cstr/en-wiktionary-extracted-all huggingface dataset:
Hoover
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈhuːvə(ɹ)/
ipa: /ˈhuvɚ/
rhymes: -uːvə(ɹ)
homophone: hoover
Forms: form: Hoovers
Etymology: The surname is an anglicization of German Huber or Low German Hufer, originally designating a landowner or a prosperous small-scale farmer. The common noun and verb are taken from the brand name of one of the first vacuum cleaners (see hoover).
Senses: glosses: A vacuum cleaner of the Hoover brand, or irrespective of brand (alternative form of hoover).
Hoover
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈhuːvə(ɹ)/
ipa: /ˈhuvɚ/
rhymes: -uːvə(ɹ)
homophone: hoover
Forms: form: Hoovers
form: Hoovering
form: Hoovered
form: Hoovered
Etymology: The surname is an anglicization of German Huber or Low German Hufer, originally designating a landowner or a prosperous small-scale farmer. The common noun and verb are taken from the brand name of one of the first vacuum cleaners (see hoover).
Senses: examples: text: I helped Mum tidy up and watched while she Hoovered the carpet.
ref: 1976, Robert Leeson, The Demon Bike Rider, London: Collins, →ISBN, page 65:
text: After another hour, I had Hoovered the carpet and emptied the dustbin, and we all sat down to watch vintage home movies.
ref: 1984 February 22, Hunter Davies, “Father’s Day”, in Punch, volume 286, number 7473, Punch Publications Ltd., page 33, column 3:
text: He was left with a pounding headache and a mouth that tasted as if it had Hoovered the carpet.
ref: 1995, Peter Lovesey, The Summons, Thorndike, Me.: Thorndike Press; Bath: Chivers Press, →ISBN, page 84:
text: I’d also picked up all the clothes and junk from my bedroom floor, and—for the first time ever—“Hoovered” the carpet without being asked.
ref: 2018, Elissa Brent Weissman, The Length of a String, Dial Books for Young Readers, →ISBN:
glosses: Alternative letter-case form of hoover.
vacuum cleaner
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: vacuum cleaners
form: vacuum-cleaner
Etymology: From vacuum + cleaner. By synchronic analysis, vacuum-clean (a back-formation) + -er.
Senses: synonyms: hoover
vacuum
sweeper
glosses: A device that uses suction, and often agitation, in order to remove dirt and other debris from carpets and hard floors.
examples: text: And if that's not a good enough explanation, you can shove it up your vacuum cleaner and turn it on high!
ref: 2000, Irving Berlin, White Christmas:
glosses: The buttocks.
Derived terms: cyclonic vacuum cleaner
vacuum-clean
Wonder Woman
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈwʌndə ˈwʊmən/
ipa: /ˈwʌndɚ ˈwʊmən/
Etymology: From wonder + woman. The character, created by William Moulton Marston (1893–1947) and Harry George Peter (1880–1958), first appeared in the story “Introducing Wonder Woman” from DC Comics’ All Star Comics #8 dated December 1941.
Senses: examples: text: It was just Wonder Woman whose secret identity threatened to overwhelm and swallow up the heroic reality. I think I was afraid that one day I'd innocently open that month's comic and find Diana Prince waking up to announce that Wonder Woman was only a dream after all.
ref: 2004, Lillian S[ara] Robinson, “The Book of Lilith”, in Wonder Women: Feminisms and Superheroes, New York, N.Y.; London: Routledge, →ISBN, page 12:
text: Wonder Woman is a recognizable figure: gold tiara, invisible jet, fights bad guys, looks like Lynda Carter. She's a role model for many, and the most famous female superhero in a genre dominated by males. She's also been a feminist icon since Gloria Steinem put her on the first cover of Ms. magazine in 1972. […] Wonder Woman was created during the Golden Age of comics, before the temporary workplace gains of World War II, at a time when women were told that their only place was in the home. An Amazon princess and the most powerful warrior of her race, Wonder Woman ignored these expectations. Her comics didn't just suggest equality of the sexes; they flat-out demonstrated that every woman had innate power and that Wonder Woman was superior to her male counterparts.
ref: 2014, Tim Hanley, “Introduction”, in Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World's Most Famous Heroine, Chicago, Ill.: Chicago Review Press, →ISBN, pages x–xi:
glosses: A DC Comics superheroine.
Wonder Woman
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈwʌndə ˈwʊmən/
ipa: /ˈwʌndɚ ˈwʊmən/
Forms: form: Wonder Women
Etymology: From wonder + woman. The character, created by William Moulton Marston (1893–1947) and Harry George Peter (1880–1958), first appeared in the story “Introducing Wonder Woman” from DC Comics’ All Star Comics #8 dated December 1941.
Senses: examples: text: In 1 Samuel 25, there is a great example of a guy who had a Wonder Woman 31 but failed to value her wisdom. This rich, stupid husband was Nabal, and his wife's name was Abigail.
ref: 2007, Jess MacCallum, I Married Wonder Woman… Now What?: A Superhero's Guide for Leading and Loving the Proverbs 31 Wife, Cincinnati, Oh.: Standard Publishing, →ISBN, page 84:
text: "I am working for our local 'Maternal Health Center' clinic," she [Olive Byrne] wrote to Margaret Sanger, "and am most amused when they speak of you. Somehow they think you are a contemporary of Florence Nightingale." It was as if Sanger had lived in another century, a Wonder Woman of History.
ref: 2014, Jill Lepore, “Love for All”, in The Secret History of Wonder Woman, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN:
glosses: A woman of extraordinary powers; a superwoman.
