He reverse dictionary and how it works - Thấm Tâm Vy

Nội dung text: He reverse dictionary and how it works - Thấm Tâm Vy

1. of snuff. The Reverse Dictionary provides one. It’s a linguistic snuffbox, helping to THE REVERSE DICTIONARY AND HOW IT WORKS release that pent-up sneeze. The relief it affords should be considerable. Several angles of attack The Reverse Dictionary is above all a word-finder. Its purpose is to identify the precise word for an idea that may be in your mind but that you can’t express. You have the idea; the book provides the word. It does this by directing you from a familiar word connected with the idea to the elusive word you are looking for — from the word you know to the word you need. The familiar “cue word” leads to the tricky “target word” in any of three different ways: — by means of a definition leading you directly to the target word — by referring you to a chart of terms on a particular subject, with the target word among them — by referring you to an illustration on which the target word is pinpointed. Suppose you are trying to recall or discover the name for the sculpture of a woman that serves as a column supporting the roof of a building in ancient Greece. Various words come to mind as possible cues — woman, say, or sculpture, or column. Look up any of these cue words, and it will lead you to the target word CARYATID. Woman takes you there by way of a definition, sculpture by way of a chart of sculpture terms, and column by way of an illustration. Note the distinctive feature of this approach in each case: instead of starting with a headword and moving on to the definition, as in a conventional dictionary, the Reverse Dictionary starts with the definition, as it were, and leads from there to the word you are seeking — hence the title of the book. Hitting the target Most target words can be approached from several directions. First, you can look up any of several synonyms. If you’re trying to remember the word TRAJECTORY, for instance, you’ll find it if you look up pathorcurve (“curved flight path ”) or flight (“flight path ”). Or you may approach the target word from its cluster of associations rather than its synonyms: a ball thrown through the air has a trajectory, so you might aim at the target word by looking up ball or throw. And since missiles too have trajectories, you could use the cue word m is s ile to hit the target. The linguistic side of the human Everyone has experienced the frustration of mislaying a familiar word. You know what mind works by lateral thinking as well as straight-line logical thinking, and many cue you want to say; you know that the precise word exists that would enable you to say it; words have been selected to make provision for this. You can often approach a target and you know that you know this word but when you reach for it, it’s not there. That’s word through its collocations — that is, through phrases in which it commonly occurs, when the pantomime of exasperation begins: you snap your fingers, you frown, you phrases such as connubial bliss, a sedentary job, and rancid butter. You might rummage about in your mental attic, you say “It’s on the tip of my tongue” or “What’s accordingly look up the cue words bliss , job , and butter to find the respective target that word — oh, you know.” But the word, hovering just out of reach, continues to elude words connubial, SEDENTARY, and RANCID. and tantalise you. A target word may even be cued by its opposite if that seems a promising approach. Psychologists studying this phenomenon compare it to being on the brink of a sneeze. So the term relegation could be found by looking up promotion , and LEVITY could be Anticipation concentration and — frustration. What’s needed, so to speak, is a pinch found by looking up serious. Thẩm Tâm Vy’s Archive THE REVERSE DICTIONARY ~ READER’S DIGEST
2. Clearly it would be impracticable to provide every single possible approach to a target Entertaining words word, but the most promising and productive approaches will be there. If you don’t find Some of these unfamiliar terms are just high-falutin synonyms for perfectly familiar the cue word you want first time, just try again. “What’s the word for that tiny Japanese words: anthropophagi for cannibals, or lycanthrope for werewolf. Some are the tree — a sort of pot plant? oh, you know.” You won’t find the answer if you look up unfamiliar technical terms for all-too-familiar realities. The romantic-sounding tiny - there are hundreds of tiny things, so tiny isn’t really a useful cue word. But if you borborygmus refers to the less than romantic condition of tummy rumbling. try again, and look up miniature, or dwarf, or simply tree, or pot plant, or the chart of The grandiose singultus refers to the humble hiccup. And the resonant sternutation is Japanese terms you’ll