, this word refers to a mother who relentlessly pushes her children toward academic achievement. Tartle A Scottish verb meaning to hesitate while introducing someone due to having forgotten his/her name. Iktsuarpok From the Inuit, meaning to go outside to check if anyone is coming.
The Chief Happiness Officer Linguistic Geography of the United States Traditionally, dialectologists have listed three dialect groups in the United States: Northern, Midland, and Southern--although some scholars prefer a two-way classification of simply Northern and Southern, and one may also find significant difference on the boundaries of each area. The map shown above represents a synthesis of various independent field studies this century. These are in chronological order: the Linguistic Atlas fieldwork begun under the direction of Hans Kurath in the 1930's; the informal but extensive personal observations of Charles Thomas in the 1940's; the DARE fieldwork of the 1960's under Frederic Cassidy; and the Phonological Atlas fieldwork of William Labov during the 1990's. Although it may seem that a great amount of data has been collected over a short time span, the shifts in American dialects this century have been rapid enough to outpace the data collection. The New England Dialects The New York Dialects The Great Lakes Dialects The Upper Midwest Dialects
scottmccloud WEBSITES\HOBOPAGE\hobosigns Hobo Signs These Hobo Signs below, plus a large glossary of Hobo Terms are available in printed form in my book "The American Hoboes" "Riders of the Rails". For information about this book, and how to acquire a copy, email me by clicking on the button below. email Fran For more fabulous, informative Hobo information use these links.There are none better on the entire internet. There may be one or more signs that give the same message or, at times, there may be slightly different meanings for a sign. More Hobo/Tramp Signs With so much Hobo and tramp history unrecorded all we can do is draw the best conclusions from what we are able to put together from bits and pieces of old documents that can still be found so, from my own experience, and studies, I believe these are tramp signs. Key to Hobo / Tramp Signs Below
iTools.jp IdiomSite.com - Find out the meanings of common sayings