Here at Weird Words, I could never do these columns without a good dictionary — several, in fact.
At the same time, I also couldn’t do them if I had to check every single word in every dictionary I own. (Trust me — that is starting to get out of hand.)
So I have 5-6 that serve as go-to’s. And one of those, much to my surprise, is the Microsoft Encarta College Dictionary.
Though it was published in 2001 — just when its namesake company was taking off — I didn’t learn about the MECD till recently; so I’m only just now discovering how useful, thorough and reliable it is.
Not to mention unique.
For one thing, unlike other faves, its main entry section has three columns — not two. Because narrower columns allow smaller type-size, this enables MECD to pack in more info, and of course, more words: 320,000, to be precise — way more than most standard one-volume dictionaries. (The recent update of Merriam-Webster, for example, offers roughly 230K.)
Since we finished our last column with MECD’s terrific definition of zebu, let’s take this week and extol its other features.
I should start by insisting that a good dictionary offers more than just words and definitions. It should be a boundless source of info not only on linguistics — pronunciation, part of speech, word origin, etc. — but also facts of all sorts.
Thus MECD’s main A-Z section is chock-full of abbreviations, maps, photos, tables, charts and drawings (particularly animals) — not to mention a generous selection of geographical and biographical entries.
I was gratified to see such recent cultural figures as Marvin Gaye, Steven Spielberg (born 1946 — he’ll be 80 this year!) and Stevie Wonder — including his birth-name: Stevland Judkins.
As for geography: Sadly, Williamsport is not included (after all, there are at least seven of those in the U.S.). But you will find Wilkes-Barre, Altoona and Allentown — with populations listed. (And did you know — though this isn’t in the MECD itself — that Allentown is PA’s third-most-populous city, topping Erie and Harrisburg!)
There are 38 tables and charts — to wit: Geometrical shapes and solids (21 of those). World’s longest rivers (Nile is at the top — 4,160 miles) and highest waterfalls (No. 1: Venezuela’s Angel Falls, at 3,212 feet; look up some videos — it’s basically the waterfall from Pixar’s Up!). And under “planets” we learn that on Venus, a day is longer than a year — since our system’s second satellite takes 226 days to orbit the sun, but 243 to rotate (whereas the gas-giant Jupiter rotates once every 10 hours — fasten that seatbelt!).
I also love the MECD’s introductory essay on “The Internet as a Research Tool” — though it’s a bit outdated at this point (nothing on AI, of course).
Yet even the linguistic offerings are unique.
Perhaps the most unusual aspect involves handling the oft-posed student conundrum, “How can I check the spelling if I don’t know how to spell it?!”
To this end, MECD includes numerous “misspelled words” which are struck through and referenced to what’s right — for instance: comitee, crossed out and listed as “incorrect spelling of committee.”
There are also 600 “usage notes” on errors like irregardless (not actually a word) and the frequently misused it’s — which means it is and does NOT serve as possessive for it. (That, in contrast to most possessives, has no apostrophe: The dog wagged its tail.)
Like many dictionaries, MECD offers dozens of “synonym essays” — so that, for example, after defining goad, it refers us to motive for a differentiation of terms like incentive, spur and inducement.
Somewhat less useful are the “literary links.” A true first in dictionaries, these consist of elaborations on several dozen terms associated with a certain famous book — for instance, Catch-22, slaughterhouse and wonderland.
I must also note that the MECD is particularly inclusive, with words on nearly every page that you might not find in your average dictionary: frou-frou, ixtle, and zucchetto, to name a few.
Eventually, we’ll cull a set of those with the MECD’s actual definitions — for one of our standard weird-word lists. But I’m off on vacation through 2/18 and — much as I’d love to — I can’t stow this five-pound behemoth in my luggage. So we’ll do a regular list next week and get back to MECD after that.
Meanwhile, as a foretaste: behemoth (bi HEE muth) – “Something that is enormously big or powerful.”
Like a good dictionary.
