Language can be so confusing when you don't have the ear or fluency of a native speaker. The slightest change in intonation, accent, or pronunciation can completely change the meaning of a word. Which brings me to the French verb "baiser." Usually it means "to kiss" - at least, that's what all of my vocabulary books and past French teachers have taught me. However, it can also mean "to have sex" in a vulgar fashion (i.e. fuck). I'm not sure if the difference in meaning is contextually determined or if there are pronunciation discrepancies. Because of this, next time I'm in France or speaking to a Frenchie, I'll try to avoid this potential faux pas..
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Word Salad
Word salad, the technical name of which is schizophasia, is a symptom of some mental illnesses in which a person's speech is jumbled much like a tossed salad. It involves real words strung together in a meaningless fashion, and schizophasias may or may not be grammatically correct. They are usually a sign of psychoses, particularly in manic manifestations, such as schizophrenia. See thought disorder.
Word salad also refers to a technique that spammers often employ in order to avoid detection by spam filters. By generating large portions of text in spam emails, spammers are sometimes able to bypass Bayesian classifiers.
Word salad also refers to a technique that spammers often employ in order to avoid detection by spam filters. By generating large portions of text in spam emails, spammers are sometimes able to bypass Bayesian classifiers.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Wordy
antoeci -
Those who live under the same meridian, but on opposite parallels of latitude, north and south of the equator.
perioeci -
Those who live under the same meridian, but on opposite parallels of latitude, north and south of the equator.
perioeci -
| Those who live on the same parallel of latitude but on opposite meridians, so that it is noon in one place when it is midnight in the other. |
Monday, June 15, 2009
Most Looked-Up Words on NYTimes, 2009
Philip Corbett, overseer of the Times style guide and deputy news editor, recently announced the top 50 words that readers look up on the Times' website. If you're a reader of the NYTimes website, you know that it contains a helpful feature that allows you to highlight text and look up definitions. It's fun to look at this list of words and see how many you know. Sadly, I could only define roughly ten out of fifty, but I consider this an accomplishment since, as Corbett notes, Times readers are typically well educated. Interestingly, the list contains no overlaps with the top 25 looked-up words on dictionary.com, according to Zachary M. Seward.
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