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You’re probably using the wrong dictionary (2014)

jsomers.net

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Re: You’re probably using the wrong dictionary (2014)

#41

Post by xtracto »

Back when I was writing my PhD thesis (in English, as a non-native English speaker) I remember looking for a more efficient way to find synonyms for certain word.

Usually when you are looking for synonyms, you know you already know the word but you just cannot find it. So the Idea I had was to make some kind of "graph" representation of Word relationships given their meaning.

I remember finding a huge list of words with scores related to their meaning like:

Fly 1, Soar 0.9, Float 0.8.

Think, Ponder 0.9, Muse 0.8.

Which really helped, however given the different "directions" of the meaning that a word can have, this is better represented as a graph.

I finished my PhD writing with the use of said list (saddly I could never find it again), and the graph meaning idea just "went away" (lacking a better word) as I finished my degree. But the need for an efficient and quickly way to find that replacement word is still active.

Re: You’re probably using the wrong dictionary (2014)

#43

Post by astazangasta »

I cant believe no one has mentioned the great secret of writers: Brewer's dictionary of Phrase and Fable. This is the dictionary you read for fun, the one which sends you on rabbit holes of cross referencing, the one that gives you new ideas, stories, characters. You are missing out as a writer without it.

Re: You’re probably using the wrong dictionary (2014)

#44

Post by billfruit »

astazangasta wrote: post #43

I cant believe no one has mentioned the great secret of writers: Brewer's dictionary of Phrase and Fable. This is the dictionary you read for fun, the one which sends you on rabbit holes of cross referencing, the one that gives you new ideas, stories, characters. You are missing out as a writer without it.

I also will add that a good dictionary of quotations is also a good writing/thinking aid.

Re: You’re probably using the wrong dictionary (2014)

#45

Post by playpause »

aparks517 wrote: post #34

This is a truly delightful dictionary! I put together a tool to improve the formatting somewhat the last time this went around: https://github.com/aparks517/convert-websters And also an iOS app: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id943993346 I’ve also been collecting patches to correct typographical errors which I’ve been meaning to post somewhere. I’ve met lots of neat folks through this project!

The app isn’t currently available in the UK, any way you can change that?

Re: You’re probably using the wrong dictionary (2014)

#46

Post by specialist »

greggyb wrote: post #38
ppod wrote: post #35

Did anyone else find the writing in this post almost unbearable? It's deliberately showy in a way while also seeming self-conscious about being perceived as pretentious. The predictable dig at modernist architecture is exactly what I expect from this kind of prescriptive aesthetic paternalism.

Do you find it fustian?

ppod wrote: "prescriptive aesthetic paternalism"

Made my day.

Re: You’re probably using the wrong dictionary (2014)

#47

Post by AmVess »

ppod wrote: post #35

Did anyone else find the writing in this post almost unbearable? It's deliberately showy in a way while also seeming self-conscious about being perceived as pretentious. The predictable dig at modernist architecture is exactly what I expect from this kind of prescriptive aesthetic paternalism.

It is poorly written. Some writers confuse mental diarrhea with good writing. His style is overly wordy and needlessly punctuated.

He takes too long to push the informative points, all the while cloaking them in too much empty dross.

At first, I thought this was an example of something written by an AI program. It is lumpy and disjointed to the mind in the same way that the Uncanny Valley is disorienting to the eye.

I'm going to settle on it simply being a poorly written meandering of thought disguised as something that it isn't.

Re: You’re probably using the wrong dictionary (2014)

#48

Post by blago »

playpause wrote: post #45
aparks517 wrote: post #34

This is a truly delightful dictionary! I put together a tool to improve the formatting somewhat the last time this went around: https://github.com/aparks517/convert-websters And also an iOS app: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id943993346 I’ve also been collecting patches to correct typographical errors which I’ve been meaning to post somewhere. I’ve met lots of neat folks through this project!

The app isn’t currently available in the UK, any way you can change that?

Try this app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1397172520

Re: You’re probably using the wrong dictionary (2014)

#49

Post by onesmallcoin »

ppod wrote: post #35

Did anyone else find the writing in this post almost unbearable? It's deliberately showy in a way while also seeming self-conscious about being perceived as pretentious. The predictable dig at modernist architecture is exactly what I expect from this kind of prescriptive aesthetic paternalism.

I feel like what he could be trying to describe is called a thesaurus

Re: You’re probably using the wrong dictionary (2014)

#50

Post by JoBrad »

throwawaylolx wrote: post #37
kzrdude wrote: post #33

Fwiw, I've taken to always using the Collins dictionary, it explains words in a way that's meaningful and not entirely dry to me. I think it has some of these 1911 Webster qualities. Collins on flash: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/flash

Vocabulary.com is nice too. https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/flash

I like the colored parts of speech
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