dictionary

Coordinate term: thesaurus

If you want to know the meaning of a word, look it up in the dictionary.

But what other kind(s) of syntactic information should be included in Lexical Entries? Traditional dictionaries such as Hornby's (1974) Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English include not only categorial information in their entries, but also information about the range of Complements which a given item permits (this information is represented by the use of a number/letter code).

1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 7, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 339:

A reference work with a list of words from one or more languages, normally ordered alphabetically, explaining each word's meanings (senses), and sometimes also containing information on its etymology, pronunciation, usage, semantic relations, and translations, as well as other data.

Look it up in the dictionary, and what do you find?

1930, Norman Lindsay, chapter 6, in Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, section I, page 106:

By 1986 the name Walkman was included as a word in the English dictionary.

2019, John Hughes, Life Pre-Intermediate Student's Book, National Geographic Learning, page 188:

(preceded by the) A synchronic dictionary of a standardised language held to only contain words that are properly part of the language.

(by extension) Any work that has a list of material organized alphabetically; e.g., biographical dictionary, encyclopedic dictionary.

User calls RouteCollection.GetVirtualPath, passing in a RequestContext, a dictionary of values, and an optional route name used to select the correct route to generate the URL.

2011, Jon Galloway, Phil Haack, Brad Wilson, Professional ASP.NET MVC 3:

(computing) An associative array, a data structure where each value is referenced by a particular key, analogous to words and definitions in a dictionary (sense 1).

dictionaries (plural)
dictionnary (alternative)
dixnary (alternative)

ажвар

publication that explains the meanings of an ordered list of words

vödasbuk (older term, now obsolete; compare Wörterbuch)

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ-
Proto-Indo-European *déyḱti
Proto-Italic *deikō
Latin dīcō
Proto-Indo-European *-tisder.
Proto-Italic *-tjō
Latin -tiō
Latin dictiō
Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.
Proto-Italic *-āsios
Latin -ārium
Medieval Latin dictiōnāriumlbor.
Middle English dixionare
English dictionary
From Middle English dixionare, a learned borrowing from Medieval Latin dictiōnārium, from Latin dictiōnārius, from dictiō (“a speaking”), from dictus, perfect past participle of dīcō (“to speak”) + -ārium (“room, place”). By surface analysis, diction + -ary.


dictionary

(transitive) To look up in a dictionary.

By a reference to the following dictionaried abbreviations, the simplicity and harmony of each sentence will be manifestly apparent; although it does not embrace everything, and could not, as it would be far too voluminous for general use.

1866, William Henry Ward, The international day, night, and fog signal telegraph, page 12:

Should I use a word that a lot of people use but isn't in the dictionary? Uncle Phil would rather get a root canal than say he was scrapbooking, because the word isn't dictionaried.

They [dictionary-makers] may have had their romance at home — may have been crossed in love, and thence driven to dictionarying; may have been involved in domestic tragedies — who can say?

1864, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 96, page 334:

(intransitive, rare) To compile a dictionary.

en-verb

dictionary (third-person singular simple present dictionaries, present participle dictionarying, simple past and past participle dictionaried)

dictionaries (present singular third-person)
dictionarying (participle present)
dictionaried (participle past)
dictionaried (past)


free

Free Blacks

a free man

en:unconstrained, socially
en:not imprisoned or enslaved

(social) Unconstrained.
Not imprisoned or enslaved.

Unconstrained.
Not imprisoned or enslaved.

He's very free with his money.

en:unconstrained, socially
en:generous, liberal

(social) Unconstrained.
Generous; liberal.

My hands are guilty, but my heart is free.

1679, John Dryden, Oedipus: A Tragedy, page 59:

en:unconstrained, socially
en:guiltless, innocent, obsoletely

(obsolete) Clear of offence or crime; guiltless; innocent.

Clear of offence or crime; guiltless; innocent.

free time

en:unconstrained, socially
en:without obligations

(social) Unconstrained.
Without obligations.

a free school

Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free / For me as for you?

1590-2, William Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, I, ii:

en:unconstrained, socially
en:to be enjoyed by anyone freely

(social) Unconstrained.
To be enjoyed by anyone freely.

Unconstrained.
To be enjoyed by anyone freely.

the Free World

This is a free country.

en:upholding individual rights, nonauthoritarian

(of a government, country) Upholding individual rights.

Unconstrained.
Upholding individual rights.

OpenOffice is free software.

en:unconstrained, socially
en:of software, licensed in an open way

(software) With no or only freedom-preserving limitations on distribution or modification.

en:unconstrained, socially
en:of software, intended for release

(software) Intended for release, as opposed to a checked version.

He was given free rein to do whatever he wanted.

Quickly, spirit! / Thou shalt ere long be free.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

There was some laughter, and Roddle was left free to expand his ideas on the periodic visits of cowboys to the town. “Mason Rickets, he had ten big punkins a-sittin' in front of his store, an' them fellers from the Upside-down-F ranch shot 'em up […].”

1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock:

Policing the relationship between government and business in a free society is difficult. Businesspeople have every right to lobby governments, and civil servants to take jobs in the private sector.

2013 August 10, Schumpeter, “Cronies and capitols”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.

2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

The government provides free health care.

It's free real estate.

Buy a TV to get a free DVD player!

en:free of charge
en:gratis in a complimentary way

(by extension, chiefly used in advertising) Complimentary.

Obtainable without any payment.
Complimentary.

en:unconstrained, abstractly
en:albegraically generic or universal

(algebra, of an algebraic structure) In any of various technical senses generic, universal.

(most generally, category theory, of an object F in a concrete category, with respect to a set X and a map i from X to the underlying set of F) Such that any map f from X to the underlying set of an object A in the same category as F induces a map ̄f from F to A which is compatible with f (i.e. such that f=̄f∘i).

The fundamental group of the figure eight is free of rank 2.

(group theory, of a group) Having a set of generators which satisfy no non-trivial relations; equivalently, being the group of reduced words on a set of generators.

linearly independent
linearly independent

(commutative algebra, of a module) Having a linearly independent set of generators (called a basis).

z is the free variable in #92;forallx#92;existsy#58;xy#61;z.

(logic, of a variable) Unconstrained by quantifiers.

Unconstrained.
Unconstrained by quantifiers.

(programming) Unconstrained of identifiers, not bound.

Unconstrained of identifiers, not bound.

en:unconstrained, abstractly
en:of a morpheme, unbound

(linguistics) (of a morpheme) That can be used by itself, unattached to another morpheme.

the drain was free

en:unconstrained, physically or mechanically

(physical) Unconstrained.
Unobstructed, without blockages.

Unconstrained.
Unobstructed, without blockages.

a free radical

en:of a molecule, unbound, e.g., radical

(physical) Unconstrained.
Unattached or uncombined.

Unconstrained.
Unattached or uncombined.

You can sit on this chair; it's free.

en:not in use, unoccupied, available for use

Not currently in use; not taken; unoccupied.

Not currently in use; not taken; unoccupied.

In this group of mushrooms, the gills are free.

Furthermore, the free anterior margin of the lobule is arched toward the lobe and is often involute[…]

1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page 7:

(physical) Unconstrained.
(botany, mycology) Not attached; loose.

(military) Of a rocket or missile: not under the control of a guidance system after being launched.

