mollusque has looked up 18474 words, created 149 lists, listed 27268 words, written 5138 comments, added 20842 tags, and loved 20 words.
Comments by mollusque
Comments for mollusque
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It *is* strange to have all of our own comments above the text box--but below the text box the comments are all together (assuming we don't stray from profile to profile for our comment-leaving).
And I miss John for sure, but I miss you, too. -
There's also the bizarre segregation of comments by the user from those of other users, which makes it hard to follow a conversation. And speaking of user unfriendliness, we can't even sort lists into alphabetical order. I miss John.
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This odd ruzuzu will take that as a compliment.
I was going to try to make a sweet pun about "dessertification" and desserters, but then I got distracted by visions of dunes made of shifting grains of sugar. -
Speaking of which, I had to scroll up and down for a pater noster while to find the freaking comment box whereinwhichfor to make a comment. Yes, it's a desert of user unfriendliness with the odd ruzuzu blooming under a rock.
spam fisted = ham fisted, oh yessireee. -
Psst. I think you're missing an HTML tag on micramoc.
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Always--the sproingiest, in fact.
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With sproingy rhinophores?
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And mollusque.
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And mollusks.
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Sometimes when I try to explain this site to my friends, I find myself talking about molluscs.
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Thank you very much.
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If you would inform me whether schize, spissy and spissid are "valid" words, I would be very grateful.
Thanks. -
Thank you much.
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As an adjective, does fortin exist in cyberspace outside dictionary definitions except for a reference to Samson (1866)?
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Thanks very much. Yes, my modified links work. I intended to try my links myself but continued to procrastinate. Thanks again.
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Thanks for providing me another word related to protuberance.
Spissitude should not have been in that list.
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Thanks, mollusque for your kangaroo word suggestion. Definitely "outside the box". :o)
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Thank you for your informative response to my question.
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Thank you for your utile comments.
Is there any way to simultaneously insert multiple words into a Wordnik list? -
Thank you for your comments.
What trawling software do you use? -
I have provided links to Oxford English Dictionary in an attempt to demonstrate that the words so linked have a valid source. Following each of those links, I have delineated in parentheses "Oxford English Dictionary" so that the name of the source is explicit. Most persons who are associated with an institution of higher learning are able to access Oxford English Dictionary gratis, whether or not they must provide a password.
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A tandem repeat: grougrou.
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I found a few additional words for your Monovocalic list. It's becoming harder to find new words!
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You cannot escape the charge that you have previously engaged in the amazing pastime that is IDENTIFY THE WORDIE.
You are therefore prime target material for inviting to IDENTIFY THE WORDIENIK.
The whole of the bit of Wordnik that joins in on this would be truly honoured should you participate this time round.
Easily find the right page right now because it is currently the most commented on list shown on the Community page. -
Hi mollusque, looking into the wotd delete bug right now, will get back to you.
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Hi mollusque, I've removed that boring, blank word for you.
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Uh... frogapplause just pointed out the word epiphragm and... uh....
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We all appreciate your additions to the Wordnikian Glossary.
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Hey Moll...I created a list to collect Wordie/Wordnik terms (coined or otherwise unique) that we use on this website. Your inputs would be greatly appreciated - and I ask that nobody be shy - take credit for your coinages that have become common. I call the list A Glossary of Wordnikian.
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One for your tandem repeats list: anorrhorrhea.
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The term anime is listed as a general term for "various resins, especially that of Hymenaea courbaril...Unof.", in the 1910 2nd edition of The Practitioner's Medical Dictionary by George Milbry Gould. I assume *Unof.*, which I don't see listed in the abbreviations in the Roman-numeral-paginated forward to the book, is intended to mean "unofficial". That it is listed seems to be an indication that the term was in common enough use among physicians at the time. See anime resin.
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Please add it to your 'pull out all the stops' list, if you wish.
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Good catch noticing that quintaphone is a euvocalic!
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All hail the antisturgeon. I found a reference with stated definition of semiparous tonight.
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See allegious. It would be nice to attest the adverb with -ly.
antisturgeon??? -
Going to list/tag unponytailed?
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I find one reference for Euro-dynastic in Google Books. What do you think?
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I found a great new panvocalic euryvocalic pattern today: synrugoidate - yuoiae
Go ahead and tag the word as you would prefer. -
Nothing new on the panvocalics front - every one lately I happen across has been tagged by you already!
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Hello, Moll, been awhile...
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Do you remember when convowels first started getting tagged? See cvcvcccvcvcv for more discussion. I know you and hernesheir have tagged quite a few. (I'll ask him, too.)
