Domain: m-w.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to m-w.com.
Comments · 2,532
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Re:Does a Genius Grant translate into success?I was referring to the plural form of ellipsis, fucktard. Here's some proof. From the entry:
Inflected Form(s): plural ellipses
Now don't you feel smarter? Dumbass. -
Re:Dude..
boxen ain't a word
since ain't is a word now... -
Re:Dude..
English is STILL not a dead languadge. If you want an unchanging languadge go learn latin. Sorry but everything changes and there is no "official" english. When Webster "standardized" english with his dictionary he really just put out his own opinion on what is standard. If you want a quick example of how "english" has changed try http://www.m-w.com/about/look.htm.
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Re:History Repeating
irony
Pronunciation: 'I-r&-nE also 'I(-&)r-nE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -nies
Etymology: Latin ironia, from Greek eirOnia, from eirOn dissembler
Date: 1502
1 : a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning -- called also Socratic irony
2 a : the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning b : a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c : an ironic expression or utterance
3 a (1) : incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2) : an event or result marked by such incongruity b : incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play -- called also dramatic irony, tragic irony
[/Pedantic] -
Re:Do they mark down ok as well?
Main Entry: OK
Variant(s): or okay /O-'kA, in assenting or agreeing also 'O-"kA/
Function: adverb or adjective
Etymology: abbreviation of oll korrect, facetious alteration of all correct
Date: 1839
: ALL RIGHT
from Merriam-Webster OnLine -
Even Merriam-Webster has it...
I might agree with you if the word could only be found on dictionary.com, which incorporates words from very modern sources like the Jargon File, but here's "communitarian" at Merriam-Webster.
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Re:one way to be heard...
In this case, I think you mean "effect change".
Indeed, I do not. Affect means "to produce an effect upon", not vice versa. -
Re:Good
the word Piracy can be used for the unauthorized use of another's production, invention, or conception especially in infringement of a copyright(Source)
you made the other points well.
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Re:What good would it do?
kfstark wrote;
Remember:
forecasting != predicting
I have one word for to respond to your circular reasoning.
Sophistry.
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Re:Kudos for Epson
Not that it's among the most commonly used words, nor very old, but.. according to Merriam-Webster:
Main Entry: incentivize
Pronunciation: in-'sen-t&-"vIz
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): -ized; -izing
Date: 1970
: to provide with an incentive
Of course, being a non-native speaker of English, I would probably just use that in my sentence - "provide with an incentive" - rather than the actual verb above :P -
Re:What's in a moon?New Page 1
Well, here's what Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary says:
Moon:
-- 1a : a natural satellite of a planet
Satellite:
-- 2a : a celestial body orbiting another of larger sizeI think based on these common definitions that these objects, assuming they are found be natural and that they can be proved to orbit Earth, should be called moons. Maybe they don't fit our cultural, unwritten definition of a Moon, but that doesn't change the facts. So, maybe we need to change what most people think of as the Moon...
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Re:Yes, but it sits on your desk every day.
It's not about ego, it's about the fact that having beautiful things around you makes you feel better [...]
Excuse me?
Maybe you might consider leaving your esthetically pleasing, esteem enhancing porn server in the dorm and perhaps attending some occasional english classes.It's not about vocabulary, it's about the fact that having a good command of the language makes you speak better.
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Re:Depends how much juice those batteries provide
Is the word "gigantic" derived from the same word as "giga-" ?
It is.
And according to Merriam-Websters the preferred pronunciation is with a soft G for both, but a hard G is also permitted for giga. -
Re:Depends how much juice those batteries provide
Is the word "gigantic" derived from the same word as "giga-" ?
It is.
And according to Merriam-Websters the preferred pronunciation is with a soft G for both, but a hard G is also permitted for giga. -
Re:It comes as no surprise
I would say rather that it has evolved for a select group of people. It has remained for the rest of us what it was (see links below).
http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=SciFi
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=sci-fi (sorry only the hyphenated version here)
I understand that there are movements in every "group" to create an "insider" understanding of things that validates "expertise" via confusing or misused language(see l33t, but I would suggest that this is not serving the interests of better communication, but rather impeding it instead.
I'm not really sure what this is "saying" about myself, but then I'm not really that curious about it either. 80) -
Re:Stupidity
Getting too weird? Hang in there.
