My friend Arno mentioned that Microsoft’s spellcheck dictionary doesn’t contain the word “blog”, so I looked it up using Tiger’s Dictionary app and found out that (according to this dictionary definition example) blogs are actually “run by twenty-something Americans with at least an unhealthy interest in computers”. Ah, that explains it.
Also, I vote for “bläg”, the phonetic spelling of “blog”, as the new word of choice to describe this medium (no disrespect to Peter of course). I think that the umlaut would give it that extra edge that it needs to survive in our buzzword compliant world.
UPDATE 1: It has been mentioned on our comments as well as those on CNET’s Apple Blog that the source of Apple’s dictionary definitions come from the New Oxford American Dictionary, 2nd Edition. So if you are a non-American blogger who is not in your twenties and have a healthy interest in the internet, don’t flame Apple for their definition examples since they didn’t write them.
UPDATE 2: Ok, both the widget (click the “i”) and dictionary application (under preferences) give credit to the Oxford American Dictionaries. Regardless, I want to know how I can get a job writing dictionary definition examples.
UPDATE 3: For some reason, it seems like a bunch of people are up in arms about this post. Maybe I can help clear things up a bit. I know that this was a definition example, not an actual definition. I thought it was a funny example and I was being sarcastic. I guess some people need little smiley face emoticons to recognize sarcasm, but that’s not really my thing.
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Before everyone gets up in arms about this, it should be noted that
Apple’s dictionary comes from the “New Oxford American
Dictionary, 2nd Edition.”
It also should be noted that anything in italics in Apple’s dictionary widget is USAGE, not the definition. Try looking up “overrated” — it will say the definition in normal print, which is “have a higher opinion of (someone or something) than is deserved”. It will then say in italics “dismissing the work as pompous and overrated”. This second part surely isn’t a definition, but is usage. The same applies to “blog” — the definition given is simply “a weblog”, but the usage is what is quoted.
There’s a reason why I chose tho word “overrated”. :rolleyes:
Regardless of who penned the entry it’s a horrible definition. Why do they have to be written by twenty-somethings? Also anyone who uses the internet regularly should know better then to assume anyone’s nationality. Unhealthy interest in computers? I’ll buy that.
Ugh, for the second time, it’s not a definition. It’s an example of usage!
And besides, “A Weblog” is actually a placeholder for the definition. Double clicking “Weblog” brings up the real one, “Web site on which an individual or group of users produces an ongoing narrative.”
blog should be stricken from the english language and all words derived from it
Simone: Too late! I bet the meme is already well on its way. :)
Afaik italic sentences mark exmaples how to use a specific word.
Re Scott’s second update: The dictionary applicaiton does indeed give credit to Oxford American Dictionaries. If you don’t want to go as far as looking in the preferences, just start the application by double-clicking.
nice text.
please don’t write umlauts. umlaut is a german word and the plural is umlaute not umlauts.
your idea to speak the word with the umlaut “ä” is realy nice, but the word bläg sounds realy awful.
Well, you’ve already got a job writing potential dictionary examples. Dictionary usage examples usually use real-life examples found in print somewhere, so it’s quite possible that something you write will wind up in a dictionary. True etymological dictionaries (ie the full OED) will also give dates and sources so if you were an early user of the word ‘blog’ (or any other new word) you could be lexicographically immortalised! As I’m still using Panther I can’t check if Tiger’s dictionary app gives this info.
One more thing, as an Australian I’d prefer not to have to use a dictionary of American English, does anyone know if Tiger provide other options?
ä is not just an German “Umlaut”. Other languages use this character
as well. English uses the s-plural. If the word is adapted by English
speakers, umlauts is of course correct. Just like the German word Büro
is correct, even though it was originally a misspelled French word.
On the subject of umlauts, it’s not an umlaut at all. It’s a diaresis.
Apple dictionary does not have mining definition of glory-hole. It should be:
one search. all dictionaries & encyclopedias.
keywords
Noun 1. glory hole – a small locker at the stern of a boat or between decks of a ship
Synonyms: lazaretto
By Wordnet Dictionary
Glory hole is a colloquial term for any small room or cupboard, usually containing odds and ends. In glassblowing, a glory hole is an opening in a furnace, or a stand alone furnace, which is used to reheat the molten glass as it is formed.
The phrase originated in mining. In the western states during the Gold Rush days, independent miners who did not have the finances to dig a conventional mine shaft would dig a shaft staight down to try to find a gold seam. These perpendicular shafts became known as “glory holes”.
In modern mining, a glory hole is an open-cut or pit mine used to reach and mine out an ore deposit with extraction from the bottom level via an adit or underground markings. In glory-hole mining a steep-sided, funnel-shaped surface excavation is connected to tunnels below it. Rocks blasted off the sides of the excavation fall into the tunnels, from which they are then removed.
I can’t figure out how to contact them and submit mining definition. Help