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Dord
The word ''dord'' is a dictionary error in lexicography. It was accidentally created, as a ghost word, by the staff of G. and C. Merriam Company (now part of Merriam-Webster) in the '' New International Dictionary'', second edition (1934). That dictionary defined the term as a synonym for density used in physics and chemistry in the following way: dord (dôrd), ''n. Physics & Chem.'' Abbreviation for density. Philip Babcock Gove, an editor at Merriam-Webster who became editor-in-chief of ''Webster's Third New International Dictionary'', wrote a letter to the journal ''American Speech'', fifteen years after the error was caught, in which he explained how the "dord" error was introduced and corrected. On 31 July 1931, Austin M. Patterson, the dictionary's chemistry editor, sent in a slip reading "D or d, cont./density." This was intended to add "density" to the existing list of words that the letter "D" can abbreviate. The phrase "D or d" was misinterpreted as a single, word: '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghost Word
A ghost word is a word published in a dictionary or similarly authoritative reference work even though it had not previously had any meaning or been used intentionally. A ghost word generally originates from a typographical or linguistic error, taken as an unfamiliar word by readers. Once authoritatively published, a ghost word occasionally may be copied widely and enter legitimate usage, or it may eventually be expunged by more fastidious lexicographers. Origin The term was coined by Professor Walter William Skeat in his annual address as president of the Philological Society in 1886:Skeat, Walter William; Presidential address on 'Ghost-Words' in: 'Transactions of the Philological Society, 1885-7, pages 343-374'; Published for the society by Trübner & Co., Ludgate Hill, London, 1887. May be downloaded at: https://archive.org/details/transact188500philuoft It turned out that "kimes" was a misprint for "knives", but the word gained currency for some time. A more drastic example ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lexicographic Error
A lexicographic error is an inaccurate entry in a dictionary. Such problems, because they undercut the intention of providing authoritative guidance to readers and writers, attract special attention. An early English-language example was the definition of ''pastern'' as "the knee of a horse" in Samuel Johnson, Dr. Johnson's famed 18th-century ''Dictionary of the English Language''. That would suit the word ''fetlock'', but the pastern is in fact a long portion of the leg immediately below the fetlock. When a woman asked him why he had made the error, Johnson, according to James Boswell, Boswell, replied, "Ignorance, Madam, pure ignorance." In the 1930s, Webster's Dictionary, ''Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition'' accidentally documented, for four years, a supposed word "dord", whose only basis was a clerical error by Merriam Webster, the publisher. The first edition (1987) of the ''Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary'' contained an entry for a verb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Webster's Dictionary
''Webster's Dictionary'' is any of the English language dictionaries edited in the early 19th century by American lexicographer Noah Webster (1758–1843), as well as numerous related or unrelated dictionaries that have adopted the Webster's name in honor. "''Webster's''" has since become a genericized trademark in the United States for English dictionaries, and is widely used in dictionary titles. Merriam-Webster is the corporate heir to Noah Webster's original works, which are in the public domain. Noah Webster's ''American Dictionary of the English Language'' Noah Webster (1758–1843), the author of the readers and spelling books which dominated the American market at the time, spent decades of research in compiling his dictionaries. His first dictionary, s:A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, ''A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language'', appeared in 1806. In it, he popularized features which would become a hallmark of American English spelling (''c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Etymology
Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological change, form of words and, by extension, the origin and evolution of their semantic meaning across time. It is a subfield of historical linguistics, and draws upon comparative semantics, Morphology_(linguistics), morphology, semiotics, and phonetics. For languages with a long recorded history, written history, etymologists make use of texts, and texts about the language, to gather knowledge about how words were used during earlier periods, how they developed in Semantics, meaning and Phonological change, form, or when and how they Loanword, entered the language. Etymologists also apply the methods of comparative linguistics to reconstruct information about forms that are too old for any direct information to be available. By analyzing related ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lexicography
Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretical lexicography is the scholarly study of semantic, orthographic, syntagmatic and paradigmatic features of lexemes of the lexicon (vocabulary) of a language, developing theories of dictionary components and structures linking the data in dictionaries, the needs for information by users in specific types of situations, and how users may best access the data incorporated in printed and electronic dictionaries. This is sometimes referred to as 'metalexicography'. There is some disagreement on the definition of lexicology, as distinct from lexicography. Some use "lexicology" as a synonym for theoretical lexicography; others use it to mean a branch of linguistics pertaining to the inventory of words in a particular language. A person devoted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fictitious Entries
Fictitious or fake entries are deliberately incorrect entries in reference works such as Dictionary, dictionaries, encyclopedias (including Wikipedia:Do_not_create_hoaxes, Wikipedia), maps, and directories. There are more specific terms for particular kinds of fictitious entry, such as Mountweazel, trap street, paper town, phantom settlement, and nihilartikel. Fictitious entries are added by the editors as a copyright trap to reveal subsequent plagiarism or copyright infringement. Terminology The neologism ''Mountweazel'' was coined by ''The New Yorker'' writer Henry Alford in an article that mentioned a fictitious biographical entry intentionally placed as a copyright trap in the 1975 ''New Columbia Encyclopedia''.Henry Alford"Not a Word" ''The New Yorker'' August 29, 2005 (accessed August 29, 2013). The entry described fountain designer turned photographer, Lillian Virginia Mountweazel, who died in an explosion while on assignment for ''Combustibles'' magazine. Allegedly, she i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trap Street