I know you have tolerance. -
Re:Dark Fibre?
We're getting there, still not quite "there" yet though...
"There is no reason to not use that dark fibre, and no reason to assume that it wouldn't be used. In fact, it would be ignorant to think it would just go wasted, never touched, because it can fill the roll it's needed for just as well as this new plastic fibre, possibly better, as we do not know the throughput on this new fibre. Also, from a cost standpoint, no matter how cheap it is to lay this new fibre down, corps have already eaten the cost of laying that dark fibre. It would be foolish to lay down new fibre when there is perfectly good fibre already laid, just waiting to be lit up."
People have been saying this for years, and yet companies continue to lay new fibre without ever turning on the dark fibre already available. This article has some excellent information on why I'm right. To quote a nice part of it, "...companies that installed fiber conduits in the late 1980s to latecomers who started installing cables last year. ... Most of the fiber is unused and many of the companies that installed it are struggling. ... the conventional wisdom among telecom experts is that about 95 percent of the nation's fiber is unused, or "dark." "
On to the next silly response...
"...couldn't qualify as a rant... and your two lines were not
a) a violent or extravagant speech or writing
or
b) a speech or piece of writing that incites anger or violence.
Perhaps you could call it a bit sarcastic, but definately not a semi rant, rant, or a raving.
"
Well, now let's see if this holds true.
If we click here and go to the noun, we find, "1 a : a bombastic extravagant speech"
Ok, let's go further. If you click here, you'll see that it says bombastic means "overblown". And if you click right over here, we'll see where extravagant means, "2 a : exceeding the limits of reason or necessity" (as in, overblown).
So a rant is... Something which is overblown and exceeds the limits of reason or necessity. Sort of like saying we should chop up all the dark fibre? I think so... :)
I find your lack of faith disturbing.
I think you'll find something more fitting to your personality either here, or there, or maybe here, or perhaps there, or here.
And as for 3 people being wrong, and you being right? Please check here.
Thankyoupleasedrivethrough
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Re:Dark Fibre?
We're getting there, still not quite "there" yet though...
"There is no reason to not use that dark fibre, and no reason to assume that it wouldn't be used. In fact, it would be ignorant to think it would just go wasted, never touched, because it can fill the roll it's needed for just as well as this new plastic fibre, possibly better, as we do not know the throughput on this new fibre. Also, from a cost standpoint, no matter how cheap it is to lay this new fibre down, corps have already eaten the cost of laying that dark fibre. It would be foolish to lay down new fibre when there is perfectly good fibre already laid, just waiting to be lit up."
People have been saying this for years, and yet companies continue to lay new fibre without ever turning on the dark fibre already available. This article has some excellent information on why I'm right. To quote a nice part of it, "...companies that installed fiber conduits in the late 1980s to latecomers who started installing cables last year. ... Most of the fiber is unused and many of the companies that installed it are struggling. ... the conventional wisdom among telecom experts is that about 95 percent of the nation's fiber is unused, or "dark." "
On to the next silly response...
"...couldn't qualify as a rant... and your two lines were not
a) a violent or extravagant speech or writing
or
b) a speech or piece of writing that incites anger or violence.
Perhaps you could call it a bit sarcastic, but definately not a semi rant, rant, or a raving.
"
Well, now let's see if this holds true.
If we click here and go to the noun, we find, "1 a : a bombastic extravagant speech"
Ok, let's go further. If you click here, you'll see that it says bombastic means "overblown". And if you click right over here, we'll see where extravagant means, "2 a : exceeding the limits of reason or necessity" (as in, overblown).
So a rant is... Something which is overblown and exceeds the limits of reason or necessity. Sort of like saying we should chop up all the dark fibre? I think so... :)
I find your lack of faith disturbing.
I think you'll find something more fitting to your personality either here, or there, or maybe here, or perhaps there, or here.
And as for 3 people being wrong, and you being right? Please check here.
Thankyoupleasedrivethrough
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Re:Dark Fibre?
We're getting there, still not quite "there" yet though...