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Thanks, amigo. I'll give it a look. My surmise was right that you were the go-to guy on this! :o)
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Hi mollusque. Do you know of any alphabet/font source showing reversed letters that could be C & P-d. Here's a sample that gave me the idea from Teresa's FrogBlog:
http://obituarytypo.blogspot.com/2010/11/think.html
The trouble is that C & P doesn't work on that image and also the letters are a limited selection even if it could be done.
I haven't a clue how I could make one up for myself via, say, photographic process image reversal. -
Done!
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"mollusque has added 141 lists containing 25,725 words, 4,806 comments, 20,579 tags, 52 favorites, and 0 pronunciations."
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I agree about everything you wrote on Erin's profile page. Exactly my thoughts. (Except for the word stalwart since I had never heard it before.)
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A "double euryvocalic"? - Leptotyphlops guayaquilensis - that's a first for me.
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I'll claim the 200,000th comment, for me or whomoever else made it, because I'm a Serious Pig, which by the way, is the title of a delightful book a dear friend just sent me.

mollusque commented on the user mollusque
There's also the bizarre segregation of comments by the user from those of other users, which makes it hard to follow a conversation. And speaking of user unfriendliness, we can't even sort lists into alphabetical order. I miss John.
Apr 28, 2012
mollusque commented on the word capsella
Hi bilby, I check back in every once in a while to see if things have improved on Wordnik. Now I see "Spam?...Spam?...Spam? running down the home page. I conclude that the decline continues. What an ugly, ham-handed way to do things. Sigh.
Apr 27, 2012
mollusque commented on the word aspargus
No asparaging remarks.
Apr 27, 2012
mollusque commented on the word autoful
They will always be able to get the point of view of the man— husband, he was, of one of the village librarians— who couldn't tell an autoful of tourists how to get to Chatham.
--Katharine Crosby, 1946, Blue-water Men and other Cape Codders, p. 3
Apr 23, 2012
mollusque commented on the list sum-of-full-and-some
autosome, autoful?
Apr 23, 2012
mollusque commented on the list panvocalics
I do consider it a misspelling. How did you come across it.
Jan 26, 2012
mollusque commented on the list more-gruel
Thanks, actung: washbrew lead me to girdbrew.
Jan 13, 2012
mollusque commented on the user mollusque
With sproingy rhinophores?
Jan 4, 2012
mollusque commented on the list fabrics
Thanks actung, I have it listed under tabinet.
Dec 21, 2011
mollusque commented on the word clade
One definition is based on the method of analysis that produces the branching diagram (tree), the other is based on the way the tree is converted into a classification. The cladistic method identifies characters that are shared by groups (features inherited from a common ancestor), but some of those characters might be lost in some members of the group. The cladistic method also says that given a particular tree topology, the only groups that should be recognized are those that can be removed from the tree with a single cut (which gives an ancestor and all its descendants, i.e., a monophyletic group).
Nov 21, 2011
mollusque commented on the word micromoc
We next wrote to Key West, Florida. They answered our letters in excellent language and we learned many new and interesting facts. With characteristic southern generosity they sent us a box of curiosities by freight. In the box were cocoanuts as they grow on the tree, both large and small, king conch, queen conch, micromoc shells, several specimens of coral, and a branch showing how it begins to form, star fish, three sponges (one fine one ), one picked up on the sea coast, sea caps, plumper, soldier crab, king crab, clam shells, sun shells, periwinkle, coffee shells, barnicles, sea fan, sea moss, snake shells, and other rare things from the sea.
--Susan H. Teas, 1894, "Letter writing in connection with the geography work", Indiana School Journal 39(10): 585
Nov 20, 2011
mollusque commented on the word mickramock
To the naturalist, of whatever "persuasion," these mangrove thickets afford a wonderful field 'for observation. If he is an ornithologist, the homes of the herons and the eyries of the ospray [sic] are here at hand; is he a conchologist, how rapturously he views in the still water the winged aplysea [sic], the rich tints of the triton, or, as it climbs the buttress of the mangrove, the mottled mickramock; a lover of crustaceans, the great hermit-crab, with his imbricated armor and formidable side-arms, most potent for defense, at the mouth of his confiscated castle; mayhap a gorgeously colored strombus of the larger growth.
--"Along the Florida Reef", 1871, Harper's New Monthly Magazine 42(249): 359
Nov 20, 2011
mollusque commented on the word micramoc
The Cowries. . .called in Florida micramocs, have richly enameled and marked shells; the spire not seen and the opening is small.
--C. F. Holder and J. B. Holder, 1884, Elements of Zoölogy, p. 63
Nov 20, 2011
mollusque commented on the word micremoc
We are not enthusiastic over the use of common names. Vernacular names are actually in use for conspicuous shells and those of economic value. Many in use, such as "paper fig" or "micremoc" (Cypraea cervus) are not adopted in this book. But to make up names for every insignificant periwinkle seems to us of little use.
