Guest JakeYYZ Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 The online Merriam-Webster site has just released their "most-looked-up" words of 2004. And they are... 1) Blog 2) Incumbent 3) Electoral 4) Insurgent 5) Hurricane 6) Cicada 7) Peloton 8 ) Partisan 9) Sovereignty 10) Defenestration Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeker Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 The online Merriam-Webster site has just released their "most-looked-up" words of 2004. And they are... 1) Blog 2) Incumbent 3) Electoral 4) Insurgent 5) Hurricane 6) Cicada 7) Peloton 8 ) Partisan 9) Sovereignty 10) Defenestration Defenestration? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeker Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 The online Merriam-Webster site has just released their "most-looked-up" words of 2004. And they are... 1) Blog 2) Incumbent 3) Electoral 4) Insurgent 5) Hurricane 6) Cicada 7) Peloton 8 ) Partisan 9) Sovereignty 10) Defenestration Defenestration? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.O. Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 Defenestration: a throwing of a person or thing out of a window. How that made the list, I'll never figure out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kip Powick Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 "Peloton"..........? I looked it up but find it hard to imagine where I could ever use it...sorta like trying to use this....."systematized virtual contingency" which was found on a management website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JakeYYZ Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 The more common definition is a pack of cyclists in a race. More specifically the main or leading group. The term is derived literally from a French word meaning "small ball". Hmm....cycling...Lance Armstrong....."small ball". Insert your own jokes here.____ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeker Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 The more common definition is a pack of cyclists in a race. More specifically the main or leading group. The term is derived literally from a French word meaning "small ball". Hmm....cycling...Lance Armstrong....."small ball". Insert your own jokes here.____ A densely packed group of riders, sheltering in each others' draft. In a mass-start race, most of the competitors usually end up in one large peloton for most of the race. The word is French, from a term that means rolled up in a ball. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeker Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 Defenestration: a throwing of a person or thing out of a window. How that made the list, I'll never figure out. Hard to imagine that something as estoteric as this would end up in the top ten - must have been appeared in a movie or maybe Jeopardy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kip Powick Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 a little more info..... defenestration n. [mythically from a traditional Czech assasination method, via SF fandom] 1. Proper karmic retribution for an incorrigible punster. "Oh, ghod, that was _awful_!" "Quick! Defenestrate him!" 2. The act of exiting a window system in order to get better response time from a full-screen program. This comes from the dictionary meaning of `defenestrate', which is to throw something out a window. 3. The act of discarding something under the assumption that it will improve matters. "I don't have any disk space left." "Well, why don't you defenestrate that 100 megs worth of old core dumps?" 4. Under a GUI, the act of dragging something out of a window (onto the screen). "Next, defenestrate the MugWump icon." 5. The act of completely removing Micro$oft Windows from a PC in favor of a better OS (typically Linux). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JakeYYZ Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 A densely packed group of riders, sheltering in each others' draft. In a mass-start race, most of the competitors usually end up in one large peloton for most of the race. The word is French, from a term that means rolled up in a ball. The proper terminology for a group of cyclists is in fact, "GODDAMNED BELGIANS!!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W5 Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 Also the French (and Dutch; therefore Belgian) word for "platoon". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JakeYYZ Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 I say we boycott their damned witloof harvest, throw rocks at the Mannequin Pis and other dopey urinating statues that the Phlegms foist off on such Eurotrash as streams within their borders, place huge North American tariffs and duties on lace, out Jean-Claude Van Damme as the wife-beater-and-remarrier that he is, and throw all those Rubens paintings of fat broads and Magritte pix of guys with fruit in front of their faces into the North Fercking Sea! And HEY, BART!! Next time you name a town "OOSTENDE", MAKE SURE IT'S NOT AT THE WESTERN TIP OF YOUR RICH, RAIN-SOAKED, BILINGUAL, RIDICULOUS COUNTRY!