pterodactyl

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• about 1 months ago, gangerh said: I played with your name. 
• about 1 months ago, telofy said: Yes, now you are under the protection of the License to Err. And that’s an excellent idea by the way; I shall do the same.
• about 1 months ago, pterodactyl said: I'm covered by dint of having favorited License to Err. :-)
• about 1 months ago, telofy said: Another content customer, what an honor. :-)
  Yet strictly speaking you’re not yet covered by the License to Err since as of now—unless it’s a cache issue—you haven’t added it to any lists.
  But that reminds me of an emendation I was planning to apply—an important emendation, at least for as long as we still have Time separating past and future. Thanks.
• about 1 months ago, pterodactyl said: For too long I have been treading gingerly through life, eschewing any risk for fear that I might somehow err. Well, no longer. Thanks to telofy and Wordie PRO!, I now have license to err. That's right, boys and girls -- if I screw up now, no big deal! I just laugh about it and get on with my life.
  
  And I gotta say, its a wonderful feeling. :-)
• about 3 months ago, chained_bear said: Don't forget this gem:
  "What's now missing from the pterosaur picture is how these animals took off, but Padian already has some ideas.
  
  'Two obvious choices are just jumping up and flapping, and running along and flapping,' Padian said, adding, 'I suspect both were possible.'"
  
  Congratulations, ptero, on finally being recognized by us hairless monkeys for the flight genius you are. .... How's the real estate at Pterosaur Beach, by the way? ;)
  
• about 3 months ago, pterodactyl said: "The pterodactyl was likely a powerful flyer with highly maneuverable wings and a developed capacity for flight control."
  
  *preens*
• about 3 months ago, reesetee said: At last, we've figured out how you land!
• about 6 months ago, reesetee said: I couldn't agree more.
• about 7 months ago, pterodactyl said: Some environmental hormones are believed to cause aberrant mating behavior.
  어떤 환경 호르몬�?� 변태�?�?� 성행위�?� �?�?��?� �?�기�?� 한다.
  
  His aberrant behaviors caused a lot of anxiety to his parents.
  그�?� 정�?�를 벗어난 행위 때문�? 부모님들�?� 걱정�?� 많�?� 하셨다.
  
  The incident reminded the public that old habits die hard and some wondered whether it's just the tip of the iceberg rather than the isolated action of an aberrant officer.
  �?�번 �?�분 사건�?� 구태가 사�?�지기 힘들다는 사실�?� 국민들�?게 �?�?�게 했고 �?��?�?서는 �?�번 사건�?� 비행 장�?�?� �?�출�?� 행�?��?��?�기 보다는 단지 빙산�?� �?��?�?�지 모른다고 여기고 있다.
• about 7 months ago, gangerh said: What's all this about ptropaganda?
• about 7 months ago, reesetee said: Propaganda? I just think it's pfunny. :-)
• about 7 months ago, Milosrdenstvi said: My inner Greek scholar always rankles when people make light of the silent p and other dropped consonants (mnemonic, bdellium, phenophthalein, gnu) ... pedants like me continue to pronounce them. p-terodactyl. It's not incredibly difficult. It's actually kind of fun. And the ancient Greeks did it. So why can't we?
  
  It's one of my sillier linguistic perfectionisms. In other words, whenever I rant about it, you should pay no attention.
• about 7 months ago, pterodactyl said: *clicks link*
  
  *starts to grin*
  
  Gosh. I could really get into that kind of propaganda.
  