--Henry A. Pilsbry, 1954, The Nautilus 68: 36 (in a review of American Seashells by R. T. Abbott)
Nov 20, 2011
mollusque commented on the word virtuoso
I once heard Peter Schickele in a P. D. Q. Bach performance render this as "virtuasuoso".
Sep 28, 2011
mollusque commented on the word bling
Searching for bling along with words related to jewelry in Google Books suggests that it appeared around 1999.
Sep 23, 2011
mollusque commented on the word prominentia
Hi biocon, I've tracked down anatomical uses of prominentia and protuberantia as early as 1625 in this Latin text. In English texts, the words diverge, with terms based on protuberantia much earlier than those based on prominentia: "protuberantia ossea longitudinalis" in 1698, versus "prominentia frontalis" in 1839.
Sep 11, 2011
mollusque commented on the word passalorynchite
Listed as passalorhynchite in the Century Dictionary, but that seems to be a rarer spelling.
Sep 3, 2011
mollusque commented on the word headbutt
Headbutt your mouth's face! (Seen here.)
Sep 1, 2011
mollusque commented on the word moll
I seem to be an autantonym, not being female, gangster or single.
Aug 30, 2011
mollusque commented on the word square grouper
More likely jetsam than flotsam.
Aug 13, 2011
mollusque commented on the word corn bread pudding
I had this perfect sweet tooth fairy for dessert last night.
Aug 13, 2011
mollusque commented on the word new interface
Hi Erin,
Thanks for explaining more of what's going on behind the scenes. Any chance you could file a ticket to get the 20,000 character limit on lists descriptions raised? I've mentioned it several times before, but haven't gotten an answer as to whether it was possible or in the works. It's particularly a problem with my Panvocalic euryvocalic list, because each link to a sequence uses up 58 characters. If it's not possible to raise the limit, would it be possible to restore the "u=mollusque" syntax in place of (or in addition to) "?created_by=mollusque". That would shorten the links.
Aug 5, 2011
mollusque commented on the word worship
Are there places where worship and warship are pronounced the same?
Aug 2, 2011
mollusque commented on the word Molineaux
Hi agi, notice the oiaeu tag on "Molineaux". Similarly, alphavocalic words are tagged aeiou and aeiouy.
Jul 30, 2011
mollusque commented on the word new interface
Rolig, are you implying that some panvocalics are not amazing?
Jul 12, 2011
mollusque commented on the word spissid
The quotations below are the earliest and latest currently in Google Books; the earlier one antedates the OED's sole example, which is from 1782.
Jul 10, 2011
mollusque commented on the word spissid
This constant Distention of the uterine lacteals, proceeds from the great Quantity of spissid Chyle, or the Coarctation, Obstruction, and Compression of the Colatoria, whereby they retain too long their Contents.
--Jean Astruc, 1743, A Treatise on all the Diseases Incident to women, p. 101
Jul 10, 2011
mollusque commented on the word spissid
. . . numerous investigations have convinced me that the smallest streamlets, if devoid of proper membranous parietes, have, even in the glandular organs, a kind of boundary, furnished by a thick or more spissid substance than the blood.
--E. Geddings, 1837, review and translation of Johannes Mueller on the secernent glands, American Journal of the Medical Sciences 19: 430
Jul 10, 2011
mollusque commented on the word spissy
The night was spissy darkness itself; the sky was completely overcast, and it seemed to us as if fate was wholly relentless, in pursuing us with such a cruel complication of disasters.
--Owen Chase, 1821, Narrative of the most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-ship Essex of Nantucket
Jul 10, 2011
mollusque commented on the word schize
Schize is a rare word, more often used as a noun than a verb. Here's an example that uses both:
"If psychoanalytical discourse reposes on 'woman' as absence, on the imposibility of elaborating what is beyond the phallus, on the impossibility of feminine rapport and on the othering of 'woman' to the point of her foreclosure, in an analogy to a 'gaze' that is the forever schized so that a certain unconscious and a split subject can emerge, then art may be a site from which some light may be shed on another 'woman', for in the act of painting the schize between the gaze and the eyes melts and is woven into swerved distance."
--Brian Massumi, 2002, A Shock to Thought: Expression after Deleuze and Guattari, p. 237
Jul 10, 2011
mollusque commented on the word schize
Schism is a very common English word; but who has heard to schize?
--C. Deedes, 1900, Notes and Queries (9)6: 208
Jul 10, 2011
mollusque commented on the user biocon
I've found examples for schize, spissy, and spissed other than those given in the OED. I'll add them to the pages for the words.