We had a wholesome, filling meal, free of meat.  I would like to live free from care in the mountains.

princes declaring themselves free from the obligations of their treaties

1679-1715, Gilbert Burnet, The History of the Reformation of the Church of England:

One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

en:without, not containing or having, liberated from

Without; not containing (what is specified); exempt; clear; liberated.

a free horse

(dated) Ready; eager; acting without spurring or whipping; spirited.

He therefore makes all birds, of every sect, / Free of his farm.

1697, John Dryden, “Part 3, line 1245”, in The Hind and the Panther:

(dated) Invested with a particular freedom or franchise; enjoying certain immunities or privileges; admitted to special rights; followed by of.

free service;  free socage

(UK, law, obsolete) Certain or honourable; the opposite of base.

Certain or honourable; the opposite of base.

a free fishery;  a free warren

en:legally, privileged or individual, proprietary, not common

(law) Privileged or individual; proprietary.

en-adj

free (comparative freer or more free, superlative freest or most free)

freer (comparative)
more free (comparative)
freest (superlative)
most free (superlative)

there ain't no such thing as a free lunch

why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free

lejuar

software: with very few limitations on distribution or improvement

From Middle English free, fre, freo, from Old English frēo (“free”), from Proto-West Germanic *frī, from Proto-Germanic *frijaz (“beloved, not in bondage”), from Proto-Indo-European *priHós (“pleased, loved”), from *preyH- (“to please, love”). Related to friend.
cognates, etc
Germanic cognates include West Frisian frij (“free”), Dutch vrij (“free”), Low German free (“free”), German frei (“free”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian fri (“free”).
Other cognates include Sanskrit प्रिय (priyá-, “beloved”).
Germanic and Celtic are the only Indo-European language branches in which the PIE word with the meaning of "dear, beloved" acquired the additional meaning of "free" in the sense of "not in bondage". This was an extension of the idea of "characteristic of those who are dear and beloved", in other words friends and tribe members (in contrast to unfree inhabitants from other tribes and prisoners of war, many of which were among the slaves – compare the Latin use of liberi to mean both "free persons" and "children of a family").
The verb comes from Middle English freen, freoȝen, from Old English frēon, frēoġan (“to free; make free”), from Proto-West Germanic *frijōn, from Proto-Germanic *frijōną, from Proto-Indo-European *preyH-, and is cognate with German freien, Dutch vrijen, Czech přát, Serbo-Croatian prijati, Polish sprzyjać.

inh

Proto-Germanic *frijaz (“beloved, not in bondage”)

Proto-Indo-European *priHós (“pleased, loved”)


free

I got this bike free.

Above all, the 48-page timetables of the new service, which have been distributed free at every station in the scheme, are a model to the rest of B.R. For the first time on British Railways, so far as we are aware, a substantial timetable has been produced, not only without a single footnote but also devoid of all wearisome asterisks, stars, letter suffixes and other hieroglyphics.

1960 December, “The Glasgow Suburban Electrification is opened”, in Trains Illustrated, page 714:

I as free forgive you / As I would be forgiven.

c. 1601–1602, William Shakespeare, Henry VIII, published 1623:

en-adv

free (comparative more free, superlative most free)

more free (comparative)
most free (superlative)


free

Pro.[…]Spirit, fine ſpirit, Ile free thee / Within two dayes for this.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 5:

(transitive) To make free; set at liberty; release.

Then I walked about, till I found on the further side, a great river of sweet water, running with a strong current; whereupon I called to mind the boat-raft I had made aforetime and said to myself, "Needs must I make another; haply I may free me from this strait. If I escape, I have my desire and I vow to Allah Almighty to forswear travel; and if I perish I shall be at peace and shall rest from toil and moil."

1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 564:

(transitive) To rid of something that confines or oppresses. [with from]

There is no way to access that original area of memory, nor is there any way to free it before the program ends.

2002, Jesse Liberty, SAMS Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours, page 148:

(transitive, programming) To relinquish (previously allocated memory) to the system.

en-verb

free (third-person singular simple present frees, present participle freeing, simple past and past participle freed)

frees (present singular third-person)
freeing (participle present)
freed (participle past)
freed (past)

vapauttaa

to rid of something that confines or oppresses

vapauttaa

programming: to relinquish (previously allocated memory) to the system


free

Whether deserved or not, the free gave Cresswell the chance to cover himself in glory with a shot on goal after the siren.

Australian rules football
Australian rules football

(Australian rules football, Gaelic football) Abbreviation of free kick.

Australian rules football; Gaelic football; Australian rules football; Gaelic football

Hargreaves, who left Manchester United on a free during the summer, drilled a 22-yard beauty to open the scoring.

2011 September 21, Sam Lyon, “Man City 2 - 0 Birmingham”, in BBC Sport:

(hurling) The usual means of restarting play after a foul is committed, where the non-offending team restarts from where the foul was committed.

The team won the 200 meters free relay.

(swimming, informal) Abbreviation of freestyle.


free

first/third-person singular present subjunctive

inflection of frear:
third-person singular imperative


free

head

free (comparative fre'er, superlative freest)