  (Even though it it's technically false.)
• about 7 months ago, chained_bear said: *covets*
• about 7 months ago, reesetee said: Ptero, I think I've found the pterfect pt-shirt for you. :-)
• about 11 months ago, Prolagus said: Thank you for the link on my profile, ptero!
• about 1 year ago, elgiad007 said: Thanks for the welcome, pterodactyl!
• about 1 year, 1 month ago, yarb said: When I was about 18 I decided to read my 2-volume Shorter OED in its entirety - I was going great guns getting through 'A' in six weeks, but strangely I lapsed, never made it past the first hundred or so 'B's. Still my favourite dictionary though.
• about 1 year, 1 month ago, reesetee said: "He noted approvingly that the modern bourgeois and the modern nobleman did not drink to inebriation and kept to delicate wines... Artisans and laborers preferred the local gros rouge, which they swilled in huge quantities, gargling to give it a kick."
  —Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre, And Other Episodes in French Cultural History (New York: Vintage Books, 1984), 132
• about 1 year, 1 month ago, plethora said: I'm not sure. I suppose the teacher assumed that we were trying to get out of reading, because really, who reads a dictionary word by word?
  What she didn't get is that we both loved reading. While our classmates were struggling through their BSC and "Aussie Bites", 100 page novels (and hating every minute), we were reading adult fiction, which found so absorbing that we couldn't just read for 15 minutes and then stop (I still can't do that. It's torture).
  Plus, we were having fun and learning new words (and partly we were doing it to be smart arses. Fun was discouraged whenever possible, and I think the teacher hated having to mark our spelling words each week because she didn't know what half the words meant, herself.
• about 1 year, 1 month ago, pterodactyl said: Thank you all! Your suggestions are lovely, and they're going to be darned useful as I assemble this presentation.
  
  Frindley, I loved the TED video you posted. I think every Wordie should watch it (and be prepared to see the geek needle go all the way into the red...).
  
  Plethora, why the heck wouldn't they let you read the dictionary? If I found a kid sitting quietly and reading the dictionary, I'd shower him or her with praise.
  
  (I once started reading an encyclopedia cover to cover. I think I got about a quarter of the way through before I lost interest.)
• about 1 year, 1 month ago, mollusque said: Ptero, in making your presentation, you might want to mention words created in dictionaries. I have a list, Dictionary escapees, that describes various ways this happens.
  
  Following up on John's comment, I regard MW2 as the greatest single volume dictionary. First issued in 1934, it weighed in at 16 pounds, 3350 pages, and more than 600,000 entries. I don't refer to it as W2, because the first dictionary by Noah Webster, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language came out in 1806, and the second, his masterwork, An American Dictionary of the English Language, came out in 1828. Also, the name "Webster" is not trademarked, so anyone can stick it in the title of a dictionary. Merriam-Webster is the company that continues the Webster tradition.
  
  MW3 is the print dictionary I use most often, because it's much better for scientific terminology than MW2, but despite being styled as unabridged, it has 150,000 fewer entries than MW2 (and is 3.5 pounds lighter). MW3 was criticized for being too permissive, but I like that aspect. My main complaint about it is that all the headwords are lowercase (except for acronyms), with "cap", "usu cap", "often cap" stated in entry.
  
  My favorite multi-volume dictionary is OED2, but CDC1 is better for scientific terms.
• about 1 year, 1 month ago, plethora said: Perhaps you could mention reverse dictionaries, pter? I have always found them fascinating for some reason.
  
  When I was in year 6, we had 15 minutes of compulsory reading time every day. My equally book-nerdy friend and I both felt that 15 minutes wasn't enough time to enjoy any sort of narrative, so we each brought in a dictionary and started reading at A. We only lasted a week before we were told off and our dictionaries confiscated.
  
