grant_barrett has looked up 5829 words, created 15 lists, listed 488 words, written 157 comments, added 6046 tags, and loved 41 words.
Comments by grant_barrett
Comments for grant_barrett
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Ready when you are.
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Ooh, thanks. Lookee there!
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It's under blog.
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Am I being dull or is there no obvious link to LOTD? I can't see one on the Wordnik page, Zeitgeist or indeed anyword page.
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Thanks. And it seems I’ve found a way to circumvent that dot bug by editing the hidden fields on some other pronunciations page (via WebDeveloper toolbar) in such a way that the recording is posted to the right one. :-)
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Hey, Grant. I'm from Missouri.
grant_barrett commented on the word nowt
Familiar to me mainly from reading the James Herriot novels, where the Yorkshiremen are given to saying it that way.
Feb 13, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the word TelePalmter
Writing notes on one's hand, à la Sarah Palin, instead of using a TelePrompter.
Feb 9, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the word apostrophe
Thanks for the cool article. I just tweeted it.
http://twitter.com/wordnik/status/8866809162
Feb 9, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the list location-slang
I love this list.
Feb 9, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the word GRO
A subset of karaoke bars with G.R.O.’s — short for guest relations officers, a euphemism for female prostitutes — often employ gay men, who are seen as neutral, to defuse the undercurrent of tension among the male patrons.
—Sinatra Song Often Strikes Deadly Chord, New York Times, by Norimitsu Onishi, February 6, 2010, datelined General Santos, the Philippines
Feb 8, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the word chiroptorium
Then there is what was considered Bamberger's folly. In 1998, he decided to carve out a three-dome cave into one of his hillsides and line the ceiling with gunite. The ranch staff rolled their eyes when he told them he wanted enough room for a million Mexican free-tailed bats. For years, no bats came. But slowly, they began to find Bamberger's cave, and now as many as 400,000 bats make their summer home there. The cave is called a "Chiroptorium" — a term his wife and son came up with that combines Chiroptera, the scientific order bats are in, and auditorium.
—National Public Radio, Texas Rancher An Unlikely Environmentalist, by Wade Goodwyn, February 2, 2010
Feb 5, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the word Dellionaire
Some of those who come to learn are new landowners who've made their fortune in Austin's high-tech industry. The locals call them "Dellionaires" because the first wave worked at nearby Dell Inc. These owners buy property not to make money off of it, but for recreation; and Bamberger's message of habitat restoration resonates strong.
—National Public Radio, Texas Rancher An Unlikely Environmentalist, by Wade Goodwyn, February 2, 2010
Feb 5, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the word debarking
The Marders had Nestlé’s vocal cords cut by a veterinary surgeon after a neighbor in the family’s apartment building on the Upper East Side threatened to complain to the co-op board about the noisy dog. ... The surgery usually leaves the animal with something between a wheeze and a squeak. The procedure, commonly referred to as debarking, has been around for decades, but has fallen out of favor, especially among younger veterinarians and animal-rights advocates.
—New York Times, Heel. Sit. Whisper. Good Dog., Sam Dolnick, February 2, 2010
Feb 4, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the word loopy juice
Legislation to curb drinking is of particular interest here in Scotland’s old industrial heartland, or the “Buckfast Belt,” where Buckfast is considered a regional favorite. The drink is so ubiquitous in this working-class town, not far from Glasgow, that some people call it Coatbridge Table Wine (others call it “loopy juice,” or, channeling Travis Bickle, “Who’re you lookin’ at?” wine.)
—New York Times, For Scots, a Scourge Unleashed by a Bottle, by Sarah Lyall, February 3, 2010
Feb 4, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the word e-bike
One barrier to wider adoption of electric bicycles in the United States and Europe may be the culture of cycling. Bicycle riders have long valued cycling as a sport and a form of exercise, not simply as a utilitarian means of transportation, and many of them look down their noses at electric bikes.
“To the core cyclist, it’s cheating,” said Loren Mooney, editor in chief of Bicycling Magazine. “Marketers understand this, and it’s why some have put e-bikes in mass retailers like Best Buy, rather than engaging in the uphill battle of trying to sell them in bike shops.”
