#merriam webster

[mostly-funnytwittertweets]

[anal-bravery]

Y'all. Kraft just erected an 8 foot tall monument to its own mayonnaise outside of Merriam Webster's HQ in Springfield in an effort to make "Moist" Merriam Webster's word of the year. It feels like an article from the fucking Onion but this is real life

[one-time-i-dreamt]

Elon Musk tried to buy the letter X but Merriam-Webster found out and chased him around, trying to smash him with a giant dictionary.

[grub-karkat-in-strange-places]

[wowbright]

Creating a new post I can reblog every time I see one particular post cross my dash:

Merriam-Webster continues to make its abridged dictionary available for use online, free of charge. It includes more than 200,000 words from the English language (with emphasis on American English). That's A LOT of information for free. And it's something that's entirely different from before the internet existed, when you had to purchase a dictionary or physically get to a library or school in order to get access to a single definition.

The unabridged Merriam-Webster dictionary, which includes additional words, is available for a subscription fee. It has been behind a paywall for years now, which I know because I paid for it for work purposes more than 10 years ago, and because of this 2002 article from Computer World: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2587755/merriam-webster-launches-paid-subscription-site.html

(That's right, this article is more than 20 years old!)

Paper copies of good quality unabridged dictionaries cost much more than the subscription price, reaching into the hundreds to thousands of dollars--which I also know first hand, because I studied linguistics and then worked in editing, and I had to use them both for school and for work.

If you are only finding out now through a tumblr post about the paywall for the unabridged version even though you've been using merriam-webster.com for years, it's because you've never looked up a word on it that was only in the unabridged version. That's how generous Merriam-Webster has been and continues to be!

But they can't give everything away for free. Merriam-Webster has a paid version because they need to pay their staff of linguists, who constantly update and add definitions as the meanings of words change over time and new words enter the English language, as well as write articles to explain things about words. They also have to pay for things like web designers, coders, support staff, and servers.

Creating and maintaining dictionaries with up-to-date definitions takes a lot of work, and the people doing that work deserve to be fairly compensated.

If that makes you mad, then stop using it. If you want a completely free dictionary with no paid tiers that you can use from any computer or smartphone, use Wiktionary.

[lannegarrett]

[pagerunner-j]

Sometimes Twitter is still good.

(Oh, and Merriam-Webster replied to the last one to add, "Spoiler alert: they were right.")

[solace-saphylos]

I was browsing the dictionary as one does, and I found "concord" as a synonym for peace. I know the SSO horse Concorde has an extra e on the end of their name, but can we have some commotion in the feed for how sweet the definition of the name is?

[fandomtransmandom]

My widgets know what's up🔥

[dungeonmalcontent]

While looking for good synonyms for a d&d homebrew project I came across something interesting on Merriam Webster. So here is a short story told in five screenshots.

A short trip back to the page for "sapient"...

[sapphyreopal5]

But homophobic was never used to mean "fear"... as in, that word was never invented to be used like that, so only using it to mean "fear of homosexuality/gay people" is actually unhelpful cause no-one else reads it like that, since that's not really a thing. People aren't afraid of other people, they are prejudiced against them. And when they are, we say they are acting in a homophobic way. The problem is people being *too quick* to use this word, not the word itself

Okay I'm gonna believe Merriam-Webster dictionary over what someone sending me an anonymous ask says, let alone what a bunch of kids think. And yes, there ARE people who are genuinely afraid of homosexual people, they feel threatened by them. Get your ass out of mom's basement, go touch some grass, breathe some fresh air, experience new things and talk to some new people, maybe even make new friends. This is one of the problems with younger people today, they think they are worldly when they can barely figure out their own sexuality and the proper terms for such things and have yet to move out of their parents' house. To be clear so you don't make some dumb assumptions, I don't care what people do behind closed doors so long as no one gets hurt. I sure care if people lie about it or you know, make up definitions of things to suit their own ignorance and laziness.

This is the last time I'm answering you Anon, you're ignorant and need some life experience and a real education. Goodbye, have a good weekend.

[accessibleacademia]

access vs. excess

Access is a noun meaning the ability to enter or use a thing, as in "access to the building," and a verb meaning "to enter" or "to use," as in "access the stage from the rear" or "access a readable computer file."

Excess is a noun or an adjective that means an amount that is extra, or more than usual or more than necessary, as in "an excess of salt" and "excess baggage."

From Merriam-Webster's List of Most Commonly Confused Words

[themonsterthing]

20240421: noblesse oblige

Noblesse oblige refers to the idea that people who have high social rank or wealth should be helpful and generous to people of lower rank or to people who are poor.

—

The city was a bright shining beacon, a beautiful landscape of gleaming towers and glass castles, smaller older churches and warehouses nestled in the cracks leftover, the winding alleyways making art spaces and encampments for the less privileged. The tall trees shook gently in the wind, the expensive pure bred dogs barked happily in the expansive parks.

The mayor stepped over a pile of human feces on one of the main thoroughfares, wrinkled her nose as a man with pants belted around his ankles wandered by. She murmured a low note to an assistant hovering by her elbow, and a third assistant strode up to the man, offering him a box of leftover day old doughnuts from an artisanal bakery up the road.

Let them eat cake.

[grub-karkat-in-strange-places]

[mysg1spacemonkey]

Adorkable and MacGyver have made it into the dictionary. A word for Amanda Tapping and one for Richard Dean Anderson.

[thoughtportal]

Too blessed to be stressed