raw_tags: of the proper noun
RIYL
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Senses: glosses: Abbreviation of recommended if you like, a term used primarily by independent music promoters to garner interest in an album by providing the name of one or more familiar bands who sound similar to the artist's music.
interrobang
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪnˈtɛ.ɹəʊˌbæŋ/
enpr: ĭn.tĕrʹə.băng'
ipa: /ɪnˈtɛ.ɹəˌbæŋ/
ipa: /ɪnˈtɛ.ɹɔˌbæŋ/
note: Malaysia (especially as the proscriptional usage of a verb
ipa: [ɪnˈtə.ɹəˌbæŋ]
Forms: form: interrobangs
form: interrobanging
form: interrobanged
form: interrobanged
Etymology: A blend of French (point d')interrogation (“question mark”) or the equivalent term in another Romance language + bang (“exclamation mark, exclamation point”), coined in a 1962 article in the journal TYPEtalks by American advertising executive Martin Kiehra Speckter (1915–1988), who invented the symbol.
Senses: examples: text: “I think I can help Carli, but I have to move fast. Federal agents are going to descend on this place like locusts in about twenty minutes, max, and they’ll detain everyone. It’ll be days, at least, before they’re done interrobanging around.”
ref: 1998, Laura J. Mixon, Proxies, page 270:
text: "Qhoenix!?" interrobanged Lrig Lanoisnemid-Eno. "You can't do this!"
ref: 2009 12, Jacob Silvia, Qhoenix, Jacob P Silvia, →ISBN, page 190:
text: "Rhinnick worked with Dr. Peericks?!" gasped Ian, interrobanging like nobody's business.
ref: 2022 September 20, Randal Graham, Nether Regions, ECW Press, →ISBN:
glosses: To exclaim and question at the same time.
spik
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: spiks
Senses: examples: text: So it really got to me when my daughter went to kindergarten and came home saying, 'Mommy, what's a spik? Some kid called me a spik.'
ref: 2008, Dr. Kevin Leman, Have a New Kid by Friday, page 195:
glosses: Alternative spelling of spic.
scarlet-collar
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Etymology: From the color traditionally associated with adultery, combined with the word collar in imitation of similar constructs such as blue-collar and white-collar.
Senses: examples: text: 1995, Nadine Strossen, Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex and the Fight for Women's Rights, Scribner (1995), p. 190,
Given the relatively high pay, many 'scarlet collar workers' make an economically rational choice to enter the sex industry rather than to pursue more socially acceptable, but less remunerative, work.
text: 2000 August 13, Now, cybersex industry, in The Tribune, Chandigarh, India, The Tribune House (2000), editorial page,
The new 'Scarlet collar' worker is typically a 25 to 35-year-old former prostitute or lap dancer with young children and a desire to better her income while working from home.
text: 'Scarlet collar' workers are the feminists of the modern age, say psychologists, free from coercion and the dangers of the traditional, male dominated business.
ref: 2002, Dànielle De Voss, “Women's Porn Sites-Spaces of Fissure and Eruption or "I'm a Little Bit of Everything"”, in Sexuality & Culture, volume 6, number 3, Transaction Publishers, pages 75-94:
glosses: Of or pertaining to female entrepreneurs in the Internet sex industry.
iPod
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: iPods
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₁en-
Proto-Indo-European *h₁en-
Proto-Indo-European *h₁én
Proto-Indo-European *h₁entér
Proto-Italic *ənter
Latin inter
Latin inter-bor.
English inter-
Proto-Indo-European *neHd-
Proto-Indo-European *-yós
Proto-Germanic *natją
Proto-West Germanic *nati
Old English nett
Middle English net
English net
Proto-Indo-European *werǵ-
Proto-Indo-European *-om
Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom
Proto-Germanic *werką
Proto-West Germanic *werk
Old English weorc
Middle English werk
English work
English network
English internetwork
English Internet
English i-
English pod
English iPod
Coined (and trademarked) by Apple, from i- + pod, suggesting a small place to keep things. Inspired by the space shuttles in 2001: A Space Odyssey and the quote, "Open the pod bay doors, Hal."
Senses: examples: text: Britain's twenty-somethings have become iPod-carrying Dick Whittingtons, drawn to London by the prospect of large salaries and hopes of a vibrant social life.
ref: 2009, What's Up, Britain?, page 42:
text: […] It's like my iPod stuck on replay
ref: 2009, “Replay”, performed by Iyaz:
text: Like most people I know, I almost always listen to music while I walk. But I don't own an iPod. I don't own a Zune. And I don't own a Walkman (they finally stopped making those last week).
ref: 2010 October 26, Derek Thompson, “The iPod Is Dead to Me”, in The Atlantic:
qualifier: trademark
glosses: A portable music player made by Apple.
glosses: Any portable personal MP3 player or similar device.