"There is no reason to not use that dark fibre, and no reason to assume that it wouldn't be used. In fact, it would be ignorant to think it would just go wasted, never touched, because it can fill the roll it's needed for just as well as this new plastic fibre, possibly better, as we do not know the throughput on this new fibre. Also, from a cost standpoint, no matter how cheap it is to lay this new fibre down, corps have already eaten the cost of laying that dark fibre. It would be foolish to lay down new fibre when there is perfectly good fibre already laid, just waiting to be lit up."
People have been saying this for years, and yet companies continue to lay new fibre without ever turning on the dark fibre already available. This article has some excellent information on why I'm right. To quote a nice part of it, "...companies that installed fiber conduits in the late 1980s to latecomers who started installing cables last year. ... Most of the fiber is unused and many of the companies that installed it are struggling. ... the conventional wisdom among telecom experts is that about 95 percent of the nation's fiber is unused, or "dark." "
On to the next silly response...
"...couldn't qualify as a rant... and your two lines were not
a) a violent or extravagant speech or writing
or
b) a speech or piece of writing that incites anger or violence.
Perhaps you could call it a bit sarcastic, but definately not a semi rant, rant, or a raving.
"
Well, now let's see if this holds true.
If we click here and go to the noun, we find, "1 a : a bombastic extravagant speech"
Ok, let's go further. If you click here, you'll see that it says bombastic means "overblown". And if you click right over here, we'll see where extravagant means, "2 a : exceeding the limits of reason or necessity" (as in, overblown).
So a rant is... Something which is overblown and exceeds the limits of reason or necessity. Sort of like saying we should chop up all the dark fibre? I think so... :)
I find your lack of faith disturbing.
I think you'll find something more fitting to your personality either here, or there, or maybe here, or perhaps there, or here.
And as for 3 people being wrong, and you being right? Please check here.
Thankyoupleasedrivethrough
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Re:Anthropomorphic
I do not think this word means what you think it means. Anthropomorphism is humans attributing human-like feelings toward non-human thing. E.g., "That tree looks depressed."
From an Amateur Etymologist,
Anthrop= human morphus=shape
I think its ok as long as it stands to describe any human characteristics as in shape or behaviour.
here is the definition from m-w -
Re:In other States?
Well, technically, veszuesa is a state. It's just a different kind.
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Noun vs. verb? I think not
"Impact [is] spelled the same way for the noun and verb, unlike affect and effect."
I've heard this before, yet it's wrong. Affect can be a noun or a verb, or a transitive verb. Effect can be a noun or a transitive verb. I have a feeling that the noun vs. verb mentality is most prevalent amongst speakers of American English, although I have no evidence to back it up, especially considering my links are to an American English dictionary. -
Noun vs. verb? I think not
"Impact [is] spelled the same way for the noun and verb, unlike affect and effect."
I've heard this before, yet it's wrong. Affect can be a noun or a verb, or a transitive verb. Effect can be a noun or a transitive verb. I have a feeling that the noun vs. verb mentality is most prevalent amongst speakers of American English, although I have no evidence to back it up, especially considering my links are to an American English dictionary. -
Re:freedom to chooseBut in either form ("open source" or "free software"), it's revisionist bullshit.
Where do you guys get the New Revised FSF Dictionary of the English Language? I can't find it in bookstores anywhere!
Main Entry: free*dom
1 : the quality or state of being free: as a : the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action
A constraint of choice is not freedom.
Please note that this is the FIRST definition of freedom in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. -
Religion?
The only time someone uses the word "religion" when referring to Jedi (or the Force, actually) is when Admiral Motti says something about Vader's "sad devotion to that ancient religion" and is nearly choked to death by the latter.
Jedi are an order, which doesn't necessarily mean they're a religious organization. They do not worship the Force, they study it. True, their place is called the Jedi Temple, but this word also has non-religious meanings (accordgin to Merriam-Webster, at least).
Of course it still does have many symptoms of a religion (achieving something by simply believing in it, the good vs. evil stuff).
BTW, I wonder how many Australians said that their religion is Sith. :)
-jfedor -
Re:Flamebait - it'll never fly
Because I can't pronounce Exegesis. I can pronounce Perl.
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Re:Tempting
What's a hypocracy? Some new form of government? Maybe you guys are thinking of hypocrisy .