hit the target each time: bonsai! simply — sneezing. Enriching your vocabulary Such words would, of course, sound very pompous if used freely in conversation, and The Reverse Dictionary is more than just a word-finder. It’s a vocabulary-builder too. tend to be pretentious even in formal writing, but they’re certainly worth knowing. And It sets out to extend your command of words — to bring into the centre of your they’re fun. This points to a third function of the Reverse Dictionary: providing working vocabulary those words that have up to now you access to the hinterland of the enjoyment. Supplementing the book’s value as a wordfinder and a vocabulary-builder is English language. its entertainment value. Many of the obscurer terms in the text have been included for For the most part, the target words are moderately tricky, words at the level of sheer fun — swashbuckling, cheeky, invigorating, their claims are irresistible. A tightrope trajectory, connubial, and RELEGATION, or CORUSCATING, CRUSTACEAN, walker can be called a funambulist , and a striptease artist an ECDYSiAST (the word EUTHANASIA, ECLECTIC, PARSIMONIOUS, NONCHALANT, METAMORPHOSIS, ecdysis is the technical term for the sloughing of skin, as by a snake or insect). EXUBERANT, PANACEA A DIASTEMA is a wide gap between the teeth, and a DEIPNOSOPHIST is an expert at But some target words seem to fall outside this middle range, and to be either very dinner-table conversation. (Try dropping that casually into the conversation at the familiar or very obscure. This is often because the meaning, rather than the word, is dinner table!) under consideration. Take the terms star, CROWN, GLOVE BOX, and PEEL — extremely Never at a loss for words simple terms surely, and yet not so simple when it comes to connecting them with Finally, the book affords you an opportunity for some linguistic creativity of your own. special meanings that you might have in mind. The term star can refer to the white spot Hundreds of the target words are word-elements rather than fully fledged words — on a horse’s forehead (you’ll find it at the cue word horse). The small, notched winding prefixes, suffixes, and combining forms, mostly from Greek and Latin roots terms knob on an old-fashioned watch is a crown. The glove box in the dashboard of a car is such as the fairly familiar ultra -, beyond-, and PSEUDO-, false-, and the less familiar - not the only glove box — there’s a laboratory glove box too, the glass box with rubber dendro -, referring to a tree (as in rhododendron), and -latry, meaning worship (as in gloves sealed into the side for handling dangerous radioactive or poisonous substances. idolatry). These are the materials on which you as wordsmith can get to work if the word And when a baker uses a long flat shovel to take bread or pies out of the oven, the you are groping for persists in eluding you. implement that he’s wielding is a peel. From the last two elements just mentioned, for instance, you could forge the term Words you didn't know dendrolatry — that is, tree-worship, as practised by various pagan cultures in ancient Conversely, the words retiarius, autotomy, entasis, and ROWEL may be utterly times. Suppose you want to describe an insect or reptile that eats ants: look up ant- to unfamiliar to you. But you probably are familiar with their meanings — with the ideas find MYRMECO-, and -e a t- to find - p h a g o u s — and there underlying the words. A retiarius was the gladiator in ancient Rome who went into the you have it, myrmecophagous. Or if you want to refer to a seven-sided coin, such as the arena armed with a net and trident rather than a sword. British fifty-pence piece: seven - gives you hepta -, and -sided gives you -GON — When a lizard sheds its tail to escape an attacker, the process is known as autotomy. yielding HEPTAGON. The slight bulge that makes a column on a Greek temple appear straight when viewed So you can use the Reverse Dictionary inventively, as well as for reference. Use it for from below is called an entasis. And the small toothed wheel on the end of the spur on a fun, as well as for illumination. Consider it a linguistic treasure-chest, as well as a cowboy’s boot is a rowel. linguistic snuffbox. Rummage among its pages from time to time to enjoy some of the Sometimes even the idea, not just the word, may be unfamiliar to you, as with coruscating jewels of the English vocabulary. moxibustion perhaps, referring to a kind of alternative therapy that involves setting fire Happy browsing then — and successful sternutation. The Editors to herbs placed on the patient’s skin. There’s a sprinkling of such complex terms spicing Download: the text throughout — words you didn’t know you didn’t know. nary%20(Reader%E2%80%99s%20Digest).pdf Thẩm Tâm Vy’s Archive THE REVERSE DICTIONARY ~ READER’S DIGEST