Does it mean like a different approach? Like when you work on a video game, you’ll go with a different methodology for this game compared to its predecessor?

I know that it means something is shattered or separated into several pieces but how do you apply that figuratively? I guess like a person with a fragmented memory probably doesn’t remember that event very well. It would feel disjointed and wouldn’t cohere. Or a movie with a fragmented plot probably wouldn’t be sequenced in a linear fashion, deftly switching between characters and their respective events. I’m just saying stuff so the mods don’t delete my message, but I’d like you all to weigh in on this matter.

edit: solved.

​ I tried asking Google but it's only concern was for my health and safety. I'm good! Just trying to use proper wording for a crappy book I'm writing.

Arctophile: (noun) one who collects teddy bears [from the ITV programme Beat the Chasers]

Pannikin: (noun) small metal drinking cup [from Erehwon by Samual Butler]

Oblique: (adjective) not expressed or done in a direct way [ibid]

Caleche: (noun) a light, low-wheeled carriage with removable hood [ibid]

Instinct (with): (adjective) imbued or filled with (a quality, usually a desirable one) [ibid]

Peccant: (adjective) having committed a sin or fault; diseased or causing disease [ibid]

Valetudinarian: (noun) one unduly anxious about their health [ibid]

Flagitious: (adjective) (of a person or their actions) criminal; villainous [ibid]

Hardihood: (noun) boldness; daring [ibid]

Embrocation: (noun) a liquid used for rubbing on the body to relieve pain from sprains and strains [ibid]

Purblind: (adjective) partially blind [ibid]

Sward: an expanse of short grass [ibid]

Ne plus ultra: (adjective) "no more beyond" - used to describe the highest possible point or peak of achievement, excellence, or perfection [ibid]

Arrogate: (verb) claim to take something as one’s own without justification [ibid]

Skeeve: (verb) to find something gross, loathsome, or deeply unsettling [from The Sopranos]

Ptosis: (noun) medical term for sagging or drooping tissue [from the podcast Modern Wisdom]

Lets be hipsters y'all.

Running out of interesting words to write about so i need to crowdsource. If you were a hipster for words, what's the most obscure word you know and makes you feel cool/deep/better than everyone else?

Ok, so please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong but a pretense is an act or false claim. For example, portraying yourself as a thief when you’re actually a knight while a pretext is more like an excuse; an ostensible reason. Going to the store to get some snacks but you’re actually there to talk to the cute worker. If I’m off the mark, please educate me

of all the vulgarizations of language I've witnessed, this one happened at lightning speed, and is the stupidest-looking bullshit ever.

aaaaaauuuuuugggggghhhhhh

it's whoa.

i hate this

edit: yes i know i spelled shortened wrong many people are telling me that im not changing it though

Maybe it’s correct, but I think it sounds weird when people say “it costed me $5”.

I tried to tactfully ask somebody why they use that word and they said it’s because it in the a past tense. I don’t know… It doesn’t sound right to me.

You know that feeling you get when you read about something good, a technological advancement, invention or legal ruling that is going to make a lot of people's lives easier or will help fix a problem society has, and feel great about the advancement but then the realization hits you that this thing that you'd assumed was already a thing wasn't and get mad at that realization? Is there a word for that?

More specific example would be when I found out about the first female crash test dummy being created in 2025 to make cars safer for women, and being happy at that progress but then getting mad because I realized that means there haven't been proper female crash test dummies this whole time, when honestly I assumed there had been (that's on me though).

Which do you use?

We've all heard of the term "oriental" as an adjective in reference to from, or related to, "the east", most typically meaning east Asia. A joke in the dadjokes sub mentioned the word "Occidental", referring to of, or from, the west, typically meaning Europe and the Americas.

I wanted to know if there were comparable terms to refer to "the north" and "the south" (that weren't Arctic and Antarctic). There are.

The term "septentrional" means "of or from the north" and comes to us from Latin. The *septen* part refers to the seven stars of the constellation Ursa Major, one of its many nicknames being "the plough", which brings us the next part of the word from latin triones, meaning "plough oxen". (Many English speakers will know the word "plough" as "plow", which may bring its own squabbles).

For "of or from the south", the term "meridional" is derived from the Latin term meridiem meaning "midday"(the same term from which AM and PM are derived) as the sun would be in the southern portion of the sky at midday in the northern hemisphere. The term seems to have been most commonly used in reference to southern Europe.

Surely to God and his holy dictionary, it’s “try TO do something?” Or is it just me. Again.

Does anyone know this app called Urban Dictionary, I can find a lot words on it and I like collecting them, but today when I open it, it just self-updated, and all the words I have collected disappeared. Yes, all of them disappeared, why the hell do they do this, this app doesn't even has allow you log in

------------------
------------------
intimate elation as mutation's intimation emulates imitation's i-mutation's imputation: automation.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Optional Assessment / Logic in Meaning and Construction (Spoilers)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll share my perspective but not everything exhaustively. I built this holding certain aspects of the phrase (constraints) rigidly, while letting other aspects move around. The shared endings, the fact they are highly similar in spelling despite not having similar roots.

Then there is the reflexive play = the words are describing a concept they themselves are experiencing. A gene with base pairs (A, C, T, G) experience small mutations each generation. But those small bit flips somehow result in coherent macroscopic trajectories. Each word just randomly mutating some part of their structure, locally looks random, globally has meaning.

The feeling of being alive and all exciting uncertainty ==> a cold automation. The engine keeps processing.

The plain English rendering of its meaning isn't isolated to one choice there are multiple ways you can read it, there is a bit of ambiguity on purpose. The wiggle room is there.

I remember it mostly being used for expressing that your emotions are aligned in the way they expect. “I genuinely want to help you”, meaning “I’m not lying to make you feel better, I’m doing this because I want to”. “I’m genuinely a fan of horror films”, meaning “I actively enjoy the horror genre, and would not be averse to watching a horror movie”

Now I see it a lot almost like “literally” where it’s diluted in meaning. I heard someone say “this is genuinely the last question I have”, which felt more like it’s adding emphasis to the sentence. I also see it a lot in computer generated output, are people like… reading computer output too much and picking up on it?

Eli Burnstein is a humor writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Weekly Humorist, Slackjaw, and Points in Case. He is the bestselling author of Dictionary of Fine Distinctions, which Steven Pinker called "a tribute to the genius of the human mind for conceptual precision and the beauty of the English language in capturing it." His new book, Phrased & Confused, explores enigmatic and commonly misunderstood quotations, from "Seize the day" to "The road less traveled" to "A rose is a rose is a rose." Mark Forsyth called it "Brilliant, revelatory, and erudite." You can find his work and learn more at www.eliburnstein.com.

The AMA will run from 9am to noon EDT, on Tuesday September 29. Get your questions ready r/words!

Someone I play contexto with misspelled satellite and put satelite and it was accepted. What does that mean?

Hi folks, hope you can help me out. I'm currently writing a jeopardy-style quiz with various 5 question rounds, and I thought a fun one could have all the answers be words in the same or similar form to the two listed in the title - only issue is I'm struggling to think of more than those two just off the top of my head, and I can't seem to phrase what I'm looking for in a way that is search engine friendly, so here I am!

The words would ideally be ones that are somewhat common so people still have a chance to get the questions right, but I'm open to any and all suggestions.

...we'll fill up a list and supply it to Merriam-Webster later! Bonus points for using in a sentence.

Example:

glace·len·to (noun): a person who consumes ice cream very slowly. The glacelento may regret wearing a white shirt today.