—"An Electric Boost for Bicyclists, New York Times, January 31, 2010.
Feb 1, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the user feedback
Gangerh, all of the prons are playing for me right now. Can you link to some that are not working for you?
Feb 1, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the user feedback
Hmmm, okay. I'll file a support ticket for jingle truck. Looks like it's intermittent.
Feb 1, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the user feedback
It's a dictionary metasearch: you look up something and it gives you a link to all the major online dictionaries which have that entry. It's kind of a hassle to open up everything in a new link, and it's not always current because relies on the dictionaries keeping up-to-date the indexes they provide OneLook (and most dictionaries are terrible at keeping up with new language), but I particularly like its reverse dictionary, which I believe is more or less just a full-text search of entries and synonyms from some publicly available lexical data.
Feb 1, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the user feedback
Bilby, try it now.
Yes, the OneLook inclusion is new. We're pretty happy about that!
Feb 1, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the word choners
Probably from the Spanish "chones," meaning "underpants." I have found it as far back as 1972.
Feb 1, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the word POPOS
"Scattered across the centre of San Francisco are almost seventy semi-secret spaces, privately owned but open to the public. Subject to the fine print of a little-known pact between City and Commerce, these so-called POPOS (Privately Owned Public Open Spaces) allow alluring vistas of San Francisco and access to its intimate interiors." —"Strange Maps." More here.
Jan 29, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the word women's weepy
"Patterson has written in just about every genre — science fiction, fantasy, romance, 'women’s weepies,' graphic novels, Christmas-themed books. He dabbles in nonfiction as well."
JONATHAN MAHLER. (2010). "James Patterson Inc." Retrieved Jan. 28, 2010, from New York Times Web site: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/magazine/24patterson-t.html?hpw&pagewanted=all
Jan 29, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the word selectarian
Several prominent American yoga teachers like Ana Forrest and Bryan Kest have recently acknowledged eating meat. In an example of how yogis have adopted the language and ideology of foodies, Mr. Kest calls himself a “selectarian,” one who chooses everything he eats.
"When Chocolate and Chakras Collide" Julia Moskin (2010) - NYTimes.com.
Jan 29, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the word barley beard
See the third definition at beard.
Jan 27, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the user feedback
Prolagus, all of those pages, and tags in general, are in our plans for dusting and straightening.
chained_bear, thanks for the suggestion about linking to comments instead of the entry summary page. I'll propose to the team that we perhaps allow users to choose whether to default to the entry summary page or the entry comment page. Most of our users just come for definitions, so they would still see the expected results, while the regular visitors like you could automatically see the comments pages where the conversations and annotations are happening. But, as I say, I have to propose it, we have to discuss it, and the UI-thinkers and the DB-thinkers and the user-flow-thinkers have to come to a consensus that it's a good idea. Too much inside baseball? I dunno.
Spam is indeed a problem, as it is for all of the Internet. We're killing oodles of spam accounts and spam comments (so satisfying!), much which nobody ever sees but the spammer and I. For now, you can send an email to feedback@wordnik.com or just remark upon the spam where you find it, and then we'll find it, too. I think grandmaster John wants to do some kind of "flag this" icon in the UI but it would definitely be down the pike a spell before we see it.
Jan 21, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the word transmission
Ian, the sentences are gathered automatically. We've rolled out some new rulesets and a big batch of new data that need just a few tweaks. I've opened a support ticket for the issue.
Jan 21, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the user feedback
hernesheir, we're on it. Somebody is up to high jinks, testing to see how well our inputs are sanitized in word URLs. I've opened a support ticket for it. Both of your recent comments are the same issue.
chained_bear, I also opened a support ticket for the issue where sentences are showing that do not illustrate the word for which they appear.
Jan 21, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the user ianweniger
Ian, we're looking into the issue you note at intimate now.
Jan 21, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the user marky
Marky, I've forwarded your question at bugs and John's profile to apiteam@wordnik.com.
