February 04, 2004
Lexicovoyeurism
If you visit the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, you'll see an oddly addictive new feature: "Merriam-Webster's Real Time Word". It's "a live, random sampling of words looked up in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, displayed exactly as they are entered by thousands of visitors."
In the couple of minutes I watched, someone looked up "is", two people looked up "homosexual" (thinking, no doubt, "I've been hearing a lot about homosexuals lately. How can I learn more about these mysterious creatures?"), and one person wanted a definition of "porns". Perhaps we can refer that last guy to the person looking up "dense".
Posted by Francis at 09:00 PM"Since Real Time Words are unedited..." Really? I find that hard to believe, given the sort of word that the guy from M-W (at Con) said was searched most often...
Maybe they'll add an adults-only section. :)
Posted by: Dan at February 4, 2004 09:25 PMRe:"Porns" ... Todd says "I didn't realize it pluraled that way, but I suppose you can food anything."
(Verb form of "food" courtesy Get Fuzzy -- see also http://meet-the-makers.com/conversations/conley/2/)
Posted by: debby at February 4, 2004 10:02 PMI just saw "caliapee" and I am choosing to pretend that it was a joke submitted strictly for the real time window.
Posted by: Ugarte at February 5, 2004 11:11 AM