Coordinate terms: Walkman
Discman
pocket radio
walkman
discman
Derived terms: iPodification
iPod tax
iTouch
podcast
podcasting
podestrian
podfic
Related terms: iPad
iMac
iBook
iPhone
hoover up
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: hoovers up
form: hoovering up
form: hoovered up
form: hoovered up
Senses: examples: text: Don't worry about the mess on the carpet - I'll hoover it up later.
glosses: To suck (something) into a vacuum cleaner, irrespective of brand.
examples: text: I'll hoover up after I've finished washing the dishes.
glosses: To do the vacuuming.
glosses: To consume (food or drink) quickly, especially by taking it into the mouth directly from the plate rather than using cutlery.
examples: text: […] a deputy governor of China’s central bank pointed out that China no longer hoovers up dollar reserves with its past abandon.
ref: 2012 October 20, “The rise of the yuan: Turning from green to red”, in The Economist:
text: Essentially, the problem dates back to pre-privatisation, cost-driven British Rail practices which featured an unholy pact between management and unions, whereby management was able to employ fewer drivers and limited pension cost liabilities, while drivers were able to hoover up lots of lucrative Sunday overtime.
ref: 2022 November 16, Nigel Harris, “Endless news... little context”, in RAIL, number 970, page 3:
text: With Jones and Botterman hoovering up penalties at the breakdown, Ward and Maud Muir putting the brakes on France's rolling maul and Cokyane waving off her opposite number after getting the better of a scrum, England were winning plenty of battles.
ref: 2025 September 20, Mike Henson, “Kildunne stars as England see off France to make final”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: To avidly absorb something as if by a vacuum cleaner.
Related terms: bolt
scarf down
wolf down
vacuum up
selfish gene
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: selfish genes
Etymology: Coined by British biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976 in his book The Selfish Gene.
Senses: qualifier: evolutionary theory
glosses: The gene regarded as the primary driver and beneficiary of the evolutionary process.
wikipedia: The Selfish Gene
biro
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbaɪ.ɹəʊ/
rhymes: -aɪɹəʊ
Forms: form: biros
Etymology: Genericized trademark of BIRO, named after László Bíró, the inventor of the ballpoint pen.
Senses: examples: text: Biro MARKS A TURNING POINT IN THE HISTORY OF Writing
"BIRO" is unique: it writes with a ballpoint — a point that never goes wrong, never floods, bends or splutters — a point that rolls your writing on to the paper with effortless ease. "BIRO" ink dries as you write; you cannot smudge it; you need no blotter. […]
Retail price 55/- including purchase tax
ref: 1945 November and December, Railway Magazine, page v, advertisement:
text: Frank's Biro taps delicately at the topmost of the little yellow notes.
ref: 1993, Iain Banks, Complicity, published 2008, unnumbered page:
glosses: A Biro brand ballpoint pen.
examples: text: Massimo's finger was poised above red on his multi-coloured biro like a kangaroo frozen in headlights.
ref: 2007, Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings, page 250:
glosses: Any ballpoint pen.
examples: text: ‘My very creative 2-year-old son used my good friend′s white polyester Roman blinds as a canvas,’ says Jacqui. They′re now covered in blue biro. And although my friend isn′t too bothered by the biro, I am! Can you help?′
ref: 2011, Shannon Lush, Jennifer Fleming, Completely Spotless, unnumbered page:
glosses: Ink from a ballpoint pen.
MP3 player
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: MP3 players
form: MP3-player
Senses: examples: text: A smartphone is not the best camera, notebook, word processor, audio recorder, radio, MP3 player, map reader, pedometer and so on, but it is good enough replace numerous separate devices for most people most of the time.
ref: 2019 June 27, Jack Schofield, “What’s the best cheap tablet or e-reader for PDF files?”, in The Guardian:
glosses: An electronic device for playing digital audio files in the MP3 format and, in many cases, files in some other formats, as well as including a radio function.
malacology
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌmæ.ləˈkɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/
ipa: /ˌmæ.ləˈkɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/
rhymes: -ɒlədʒi
Etymology: From French malacologie, contraction of malacozoologie, from the (obsolete) taxonomic name Malacozoa + French -ologie (“-ology”), Malacozoa being in turn from Ancient Greek μαλακός (malakós, “soft”) + ζῷον (zōîon, “animal”).
Equivalent to malaco- + -logy.
Senses: examples: text: But the circumstances which the Baron Cuvier† so justly adduces as tending to retard the progress of Malacology in general, seem especially to have contributed to obscure the history of Nautilus Pompilius.
ref: 1832, Richard Owen, Memoir on the Pearly Nautilus, page 2:
text: […]their chronogeny will long remain one of the most difficult problems in Malacology.
ref: 1850, William King, A Monograph of the Permian Fossils of England, published 2014, page 201:
text: The first steps in the age determination of mammals by the number of annual layers were made when, in ichthyology and malacology, it has already become to routine practice to use annual layers for ageing animals and for back-calculating the growth of individuals.
ref: 1995, Galina A. Klevezal, M.V. Mina, Recording Structures of Mammals, page 231:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
zoology
glosses: The study of molluscs.
Synonyms: malacozoology
Derived terms: archaeomalacology
malacological
malacologist
paleomalacology
Related terms: conchology
self-reference
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: self-references
Etymology: From self- + reference.
Senses: examples: text: Ethologists concerned with the evolution of human behaviour have stopped short of attempting to explain the further reaches of the human mind; consciousness, self-reference, the construction of identity, and intersubjective relating.
ref: 1985, John H. Crook, The evolution of human consciousness, Oxford University Press:
synonyms: autoreference
glosses: An act or process of referring to itself or oneself.
Derived terms: self-referential
self-reference
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: self-references
form: self-referencing
form: self-referenced
form: self-referenced
Etymology: From self- + reference.
Senses: glosses: To reference itself or oneself.
epileptic
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌɛpɪˈlɛptɪk/
Forms: form: epileptick
Etymology: From Ancient Greek ἐπιληπτικός (epilēptikós).
Senses: examples: text: The children die off in vast numbers: those pale roses are all nerves. Hence, will presently burst forth the epileptic dances of the fourteenth century.
ref: 1862, Jules Michelet, La Sorcière: The Witch of the Middle Ages:
glosses: Of or relating to epilepsy.
glosses: Of or relating to an epileptic or epileptics (epileptic people).