In cartography, a trap street is a fictitious entry in the form of a misrepresented street on a map, often outside the area the map nominally covers, for the purpose of "trapping" potential plagiarists of the map who, if caught, would be unable to explain the inclusion of the "trap street" on their map as innocent. On maps that are not of streets, other "trap" features (such as nonexistent towns, or mountains with the wrong elevations) may be inserted or altered for the same purpose. Trap streets are often nonexistent streets; but sometimes, rather than actually depicting a street where none exists, a map will misrepresent the nature of a street in a fashion that can still be used to detect copyright violators but is less likely to interfere with navigation. For instance, a map might add nonexistent bends to a street, or depict a major street as a narrow lane, without changing its location or its connections to other streets. Trap streets are rarely acknowledged by publishers. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phono-semantic Matching
Phono-semantic matching (PSM) is the incorporation of a word into one language from another, often creating a neologism, where the word's non-native quality is hidden by replacing it with Phonetics, phonetically and semantically similar words or roots from the adopting language. Thus the approximate sound and meaning of the original expression in the source language are preserved, though the new expression (the PSM – the phono-semantic match) in the target language may sound native. Phono-semantic matching is distinct from calquing, which includes (semantic) translation but does not include phonetic matching (i.e., retention of the approximate sound of the borrowed word through matching it with a similar-sounding pre-existent word or morpheme in the target language). Phono-semantic matching is also distinct from homophonic translation, which retains the sound of a word but not the meaning. History The term "phono-semantic matching" was introduced by linguist and revivalis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frindle
''Frindle'' is a middle-grade American children's novel written by Andrew Clements, illustrated by Brian Selznick, and published by the company Aladdin in 1996. It was the winner of the 2016 Phoenix Award, which is granted by the Children's Literature Association to the best English-language children's book that did not win a major award when it was published twenty years earlier. ''Frindle'' was Clements's first novel; all of his previous works had been picture books. According to Clements, the book originated from the thought, "What would happen if a kid started using a new word, and other kids really liked it, but his teacher didn't?" Plot Nicholas "Nick" Allen is a class clown who has been formulating creative schemes throughout grade school. At the start of fifth grade in 1987, he is unhappy because his English teacher is the no-nonsense Mrs. Granger. One day, in an attempt to forestall, Nick decides to question Granger on where each word in the dictionary comes from. This b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fictitious Entry
Fictitious or fake entries are deliberately incorrect entries in reference works such as dictionaries, encyclopedias (including Wikipedia), maps, and directories. There are more specific terms for particular kinds of fictitious entry, such as Mountweazel, trap street, paper town, phantom settlement, and nihilartikel. Fictitious entries are added by the editors as a copyright trap to reveal subsequent plagiarism or copyright infringement. Terminology The neologism ''Mountweazel'' was coined by ''The New Yorker'' writer Henry Alford in an article that mentioned a fictitious biographical entry intentionally placed as a copyright trap in the 1975 '' New Columbia Encyclopedia''.Henry Alford"Not a Word" ''The New Yorker'' August 29, 2005 (accessed August 29, 2013). The entry described fountain designer turned photographer, Lillian Virginia Mountweazel, who died in an explosion while on assignment for ''Combustibles'' magazine. Allegedly, she is widely known for her photo-essays of unus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Esquivalience
The ''New Oxford American Dictionary'' (''NOAD'') is a single-volume dictionary of American English compiled by American editors at the Oxford University Press. ''NOAD'' is based upon the ''New Oxford Dictionary of English'' (''NODE''), published in the United Kingdom in 1998, although with substantial editing, additional entries, and the inclusion of illustrations. It is based on a corpus linguistics analysis of Oxford's 200 million word database of contemporary American English. ''NOAD'' includes a diacritical respelling scheme to convey pronunciations, as opposed to the Gimson phonemic IPA system that is used in ''NODE''. Editions First edition Published in September 2001, the first edition was edited by Elizabeth J. Jewell and Frank Abate. Second edition Published in May 2005, the second edition was edited by Erin McKean. The edition added nearly 3,000 new words, senses, and phrases. It was in a large format, with 2096 pages, and was 8½" by 11" in size. It included a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abramowitz And Stegun
''Abramowitz and Stegun'' (''AS'') is the informal name of a 1964 mathematical reference work edited by Milton Abramowitz and Irene Stegun of the United States National Bureau of Standards (NBS), now the ''National Institute of Standards and Technology'' (NIST). Its full title is ''Handbook of Mathematical Functions with Formulas, Graphs, and Mathematical Tables''. A digital successor to the Handbook was released as the "Digital Library of Mathematical Functions" (DLMF) on 11 May 2010, along with a printed version, the ''NIST Handbook of Mathematical Functions'', published by Cambridge University Press. Overview Since it was first published in 1964, the 1046 page ''Handbook'' has been one of the most comprehensive sources of information on special functions, containing definitions, identities, approximations, plots, and tables of values of numerous functions used in virtually all fields of applied mathematics. The notation used in the ''Handbook'' is the ''de facto'' standard f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
