I’ve had my eye on Wordnik for a while, since finding out the excellent lexicographer Erin McKean co-founded it. Wordnik is the most comprehensive dictionary in the known universe. Srsly! They released an API a few months ago and I quickly threw together a gem wrapping it, based on HTTParty. Tonight I updated the gem [...]
Posts Tagged ‘dictionaries’
Wordnik Gem
Posted: 12 March 2010 in UncategorizedTags: api, dictionaries, erin mckean, ruby, rubygems, wordnik
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It literally still has meaning
Posted: 28 January 2009 in UncategorizedTags: american heritage dictionary, dictionaries, etymology, language change, linguistic data, linguistics, literally, meaning, twitter, words
I hereby declare that the word literally has not lost its meaning, despite a rash of rumors to the contrary. What would it even mean for a word to lose its meaning? A word can change from one meaning to another, certainly. Maybe you could argue that a word that has dropped out of usage [...]
Definition of computational linguistics #87
Posted: 29 December 2008 in UncategorizedTags: computational linguistics, definitions, dictionaries
According to the somewhat suspect Definitions.net (suspect by default, since I haven’t evaluated it otherwise): 1. (noun) computational linguistics the use of computers for linguistic research and applications This particular definition came to my attention thanks to a Google alert and I thought it was about the shortest definition of computational linguistics I’ve ever seen. [...]
Nanoblahblah, borne forth from the blagoblag
Posted: 31 January 2008 in UncategorizedTags: blagoblag, dictionaries, english, language, nanoblahblah, neologisms, words
It’s a morning of fun new words! First I hear greenwashing on the Today Show, which Donna likes to watch while she eats brekkie. Then, Language Log delights me with nanoblahblah, henchgoon, and celebufreak. Erin McKean, the Dictionary Evangelist, twitters words of the day so I also got a nice infusion when I examined her [...]
Xhosa
Posted: 4 January 2008 in UncategorizedTags: 19th century, books, charlotte bronte, dictionaries, jane eyre, languages, south africa, xhosa
Some random trivia here. In the Masterpiece Theatre version of Jane Eyre, St. John hands Jane a couple books and tells her to begin learning a new language. This was his typically controlling way of telling her she was going to become a missionary with him as well as his wife. Curious about which language [...]
Ninjawords
Posted: 15 December 2007 in UncategorizedTags: dictionaries, dictionary, ninjawords, web hacks, wiktionary, words
I have talked about dictionaries in the past, so you might know that I have a certain fascination with them. One of the best things about the interwebs is the ability to access information about just practically anything in a very short time. If someone mentions some sort of literary reference in a chat, one [...]
Old English Translator
Posted: 8 November 2007 in UncategorizedTags: computational morphology, dictionaries, historical linguistics, languages, machine translation, morphology, old english, open source
Phil Barthram recently announced on the ENGLISC mailing list a new Old English translator. For those unfamiliar with Old English, this is not the really cheap malt liquor. This is the grandmother of Modern English (by way of its mother, Middle English and a few others, chiefly Norman French). Whereas an Olde English (the malt [...]
Dictionaries
Posted: 12 October 2007 in UncategorizedTags: dictionaries, dictionary, language, lexicography, lingoz, meaning, oed, wikis, wiktionary, word sense
I find myself using dictionaries a lot. Because I generally subscribe to the view of language as a fluid construct embedded in the mind of individuals and as an emergent phenomenon of a group of speakers, I don’t believe dictionaries are the final arbiters of correct word usage. In high school, things were different. I [...]