Derived terms: epileptically
epileptoid
epileptor
eppy
nonepileptic
postepileptic
proepileptic
pseudoepileptic
subepileptic
epileptic
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌɛpɪˈlɛptɪk/
Forms: form: epileptics
form: epileptick
Etymology: From Ancient Greek ἐπιληπτικός (epilēptikós).
Senses: examples: text: The present Immigration Act on the books bars entry to Canada to homosexuals, prostitutes, epileptics, and those said to be "living off the avails of homosexualism or prostitution."
ref: 1976 December 25, “Canada's Gay Ban”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 26, page 2:
glosses: A person who has epilepsy.
synonyms: antiepileptic
glosses: A medicine for the cure of epilepsy.
flack
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /flæk/
rhymes: -æk
homophone: flak
Forms: form: flacks
form: flacking
form: flacked
form: flacked
Etymology: From Middle English flacken (“to palpitate, flutter”), from Old English *flaccian, from Proto-West Germanic *flakkōn, from Proto-Germanic *flakkōną (“to beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ-, which could be related to Ancient Greek πλάζω (plázō, “to turn away from”).
Akin to Middle Dutch vlacken (“to flicker, flash, sparkle”), Danish flakke (“to wander”), Swedish flacka (“to rove, rove about, ramble”), Icelandic flakka (“to move”). Compare also Icelandic flaka (“to flap, hang loose”), Swedish flaxa (“to flap, flutter”).
Senses: glosses: To flutter; palpitate.
glosses: To hang loosely; flag.
glosses: To beat by flapping.
Derived terms: flacker
flack
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /flæk/
rhymes: -æk
homophone: flak
Forms: form: flacks
Etymology: Most likely flak.
Senses: examples: text: Edward Bernay, who was a consultant to the US Delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference which terminated the first World War (and who finally wound up as a flack for the United Fruit Company in Latin America), believed that propaganda and its covert marketing could effectively alter the will of the American public.
ref: 1998, Winston Smith, Art Crime: The Montage Art of Winston Smith, page 25:
text: Thought you were flack," she said.
"I'm not flack."
"All right, P.R., a reporter, a novelist."
ref: 1999, Patricia Cornwell, The Southern Cross, page 233:
text: In July, Nick Clegg, a former Deputy Prime Minister of the U.K. who is now a top flack at Facebook, published a piece on AdAge.com and on the company’s official blog titled “Facebook Does Not Benefit from Hate,” in which he wrote, “There is no incentive for us to do anything but remove it.”
ref: 2020 October 12, Andrew Marantz, “Why Facebook Can’t Fix Itself”, in The New Yorker:
glosses: A publicist, a publicity agent.
Derived terms: flackery
superflack
flack
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /flæk/
rhymes: -æk
homophone: flak
Forms: form: flacks
form: flacking
form: flacked
form: flacked
Etymology: Most likely flak.
Senses: examples: text: [..] he told funny stories about his early days in the theater district, flacking shows up and down the street, but Klara wasn’t listening.
ref: 1997, Don DeLillo, Underworld:
glosses: To publicise, to promote.
flack
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /flæk/
rhymes: -æk
homophone: flak
Forms: form: flacks
Etymology: Variant of flak.
Senses: glosses: Alternative spelling of flak.
Mexico City
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmɛk.sɪ.kəʊ sɪti/
ipa: /ˈmɛk.sɪ.koʊ sɪɾi/
Etymology: Calque of Mexican Spanish Ciudad de México.
Senses: examples: text: I went to Mexico City on April 15, 1966, to unveil a statue of Abraham Lincoln, who had been a contemporary of Mexican leader Benito Juarez and was revered in Mexico, as in so many other nations.
ref: 1971, Lyndon Johnson, “The New Age of Regionalism”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 348:
text: The writer Juan Rulfo, whose 1955 novel, “Pedro Páramo,” still stands as the central monument of modern Mexican literature, grew up in Jalisco and vividly depicted its arid, sun-blasted landscapes in his writing, while the architect Luis Barragán, who moved from Guadalajara to Mexico City in the 1930s, carried with him an appreciation for his home state’s cloisters, haciendas and humble country buildings, which he translated in his own work as austere, inscrutable volumes of stucco.
ref: 2023 November 17, Michael Snyder, “A Guide to Guadalajara, Mexico’s City of Makers”, in The New York Times Style Magazine, archived from the original on 17 Nov 2023:
synonyms: Mexico
glosses: The capital city of Mexico.
Derived terms: Mexico City policy
Related terms: chilango
megahertz
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: megahertz
form: megahertzes
form: MHz
Etymology: From mega- + hertz.
Senses: glosses: A unit equal to one million cycles per second.
Derived terms: multimegahertz
submegahertz
anti-authoritarianism
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Etymology: From anti- + authoritarianism.
Senses: glosses: opposition to authoritarianism
aka
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Etymology: Maori [Term?]
