Looking up words in the dictionary

[ESquared]

rosieb and strongm were talking about what dictionary resources they use. I have a comment and thought I'd start a new thread.

rosieb, getting lost in other words in the dictionary? Tell me about it!

Im elementary school I had to look up twenty words in the dictionary every week, and write down their definitions. This wouldn't normally be an onerous task for children that age. But for me, it was, because it would sometimes take me two or three hours! I couldn't even get to the same page as the word I was trying to look up before I'd get distracted and start reading. All it took was seeing one word I didn't know. I remember trying to do this homework and ending up almost in tears when I still had half the words to go and I'd been working on it for more than an hour.

Eventually, my mother stepped in to help me and would look up the words for me, marking the page near each word with a slip of paper. It helped me zero in on the word and kept the distractions to a minimum.

Now that I think about it, isn't it kind of bizarre to have such trouble looking up a word in the dictionary? Getting stuck on things seems to be the story of my life, though.

Anyway, my preference for online dictionaries might have something to do with all this.


Do you prefer paper or electronic?

-------------------------------------
A sacrifice is harder when no one knows you've made it.

 

[rosieb]

Paper I can spend ages poking around a dictionary, looking at words with similar roots etc, and I get really interested and the root leads to further research on the Internet...

If I had a full OED - my ambition, I'd probably never emerge (it's been said before, but if anyone wants to buy me a birthday present... 5th November... Even if it's an old copy, I'm not proud.)

Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)

 

[SkipVought]

There's a place for both.

For quick reference,

http://www.dictionary.com

and I can switch to a Thesaurus right in that site and vise versa.

A desk reference is also helpful -- scanning forward and backward from the selected word, picking up an occasional gem in the rough on the facing page.

We used to play a Dictionary Game with our children. One person looked up a word in the dictionary, announced it and each participant wrote a definition, some crazy, some credible, the announcer recording a correct definition. Then they were read, one by one and voted on. Fun and educational!

Skip,
[sub]
[red]Be advised:[/red]
Alcohol and Calculus do not mix!
If you drink, don't derive! [/sub]

 

[rosieb]

Skip

I agree, I just prefer hard copy - put it down to age!!

Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)

 

[ESquared]

I just realized that I probably should have posted this thread in the Making an Impression forum, since it's not really wordplay and that forum was on tek-tips first.

Shall I repost there?

-------------------------------------
A sacrifice is harder when no one knows you've made it.

 

[SkipVought]

e[sup]2[/sup]

Notice that I included at least PART of my dictionary response to a GAME. ;-)

Skip,
[sub]
[red]Be advised:[/red]
Alcohol and Calculus do not mix!
If you drink, don't derive! [/sub]

 

[ESquared]

Hehe... just continue the thread!

Whenever a new one is started is the time to think of which forum it belongs in... next time.

-------------------------------------
A sacrifice is harder when no one knows you've made it.

 

[kmcginn]

Skip,

My family used to play the same game. Someone got the bright idea to turn it into a real game. Now it's called "Balderdash". Too bad you or I didn't have the foresight to box it and copywrite it - we'd be rich by now!

 

[ESquared]

I enjoy that game... I tend to win it because I can make my definition sound like a dictionary entry, and because I know word roots I can pick false meanings that sort of resonate with people.

-------------------------------------
There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who know binary, and those who don't.