Jan 20, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the word bugs
Thanks, Myth. We have a script that is slowly cleaning out bad data like that. It's a big database, though, which is also growing at the same time, so it's going to take a while to complete.
Jan 20, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the list words-banned-in-the-irish-parliament
"Luck" and "banned" aren't really forbidden, are they?
Dec 15, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the user feedback
Marky, Tony will be the one to answer your questions about this. I'll ping him.
Dec 15, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the user bilby
One of your lists is our list of the day today. (If this were Flickr I'd have an MS Paint-made starburst to put here.)
Dec 14, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the word kelter
Hill7, I believe this is what you want: the online Dictionary of Scots Language (one of my favorite online dictionaries) has an entry for "kilter" which defines it as "to tilt up" and "to tumble headlong, to go head over heels, to fall," among other definitions.
Dec 14, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the word ervate
I think you're right, rolig. I don't see it any any of dozens of dictionaries on my shelves or on my computer.
Dec 14, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the user feedback
John's on it like beans on rice. "Most commented on" words on Zeitgeist are scheduled to be fixed in a soon-to-come future release.
Dec 12, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the list lists-of-the-day
down on the farm
Dec 10, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the list lists-of-the-day
imm
Dec 10, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the word epitomy
This word is a misspelling of epitome. "Empitome" is also a misspelling.
Nov 23, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the user Telofy
Telofy, I've put in a request to move the pronunciation you asked about. We don't currently have a convenient way to move them, though, so I'm not sure how long it will take.
PS: request of that sort are best left at
http://www.wordnik.com/people/feedback
Nov 23, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the list lists-of-the-day
Dunno. It was there all along.
Nov 20, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the list lists-of-the-day
2009-11-19 Capitonyms or capitonyms
Nov 20, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the list lists-of-the-day
They Stumble Off The Tongue
Nov 20, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the list lists-of-the-day
They Roll Off The Tongue
Nov 20, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the list lists-of-the-day
Panvocalics
Nov 20, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the list lists-of-the-day
Containers
Nov 20, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the list lists-of-the-day
Laundry List
Nov 20, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the list lists-of-the-day
Red/Pink Colors
Nov 20, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the word herouette
hero + pirouette
Nov 20, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the word herouette
Defined by CharlieCurve as "The starlet, athlete or hero turning in a circle and waving to the surrounding crowd."
Nov 20, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the user Prolagus
Also, I've made a support ticket for the lists that begin with a bullet. I don't have an ETA on them, but they are on our to-do lists.
Nov 20, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the user whichbe
PS: Wordnik's equivalent for high-threat-level bug-reporting and fixing will henceforth be the Feedback account page. That page will be monitored by multiple people throughout the day, which is not necessarily the case for the numerous other places bug reports are being left.
Nov 20, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the user Prolagus
Prolagus, all of the lists you mentioned in bugs as missing have now been restored, thanks to John.
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/commedia-dell-arte
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/the-condom-free-preserve
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/italian-politics
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/scientific-papers-with-delightful-titles
By the way, Wordnik's equivalent for "red-phone"-level bug-reporting and fixing will henceforth be the Feedback account page. That page will be monitored by multiple people throughout the day, which is not necessarily the case for the numerous other places bug reports are being left.
Nov 20, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the user whichbe
Whichbe, all of the lists you mentioned in bugs are now restored. John's the man.
For reference, the 6 lists trapped in Limbo are:
- Wordie Challenge - example poth - http://www.wordnik.com/lists/wordie-challenge
- Scambiguous - ex. know and no - http://www.wordnik.com/lists/scambiguous
- Wakese - ex. monomyth - http://www.wordnik.com/lists/wakese--2
- Punlandia - ex. polish - http://www.wordnik.com/lists/punlandia
- Pharmacontents - ex. moxifloxacin - http://www.wordnik.com/lists/pharmacontents
- Terms of Phonetics - ex. phoneme - http://www.wordnik.com/lists/terms-of-phonetics
Nov 20, 2009
grant_barrett commented on the word vexamples
A vexample is an example sentence which is truly terrible.
Nov 19, 2009