Senses: glosses: The New Zealand vine Metrosideros fulgens.
aka
Language: English
Part of speech: prep
Senses: examples: text: The Arkansas Legislature, aka the broligarchy, does not believe in the people’s right to the ballot process. This is as disappointing as is it unconstitutional, though the unconstitutionality isn’t stopping the bill’s sponsors.
ref: 2023 March 3, For AR People, “Legislators try new tricks to tank citizens’ right to put issues on the ballot”, in Arkansas Times:
glosses: Alternative letter-case form of AKA.
cogito
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: cogitos
Senses: examples: text: The Cogito of Descartes and Husserl is an apprehension of fact. […] Such a Cogito is performed by a consciousness directed upon consciousness, a consciousness which takes consciousness as an object.
ref: 1957, Jean-Paul Sartre, translated by Forrest Williams and Robert Kirkpatrick, The Transcendence of the Ego, Noonday Press, pages 43–44:
text: But are there not as many consciousnesses or cogitos as there are individuals?
ref: 1966 Dec, Geoffrey Hartman, “Beyond Formalism”, in MLN, volume 81, number 5, page 551:
text: An obvious candidate for this class of propositions would be the cogito, whose evidence, Descartes insisted, is not founded on inference.
ref: 1984 Jan, Charles Larmore, “Descartes' Psychologistic Theory of Assent”, in History of Philosophy Quarterly, volume 1, number 1, page 65:
text: Benhabib proposes a […] "recognition that the subjects of reason are finite, embodied and fragile creatures, and not disembodied cogitos or abstract unities of transcendental apperception".
ref: 2000 Spring, Linnell Secomb, "Fractured Community," Hypatia, vol. 15, no. 2, p. 138
text: It may be thought that this leads to an even more radical skepticism than that envisaged by Descartes, since now even the cogito may be questioned.
ref: 2009 May, Ernest Sosa, “Précis of A Virtue Epistemology”, in Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition, " vol. 144, no. 1, p. 109 n11:
topics: human-sciences
philosophy
sciences
qualifier: often preceded by the
glosses: The argument "cogito, ergo sum" ("I think therefore I am") from the philosophy of René Descartes; the mental act of thinking this thought; a conscious being which performs this mental act.
mec
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Senses: examples: text: mec liquor
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: Clipping of meconium.
Related terms: Mec Art
Mecca
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmɛkə/
rhymes: -ɛkə
Forms: form: Macca
form: Makka
form: Makkah
form: Mekka
form: Makkah al-Mukarramah
Etymology: From Arabic مَكَّة (Makka) of uncertain etymology. In American place names, in reference to the Arabian city.
Senses: glosses: A province of Saudi Arabia.
glosses: A large city, the provincial capital of Mecca Province in the in the Hejaz region, Saudi Arabia, the holiest place in Islam, location of the sacred Ka'ba, and to which Muslims are required to make a hajj at least once in their lifetime, if possible.
glosses: A number of places in the United States:
A census-designated place in Riverside County, California.
glosses: A number of places in the United States:
A town in Wabash Township, Parke County, Indiana.
glosses: A number of places in the United States:
An unincorporated community in Clinton County, Missouri.
glosses: A number of places in the United States:
A township and unincorporated community in Trumbull County, Ohio.
examples: text: MR. HOWE: I would like to ask Mr. Mecca this question : does he think there would be substantial duplication between the agency that he is suggesting, and the current Governors' Committees on Employment of the Handicapped.
MR. MECCA: […]
ref: 1968, United States. President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped, The Seriously Handicapped and the Voluntary Health Agency: Proceedings of a Panel Discussion, Annual Meeting, May 2-3, 1968, page 32:
glosses: A surname.
examples: text: Mrs. Mecca Marie Varney and son are successful lecturers and debaters on various topics of current interest, such as suffrage, etc. Her home is in Paw Paw, Mich. Her lectures are managed by her husband, Charles E. Varney.
ref: 1912, The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi, page 107:
text: Just then, a young boy—named Mecca, as we learned later—arrived at the scene with the flight attendants who had been escorting him to his parents. In the midst of the frantic feeding of the protein bar, Mecca quietly announced:
ref: 2020, Born This Way Foundation reporters, Lady Gaga, Channel Kindness: Stories of Kindness and Community, Feiwel & Friends, →ISBN:
glosses: A unisex given name, mostly borne by women.
Derived terms: balm of Mecca
balsam of Mecca
Great Mosque of Mecca
Mecca balsam
Meccan
Mecca Province
Mecca
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmɛkə/
rhymes: -ɛkə
Forms: form: Meccas
form: mecca
form: Macca
form: Makka
form: Makkah
form: Mekka
form: Makkah al-Mukarramah
Etymology: From Arabic مَكَّة (Makka) of uncertain etymology. In American place names, in reference to the Arabian city.
Senses: examples: text: It was consequently the “Mecca,” the “Delphic Oracle,” the “Vale of Egeria,” to which all studious pilgrims should resort to drink of the pure springs of knowledge; […]
ref: 1826, “Sketches of the Medical Schools of Scotland”, in The Lancet, volume 11, page 254:
text: By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.
ref: 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 5, in Death on the Centre Court:
text: Tsuhu, or Lake Benevolence, is located in Fuhsing District, Taoyuan County, and formed by waters from the Tahan Creek (river). Its two sections of limpid water are enclosed within emerald green hills. When he was alive, the late President often came here as a place of retreat and meditation. It had been for this reason that his casket was moved here for temporary rest. The place has since become a Mecca for people all over the world to come and pay homage to Modern China's greatest leader.
ref: 1981, A Pictorial History of the Republic of China: Its Founding and Development, volume II, Taipei: Modern China Press, →OCLC, page 558:
text: On the other side of the Atlantic, stores in Paris's chic Avenue Montaigne, a mecca for Japanese tourists, said that sales to foreigners had fallen sharply.
ref: 1991, The Economist Newspaper Ltd., The Economist:
text: Living in Venice, California and training at the Mecca of bodybuilding, Gold's Gym, I've seen some of the world's most dedicated and hard-training athletes.
ref: 1997, John Romano, Muscle Meals, page 14:
text: I say how much I like the shabby lounge atmosphere of a ruin pub, and Laura declares that this one, Szimpla Kert (which means “Simple Garden”), is the mecca of ruin pubs.
ref: 2014, Rick Steves, Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2015: The Travel Skills Handbook, Avalon Travel, →ISBN, page 705:
glosses: Any place considered to be a very important place to visit by people with a particular interest.
mulier
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmjuː.lɪə/
Forms: form: muliers
Etymology: From Latin mulier (“woman”).