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Re:KDE and the new America
I don't think you have any clue what the word "democracy" means... you may want to look it up in a dictionary before you make an ass out of yourself in public again. It has nothing whatsoever to do with capitalism, although it is usually synonymous since capitalist countries are generally more civilized in other ways as well.
Anyway if you are too lazy to leave your computer to get one you can always go to www.m-w.com.
Just a thought. -
Re:As requested
"signal noise ratio falling" = 8 syllables. listen to "ratio" being pronounced at Merriam-Webster Online.
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Re:Region Encoding == Censureship
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Re:Region Encoding == Censureship
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Re:Learn the language
Totally off-topic response:
For the etymology of the word wherefore, see a good dictionary. The etymology given at MW10 suggests that the second half of the word does not come from the meaning of fore that has to do with future events. Also, etymology is not the same as literal meaning. The meaning of wherefore is indeed "for what purpose"; it has nothing to do with times in the future.
Desperate attempt to add a vaguely topic-relevant note to the above: some of my earliest experiences with getting cool stuff from the Net involved downloading copies of HyperCard stacks like "Monks With Macs" and Shakespeare plays. -
True, but it's the FIRST STEP
And once we're all used to getting EEG'ed, we'll all sit by and watch as they slowly get more powerful and more accurate over the next 30 years until they basically ARE reading your thoughts with some high degree of effectiveness. (And of course they will demand to stick a cap on your head as soon as they find out it won't work without it.)
We need to stop this, preferably sooner rather then later. The brain must be held as sacrosanct, or we'll really going to regret letting this go.
Another trading freedom for illusory security story again.
What, you don't want your mind read? You must be a terrorist. Your citizenship is revoked. HAND. -
You really shouldn't niggle so muchI think it's high time some
/. readers got used to hearing this word more often, considering definition #2.From Merriam-Webster Online:
Main Entry: 1niggle
Pronunciation: 'ni-g&l
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): niggled; niggling /-g(&-)li[ng]/
Etymology: origin unknown
Date: circa 1616
intransitive senses
1 a : TRIFLE b : to spend too much effort on minor details
2 : to find fault constantly in a petty way : CARP
3 : GNAW transitive senses : to give stingily or in tiny portions
- niggler /-g(&-)l&r/ noun -
Maybe..
The editors are just a bunch of lazy-ass motherfuckers.
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Re:Flame-baitey topic
capsation
I believe you were looking for "capitalization". -
Re:SSL is insecure?
According to Merriam-Webster, the answer is no.
So why not save the confusion and use pedant instead? Then everyone wins! -
Re:SSL is insecure?
According to Merriam-Webster, the answer is no.
So why not save the confusion and use pedant instead? Then everyone wins! -
Re:SSL is insecure?
According to Merriam-Webster, the answer is no.
So why not save the confusion and use pedant instead? Then everyone wins! -
Re:What's the big deal?
PLEASE, PLEASE don't say "boxen." The plural form of "box" is boxes. Saying "boxen" makes it seem like you played too much D&D.
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Re:Microsoft's PR ResponseInteresting. On a tangential note, every time I see that veep's name I tend to parse it as "Brian Gormenghast." Coincidence?
(The fact that it rhymes with bombast tickles me, too; particularly appropriate in the current context IMO.)
I loved the euphemism at the end of the article:
Microsoft could not immediately be reached for comment.
It's not like Microsoft has a large PR department or anything... probably the translation from Corporate Journalese to standard english is "Microsoft was unable to respond with anything printable."
Ole
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Ragnar the Viking Sings the Songs of Hank Williams
Somewhere out in the Great Empty, in the dry, dusty highways and byways of the vast American oblivion, Ragnar stirs. Ragnar awakens. Ragnar hungers.
Ragnar considers his options.
And in the fullness of time...
RAGNAR SINGS!
Your cheatin' heart will make you weep.
You'll cry and cry and try to sleep,
But sleep won't come the whole night through.
Your cheatin' heart will tell[1] on you.
When tears come down like falling rain,
You'll toss around and call my name.
You'll walk the floor the way I do.
Your cheating heart will tell[1] on you.
[1] Williams intends "tell" to be taken in Merriam-Webster's intransitive sense 3: "to have a marked effect". That usage was more common in Mr. Williams's day than in our own.
