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The Phrontistery
Feb. 3rd, 2005 08:37 amNow here is a strange place: http://phrontistery.info
It is a dictionary of obscure and rare words. Could be useful...
I found it when I wanted to check my spelling of the word Ouroboros (an ancient symbol of infinity, closed-systems, paradox, and recursion -- a snake eating its own tail). I looked in my paper dictionaries. Nothing. I Googled for several possible spellings and turned up all of them. That was not much help. I used OneLook Dictionary search http://www.onelook.com to search 992 online dictionaries. Using asterisks as wildcards for the parts of the word I was unsure of, our*b*r*s, I turned up 4 results:
1. our miss brooks
2. our object in writing you is
3. ouroboros
4. ourobouros
The first two are coincidental matches with phrases. The last two are the ones I wanted.
Number 3 takes us to the Wikipedia. I love Wikipedia! It is a free, noncommercial, cooperative project by thousands (millions?) of people to build an online encyclopedia. Its growth has been phenomenal!
Number 4 surprised me by taking me to The Phrontistery which I had never heard of before. It appears to be the altruistic, non-commercial work of one word-obsessed person.
Interesting what cooperation and altruism can do. Isn't the internet a wonderful place?
It is a dictionary of obscure and rare words. Could be useful...
I found it when I wanted to check my spelling of the word Ouroboros (an ancient symbol of infinity, closed-systems, paradox, and recursion -- a snake eating its own tail). I looked in my paper dictionaries. Nothing. I Googled for several possible spellings and turned up all of them. That was not much help. I used OneLook Dictionary search http://www.onelook.com to search 992 online dictionaries. Using asterisks as wildcards for the parts of the word I was unsure of, our*b*r*s, I turned up 4 results:
1. our miss brooks
2. our object in writing you is
3. ouroboros
4. ourobouros
The first two are coincidental matches with phrases. The last two are the ones I wanted.
Number 3 takes us to the Wikipedia. I love Wikipedia! It is a free, noncommercial, cooperative project by thousands (millions?) of people to build an online encyclopedia. Its growth has been phenomenal!
Number 4 surprised me by taking me to The Phrontistery which I had never heard of before. It appears to be the altruistic, non-commercial work of one word-obsessed person.
Interesting what cooperation and altruism can do. Isn't the internet a wonderful place?