Senses: examples: text: Or suppose an inquest were taken between us, and it were found that they are muliers, for which reason the voucher stood, and they came and pleaded the same exception to escape from warranting as heirs, then two inquests would be taken[…]
ref: 1908, Alfred John Horwood, Luke Owen Pike, Year books of the reign of King Edward the Third: Volume 15:
topics: law
glosses: A child born lawfully in wedlock, in distinction from an elder sibling born of the same parents before their marriage (bastard eigne).
Derived terms: mulierly
mulierty
Related terms: muliebrity
Korsakoff's syndrome
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Etymology: Named after Russian neuropsychiatrist Sergei Korsakoff (1854–1900) who discovered the syndrome during the late 19th century.
Senses: topics: medicine
pathology
sciences
glosses: A form of amnesia that is seen in chronic alcoholics coupled with nutritional deficits.
the bomb
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: the bombs
form: da bomb
Etymology: Attested in reference to nuclear weapons or the capacity to use them since 1932; see quotations, below. As slang for something excellent, the phrase is attested since the 1960s; compare go down a bomb, UK theatre slang during the 1950s meaning “be a major success”. For further etymology see bomb.
Senses: examples: text: Pakistan and India both have the Bomb now.
text: The Cabinet, when faced with this proffered omnipotence, had recoiled in fear. True it was that their acute distaste for the bomb[…] did credit to their humanity, to their state of civilization.
ref: 1932, Harold Nicolson, “Public Faces”, in The Spectator, volume 149, page 558:
text: In my view, the tensions which have produced the “World with the Bomb” can be divided into roughly four classes.
ref: 1962, Kwame Nkruma, The World Without the Bomb: Selections from the Papers of “the Accra Assembly”, page 3:
text: First we got the bomb and that was good,
'Cause we love peace and motherhood.
Then Russia got the bomb, but that's O.K.,
'Cause the balance of power's maintained that way!
ref: 1965, Tom Lehrer, “Who's Next” (track 5, side 2), in That Was The Year That Was:
glosses: The atomic bomb; the capability to launch a nuclear attack.
examples: text: Their new record is the bomb.
text: That party was the bomb!
text: She’s happy, she’s found a little big-head boy who thinks she’s the bomb.
ref: 1997, Sheneska Jackson, Li'l Mama's Rules, page 152:
synonyms: the shit#Noun
glosses: A success; something excellent.
preservation
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌpɹɛz.əˈveɪ.ʃən/
ipa: /ˌpɹɛz.ɚˈveɪ.ʃən/
ipa: /ˌpɹez.əˈvæɪ.ʃən/
note: Indic
ipa: /prɪz.əʳˈveː.ʃən/
rhymes: -eɪʃən
Forms: form: preservations
Etymology: From Old French preservacion, from Medieval Latin preservatio. Morphologically preserve + -ation.
Senses: examples: text: Every seneseless thing by nature's light
Doth preservation seek, destruction shun
ref: c. 1600, Sir John Davies, The Original, Nature, and Immortality of the Soul:
text: The eyes of the Lord are upon them that love him, his is ther mighty protection, a preservation from stumbling, and a help from falling.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ecclesiasticus 34:16:
text: Further, the Society pleads for the preservation of Sutton's Charity.
ref: 1886 January 24, The Antiquary: A Magazine Devoted to the Study of the Past, volume XIII, number 73, page 85:
text: Preservation of two railway routes between Belfast and Derry could no longer be justified and one of them must go.
ref: 1956 May, “Transport in Ulster”, in Railway Magazine, page 280:
text: When a language dies members of the culture of which that language was once a part may attempt to hold on to their linguistic heritage, if not by the use of the defunct language itself, at least by the preservation of its script.
ref: 2007, J. N. Adams, “The Republic: inscriptions”, in The Regional Diversification of Latin 200 BC - AD 600, Cambridge University Press, page 105:
glosses: The act of preserving; care to preserve; act of keeping from destruction, decay or any ill.
examples: text: The canoe is of pure black oak, and is in excellent preservation.
ref: 1886 January 24, The Antiquary: A Magazine Devoted to the Study of the Past, volume XIII, number 73, page 135:
text: Tons of engine sheds would bite the dust with the end of steam, and many would be demolished with their time in the spotlight over. We're lucky that the one at Didcot survived into preservation.
ref: 2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Didcot (1932)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 61:
text: As Edwin Clark [...] wrote in 1850: "[...] The lofty towers of the castle overhang the western approach to the Bridge, and the line passes into Conway through an opening pierced in the embattled wall, which entirely surrounds the town. These fortifications are in good preservation, and rank among the most perfect examples of the strongholds of the 13th century."
ref: 2022 January 12, Dr. Joseph Brennan, “Castles: ruined and redeemed by rail”, in RAIL, number 948, page 54:
glosses: The state of being preserved, how something has survived.
