Wordnik.com: Computer science meets religion: Comments

Comment by reesetee, 11 months ago

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:07:33 +0000

Ad agencies, too.

Comment by whichbe, 11 months ago

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:55:23 +0000

TV execs, too.

Comment by pollyanna, 11 months ago

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:48:25 +0000

Programming, isn't that what cults do?

Comment by miaoling, 11 months ago

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:41:15 +0000

Also, shouldn't we differentiate common and proper nouns? I mean, when someone names a programming language for example, it can be pretty much anything, without being bound by the requirement that it has something in common with the product being named.

Comment by miaoling, 11 months ago

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:38:53 +0000

It seems we can use a separate category for word pairs that differ by capitalization but NOT pronunciation. I have absolutely no idea how the sounds are different (I'm ESL and most of the words here I've never heard spoken). Btw, I opened up the list so anyone can add to it. Should be a fun exercise - who would think there's any link between computing and religion!

Comment by sionnach, 11 months ago

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:20:26 +0000

A list of capitonyms can be found here:

capitonyms list

"Turkey" would not be considered a capitonym according to the usual definition, which requires that the pronunciation change with capitalization.

Comment by miaoling, 11 months ago

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:36:45 +0000

You're right. The etymology was enlightening. I can't claim familiarity with any religion (I'm atheist) even though I'm probably most familiar with Christianity and Buddhism, both of which are common in places I've lived in.

Thanks for the bit about capitonyms. That's the most fascinating thing I've heard all day. The Turkey/turkey pair should probably be in there too, because the capital T makes ALL the difference:)

Comment by yaybob, 11 months ago

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:20:35 +0000

Host seems legit to me, as in a heavenly host of angels or in the communion host. It's not the same word as the computer word, but it's a homonym. According to "the free dictionary", the heavenly host, meaning either an army or a great number, derives from the Latin word hostis (enemy or stranger), the host that is the consecrated Eucharistis wafer from the Latin hostia (victim or sacrifice), and the computer word - a computer connected to a network and providing facilities to other computers and their users - from the Latin hospes (guest) {anybody into rhetoric remember what zeugma is? I just learned last week. I believe that this sentence utilized prozeugma}. It’s very interesting that ‘stranger’ is grouped with hostis/enemy rather than hospes/guest. {See also "your dictionary"}

Yes, job (short "o") isn't Job (long "o"). Is everybody familiar with capitonyms - a special category of near homographs differing in appearance by virtue only of capitalization (August/august, Polish/polish, Reading/reading, tangier/Tangier, nice/Nice are some other well known ones).

It (job/Job) and hex dump are there - how you say in Hinglish - intrabuccally linguistically.

Comment by nfriedman, 11 months ago

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:10:16 +0000

Uh...that should have been RELIGIOUS wars (frozen fingers).

Comment by nfriedman, 11 months ago

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:09:35 +0000

Agnostic (as in "platform-agnostic)
Evangelist (as in "technology evangelist)
Reigious wars (Mac vs. PC)

Comment by miaoling, 11 months ago

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:09:47 +0000

oh there you go. "oracle" and "daemon" were two of the words I always knew were missing. as for "host" and "job" though, isn't the coincidence just, well, a coincidence? I mean, when the first computer scientist decided to call it a "job", surely he didn't have the biblical book in mind?