Check out this TED video, of lexicographer Erin McKean (note the “View Subtitles” button — an option I wish were available everywhere, for obvious reasons):
Cool, huh?
Especially given that two years later, her new online super-duper improved version of the dictionary concept is actually online now. It’s called WordNik, and it’s very interesting.
I went to the WordNik site, and entered the word touchstone into the blank field. Here are some of the things I found out:
- I got four examples of the word’s use in a sentence, drawn from Project Gutenberg texts of public-domain works. For instance:
To answer this, we must consider the argument for conceivability as the touchstone which is to separate the “Knowable” from the “Unknowable.” The Arena Volume 4, No. 19, June, 1891
- The original, non-metaphorical meaning (per the American Heritage Dictionary) was: “A hard black stone, such as jasper or basalt, formerly used to test the quality of gold or silver by comparing the streak left on the stone by one of these metals with that of a standard alloy.”
- The word had shown up in Twitter tweets twice (ha!) within the previous 20(ish) minutes.
- My favorite, this image showing the word’s popularity over time:
(The caption under the image explains, “Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year. Bubble height: unusualness in that year.”)
I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me. But this sort of thing isn’t just fun and cool; it feels like a leap, y’know?
marta says
I went to wordnik for the first time and typed in the word neurotic. You know, just to start somewhere. The site is very cool.
s.o.m.e.one's brudder says
apparently not many architecture nerds are yet attending to Wordnik. I’ve tried a few random samples and they’re woefully short on identity at the site. Might just have to join and begin to fluff it up a bit. Very interesting video w/Ms. McKean I must say, though. reCaptchas could put a challenge on WordNik, too – “rheostat Houthhakker”. Say what?
John says
marta, brudder: One of my favorite things to do there — this is really a stupid, stupid, vain party game, so prepare yourself for disillusion — involves the statistic on the right-hand side of the page, showing how many people have already looked up that word. The game’s objective is just to come up with a word (a real one, of course) about which you are the first inquirer. The reward: satisfaction that you are indeed smart as a whip. (Unfortunately, this lasts only until I look away from the computer screen and see all the evidence to the contrary.)
The only word I think I’ve “won” with so far: abraxas. Aside from the title of the Santana album, I thought I remembered that it was some sort of jewelry or badge. Not quite, but close.
My own reCaptcha: Ave menage: a Christmas carol sung almost exclusively in churches favoring polygamy.