Derived terms: biopreservation
chemopreservation
copreservation
cryopreservation
depreservation
lyopreservation
neuropreservation
nonpreservation
preservational
preservationism
preservationist
self-preservation
superject
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: superjects
Senses: examples: text: Thus the eternal relatedness is of the form — the είδος —; the emergent actual occasion is the superject of informed value; value, as abstracted from any particular superject, is the abstract matter — the ϋλη — which is common to all actual occasions and the synthetic activity which prehends valueless possibility into superjicient informed value is the substantial activity.
ref: 1925, Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World, →ISBN:
topics: human-sciences
philosophy
sciences
glosses: The emergent actual occasion from which value is abstracted.
Related terms: subject
for free
Language: English
Part of speech: prep_phrase
Senses: examples: text: We got all our food for free, it was included in the contract.
text: Now John at the bar is a friend of mine
He gets me my drinks for free
ref: 1973, Billy Joel, “Piano Man”, Billy Joel (music), performed by Billy Joel:
glosses: Without paying; free.
examples: text: When they fixed that one bug, we got this new software feature for free.
glosses: Without effort; as a useful side-effect of something that was to be done anyway.
Synonyms: free of charge
gratis
on the house
scriptability
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Etymology: From script + -ability.
Senses: examples: 2003: All output of the Subversion command-line client is carefully designed to be both human readable and automatically parseable; scriptability is a high priority. Subversion Home Page
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: The ability to be driven programmatically as well as interactively.
readme
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɹidmi/
Forms: form: readmes
form: read me
form: read-me
Etymology: From read + me.
Senses: examples: text: Remember, there may be many readmes in many different locations within the patch itself. Search and read all readmes before proceeding.
ref: 2004, Barbara Matthews, John Stouffer, Karen Brownfield, Installing, Upgrading and Maintaining Oracle Applications III:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
synonyms: read-me file
glosses: A text file meant to be read before taking any significant action with the items it accompanies.
narco-state
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: narco-states
form: narcostate
Etymology: From narco- + state.
Senses: examples: text: With the collapse of the government, there is a real danger the country will become a narco-state.
glosses: A state whose economy depends heavily on narcotics and other drugs.
pr0n
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: n0rp
form: prawn
form: pron
Etymology: A respelling of porn with middle letters transposed and o replaced with zero.
Senses: examples: text: They were just pr0n, really. And I figured you might need to blow off some steam. No pun intended.
ref: 2017, Emma Newman, After Atlas, Hachette UK, →ISBN:
text: Merlin Mann, creator of 43 Folders, joked about the lure of “productivity pr0n” (pornography in internet slang) as early as 2005: “It is a tongue-in-cheek term often used lovingly by its avid—even obsessive—consumers. It often implies the awareness that not all productivity pr0n leads to actual productivity[…]
ref: 2019, Joseph M. Reagle Jr, quoting Merlin Mann, Hacking Life: Systematized Living and Its Discontents, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 52:
glosses: A filter-avoidance spelling of porn.
Derived terms: Derived forms include n0rp
pr0n spelled backwards
and prawn
based on the phonetics of pr0n and used to avoid internet content filters
lollygag
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈlɒlɪɡæɡ/
Forms: form: lollygags
form: lollygagging
form: lollygagged
form: lollygagged
form: lallygag
Etymology: Unknown. Cited as American slang from 1934 and attested since at least 1889.
Senses: examples: text: Stop lollygagging! […] He ate ALL the ship's food! 'Zat your friend? Show him outta here!
ref: 1993, Secret of Mana (fantasy):
synonyms: word: dawdle
word: shirk
word: slack
word: procrastinate
word: blow off
word: dog
word: doss
word: duck
word: flinch
word: goldbrick
word: goof off
word: lollygag
word: malinger
word: procrastinate
word: shirk
word: shrink
word: slack off
word: soldier
word: swing the lead
glosses: To dawdle; to be lazy or idle; to avoid necessary work or effort.
examples: text: Lovemaking and lollygagging are hereby strictly forbidden. […] The holding of hands, osculation and constant embracing of WAVES, corpsmen or civilians and sailors or any combination of male and female personnel is a violation of naval discipline. […]
ref: 1946, Captain C. F. Behrens, MC, USN, quoted in Time Magazine, volume 47, part 1, page 74, 1946
qualifier: 19th-20th centuries
glosses: To fool around, especially sexually.
lollygag
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈlɒlɪɡæɡ/
Forms: form: lallygag
Etymology: Unknown. Cited as American slang from 1934 and attested since at least 1889.
Senses: examples: text: He likes to do his car up with blacked-out windows, and all that lollygag.
glosses: Silliness, nonsense.
productization
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: productizations
form: productisation
Etymology: From productize + -ation.
Senses: topics: business
computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: The act of modifying something, such as a concept or a tool internal to an organization, to make it suitable as a commercial product.
bus bridge
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: bus bridges
Senses: examples: text: A bus bridge is being put in place for the stations affected by the recent train derailment.
glosses: A temporary system of shuttle buses bypassing a failure, overhaul, or other outage in some other mode of transit (usually rail).
topics: computer-hardware
computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A device for connecting two disparate hardware buses.
APT
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: APTs
Senses: glosses: Initialism of automation presses tooling.
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: Initialism of advanced passenger train.
glosses: Abbreviation of apartment, preferred by the United States Postal Service; compare Apt. and apt..
examples: text: The FBI has linked the incident to a North Korean APT it tracks as TraderTraitor, which the agency has been monitoring since 2022 for its attacks on blockchain companies.
ref: 2025 March 6, Ryan Naraine, “How Social Engineering Sparked a Billion-Dollar Supply Chain Cryptocurrency Heist”, in SecurityWeek:
glosses: Initialism of advanced persistent threat.
glosses: Initialism of arbitrage pricing theory.
topics: government
healthcare
glosses: Initialism of anatomical pathology technologist.
topics: biochemistry
biology
chemistry
microbiology
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Initialism of acyl protein thioesterase.
