Hours of harmless fun with Merriam-Webster’s online Open Dictionary:
Welcome to Merriam-Webster’s Open Dictionary where you can 1) submit and share entries that aren’t already in our Online Dictionary, and 2) browse entries submitted by other members of the Merriam-Webster Online community.
Most recent additions at the time of posting this are Sith, Jedi, snipid, deambigulate and fencil. Deambigulate is curiously similar to disambiguate. Snipid (‘the smell of the autumn air - My it sure is snipid outside’) and fencil seem based on one unattributed quote each. This, I believe, is really true (readers, don’t try this at home, as they say):
stiffy (noun) : A 3.5” floppy computer disk. Term used primarily & widely in South Africa, where the term ‘floppy’ refers mainly to the older, larger 5.25” disks (as they where floppy, while the smaller, current ones are stiff). Please insert the stiffy into the A: drive of the PC.
At least that illustration helps. Some illustrative sent…
» Vollständiger ArtikelTransblawg | 8. Januar 2009 — I once mentioned the Merriam-Webster online visual dictionary. There's now a German-English version online, the same material apparently. This is provided by Pons. The FTD article on Leo I mentioned r…
Transblawg | 8. März 2009 — I eventually got Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage, as often recommended by Mark Liberman on Language Log. Well, he recommends the non-concise one. Here's a recommendation and quot…
Transblawg | 17. April 2007 — It was exciting to read that Mark Liberman of Language Log did not know the word conclusory. I have to admit that it's used in American law more than English, but I did know the meaning when I en…
Transblawg | 20. August 2007 — A comment to the previous entry on legal entity mentions the term juridical person, which gets many ghits, although not all on English or U.S. sites. Here's a definition from the OECD site: …
Transblawg | 10. April 2007 — Dictionaries If you want a monolingual dictionary of U.S. law, the only Blacks Law Dictionary worth getting is the big one. Don't get an abridged Blacks. But you don’t have to get Blacks: Gifis…
Transblawg | 26. April 2008 — Anhang is a great German word. A bit like Anlage in technical texts, it can be used in all sorts of contexts, where the English might vary. Actually, Anlage is an alternative to Anhang in legal texts …
Transblawg | 22. April 2006 — ProZ.com has now opened Wikiwords for general use. It’s based on translation suggestions collected at ProZ (KudoZ). One warning: our focus now is on the mechanisms, and we are not concerning ou…
nach-recht-en | 12. August 2005 — Die Wörter “Podcast” und “Wiki” wurde nun ins Oxford English Dictionary aufgenommen: podcast • noun a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar programme, made available on the In…
Transblawg | 17. Mai 2007 — In connection with the abduction of a British girl in Portugal, the British press seem mystified by Portuguese criminal law. The BBC even has a video (and text) on the topic. The man, believe…
Transblawg | 14. Oktober 2008 — The following is all in Portuguese. Even if you don't read Portuguese, download the dictionary sample (see below), which contains pages from and into English. It looks excellent. Fabio M. Said praises…
Merriam-Webster provides a free online dictionary, thesaurus, audio pronunciations, Word of the Day, word games, and other English language resources.