fre'er (comparative)
freest (superlative)
he is free (masculine predicative singular)
se is free (feminine predicative singular)
dat is free (neuter predicative singular)
se sünd free (plural predicative)
een Fre'es (masculine partitive singular)
een Fre'es (feminine partitive singular)
wat Fre'es (neuter partitive singular)
allens Fre'e (partitive plural)
fre'e (masculine nominative singular strong without-article)
fre'e (feminine nominative singular strong without-article)
free (neuter nominative singular strong without-article)
fre'e (nominative plural strong without-article)
fre'en (masculine oblique singular strong without-article)
fre'e (feminine oblique singular strong without-article)
free (neuter oblique singular strong without-article)
fre'e (oblique plural strong without-article)
de fre'e (definite includes-article masculine nominative singular weak)
de fre'e (definite feminine includes-article nominative singular weak)
dat fre'e (definite includes-article neuter nominative singular weak)
de fre'en (definite includes-article nominative plural weak)
den fre'en (definite includes-article masculine oblique singular weak)
de fre'e (definite feminine includes-article oblique singular weak)
dat fre'e (definite includes-article neuter oblique singular weak)
de fre'en (definite includes-article oblique plural weak)
en fre'e (includes-article indefinite masculine mixed nominative singular)
fre'en (indefinite masculine mixed nominative singular)
en fre'e (feminine includes-article indefinite mixed nominative singular)
en free (includes-article indefinite mixed neuter nominative singular)
fre'et (indefinite mixed neuter nominative singular)
fre'en (indefinite mixed nominative plural)
keen fre'en (includes-article indefinite mixed nominative plural)
en fre'en (includes-article indefinite masculine mixed oblique singular)
en fre'e (feminine includes-article indefinite mixed oblique singular)
en free (includes-article indefinite mixed neuter oblique singular)
fre'et (indefinite mixed neuter oblique singular)
fre'en (indefinite mixed oblique plural)
keen fre'en (includes-article indefinite mixed oblique plural)
he is fre'er (comparative masculine predicative singular)
se is fre'er (comparative feminine predicative singular)
dat is fre'er (comparative neuter predicative singular)
se sünd fre'er (comparative plural predicative)
een fre'ers (comparative masculine partitive singular)
een fre'ers (comparative feminine partitive singular)
wat fre'ers (comparative neuter partitive singular)
allens fre'er (comparative partitive plural)
fre'ere (comparative masculine nominative singular strong without-article)
fre'ere (comparative feminine nominative singular strong without-article)
fre'er (comparative neuter nominative singular strong without-article)
fre'ere (comparative nominative plural strong without-article)
fre'ern (comparative masculine oblique singular strong without-article)
fre'ere (comparative feminine oblique singular strong without-article)
fre'er (comparative neuter oblique singular strong without-article)
fre'ere (comparative oblique plural strong without-article)
de fre'ere (comparative definite includes-article masculine nominative singular weak)
de fre'ere (comparative definite feminine includes-article nominative singular weak)
dat fre'ere (comparative definite includes-article neuter nominative singular weak)
de fre'ern (comparative definite includes-article nominative plural weak)
den fre'ern (comparative definite includes-article masculine oblique singular weak)
de fre'ere (comparative definite feminine includes-article oblique singular weak)
dat fre'ere (comparative definite includes-article neuter oblique singular weak)
de fre'ern (comparative definite includes-article oblique plural weak)
en fre'ere (comparative includes-article indefinite masculine mixed nominative singular)
fre'eren (comparative indefinite masculine mixed nominative singular)
en fre'ere (comparative feminine includes-article indefinite mixed nominative singular)
en fre'er (comparative includes-article indefinite mixed neuter nominative singular)
fre'ern (comparative indefinite mixed nominative plural)
keen fre'ern (comparative includes-article indefinite mixed nominative plural)
en fre'ern (comparative includes-article indefinite masculine mixed oblique singular)
en fre'ere (comparative feminine includes-article indefinite mixed oblique singular)
en fre'er (comparative includes-article indefinite mixed neuter oblique singular)
fre'ern (comparative indefinite mixed oblique plural)
keen fre'ern (comparative includes-article indefinite mixed oblique plural)
he is de Freeste (masculine predicative singular superlative)
se is de Freeste (feminine predicative singular superlative)
dat is dat Freeste (neuter predicative singular superlative)
se sünd de Freesten (plural predicative superlative)
freeste (masculine nominative singular strong superlative without-article)
freeste (feminine nominative singular strong superlative without-article)
freest (neuter nominative singular strong superlative without-article)
freeste (nominative plural strong superlative without-article)
freesten (masculine oblique singular strong superlative without-article)
freeste (feminine oblique singular strong superlative without-article)
freest (neuter oblique singular strong superlative without-article)
freeste (oblique plural strong superlative without-article)
de freeste (definite includes-article masculine nominative singular superlative weak)
de freeste (definite feminine includes-article nominative singular superlative weak)
dat freeste (definite includes-article neuter nominative singular superlative weak)
de freesten (definite includes-article nominative plural superlative weak)
den freesten (definite includes-article masculine oblique singular superlative weak)
de freeste (definite feminine includes-article oblique singular superlative weak)
dat freeste (definite includes-article neuter oblique singular superlative weak)
de freesten (definite includes-article oblique plural superlative weak)
en freeste (includes-article indefinite masculine mixed nominative singular superlative)
freesten (indefinite masculine mixed nominative singular superlative)
en freeste (feminine includes-article indefinite mixed nominative singular superlative)
en freest (includes-article indefinite mixed neuter nominative singular superlative)
freesten (indefinite mixed nominative plural superlative)
keen freesten (includes-article indefinite mixed nominative plural superlative)
en freesten (includes-article indefinite masculine mixed oblique singular superlative)
en freeste (feminine includes-article indefinite mixed oblique singular superlative)
en freest (includes-article indefinite mixed neuter oblique singular superlative)
freesten (indefinite mixed oblique plural superlative)
keen freesten (includes-article indefinite mixed oblique plural superlative)
frie (alternative)

From Middle Low German vrîe, variant of vrî, from Old Saxon frī, from Proto-Germanic *frijaz, from Proto-Indo-European *priHós (“beloved”). Compare Dutch vrij, West Frisian frij, English free, German frei.


thesaurus

"Roget" is the leading brand name for a print English thesaurus that lists words under general concepts rather than just close synonyms.

As reference books go, the thesaurus has had a somewhat checkered history, in fact, and has probably occasioned as much bad writing as good.

2008 April 18, Charles Mcgrath, “The Keeper (See: Steward, Caretaker) of Synonyms”, in New York Times:

en:type of wordbook, especially for synonyms

A publication that provides synonyms (and sometimes antonyms and other semantic relations) for the words of a given language.

en:dictionary or encyclopedia, archaically

(information science) A hierarchy of subject headings: canonical titles of themes and topics, the titles serving as search keys.

en-noun

thesaurus (plural thesauri or thesauruses)

tesaurus

information science: hierarchy of titles

16th century, borrowed from Latin thēsaurus, from Ancient Greek θησαυρός (thēsaurós, “storehouse, treasure”); its current English usage/meaning was established soon after the publication of Peter Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases in 1852. Doublet of treasure.


thesaurus

[…] et vasa intulit in domum thesauri dei sui

Late 4th century, Jerome [et al.], transl., edited by Roger Gryson, Biblia Sacra: Iuxta Vulgatam Versionem (Vulgate), 5th edition, Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, published 2007, →ISBN, Danihelis 1:2:

" […] and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god."

la-noun

thēsaurus m (genitive thēsaurī); second declension

thēsaurus (canonical masculine)
thēsaurī (genitive)
thēsaurus (nominative singular)
thēsaurī (nominative plural)
thēsaurī (genitive singular)
thēsaurōrum (genitive plural)
thēsaurō (dative singular)
thēsaurīs (dative plural)
thēsaurum (accusative singular)
thēsaurōs (accusative plural)
thēsaurō (ablative singular)
thēsaurīs (ablative plural)
thēsaure (singular vocative)
thēsaurī (plural vocative)
thensaurus (alternative)
tēsaurus (alternative)
tēsōrus (alternative)

→ Albanian: thesar

Catalan: tresor, → tesaurus

→ English: thesaurus

→ Welsh: thesawrws

→ French: thésaurus

→ German: Thesaurus

Italian: tesauro, tesoro

desctree

Old French: tresor
Middle French: thresor
French: trésor
Walloon: trezôr
→ Middle English: tresour
English: treasure
Scots: treisur
→ Esperanto: trezoro
→ German: Tresor
→ Czech: trezor
→ Serbo-Croatian: trèzōr/трѐзо̄р
→ Ido: trezoro
→ Ladino: trezoro
→ Occitan: tresaur
→ Welsh: trysor

Old Galician-Portuguese: tesouro

Galician: tesouro

desc

Portuguese: tesouro, tesoiro, thesoiro (pre-standardization spelling), thesouro (pre-standardization spelling)

Piedmontese: tesòr

→ Portuguese: tesauro

Romanian: tezaur

Spanish: tesoro, → tesauro

[t̪ʰeːˈs̠äu̯rʊs̠]

From Ancient Greek θησαυρός (thēsaurós, “storehouse, treasure”).


thesaurus

pt-noun

thesaurus m (plural thesauri or thesaurus)

Unadapted borrowing from Latin thesaurus.


encyclopedia

I only use the library for the encyclopedia, as we’ve got most other books here.

His life's work is a four-volume encyclopedia of aviation topics.