APT
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Senses: topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: Initialism of automatically programmed tool: a high-level language for numerically controlled machine tools.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: Initialism of advanced packaging tool: a package management system used by Debian and Debian-based distributions, also used by other Linux distributions.
glosses: Initialism of Alabama Public Television.
glosses: Initialism of American Public Television.
hovel
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈhɒvəl/
ipa: /ˈhʌvəl/
ipa: /ˈhɑvəl/
ipa: /ˈhʌvəl/
ipa: /ˈhɔvəl/
ipa: /ˈhɒvəl/
ipa: /ˈhɐvəl/
ipa: /ˈhavəl/
rhymes: -ɒvəl
rhymes: -ʌvəl
Forms: form: hovels
Etymology: From Middle English hovel, hovil, hovylle, diminutive of *hove, *hof (“structure, building, house”), from Old English hof (“an enclosure, court, dwelling, house”), from Proto-West Germanic *hof, from Proto-Germanic *hufą (“hill, farm”), from Proto-Indo-European *kewp- (“arch, bend, buckle”), equivalent to howf + -el. Compare Middle High German hobel (“cover, lid, covered wagon”).
Cognate with Dutch hof (“garden, court”), German Hof (“yard, garden, court, palace”), Icelandic hof (“temple, hall”). Related to hove and hover.
Senses: glosses: An open shed for sheltering cattle, or protecting produce, etc., from the weather.
examples: text: 'Behold! once more I kiss thee, and by that kiss I give to thee dominion over sea and earth, over the peasant in his hovel, over the monarch in his palace halls, and cities crowned with towers, and those who breathe therein.'
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
text: The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.
ref: 1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:
text: I have to say it again, my Dearest Friend. What a wonderful Comedown for the Godhead! What a wonderful Comeuppance for Humankind! That’s because You, Lord God, Creator, Bellows Maker of All That Breathes, deigned to come to my hovel of a soul; once there, to fatten up the leanness of my soul with the plumpitude of Your Sacrament; that’s to say, with the plenitude of Your Divinity and Humanity.
ref: 2000, Thomas à Kempis, “[The Sacrament of the Altar: How to Prepare for It & What It Tastes Like] Frequency”, in William Griffin, transl., The Imitation of Christ: How Jesus Wants Us to Live […] A Contemporary Version, HarperSanFrancisco, →ISBN, page 238:
synonyms: shack
shanty
glosses: A poor cottage; a small, mean house; a hut.
glosses: In the manufacture of porcelain, a large, conical brick structure around which the firing kilns are grouped.
glosses: A straitjacket.
hovel
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈhɒvəl/
ipa: /ˈhʌvəl/
ipa: /ˈhɑvəl/
ipa: /ˈhʌvəl/
ipa: /ˈhɔvəl/
ipa: /ˈhɒvəl/
ipa: /ˈhɐvəl/
ipa: /ˈhavəl/
rhymes: -ɒvəl
rhymes: -ʌvəl
Forms: form: hovels
form: hoveling
form: hovelling
form: hoveled
form: hoveled
form: hovelled
form: hovelled
Etymology: From Middle English hovel, hovil, hovylle, diminutive of *hove, *hof (“structure, building, house”), from Old English hof (“an enclosure, court, dwelling, house”), from Proto-West Germanic *hof, from Proto-Germanic *hufą (“hill, farm”), from Proto-Indo-European *kewp- (“arch, bend, buckle”), equivalent to howf + -el. Compare Middle High German hobel (“cover, lid, covered wagon”).
Cognate with Dutch hof (“garden, court”), German Hof (“yard, garden, court, palace”), Icelandic hof (“temple, hall”). Related to hove and hover.
Senses: examples: text: To hovel thee with swine, and rogues forlorn.
ref: c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vii]:
text: The poor are hovell'd and hustled together.
ref: 1855, Alfred Tennyson, “Maud”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 1:
glosses: To put in a hovel; to shelter.
glosses: To construct a chimney so as to prevent smoking, by making two of the more exposed walls higher than the others, or making an opening on one side near the top.
Chomskyan
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more Chomskyan
form: most Chomskyan
form: Chomskian
Etymology: From Chomsky + -an.
Senses: examples: text: A rhizome, as Deleuze and Guattari explain in Rhizome: an Introduction (1976), is the antithesis of a root-tree structure, or ‘arborescence’, the structural model which has dominated Western thought from Porphyrian trees, to Linnaean taxonomies, to Chomskyan sentence diagrams.
ref: 1989, Ronald Bogue, Deleuze and Guattari, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 107:
glosses: Relating to the linguist and activist Noam Chomsky.
examples: text: The differences between acceptable constructions like "Have you a book on modern music?" and unacceptable ones like "Read you a book on modern music?" need no Chomskyan signposts for a native speaker, and have very little to do with statistical probability but a lot to do with common sense.
ref: 1985, Robert Burchfield, The English Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 155:
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: Of or relating to the theoretical approach introduced by Noam Chomsky, et al., especially transformational grammar.
Chomskyan
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: Chomskyans
form: Chomskian
Etymology: From Chomsky + -an.
Senses: topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: A follower or adherent of Chomsky's linguistic theories; a transformational grammarian.
Related terms: transformational grammar
watering can
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: watering cans
Senses: glosses: A utensil for watering plants, consisting of a container with a handle and long spout, the spout sometimes being fitted with a perforated nozzle.
Synonyms: sprinkling can
watering pot