Who in this virago has read THE DICTIONARY??

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How does it turn out??

― Lazer Guided Mellow Leee (Leee), Saturday, 5 June 2004 01:33 (twenty-one years ago)

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

― Patrick Kinghorn, Saturday, 5 June 2004 01:36 (twenty-one years ago)

i attempted to read it once. I kept it in the bathroom and disciplined myself to not bring any magazines or guitars or newspapers in there with me till I read the whole thing. I think I made it halfway into the Cs before realizing how fruitless a task it is. You won't improve your vocabulary any because it's a struggle just to force yourself to read it, and you rarely retain anything at all because it's just so fucking tedious. Mostly it just helps you fall asleep. Or, in my case, take quicker shits.

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Saturday, 5 June 2004 01:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't see the endeavor as a vocabulary builder, but instead a vast etymological narrative.

― Lazer Guided Mellow Leee (Leee), Saturday, 5 June 2004 01:55 (twenty-one years ago)

i've always seen it as a vast otolaryngol narrative, myself, but i've never had a good head on my shoulders

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 5 June 2004 01:58 (twenty-one years ago)

*accepts pelted tomatoes stoically*

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 5 June 2004 01:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Guitars in the can?

I can't even get a mental picture of this.

― jim wentworth (wench), Saturday, 5 June 2004 02:01 (twenty-one years ago)

anything after webster's 2nd is TRASH because that's when they started defining words based on popular rather than correct usage.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Saturday, 5 June 2004 02:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Popular usage eventually dictates "correct"/official definitions, you cunt.

― Lazer Guided Mellow Leee (Leee), Saturday, 5 June 2004 02:07 (twenty-one years ago)

(awkward glances criss-cross living room)

― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 5 June 2004 02:08 (twenty-one years ago)

the guy dies in the end

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 5 June 2004 02:09 (twenty-one years ago)

w.w.h.w.f.d.?

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 5 June 2004 02:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned has read the almanac, and if you ask him nicely he'll probably read the dictionary for you.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 5 June 2004 02:25 (twenty-one years ago)

When I was seven or so, the family acquired a set of Britannicas, and I used to brag to people that I read encyclopedias.

We really should have an encyclopedias S&D thread!

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 5 June 2004 02:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I read the dictionary frequently, and as a young 'un I read street direcoties with the same fervour. There's something endlessly fascinating about them, but thesauri leave me cold.

Favourite dictionary definition: eclair; a cake long in shape but short in duration.

― edward o (edwardo), Saturday, 5 June 2004 05:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow! Where did that eclair definition come from?

For my first two years of HS, we had to learn so many vocabulary words that I practically read the dictionary every other day, it seemed like. It was strenuous but for the next two, bright, shining years, I had the best vocabulary I've ever had in my life. I think I ended up working in words such as "vituperative" and "deleterious" into my everyday language. *sighs* Those were the good old days for Ms. Brain. Though I do still remember what "parochial" and "inscrutable" mean.

― Those Beautiful Lines (Dee the Lurker), Saturday, 5 June 2004 06:03 (twenty-one years ago)

the zebra did it

― fcussen (Burger), Saturday, 5 June 2004 06:05 (twenty-one years ago)

"eclair" comes from The Chambers Dictionary, which has a few dozen humorous ones in.

Another favourite:

Japanese cedar: a very tall Japanese conifer (Cryptomeria japonica) often dwarfed by Japanese gardeners.

― edward o (edwardo), Saturday, 5 June 2004 06:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Samuel Johnson didn't shy away from bringing his personal opinions into his defintions as I recall.

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 5 June 2004 08:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I read dictionaries constantly, the way other people might pick up a magazine to pass the time, I've always done this. And I have tried reading a dictionary from A-Z - that however is not in anyway admirable but merely sad!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Saturday, 5 June 2004 08:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think I've ever stopped looking up stuff at the point where I look up the word which inspired me to open the dictionary in the 1st place? Does anyone? Is doing that a level of self-control so great that it's actually anal?

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 5 June 2004 09:39 (twenty-one years ago)

When I was seven or so, the family acquired a set of Britannicas, and I used to brag to people that I read encyclopedias.

one more thing m. daddino and i have in common! i think he's my ilx doppelganger.

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 5 June 2004 12:31 (twenty-one years ago)

everything except the bragging part. i assumed no one would care; i also assumed i would get my head bashed in by my peers.