Jul 10, 2011
mollusque commented on the word new interface
Prolagus, this malaise has been affecting Wordnik for at least a year. Ten months ago on Erin's profile, I noted that Wordnik had only one tenth as many comments per week as Wordie used to. It's still at that anemic level, including all the comments and complaints about the new interface.
Zeke, you said, "Thanks for all the feedback. We are listening." You might be listening, but I don't think Wordnik the corporation is listening. In my comment ten months ago, I asked Erin "Where do you see Wordnik going?" I thought her response was just a pat on the head, but held my tongue at the time. The only meaningful thing she said then was "The next big goal, sitewise, is to make it easier for people to contribute in fun and interesting ways."
As we have seen, for the most part, that has not happened. Instead the site continues to be depersonalized, substituting mash-up for original content. That's understandable. That's where the profits lie. And Wordnik is a corporation, currently with 18 employees, and advertising for a Head of Business Development.
Notice that the Blog is active again, although this hasn't been mention under Community, and that it doesn't mention the site revamp. Or maybe it does, but there isn't a way to get to older blog posts. The Community just isn't important to Wordnik. There aren't enough of us contributing to make it worth the corporation investing much effort to keep us happy. I've been asking for an increase in the 20,000 character limit in list descriptions for about a year, and haven't even gotten a response to the comments, let alone a fix.
It's time to admit that we don't matter to corporate Wordnik, even though we do matter to a few of the employees.
Jul 10, 2011
mollusque commented on the word Mamavirus
Even larger than Mimivirus.
Jul 8, 2011
mollusque commented on the word tortoise rescue
Tortoises only, not turtles or terrapins.
Jul 8, 2011
mollusque commented on the word supernovaing
During his reign as box-office king in the 1980s, Murphy described the yes-man mentality that studio executives exhibited toward a supernovaing star.
--Frank Sanello, 1997, Naked Instinct: the Unauthorized Biography of Sharon Stone, p. 195
Jul 6, 2011
mollusque commented on the word dog midwife
A specialty of Daystar Pets.
Jul 4, 2011
mollusque commented on the word personalized m&m's
Seen here.
Jul 4, 2011
mollusque commented on the word cave cricket removal
A service offered by Alco Animal & Pest Control.
Jul 4, 2011
mollusque commented on the word sweater deballing
A service offered by Martin's Cleaners in Collingswood, New Jersey.
Jul 4, 2011
mollusque commented on the list nyah--nyah--nyah
Who's your nanny?
Jun 28, 2011
mollusque commented on the user biocon
I haven't been able to locate "fortin" as an adjective other than in the phrase "Samson Fortin".
Jun 28, 2011
mollusque commented on the user biocon
The problem is not that different people have different subscriptions, it's that you aren't activating the links you provide. It looks like you are using square brackets around the URL, but those are only for internal links to word pages; they are misdirecting to the "Not Found" page. If I paste your OED link directly into my browser, it takes me to the desired webpage in the OED (because I have a subscription and I'm logged in).
To activate the links, use <a href="URL">text you want to show as link</a>. (A summary of html codes pops up if you click the "Some html" link over the comment box.)
Jun 28, 2011
mollusque commented on the list this-list-is-bananas
It seems no longer to be on the site. I couldn't find it by searching for words I know appeared in the comments, such as "Cyrillic" and "kacker".
Jun 25, 2011
mollusque commented on the user feedback
It's also easy to add words to a list accidentally, by click on the list name assuming it will take you to the list. Please restore the old way of adding words to lists.
Jun 25, 2011
mollusque commented on the list verba-tuberum
How about apophysis?
Jun 24, 2011
mollusque commented on the list kangaroo-words
bRAdburY
Jun 24, 2011
mollusque commented on the user biocon
I don't use software beyond the search tools that Google offers. The problem in researching a word like "malace" is sifting through all the false positives: misspellings of "malice", OCR errors, proper names, etc.
Wordnik doesn't have a tool for bulk upload of words. One could probably use something like AppleScript to automate uploads from a Excel file.
Jun 24, 2011
mollusque commented on the user biocon
Hi biocon, thanks for the reply. I've also flagged many words as occurring in the OED, using the tag oed2 (lower case from the Wordie days when upper case wasn't accepted).
Some of the words you've listed are what I call dictionary words, since there are no known examples of their occurrence outside of dictionaries (malace, mollicine, although the later is also a trade name Mollicine). Trawling Google Books and Google Scholar to find bonafide usages of these words can be fun.
By the way, I'm also a biologist. Welcome to Wordnik!
Jun 24, 2011