A comprehensive reference work (often spanning several printed volumes) with articles (usually arranged in alphabetical order, or sometimes arranged by category) on a range of subjects, sometimes general, sometimes limited to a particular field.

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia anyone can edit.^([citation needed])

Similarly comprehensive works in other formats.

(dated) The circle of arts and sciences; a comprehensive summary of knowledge, or of a branch of knowledge.

en-noun

encyclopedia (plural encyclopedias or encyclopediae or encyclopediæ)

encyclopedias (plural)
encyclopediae (plural)
encyclopediæ (plural)
encyclopaedia (alternative)
encyclopædia (alternative)

መዝገበ ዕውቀት

mäzgäbä ʿəwḳät

ཤེས་བྱ་ཀུན་ཁྱབ་མཛོད (shes bya kun khyab mdzod, literally “treasury of the universally knowable”)

རིག་མཛོད (rig mdzod, literally “knowledge treasury”) (non-standard, but now used to translate “-pedia” in “Wikipedia”)

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₁en-
Proto-Indo-European *h₁en-
Proto-Indo-European *h₁én
Ancient Greek ἐν (en)
Ancient Greek ἐν- (en-)
Proto-Indo-European *kʷel-
Proto-Indo-European *kʷékʷlos
Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos)
Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.
Ancient Greek -ιος (-ios)
Ancient Greek ἐγκύκλῐος (enkúklĭos)
Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w-der.
Proto-Hellenic *pā́wits
Ancient Greek παῖς (paîs)
Ancient Greek -εύς (-eús)
Ancient Greek -εύω (-eúō)
Ancient Greek παιδεύω (paideúō)
Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂
Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂
Ancient Greek -ία (-ía)
Ancient Greek παιδείᾱ (paideíā)
Ancient Greek ἐγκύκλιος παιδείᾱ (enkúklios paideíā)bor.
New Latin encyclopaedīabor.
English encyclopedia
Borrowed from New Latin encyclopēdīa, encyclopaedīa (“general education”), a univerbated form of Koine Greek ἐγκύκλιος παιδείᾱ (enkúklios paideíā, “education in the circle of arts and sciences”), from Ancient Greek ἐγκύκλιος (enkúklios, “circular”) + παιδείᾱ (paideíā, “childrearing; education”), q.v. Nearly all modern English use of the word influenced by the scope and format of Diderot & al.'s French Encyclopédie.

der

ἐγκύκλιος παιδείᾱ


portmanteau

Alternative forms: portemanteau, (obsolete) portmantua

Rodolphus therefore finding such an earnest Invitation, embrac'd it with thanks, and with his Servant and Portmanteau, went to Don Juan's; where they first found good Stabling for their Horses, and afterwards as good Provision for themselves.

1667, Charles Croke, Fortune's Uncertainty:

He brought down with him to our haunted house a little cask of salt beef; for, he is always convinced that all salt beef not of his own pickling, is mere carrion, and invariably, when he goes to London, packs a piece in his portmanteau.

1859 December 13, Charles Dickens, “The Mortals in the House”, in Charles Dickens, editor, The Haunted House. The Extra Christmas Number of All the Year Round […], volume II, London: […] C[harles] Whiting, […], →OCLC, page 7, column 2:

I believe that people are like portmanteaux—packed with certain things, started going, thrown about, tossed away, dumped down, lost and found, half emptied suddenly, or squeezed fatter than ever, until finally the Ultimate Porter swings them on to the Ultimate Train and away they rattle. . . .

1918 February (date written), Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Je ne parle pas français”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 71:

A large travelling case usually made of leather, and opening into two equal sections.

But before I started that long and rather far-fetched and not frightfully original digression, what I meant to say quite simply was that there are no portmanteaux to be examined here because the clientele of this café, ladies and gentlemen, does not sit down.

1918 February (date written), Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Je ne parle pas français”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 72:

(archaic) A hook on which to hang clothing.

en-noun

portmanteau (plural portmanteaus or portmanteaux)

portmanteaus (plural)
portmanteaux (plural)

From Middle French portemanteau (“coat stand”), from porte (“carries”, third-person singular present indicative of porter (“to carry”)) + manteau (“coat”), literally “[that which] carries coat”.

compound

third-person singular present indicative of <i class="Latn mention" lang="frm">porter</i> (“to carry”)


portmanteau

The overall narrator of this portmanteau story - for Dickens co-wrote it with five collaborators on his weekly periodical, All the Year Round - expresses deep, rational scepticism about the whole business of haunting.

2002 December 14, Nicholas Lezard, “Spooky tales by the master and friends”, in The Guardian (London), page 30:

We're so bombarded with images, it's a struggle to preserve our imaginations.' In response, he's turned to cinema, commissioning 11 film-makers to contribute to a portmanteau film, entitled '11'09"01' and composed of short films each running 11 minutes, nine seconds and one frame.

2002 December 11, Nick Bradshaw, “One day in September”, in Time Out, page 71:

(attributive, linguistics) Made by combining two (or more) words, stories, etc., in the manner of a linguistic portmanteau.

Jabberwocky
Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking-Glass
portmanteau

First used by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass to describe the words he coined in “Jabberwocky”.


portmanteau

Well then, ‘mimsy’ is ‘flimsy and miserable’ (there’s another portmanteau for you).

1871 December 27 (indicated as 1872), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “Humpty Dumpty”, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, pages 128–129:

(linguistics) A word formed by putting two words together and thereby their meaning e.g. shrinkflation.

His long-awaited portmanteau, which premiered in Cannes on Monday, is the most Anderson of all Anderson films. It's Anderson distilled, Anderson squared, Anderson to the nth degree.

2021 July 12, Nicholas Barber, “The French Dispatch: Four stars for Wes Anderson's latest”, in BBC:


portmanteau

(transitive) To create a portmanteau word.

en-verb

portmanteau (third-person singular simple present portmanteaus, present participle portmanteauing, simple past and past participle portmanteaued)

portmanteaus (present singular third-person)
portmanteauing (participle present)
portmanteaued (participle past)
portmanteaued (past)

List of English portmanteau words defined in Wiktionary


encyclopaedia

(chiefly UK, Australia) Alternative spelling of encyclopedia

en-noun

encyclopaedia (plural encyclopaedias or encyclopaediae)

encyclopaedias (plural)
encyclopaediae (plural)

Borrowed from New Latin encyclopaedia, variant of earlier encyclopedia, q.v.


encyclopaedia

(Renaissance Latin, New Latin) encyclopedia

Johannes Aventinus
Paul Skalich
la:encyclopaedia

la-noun

encyclopaedīa f (genitive encyclopaedīae); first declension

encyclopaedīa (canonical feminine)
encyclopaedīae (genitive)
encyclopaedīa (nominative singular)
encyclopaedīae (nominative plural)
encyclopaedīae (genitive singular)
encyclopaedīārum (genitive plural)
encyclopaedīae (dative singular)
encyclopaedīīs (dative plural)
encyclopaedīam (accusative singular)
encyclopaedīās (accusative plural)
encyclopaedīā (ablative singular)
encyclopaedīīs (ablative plural)
encyclopaedīa (singular vocative)
encyclopaedīae (plural vocative)
encyclopēdīa (alternative)