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 5 June 2004 12:36 (twenty-one years ago)

i brought my family dictionary to kindergarten one time because i was proud of it and wanted to show it off. i thought we could sit around and look up words together. instead someone "keyed" it (i.e. ran a key along it, causing an ugly scratch)

in retrospect it's hard to disagree with that kid really.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 5 June 2004 13:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I got a huge dictionary for my birthday when I was like 10 and I read a couple letters of it, then got distracted by Legos or something.

― A Nairn (moretap), Saturday, 5 June 2004 15:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to read the dictionary, even phone books and street directories, but haven't done it for a while now.

― donna (donna), Saturday, 5 June 2004 15:32 (twenty-one years ago)

oh yeah i forgot about the phone books

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 5 June 2004 15:52 (twenty-one years ago)

i was madly obsessed with reference books as a kid, no matter how trivial.

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 5 June 2004 15:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow, I think I bought my mom's dictionary (one she used throughout college) to high school, too!

My main fascination with our encyclopedia was initially with all the entries related to astronomy and astrology -- I was obsessed with the constellations for a couple years to the point where I once broke down and cried over how annoyingly single-minded I had become.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 5 June 2004 16:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow, I think I bought my mom's dictionary (one she used throughout college) to high school, too!

Whoa, I wasn't that geeky. More like elementary school, maybe second or third grade.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 5 June 2004 16:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Once at a really, really, really boring job I read a phone book for want of anything more entertaining to do.

Scads and scads of characters, but no plot to speak of.

― j.lu (j.lu), Monday, 7 June 2004 01:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I looked up causitry and almost died. Now I have to look up virago.

― amurchie, Monday, 7 June 2004 02:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I am one!

― aimurchie, Monday, 7 June 2004 02:14 (twenty-one years ago)

"virago" means bitch. as you can guess from the context.

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 7 June 2004 02:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Which means you can't be IN A VIRAGO? As is implied by this thread.

― aimurchie, Monday, 7 June 2004 02:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Are you quite sure about that?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 7 June 2004 05:03 (twenty-one years ago)

WHO UP IN THIS TERMAGANT HAS A THESAURUS?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 7 June 2004 05:04 (twenty-one years ago)

virago: noun - a violent, loud voiced, ill tempered, scolding woman; shrew
(oh now I get it, casuistry, being in one being a fetus.)
Archaic:(!) a woman of masculine strength or spirit.

Termagant also cannot be used as above. we can't be in a termagant; we are termagants.

― aimurchie, Monday, 7 June 2004 11:18 (twenty-one years ago)

oh yeah, you're new here.

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 7 June 2004 11:48 (twenty-one years ago)

please be my personal virago, SC, and enlighten me to the ways of your people. I am an eager and willing pupil, given the appropriate termagant.

― aimurchie, Monday, 7 June 2004 11:57 (twenty-one years ago)

http://ilx.wh3rd.net/searchresults.php?board=1&mode=threads&q=&titlepart=who+in+this+bitch&name=&email=&username=&dateafter=&datebefore=&catid=all

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 7 June 2004 12:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Thanks!

― aimurchie, Monday, 7 June 2004 12:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Yay clarity!

I read the Charlie Brown dictionary when I was younger. It was of course great.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 7 June 2004 14:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I have been known to peruse tomes of a lexicographic nature merely to amuse myself. It can be quite gelogenic at times.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 7 June 2004 15:06 (twenty-one years ago)

"When the mighty tomes offend ye
it's good to have a friend, thee,
for the whiskey and the company
go always awa"

― aimurchie, Monday, 7 June 2004 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)

You non-believers! Where else can you find out the fascination of "cynic" deriving "from Greek kynikos, literally, like a dog"?

― Leeefuse 73 (Leee), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 05:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I bet that's not evn true.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 05:47 (twenty-one years ago)

You miserable cur (perhaps from Old Norse kurra to grumble)!

― Leeefuse 73 (Leee), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 05:49 (twenty-one years ago)

we all got given dictionaries when we left primary school (age 10 or so) and spent that afternoon getting it signed by all the teaching staff and looking up rude words.

most recent word discovered by opening the very same dictionary at random 25 years later: frowsy.

― koogs (koogs), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 06:45 (twenty-one years ago)

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