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W5 Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 Amen to the the damnation of "witlof" (yech..), and agree with p*ssing on "Manneke Pis". Ostende is actually on the East side of the North Sea (Noordzee); sure has got an interesting airport though, with all the gunrunners and other clapped out equipment. Too bad all the stage II A/C are banned now. Mind you Brussels is doing a good job of banning just about anything; they are losing the DHL hub to Leipzig. Oh, in your damnation you forgot about all the bureaucrats; Belgian and EU (and NATO). And the cobblestones. At least you got some choice in beers!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest neo Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 1) Blog 2) Incumbent 3) Electoral 4) Insurgent 5) Hurricane 6) Cicada 7) Peloton 8 ) Partisan 9) Sovereignty 10) Defenestration These are their Words of the Year?! With the possible exception of 10) they're not even worth a passing glance. What ever happened to words like, emmetropia, motet, relume, and zwitterion? Now those were words you could sink your dentures into. neo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccairspace Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 What ever happened to words like, emmetropia, motet, relume, and zwitterion? Now those were words you could sink your dentures into. neo Absolutely Neo! And as I sit here listening to the motet softly playing on my stereo, while gently stirring the zwitterions in the bouillon before me, no doubt a mischievous sparkle has relumed in my emmetropic eye as I point out to you that that since everyone knows what these words mean... why would we need to look them up in the dictionary... ? ccairspace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest neo Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 Good point. As everyone knows those words, why would they look them up? So I suppose my beef is really with the criterion the Merriam-Webster used to come up with the list. I mean, can't we be a little more choosy, without seeming like insufferable word-snobs in the bargain? For a start, I note that the list contains a preponderance of politically-charged words: fully half are the result of the byzantine American political system, an election year of same and its global political aspirations. Boring! Cross off the weather, (snore!) sports, (oh please!) and the internet (like, so 10 minutes ago!) and what have you got left? An insect and a passingly decent verb/noun. Honey, you ain't gonna dine out on that. They will have to do better. neo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccairspace Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 LOL! Don't you just, like, totally dislike these on line abreviations? But let me place the following in a quotation box: The online Merriam-Webster site has just released their "most-looked-up" words of 2004. And they are... The very fact that those were the words that needed to be looked up is fodder for dinner conversation for days. IMHO anyway... ccairspace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeker Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 The very fact that those were the words that needed to be looked up is fodder for dinner conversation for days. People use the dictinary not just to learn the meaning of words but also for spellings. I mean, everone knows what a hurricane is. I use my dictionary all the time - sits on my desk - just to check spelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest neo Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 Makes sense to me. But maybe check the spelling of "dictinary" while you're at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeker Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 Makes sense to me. But maybe check the spelling of "dictinary" while you're at it. Used it twice - got it right once - so they way I see it I'm even. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JakeYYZ Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 Heheheh……..I always thought Neo was a cunning linguist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Cronin Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 Absolutely Neo! And as I sit here listening to the motet softly playing on my stereo, while gently stirring the zwitterions in the bouillon before me, no doubt a mischievous sparkle has relumed in my emmetropic eye as I point out to you that that since everyone knows what these words mean... why would we need to look them up in the dictionary... ? ccairspace ....err, ahhh, excusy meee... iz eet poseebull for to be finding some body to be speeking dat in eenglish? Jour langwage is hurteeng my mynd? Heck, who needs a wordy book t' translamanate that? Ya got the radio on playin' Gospel stuff while yer cookin up some witch's brew that Frankenstein'd be proud of, and yer gettin a kick outa the notion that most of us hicks cain't git yer drift... (while yer lyin' about yer eyesight) ...izzat it?? Harrumph! ...and Ptui! ... Thar, now look that up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccairspace Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 Giving myself a stitch from laughing!!! ...and my blinking glasses fell off, Mitch! ccairspace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest neo Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 harrumph (past harrumphed, present participle harrumphing, 3rd person present singular harrumphs) vti 1. clear the throat 2. mutter critical remarks [Mid-20th century. An imitation of sound] From the Encarta Dictionary. Seriously! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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