→ Asturian: enciclopedia

→ Catalan: enciclopèdia

→ English: encyclopedia

desctree

→ French: encyclopédie
Haitian Creole: ansiklopedi
→ Turkish: ansiklopedi

→ Galician: enciclopedia

desc

אֶנְצִיקְלוֹפֶּדְיָה

→ Hebrew: אֶנְצִיקְלוֹפֶּדְיָה

→ Hebrew: אֶנְצִיקְלוֹפֶּדְיָה

→ Italian: enciclopedia

→ Portuguese: enciclopédia

→ Romanian: enciclopedie

desctree

→ Spanish: enciclopedia
Tagalog: ensiklopedya

→ Venetan: ensiclopedia

[ɛŋkʏkɫ̪ɔpäe̯ˈd̪iːä]

Borrowed from a univerbated form of Ancient Greek ἐγκύκλιος παιδείᾱ (enkúklios paideíā, “education in the circle of arts and sciences”), from ἐγκύκλιος (enkúklios, “circular”) + παιδείᾱ (paideíā, “child-rearing, education”). This spelling seems to have been first used by Paul Skalich in 1559, although the spelling encyclopedia goes back to at least 1517, with a work by Johannes Aventinus.

der

ἐγκύκλιος παιδείᾱ


frei

free; unrestricted; more negative also: unrestrained; licentious

Wer schläft und ist von Sorgen freier?
Der Tod belauscht die stille Nacht
So wie des Nilstroms Ungeheuer

Friedrich Karl Kasimir, Freiherr von Creuz, Neujahrsgedanken (from: Die geistliche Dichtung von Luther bis Klopstock. Ausgewählt von Paul Pressel. Einzelausgabe der evangelischen Volksbibliothek. Herausgegeben von Dr. Klaider, Stuttgart, 1864, page 933)

(please add an English translation of this quotation)

free of (not containing or unaffected by) [with von ‘something’]

(not freely applicable; see usage notes) free of charge, gratis

de-adj

frei (strong nominative masculine singular freier, comparative freier, superlative am freiesten or am freisten)