  My favourite dictionary is the Macquarie, I must say.
• about 1 year, 1 month ago, chained_bear said: "... scores of indigenous Dolgans have returned to a nomadic life on the tundra, living out of reindeer-drawn mobile homes called baloks..."
  —Richard Stone, Mammoth: The Resurrection of an Ice Age Giant, (Cambridge, Mass.: Perseus Publishing, 2001)
• about 1 year, 1 month ago, bilby said: In learning foreign languages I've found picture dictionaries to be really useful. I don't think it's the pictures so much as the thematic organisation, eg, you can look at a diagram of a house and go through the words for every danged thing in it on a single page. Learning thematically-linked words in one big bunch works well for me. My Italian picture dictionary even had a diagram of a soccer field and names for the player positions ... twenty minutes with that and I was ready for my trip to the stadium!
• about 1 year, 1 month ago, john said: c_b, I can't believe you just called yourself pedestrian because you enjoy the OED. This has to the the only place on the planet where anyone would ever say that :-)
• about 1 year, 1 month ago, frindley said: The Macquarie Dictionary sponsored Australian Word Map is a fascinating attempt at using a kind of crowdsourcing to capture the diversity and intricacies of Australian regionalisms.
• about 1 year, 1 month ago, chained_bear said: It's pedestrian for me to say so, but I have great fondness for the OED online. I especially love the quotations and etymologies.
• about 1 year, 1 month ago, frindley said: Just for inspiration, Erin McKean gives a very entertaining presentation about dictionaries on TED.
  
  And my favourite dictionary story of all time appears in Andrew Clements' Frindle (no, not named after me, alas).
  
  I personally love the stories behind words and the ways they are used. So dictionaries that are "just" definitions are always less interesting to me than the ones with etymologies and historical usage.
  
• about 1 year, 1 month ago, john said: Dictionaries! An older and very well-regarded copy editor of my acquaintance says that Webster's 2nd, aka W2 (though mollusque calls it the MW2), is the best dictionary ever created. It's beautifully written and opinionated without being overbearing. And it contains dord, one of the best accidental words ever.
• about 1 year, 1 month ago, dontcry said: I had a dictionary for years - a really old one -- called Eskay's (I think) joke dictionary. It was prety lame -- but also cool.
  
  I also have a rhyming dictionary, also old.
• about 1 year, 1 month ago, pterodactyl said: Hello, fellow Wordies. I need your help...
  
  In one of the classes I'm taking this semester, I've just volunteered to do a 10-minute presentation about dictionaries. It's a topic that's near and dear to my heart, but I'm still a bit anxious about it.
  
  So I'm asking for suggestions. What are the best and worst dictionaries out there (print or online)? Do you have any favorites? Any dictionaries that have let you down? What about fancy bells and whistles (like those sites where you can hear words pronounced)?
  
  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
• about 1 year, 1 month ago, wordwench said: Conversely, "Words that would be even more interesting with a 'P' in front of them'
  sounds like a really good list to me.
  
  Ptruly.
  
  ;)
• about 1 year, 3 months ago, chained_bear said: We had a conversation somewhere on Wordie about this very topic, as regards "slave" vs. "enslaved." I think you might be onto something here, and for the same reasons. "Enslaved" describes a condition, not an identity or an object itself. It's an adjective, and as such doesn't tell the whole story; it needs a noun to modify. That noun is the identity of the person. So when you say "slave," you're describing the person as identified with his or her condition—it isn't a person, it's a slave, an object. Whereas if you say "enslaved man," "enslaved woman," "enslaved child," etc., you're not only describing a PERSON who has the condition of being enslaved. You're also (because it's a verb used as an adjective) implying responsibility. Someone enslaved this person/this person was enslaved by someone else.
  
  Not exactly the same thing as what you're talking about, but close.
  
  In the instance of the two offensive as well as not-entirely-accepted terms cited here today, they are coined expressly to insult and denigrate, so it's kind of irrelevant whether they're used as adjectives or nouns. But I think you're onto something about the adj. vs. noun thing. :)
  
