Dictionary/word list: What's a word?
Posted on Friday, July 23 @ 19:22:36 EDT
Topic: Miscellaneous
|
What's in a Word?
(Albert Hahn)
There was a pretty neat bingo by Craig Rowland: BUHLWORK.
Heck of a play from a pretty sorry looking alpha-gram!...
It has three synonyms: BUHL, BOULE and BOULLE.
I stumbled on the origin while
cruising through a history book, so it helped me when
adding the definition to Lexicus.
Boulle is the 17th Century French cabinet maker who would
often take an ornate cabinet door to make a coffee table.
The dictionary definitions give only 'ornate inlaid work'.
I suppose Boule is an alternate French spelling of Boulle.
This was quite common in times when spelling wasn't standard.
In Shakespeare's lifetime, his name was spelt 100 different ways.
The odd thing about Boulle is that the GERMANIC spelling,
BUHL, became the principal spelling in some of the dictionaries
I checked.
What is a Word?
It's not important.
Dictionaries certainly don't care.
Dictionaries are about entries.
Entries consist of combinations of letters, lower case or capitalized,
one letter string or several letter strings that represent one meaning
or several meanings,
and many symbols like hyphens, apostrophes, various accents,
cedillas, etc.
Different dictionaries have different entries.
There is a nod to new usage,
but there is very little concurrence on its inclusion,
usually not even by as few as two dictionaries.
They simply try to guess what combination of letters, hyphens, etc.
will want to be looked up by people who buy their dictionaries,
and they cut off this list at a size they feel is optimum for
their potential buyers.
Our scrabble word list has a criterion for including
some of these entries from some of the dictionaries.
This results in two big plusses.
(1) We know exactly which
of those entries are acceptable for our game.
(2) Since these letter strings are from a dictionary,
there is a probability that some of us will learn something
in the course of using and studying them.
Cgp debaters often seem to have the notion that they must
fiercely defend the sanctity of a 'word' and must fastidiouly
resist the inclusion in our word list of anything that
is not a 'word'.
My sentiments are divided on the issue of adding words.
I'm certain from my experience with pre-1996 OSPD,
post-1996 OSPD, and SOWPODS that, at the present time,
scrabble is going to be more fun with more 'words'. I use
the word 'words' loosely, of course :-)
However, I also like to understand the meaning of words.
That would be no problem in OSW. They use one dictionary,
a real dictionary btw. Chambers was fun to use for
studying SOWPODS words. However, OSPD definitions serve mainly
to raise one's curiosity about a better definition.
To get really meaningful meanings you need a collection
of source dictionaries.
This is becoming evident to me as I'm trying to search for
definitions, using Random House, OSPD, Shorter Oxford,
One-Look Reverse Dictionary, and computer searches.
It seems odd that for scrabblers who want real definitions
of *all* our words we have to expect them to buy
a set of five dictionaries, one of them defunct.
Let's not forget that any words we add to OSPD will be added
to SOWPODS, even though ~90% of the additions will not
be in their dictionary. SOWPODS players would also have
to get four source dictionaries at every add-on time if they
wished to get the real definitions of add-ons. So would we, of
course.
I suggest using Merriam-Webster Collegiate as our source dictionary.
Create a list of words in TWL that are not in M-W, to try to patch up
the rocky start to our lexicon. But from hereon I would suggest
a more word-lover friendly method of creating add-ons only from
the one source dictionary we adopt.
Albert
ps Of course there is another thing that may help
with getting the real definitions of those pesky words
that appear in only one American dictionary.
That would be a web-based dictionary that has all our allowable
scrabble words in it. Hey, we already have one.
Lexicus at Smithicus.com. The only thing is that
the words haven't all been defined, yet. We only have about
10,000 words defined. The twos, threes and all the fours
up to EWER have been defined. Ewer is a "wide mouthed pitcher
or jug that in former times was accompanied by a basin in bedrooms".
Now isn't that better than the definition in OSPD: "a large pitcher"?