freier (masculine nominative singular strong)
freier (comparative)
am freiesten (superlative)
am freisten (superlative)
frei (masculine predicative singular)
frei (feminine predicative singular)
frei (neuter predicative singular)
frei (plural predicative)
freier (masculine nominative singular strong without-article)
freie (feminine nominative singular strong without-article)
freies (neuter nominative singular strong without-article)
freie (nominative plural strong without-article)
freien (genitive masculine singular strong without-article)
freier (feminine genitive singular strong without-article)
freien (genitive neuter singular strong without-article)
freier (genitive plural strong without-article)
freiem (dative masculine singular strong without-article)
freier (dative feminine singular strong without-article)
freiem (dative neuter singular strong without-article)
freien (dative plural strong without-article)
freien (accusative masculine singular strong without-article)
freie (accusative feminine singular strong without-article)
freies (accusative neuter singular strong without-article)
freie (accusative plural strong without-article)
der freie (definite includes-article masculine nominative singular weak)
die freie (definite feminine includes-article nominative singular weak)
das freie (definite includes-article neuter nominative singular weak)
die freien (definite includes-article nominative plural weak)
des freien (definite genitive includes-article masculine singular weak)
der freien (definite feminine genitive includes-article singular weak)
des freien (definite genitive includes-article neuter singular weak)
der freien (definite genitive includes-article plural weak)
dem freien (dative definite includes-article masculine singular weak)
der freien (dative definite feminine includes-article singular weak)
dem freien (dative definite includes-article neuter singular weak)
den freien (dative definite includes-article plural weak)
den freien (accusative definite includes-article masculine singular weak)
die freie (accusative definite feminine includes-article singular weak)
das freie (accusative definite includes-article neuter singular weak)
die freien (accusative definite includes-article plural weak)
ein freier (includes-article indefinite masculine mixed nominative singular)
eine freie (feminine includes-article indefinite mixed nominative singular)
ein freies (includes-article indefinite mixed neuter nominative singular)
freien (indefinite mixed nominative plural)
keine freien (includes-article indefinite mixed negative nominative plural)
eines freien (genitive includes-article indefinite masculine mixed singular)
einer freien (feminine genitive includes-article indefinite mixed singular)
eines freien (genitive includes-article indefinite mixed neuter singular)
freien (genitive indefinite mixed plural)
keiner freien (genitive includes-article indefinite mixed negative plural)
einem freien (dative includes-article indefinite masculine mixed singular)
einer freien (dative feminine includes-article indefinite mixed singular)
einem freien (dative includes-article indefinite mixed neuter singular)
freien (dative indefinite mixed plural)
keinen freien (dative includes-article indefinite mixed negative plural)
einen freien (accusative includes-article indefinite masculine mixed singular)
eine freie (accusative feminine includes-article indefinite mixed singular)
ein freies (accusative includes-article indefinite mixed neuter singular)
freien (accusative indefinite mixed plural)
keine freien (accusative includes-article indefinite mixed negative plural)
freier (comparative masculine predicative singular)
freier (comparative feminine predicative singular)
freier (comparative neuter predicative singular)
freier (comparative plural predicative)
freierer (comparative masculine nominative singular strong without-article)
freiere (comparative feminine nominative singular strong without-article)
freieres (comparative neuter nominative singular strong without-article)
freiere (comparative nominative plural strong without-article)
freieren (comparative genitive masculine singular strong without-article)
freierer (comparative feminine genitive singular strong without-article)
freieren (comparative genitive neuter singular strong without-article)
freierer (comparative genitive plural strong without-article)
freierem (comparative dative masculine singular strong without-article)
freierer (comparative dative feminine singular strong without-article)
freierem (comparative dative neuter singular strong without-article)
freieren (comparative dative plural strong without-article)
freieren (accusative comparative masculine singular strong without-article)
freiere (accusative comparative feminine singular strong without-article)
freieres (accusative comparative neuter singular strong without-article)
freiere (accusative comparative plural strong without-article)
der freiere (comparative definite includes-article masculine nominative singular weak)
die freiere (comparative definite feminine includes-article nominative singular weak)
das freiere (comparative definite includes-article neuter nominative singular weak)
die freieren (comparative definite includes-article nominative plural weak)
des freieren (comparative definite genitive includes-article masculine singular weak)
der freieren (comparative definite feminine genitive includes-article singular weak)
des freieren (comparative definite genitive includes-article neuter singular weak)
der freieren (comparative definite genitive includes-article plural weak)
dem freieren (comparative dative definite includes-article masculine singular weak)
der freieren (comparative dative definite feminine includes-article singular weak)
dem freieren (comparative dative definite includes-article neuter singular weak)
den freieren (comparative dative definite includes-article plural weak)
den freieren (accusative comparative definite includes-article masculine singular weak)
die freiere (accusative comparative definite feminine includes-article singular weak)
das freiere (accusative comparative definite includes-article neuter singular weak)
die freieren (accusative comparative definite includes-article plural weak)
ein freierer (comparative includes-article indefinite masculine mixed nominative singular)
eine freiere (comparative feminine includes-article indefinite mixed nominative singular)
ein freieres (comparative includes-article indefinite mixed neuter nominative singular)
freieren (comparative indefinite mixed nominative plural)
keine freieren (comparative includes-article indefinite mixed negative nominative plural)
eines freieren (comparative genitive includes-article indefinite masculine mixed singular)
einer freieren (comparative feminine genitive includes-article indefinite mixed singular)
eines freieren (comparative genitive includes-article indefinite mixed neuter singular)
freieren (comparative genitive indefinite mixed plural)
keiner freieren (comparative genitive includes-article indefinite mixed negative plural)
einem freieren (comparative dative includes-article indefinite masculine mixed singular)
einer freieren (comparative dative feminine includes-article indefinite mixed singular)
einem freieren (comparative dative includes-article indefinite mixed neuter singular)
freieren (comparative dative indefinite mixed plural)
keinen freieren (comparative dative includes-article indefinite mixed negative plural)
einen freieren (accusative comparative includes-article indefinite masculine mixed singular)
eine freiere (accusative comparative feminine includes-article indefinite mixed singular)
ein freieres (accusative comparative includes-article indefinite mixed neuter singular)
freieren (accusative comparative indefinite mixed plural)
keine freieren (accusative comparative includes-article indefinite mixed negative plural)
am freiesten (masculine predicative singular superlative)
am freisten (masculine predicative singular superlative)
am freiesten (feminine predicative singular superlative)
am freisten (feminine predicative singular superlative)
am freiesten (neuter predicative singular superlative)
am freisten (neuter predicative singular superlative)
am freiesten (plural predicative superlative)
am freisten (plural predicative superlative)
freiester (masculine nominative singular strong superlative without-article)
freister (masculine nominative singular strong superlative without-article)
freieste (feminine nominative singular strong superlative without-article)
freiste (feminine nominative singular strong superlative without-article)
freiestes (neuter nominative singular strong superlative without-article)
freistes (neuter nominative singular strong superlative without-article)
freieste (nominative plural strong superlative without-article)
freiste (nominative plural strong superlative without-article)
freiesten (genitive masculine singular strong superlative without-article)
freisten (genitive masculine singular strong superlative without-article)
freiester (feminine genitive singular strong superlative without-article)
freister (feminine genitive singular strong superlative without-article)
freiesten (genitive neuter singular strong superlative without-article)
freisten (genitive neuter singular strong superlative without-article)
freiester (genitive plural strong superlative without-article)
freister (genitive plural strong superlative without-article)
freiestem (dative masculine singular strong superlative without-article)
freistem (dative masculine singular strong superlative without-article)
freiester (dative feminine singular strong superlative without-article)
freister (dative feminine singular strong superlative without-article)
freiestem (dative neuter singular strong superlative without-article)
freistem (dative neuter singular strong superlative without-article)
freiesten (dative plural strong superlative without-article)
freisten (dative plural strong superlative without-article)
freiesten (accusative masculine singular strong superlative without-article)
freisten (accusative masculine singular strong superlative without-article)
freieste (accusative feminine singular strong superlative without-article)
freiste (accusative feminine singular strong superlative without-article)
freiestes (accusative neuter singular strong superlative without-article)
freistes (accusative neuter singular strong superlative without-article)
freieste (accusative plural strong superlative without-article)
freiste (accusative plural strong superlative without-article)
der freieste (definite includes-article masculine nominative singular superlative weak)
der freiste (definite includes-article masculine nominative singular superlative weak)
die freieste (definite feminine includes-article nominative singular superlative weak)
die freiste (definite feminine includes-article nominative singular superlative weak)
das freieste (definite includes-article neuter nominative singular superlative weak)
das freiste (definite includes-article neuter nominative singular superlative weak)
die freiesten (definite includes-article nominative plural superlative weak)
die freisten (definite includes-article nominative plural superlative weak)
des freiesten (definite genitive includes-article masculine singular superlative weak)
des freisten (definite genitive includes-article masculine singular superlative weak)
der freiesten (definite feminine genitive includes-article singular superlative weak)
der freisten (definite feminine genitive includes-article singular superlative weak)
des freiesten (definite genitive includes-article neuter singular superlative weak)
des freisten (definite genitive includes-article neuter singular superlative weak)
der freiesten (definite genitive includes-article plural superlative weak)
der freisten (definite genitive includes-article plural superlative weak)
dem freiesten (dative definite includes-article masculine singular superlative weak)
dem freisten (dative definite includes-article masculine singular superlative weak)
der freiesten (dative definite feminine includes-article singular superlative weak)
der freisten (dative definite feminine includes-article singular superlative weak)
dem freiesten (dative definite includes-article neuter singular superlative weak)
dem freisten (dative definite includes-article neuter singular superlative weak)
den freiesten (dative definite includes-article plural superlative weak)
den freisten (dative definite includes-article plural superlative weak)
den freiesten (accusative definite includes-article masculine singular superlative weak)
den freisten (accusative definite includes-article masculine singular superlative weak)
die freieste (accusative definite feminine includes-article singular superlative weak)
die freiste (accusative definite feminine includes-article singular superlative weak)
das freieste (accusative definite includes-article neuter singular superlative weak)
das freiste (accusative definite includes-article neuter singular superlative weak)
die freiesten (accusative definite includes-article plural superlative weak)
die freisten (accusative definite includes-article plural superlative weak)
ein freiester (includes-article indefinite masculine mixed nominative singular superlative)
ein freister (includes-article indefinite masculine mixed nominative singular superlative)
eine freieste (feminine includes-article indefinite mixed nominative singular superlative)
eine freiste (feminine includes-article indefinite mixed nominative singular superlative)
ein freiestes (includes-article indefinite mixed neuter nominative singular superlative)
ein freistes (includes-article indefinite mixed neuter nominative singular superlative)
freiesten (indefinite mixed nominative plural superlative)
keine freiesten (includes-article indefinite mixed negative nominative plural superlative)
freisten (indefinite mixed nominative plural superlative)
keine freisten (includes-article indefinite mixed negative nominative plural superlative)
eines freiesten (genitive includes-article indefinite masculine mixed singular superlative)
eines freisten (genitive includes-article indefinite masculine mixed singular superlative)
einer freiesten (feminine genitive includes-article indefinite mixed singular superlative)
einer freisten (feminine genitive includes-article indefinite mixed singular superlative)
eines freiesten (genitive includes-article indefinite mixed neuter singular superlative)
eines freisten (genitive includes-article indefinite mixed neuter singular superlative)
freiesten (genitive indefinite mixed plural superlative)
keiner freiesten (genitive includes-article indefinite mixed negative plural superlative)
freisten (genitive indefinite mixed plural superlative)
keiner freisten (genitive includes-article indefinite mixed negative plural superlative)
einem freiesten (dative includes-article indefinite masculine mixed singular superlative)
einem freisten (dative includes-article indefinite masculine mixed singular superlative)
einer freiesten (dative feminine includes-article indefinite mixed singular superlative)
einer freisten (dative feminine includes-article indefinite mixed singular superlative)
einem freiesten (dative includes-article indefinite mixed neuter singular superlative)
einem freisten (dative includes-article indefinite mixed neuter singular superlative)
freiesten (dative indefinite mixed plural superlative)
keinen freiesten (dative includes-article indefinite mixed negative plural superlative)
freisten (dative indefinite mixed plural superlative)
keinen freisten (dative includes-article indefinite mixed negative plural superlative)
einen freiesten (accusative includes-article indefinite masculine mixed singular superlative)
einen freisten (accusative includes-article indefinite masculine mixed singular superlative)
eine freieste (accusative feminine includes-article indefinite mixed singular superlative)
eine freiste (accusative feminine includes-article indefinite mixed singular superlative)
ein freiestes (accusative includes-article indefinite mixed neuter singular superlative)
ein freistes (accusative includes-article indefinite mixed neuter singular superlative)
freiesten (accusative indefinite mixed plural superlative)
keine freiesten (accusative includes-article indefinite mixed negative plural superlative)
freisten (accusative indefinite mixed plural superlative)
keine freisten (accusative includes-article indefinite mixed negative plural superlative)
frey (alternative)

→ Romanian: frai

From Middle High German vrî, Old High German frî, from Proto-West Germanic *frī. Compare Dutch vrij, English free, Danish fri.


frei

second-person singular imperative of freien


frei

From Middle High German vrī, from Old High German frī. Compare German frei, Dutch vrij, English free.


frei

Frei Luís de Sousa


frei

head

frei (comparative freier, superlative freiist)

freier (comparative)
freiist (superlative)


cat

(international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Catalan.


cat

At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.