  And may I just say, I love discussing language with fellow wordies. :)
• about 1 year, 3 months ago, reesetee said: Yes, it's a good point, and I think in many cases it may make a difference. But so does intent, of course.
• about 1 year, 3 months ago, rolig said: I once talked to a Jewish friend about this, and he confirmed that to say, "Herman Smith is a Jew" sounded to his ear potentially offensive, whereas saying "Herman Smith is Jewish" is a neutral statement of fact. But the distinction, I think, is not merely that the nominal form defines you, but that it suggests that the speaker sees you as a member of a distinct group which he defines as "Other" or "them". To say, for example, "she's a Hungarian" implies not only that she is Hungarian but also "and we all know what Hungarians are like." Saying "she's Hungarian" doesn't seem to suggest so much "she's one of them."
• about 1 year, 3 months ago, reesetee said: Not for me, ptero. "Gaytard" is equally as offensive to me as "gaytarded." But you do bring up an interesting point.
• about 1 year, 3 months ago, pterodactyl said: "Press TV: You have often written about the US's superpower status in terms of the history of previous superpowers. Do you think we're witnessing the end of US power as some suggest. Will the White House be seen like Persepolis?
  
  Gore Vidal: Well it won't make such good ruins, no. It'll be more like the tomb of Cyrus nearby. They managed to destroy the United States - why? Because they're oil and gas people and they're essentially criminals.
  I repeat that this is a criminal group that's seized control of the country through what looked like an ordinary election. But there's some very nice films and documentaries about what happened in the year 2000 when Albert Gore won the election for president and they saw to it that he couldn't serve. They got the Supreme Court - which is the Holy of Holies ordinarily in our system - to investigate and then accuse the thieves of being absolutely correct and the winners - Mr. Gore and the Democrats - of being the cheaters.
  It's the first law of Machiavelli, whatever your opponent's faults are, you pick his virtues and you deny he has them. That's what they did when Senator Kerry ran a few years ago for president. He's a famous hero from the Vietnam War. They said he was a coward and not a hero. That's how it's done. When you have a bunch of liars in charge of your government you can't expect to get much history out of that. But later on we'll dig and dig… and we will dig up Persepolis."
  - Gore Vidal, 'The US is not a republic anymore', presstv.ir, 28 June 2008.
• about 1 year, 3 months ago, sionnach said: pBoris and pNatasha are ppissed at this ridiculous pcanard that there is no internet in pCalifornia.
  
  pWhat am I? pchopped pliver?
  
  {psulks in pcorner}
• about 1 year, 3 months ago, Prolagus said: MiaLuthien, do I see pterodactyl's silent P in your mouth? please leave it... bring it here... good girl...
• about 1 year, 3 months ago, mialuthien said: Have a good time in California, P.! Make sure to gather up all the peculiar new words the Californians use, and bring them back here to share! :P
• about 1 year, 3 months ago, Prolagus said: So, this is why there are no Californian Wordies. So many prunes and no DSL. Such a shame.
• about 1 year, 3 months ago, bilby said: Soon!
  
  P.S. Are you sure they don't have internet in California?
• about 1 year, 3 months ago, reesetee said: Have a great trip, ptero! We'll miss you. :-)
• about 1 year, 3 months ago, pterodactyl said: A note to the various and sundry Wordies: I shall be in California until 8/14, and as we all know, there's no internet in California. Ergo, I shall probably be incommunicado until then.
• about 1 year, 4 months ago, pterodactyl said: Hi, frogapplause -- you're welcome to use whatever you like from 50 Ways to Leave your Lover, or indeed from any of my lists. I prefer to remain anonymous, though, so if you do credit me, credit me as pterodactyl, not as...
  
  ..whoops! Almost let my real name slip, there!
• about 1 year, 4 months ago, frogapplause said: Ptero: I'd like to harvest some of the creative goodness from your "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" list for my comic strip. Kindly write to me at shoecabink at yahoo dot com to let me know if you'd like me to acknowledge you by your "real name" or by your Wordie name. Thanks. (OMG. How bold of me to neglect asking for permission to even USE your material! Today is NOT my day).
• about 1 year, 5 months ago, Prolagus said: Hey, I live in Brooklyn!
• about 1 year, 6 months ago, pterodactyl said: Gosh, thanks!