The Merriam-Webster dictionary says that “A1” means “of the finest quality” and it says that the term was first used in the year 1801 (with no reference): https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/A1#h1 However it does not give any information about the origin of the word. Wiktionary says the phrase comes from the classification of ships. A1 ships were the … Read more
I was talking to a friend of mine and at one point I said So, you’re a revolutionist. He corrected me (in a very polite way) by saying that “revolutionist” is a word that does not exist, the correct would be revolutionary. I perfectly understand his point and agree that the word revolutionary is definitively … Read more
All dictionaries listed ungodly only as an adjective. Ungodlily was listed on Word Hippo, but I’m not so sure if it’s reliable. So, is there an adverb for ungodly, and if so, what is it? Ungodlily sounds a bit awkward and clunky. Here’s the sentence in question: They were [ungodlily] outnumbered. I don’t think ungodly … Read more
I just started Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson and am wondering what the “L.” in the first line of the definition for “virus” means. I checked the online Oxford English Dictionary commonly used abbreviations page but found nothing meaningful. As a side question, why are there brackets around that definition? Was Stephenson adding his own … Read more
I have searched the meaning of “classic” in Cambridge dictionary, but I am not satisfied about its meaning as adjective What is difference between terms classic and old? As we often use terms like for example classic physics, classic music, etc.. Answer “Classic” generally means “Of the highest class”, i.e. something very good and worth … Read more
At what point did the concept of internet troll become incorporated into an English dictionary? Answer Its earliest attestation appears to be from the early ‘90s, but its usage probably dates earlier: Troll: The internet sense (everyone seems to have his own definition of it) seems to date to the late 1980s or early 1990s … Read more
I find the phonemic symbols are different for the same word among dictionaries. Take the word “tuck” for example. In Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, its /tʌk/ for both British English and North American English. However, in Kindle’s dictionary which is The New Oxford American Dictionary, it’s /tək/. It doesn’t make sense to me that one word … Read more
The word “snipped” can seemingly be used to mean “said in a snippy manner”: “No,” she snipped, obviously annoyed —http://rosemarinetheater.blogspot.com/2013/05/white-boy-can-rap-looking-at-benny-in.html …the former president was emphatic. “No,” he snipped. —http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/02/03/no-bernie-sanders-is-not-barack-obama “No,” she snipped. “You’re American, aren’t you? You’re not very popular here today.”—http://www.city-journal.org/html/london-peace-marchers-say-long-live-intifada-9989.html Yet no dictionary (of the dozen or so I consulted) documents this usage. … Read more
We all know dictionaries around the world add words to include recent words, More than 600 new words, senses, and subentries have been added to the OED in December 2018 and the last Spanish language Dictionary edition added 93 111 articles. But, what about removing unused words? Have Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries ever removed any … Read more
I’ve always wanted to to find the answer to such questions as the following: Which adjectives are commonly used to describe pain? Which nouns are commonly modified by the adjective acute? You can certainly find the answer if you look into usage examples in the dictionary or if you poke around in a thesaurus, but … Read more