1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

A domesticated species (Felis catus) of feline animal, commonly kept as a house pet.

I grabbed it and ran over to the lion from behind, the cat still chewing thoughtfully on Silent's arm.

1977, Peter Hathaway Capstick, Death in the Long Grass: A Big Game Hunter's Adventures in the African Bush, St. Martin's Press, page 44:

If you should someday round a corner on the hiking trail and come face to face with a mountain lion, you would probably never forget the mighty cat.

1985 January, George Laycock, “Our American Lion”, in Boys' Life, Boy Scouts of America, section 28:

She felt privileged to be here, living the experience inside the majestic cat [i.e. a tiger]; privileged to be part of their bond, even for only a few hours.

2014, Dale Mayer, Rare Find. A Psychic Visions Novel, Valley Publishing:

Any similar animal of the family Felidae, which includes lions, tigers, bobcats, leopards, cougars, cheetahs, caracals, lynxes, and other such non-domesticated species.

Mammals need two genes to make the taste receptor for sugar. Studies in various cats (tigers, cheetahs and domestic cats) showed that one of these genes has mutated and no longer works.

2011, Karl Kruszelnicki, Brain Food, →ISBN, page 53:

“[…]—Say, do you mind telling me if people around here really eat cats?” He felt a shiver in the pit of his stomach. “Do they eat cat?” said the little old man, profoundly shocked.

1948, Harry Stephen Keeler, The Case of the Jeweled Ragpicker (The Screwball Circus Mysteries; 3), Wildside Press, published 2017, →ISBN:

You do not eat cat simply for the thrill of eating cat. You eat cat because cats have a lively jingshen, or spirit, and thus by eating the animal you will improve your spirits.

2013, Peter Hessler, Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West, Harper Perennial, →ISBN:

I ate at a Chinese restaurant once, even though my friends told me I would probably be eating cat and dog disguised as chicken.

2013, James Bartleman, The Redemption of Oscar Wolf, Dundurn, →ISBN:

(uncountable) The meat of this animal, eaten as food.

But, ere one rapid moon its tale has told, / He finds his prize — a cat — a slut — a scold.

1835 September, anonymous author, “The Pigs”, in The New-England Magazine, Vol. 9, 156:

A person:
(offensive) A spiteful or angry woman.

jazz cat

I turn on the radio / There's some cat on the saxophone / Laying down a litany of excuses

2008, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, “Hold on to Yourself”:

A person:
An enthusiast or player of jazz.

Now you've listened to my story / Here's the point that I have made / Cats were born to give chicks fever / Be it Fahrenheit or Centigrade

1958, “Fever”, Eddie Cooley, Otis Blackwell, Peggy Lee (lyrics), performed by Peggy Lee:

Didn't know what time it was the lights were low / I leaned back on my radio / Some cat was layin' down some rock'n'roll 'lotta soul, he said

1972, “Starman”, in The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, performed by David Bowie:

1973 December, "Books Noted", discussing A Dialogue (by James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni), in Black World, Johnson Publishing Company, 77.
BALDWIN: That's what we were talking about before. And by the way, you did not have to tell me that you think your father is a groovy cat; I knew that.

What fags are true I know what Mack's might do
I'm quite familiar with cats like you
Provoke to get me give me a good reason to smoke me
Try to break me but never wrote me)

1998, “Fiend”, in Respect, performed by Shaquille O'Neal:

I started showing up early for every team practice, and when all those other cats jetted to hit the showers, I put in even more work on the court, eliminating my weaknesses, practicing drills and perfecting my outside shot.

2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 208:

I am sick of rappers claiming they hot when they really not
I am sick of rappers bragging about shit they ain’t really got
These cats stay rapping about cars they don’t own
I am sick of rappers bragging about models they don’t bone.[…]
And I am sick of all these cats with no talent
That never lived in the hood but yet their lyrics be so violent.

2006, “Sick of it all”, in Masta Ace (lyrics), Pariah:

A person:
(slang) A person (usually male).

"Tell me. Willie said there was a cat in love with you. That isn't true, is it?" "Yes. It's true," Hudson corrects her, letting her think that by "cat" he means prostitute.

1999, Carl P. Eby, Hemingway's Fetishism. Psychoanalysis and the Mirror of Manhood, State University of New York Press, page 124:

Overhaul down & hook the cat, haul taut. Walk away the cat. When up, pass the cat head stopper. Hook the fish in & fish the anchor.

2009, Olof A. Eriksen, Constitution - All Sails Up and Flying, Outskirts Press, page 134:

(nautical) A strong tackle used to hoist an anchor to the cathead of a ship.

[…]he whipped a black man for disobedience of his orders fifty lashes; and again whipped him with a cat, which he wound with wire, about the same number of stripes;[…]he used this cat on one other man, and then destroyed the cat wound with wire.

1839, Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, testimony by Henry L. Pinckney (Assembly No. 335), page 44:

(chiefly nautical) Short for cat-o'-nine-tails.

(archaic) A sturdy merchant sailing vessel (now only in "catboat").

(archaic, uncountable) The game of trap ball.

(archaic, countable) The trap in that game.

The game of trap ball.
The trap in that game.

(archaic) The pointed piece of wood that is struck in the game of tipcat.

"What the hell, so this broad's got a prematurely-gray cat."

1969, Iceberg Slim, Pimp: The Story of My Life, Holloway House Publishing:

As she came up, she tried to put her cat in his face for some licking.

2005, Carolyn Chambers Sanders, Sins & Secrets, Hachette Digital:

I had a notion to walk over to her, rip her apron off, sling her housecoat open and put my finger inside her cat to see if she was wet or freshly fucked because the dream I had earlier was beginning to really annoy me.

2007, Franklin White, Money for Good, Simon and Schuster, page 64:

(slang, vulgar, African-American Vernacular) A vagina or vulva.

A double tripod (for holding a plate, etc.) with six feet, of which three rest on the ground, in whatever position it is placed.

From behind the narrow slits in the walls of Castellar, crossbowmen and archers took aim at the juddering cat as it came closer.