That could mean Randy Johnson.
|
|
Re: The twos, the threes... then what? (Score: 1)
by watches on Sunday, July 11 @ 21:33:19 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | | Monolith shows you designer handbags [www.mylacebags.com]what happens to Replicas if they bally handbags [www.mylacebags.com]should ever go rogue... in this community dolce gabbana bags [www.mylacebags.com]trailer for F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin's Cartier watches [www.qualityfirstwatch.com]Reborn DLC Pack.This week on Backyard croum watches [www.poperwatches.com] FX we show you how to build a real lightsaber. Erik Beck Longines watches [www.qualityfirstwatch.com] unearths the original lightsaber blueprints from the special effects swiss watches [www.standardwatch.com]creator for Star Wars. And now we ebel watches [www.standardwatch.com] show you how to buy parts Christian Dior watches [www.standardwatch.com]to a real lightsaber so you can have Maurice Lacroix watches [www.standardwatch.com]your own. Apple Motion 3 Tutorial ebel watches [www.standardwatch.com], this video will focus on how to create basic swiss watches [www.standardwatch.com].Check out this special episode of the Happy Auer show on Cinco de Mayo, Models are small-scale replicas of authentic fendi handbags [www.marisabags.com] objects, vehicles and structures, which have become a popular hit amongst Juicy Corture handbags [www.marisabags.com]avid collectors. Experienced collector Piaget watches [www.qualityfirstwatch.com]Joe shares some great replica hermes handbags [www.marisabags.com] advice on starting your own model Tag Heuer watches [www.qualityfirstwatch.com]collection. |
|
|
Re: What's a word? (Score: 1)
by lijinting on Sunday, July 25 @ 05:37:03 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | | In my opinion, the woman claims that Christian Louboutin Sale [www.shoeschristian.com] become more beautiful and charming. This summer if you want to be different, you have a couple sandals. Christian Louboutin Pumps [www.shoeschristian.com] wears shoes to attend time. We have Heidi Klum and Jennifer Lopez, and if you like these Christian Louboutin Boots [www.shoeschristian.com] fantastic sale. Now you can get a clone of his magnificent collection of 2010 summer fashion. Christian Louboutin Sandals [www.shoeschristian.com] protects metal toe Louboutin very sexy red and fuchsia one signature.
Most household own GREEN ACRES [www.collectionsdvd.com] these days and an HD GREEN ACRES DVD [www.collectionsdvd.com] player is the most compatible device for this. This type of device will maximize the full capability of your TV such that you can display movies of 1080px resolution in quality. Some GREEN ACRES DVD COLLECTION [www.collectionsdvd.com] are even equipped with video-up conversion feature.
The Hogan scarpe [www.hogan-scarpe.it] remains the same; however it has inspired the expansion of the range. The Hogan scarpe donna [www.hogan-scarpe.it] could possibly be the racing flat of the year. Not only does Hogan scarpe uomo [www.hogan-scarpe.it] have the look you want when lining up on the starting line it backs hogan donna [www.hogan-scarpe.it] up with fantastic performance.
|
|
|
replica watches (Score: 1)
by replica on Thursday, July 29 @ 01:21:29 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | It is just a designer Handbags. Nowadays, women are crazy over jimmy Choo handbags and good looking replica burberry handbags. Some of them are into very limited edition bottega veneta bags, some of them are into typical versace bags and some of them are not really willing to spend much and go for dolce gabbana bags. In the fashion world, most people’s like stuff which celebrities have. In certain cases celebrities always go for branded stuff. But average man or woman balenciaga handbagscannot afford branded things as they are very costly. Branded things which made by cartier replica handbags.Celebrities have their favorite designers for clothes or apparel, shoes and female accessories authentic fendi handbags. Every man and marc jacobs bags must have their favorite replica bottega veneta. Some of replica coach handbags tried to live like them. But in most cases celebrities are reaching high. So every typical man and woman cannot follow the lifestyle of his or her favorite celebrities. fendi handbags and purse is most essential accessory of woman. Female celebrities use replica chloe handbags or purses. Every woman wants to have replica burberry handbags like her favorite celebrity has. But they are very costly and she cannot afford it. Designers like Anya Hindmarch, Balenciaga, Bottega Venneta, Chanel, Chloe, Chritian Dior, Fendi, Givency, Gucci, Paul Smith miu Miu replica handbags, Prada and many more designers design handbags and purses. But they are with huge price. Every woman cannot buy it. The price of thomas wylde skull bag are very high because they use creativity of their owns it is not copied. tod's handbag made the things which are not for common people they are for celebrities. In the world of fashion, there is war between designer’s handbags and replica handbags. For common woman it is easy to have coach replica handbags as it is cheaper then designer one. You can find all the characteristics of miu Miu handbags in replica handbag. Most attractive feature of replica handbag is its price. It is very cost effective and one can get exactly same quality and eleg
Read the rest of this comment... |
|
|
| |
Article Rating | Average Score: 2
Votes: 1
|
|