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Re:Moore's Law is not a law
Moore's law is NOT a law, at best it's an observation that has so far been consistent.
If you're looking a definition of a scientific law, using "an observation that has so far been consistent" would be an excellent one. Just look at definition 6a in the dictionary. Morre's law is very much a law.
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Re:Vigilante justice is not the solutionFirst, be aware that there is a difference between justice and defense
Vigilante justice is not the solution. When I discover someone has burgled my house, and I have reason to believe I KNOW who did it, that does not entitle me to go break into their house to take my stuff back and avenge myself upon them.
Well, you have really twisted my example around. Someone actively attacking your computer (network) or actively breaking into your house is not related to your vigilante revenge scenario in any way, so I'll dismiss it out of hand.I can only think of one set of circumstances in which our culture and law condone vigilante justice: self defense of a human being against bodily harm.
Not sure what "our" culture is here.
It is important to remember that computer crime is almost universally property crime. With rare exceptions there is absolutely no danger to the person of a human being posed by computer cracking, and thus no reasonable basis for authorizing vigilante justice.
In general you have just as much authority to use force to defend another person from violence as you do to defend yourself. Even if you don't know the person.
I live in Colorado where I may shoot a person dead if he is both 1. on my property and 2. I have reasonable cause to beleive he is or is about to commit another crime (against a person or property.)
I think your opinion is based more on your pacifistic world-view than on any actual facts.
-Peter -
Re:Vigilante justice is not the solutionFirst, be aware that there is a difference between justice and defense
Vigilante justice is not the solution. When I discover someone has burgled my house, and I have reason to believe I KNOW who did it, that does not entitle me to go break into their house to take my stuff back and avenge myself upon them.
Well, you have really twisted my example around. Someone actively attacking your computer (network) or actively breaking into your house is not related to your vigilante revenge scenario in any way, so I'll dismiss it out of hand.I can only think of one set of circumstances in which our culture and law condone vigilante justice: self defense of a human being against bodily harm.
Not sure what "our" culture is here.
It is important to remember that computer crime is almost universally property crime. With rare exceptions there is absolutely no danger to the person of a human being posed by computer cracking, and thus no reasonable basis for authorizing vigilante justice.
In general you have just as much authority to use force to defend another person from violence as you do to defend yourself. Even if you don't know the person.
I live in Colorado where I may shoot a person dead if he is both 1. on my property and 2. I have reasonable cause to beleive he is or is about to commit another crime (against a person or property.)
I think your opinion is based more on your pacifistic world-view than on any actual facts.
-Peter -
Well, they're not *quite* the same
Speaking as someone who has spent significant amounts of time both composing music and writing programs, I can say that they aren't quite the same. Writing music can be much more carthartic (meanings 2) then programming. Composing music, at least the way I did it with a synth so you can hear it right away, can be emotionally freeing in a way that programming can't be.
Flip side, programming can be more exciting, in that it's easier to do something that nobody's done before or better then anybody's done before, with the right tools. Frankly, all the music YOU'LL ever write has basically been written; after hundreds of years of musical development, it's damned hard to find anything new to call your own. (It's not impossible, but very, very, very hard.)
The similarities are otherwise quite significant. With both, you do better and more work when you're "in the zone". There are some days where you just can't get anything done (interestingly, the overlap is not 100%; some days I could write music and not program, and vice versa). There's a lot of freedom, constrained by logic in both. (Whatever you may think, no music anyone will ever want to listen to is completely free of internal logic and consistency, and you violate those rules that we all know, even if we can't articulate them, at your own peril, just as with programming style.) -
Re:So wait, let me get this straight...it's sort of ironic how many normal people with good ideas could make a lot of money if they were already rich.
No it's not, Miss Morissette.
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Re:For the love of TCP/IP...
Learn what the hell words mean. "The result was the ideal fascist solution." No, actually, it wasn't. "A money machine for insiders" is many things, but that's not fascism. Fascism is a particular political philosophy, not an organization whose politics you don't like.
fascism: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control.
Dare I say it? No. I'll just quote you: "Learn what the hell words mean." -
Re:History Repeats, Don't Sell Nukes
sayonces (sp?)
seances, and the e has an accent -
Re:ok
random: : a haphazard course
at random : without definite aim, direction, rule, or method
www.m-w.com