2000, Stephen O'Shea, The Perfect Heresy, Profile Books, page 97:

(historical) A wheeled shelter, used in the Middle Ages as a siege weapon to allow assailants to approach enemy defences.

en-noun

cat (countable and uncountable, plural cats)

nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs

the cat would eat fish but would not wet her feet

kissamainen petoeläin

member of the suborder (or superfamily) Feliformia (Feloidea), "cat-like" carnivorans

maĥairodeno

member of the extinct subfamily Machairodontinae

pilppu

game of "trap and ball" (or "cat and dog")

Etymological Dictionary of the German Language

de:Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

From Middle English cat, catte, from Old English catt (“male cat”), catte (“female cat”), from Proto-West Germanic *kattu, from Proto-Germanic *kattuz, generally thought to be from Late Latin cattus (“domestic cat”) (c. 350, Palladius), from Latin catta (c. 75 A.D., Martial), from an Afroasiatic language. This would roughly match how domestic cats themselves spread, as genetic studies suggest they began to spread out of the Near East / Fertile Crescent during the Neolithic (being in Cyprus by 9500 years ago, and Greece and Italy by 2500 years ago), especially after they became popular in Egypt. However, every proposed source word has presented problems. Adolphe Pictet and many subsequent sources refer to Barabra (Nubian) [script needed] (kaddîska) and "Nouba" (Nobiin) ⲕⲁⲇⲓ̄ⲥ (kadīs, “kadīs”) as possible sources or cognates, but M. Lionel Bender says the Nubian word is a loan from Arabic قِطَّة (qiṭṭa). Jean-Paul Savignac suggests the Latin word is from an Egyptian precursor of Coptic ϣⲁⲩ (šau, “tomcat”) suffixed with feminine -t, but John Huehnergard says "the source … was clearly not Egyptian itself, where no analogous form is attested."
It may be a Wanderwort. Kroonen says the word must have existed in Germanic from a very early date, as it shows morphological alternations, and suggests that it might have been borrowed from Uralic, compare Northern Sami gađfe (“female stoat”) and Hungarian hölgy (“stoat; lady, bride”) from Proto-Uralic *käďwä (“female (of a fur animal)”).
Cognates
Related to Scots cat, West Frisian kat, North Frisian kåt and kaat, Dutch kat, Danish kat, Norwegian katt, Swedish katt, German Low German Katt and Katte, German Katze, Alemannic German Chatz, Icelandic köttur, Afrikaans kat, Latin cattus, French chat, Norman cat, Occitan cat, Portuguese gato, Spanish gato, Aromanian cãtush, Scottish Gaelic cat, Irish cat, Breton kazh, Welsh cath, Cornish kath, as well as Ancient Greek κάττα (kátta), Greek γάτα (gáta), Turkish kedi, and from the same ultimate source Russian кот (kot), Ukrainian кіт (kit), Belarusian кот (kot), Polish kot, Kashubian kòt, Lithuanian katė, and more distantly Armenian կատու (katu), Basque katu, Arabic قِطَّة (qiṭṭa) alongside dialectal Maghrebi Arabic قَطُّوس (qaṭṭūs) (from Berber, probably from Latin).

noncog

Proto-Uralic *käďwä (“female (of a fur animal)”)


cat

The anchors were catted at the bows of the yacht […]

1922, Francis Lynde, Pirates’ Hope, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 226:

(nautical, transitive) To hoist (an anchor) by its ring so that it hangs at the cathead.

(nautical, transitive) To flog with a cat-o'-nine-tails.

"He doesn't realize that I know," Lord Callan said, "but it's been pretty obvious that most of his catting about London's darker alleys has been a search for his origins.

1998, Mary Spencer, Lady’s Wager, page 324:

This was going to be my first try at catting out. I went looking for somebody to cat with me.

2010, Claude Brown, Manchild in the Promised Land, page 18:

My own dear wife could have tended to his needs if she hadn't been out catting.

Men from young to middleaged, with matt faces, vivacious and brightly dressed, catted together in gay groups.

1932, Hugh Brooke, Man Made Angry, page 134:

They smiled, touched, rolled their eyes and raised their eyebrows, as they relived the audition and catted about some of their competition.

1996, Alistair Boyle, The Unlucky Seven:

In the story, Lady Ina gossiped and catted about a parade of the rich and famous—Jackie Kennedy looking like an exaggerated version of herself, Princess Margaret so boring she made people fall asleep, Gloria Vanderbilt so ditzy she didn't recognize her first husband.

2016, Melanie Benjamin, The Swans of Fifth Avenue, page 293:

en-verb

cat (third-person singular simple present cats, present participle catting, simple past and past participle catted)

cats (present singular third-person)
catting (participle present)
catted (participle past)
catted (past)
catte (alternative)


cat

(computing) A program and command in Unix that reads one or more files and directs their content to the standard output.

From concatenate, derived from the program's function of concatenating files. Compare concat.


cat

(computing, transitive) To apply the cat command to (one or more files).

(computing, slang) To dump large amounts of data on (an unprepared target), usually with no intention of browsing it carefully.

cats (present singular third-person)
catting (participle present)
catted (participle past)
catted (past)


cat

(slang) A street name of the drug methcathinone.

a carrier's bow cats

catalytic converter
catalytic converter#English

These cats are a lot of fun in the harbor, but they're a real thrill on the open ocean riding ground swells.

1966, Bruce Brown, director, The Endless Summer:

She missed the fish diet of her own country, and twice every summer she sent the boys to the river, twenty miles to the southward, to fish for channel cat.

1913, Willa Cather, chapter 2, in O Pioneers!:

Fishing for cat is probably, up to a certain stage, the least exciting of all similar sports.

1916, M. Shults, “Fishing for Yellow Cat in the Brazos”, in Field and Stream, vol. 21, 478:

(slang) Any of a variety of earth-moving machines. (from their manufacturer Caterpillar Inc.)

A ground vehicle which uses caterpillar tracks, especially tractors, trucks, minibuses, and snow groomers.

computed axial tomography
computed axial tomography#English

Abbreviation of computed axial tomography. Often used attributively, as in “CAT scan” or “CT scan”.


cat

The weather was cat, so they returned home early.

(Ireland, colloquial) Catastrophic; terrible, disastrous.


cat

paint (a substance that is applied as a liquid or paste, and dries into a solid coating that protects or adds color/colour to an object or surface to which it has been applied)


cat

to apply in the manner that paint is applied

to cover (something) with spots of colour, like paint


cat

cat (domestic feline; member of the Felidae)

head

cat m (genitive singular cait, nominative plural cait)

cait (genitive singular)
cait (nominative plural)
cat (indefinite nominative singular)
cait (indefinite nominative plural)
a chait (indefinite singular vocative)
a chata (indefinite plural vocative)
cait (genitive indefinite singular)
cat (genitive indefinite plural)
cat (dative indefinite singular)
cait (dative indefinite plural)
an cat (definite nominative singular)
na cait (definite nominative plural)
an chait (definite genitive singular)
na gcat (definite genitive plural)
leis an gcat (dative definite singular)
don chat (dative definite singular)
leis na cait (dative definite plural)
cat
chat
gcat
cut (alternative)

From Old Irish catt, from Proto-Celtic *kattos, from either Late Latin cattus or Proto-Germanic *kattuz.


cat

> Indonesian: cat (inherited)

→ Tausug: sāt


cat

cattes (plural)
catt (alternative)
catte (alternative)
cate (alternative)
kat (alternative)
katte (alternative)
kaat (alternative)

English: cat

Scots: cat

Yola: kaudès, kaudes, kauddès (plural)

From Old English catt (“male cat”), catte (“female cat”), this is in turn from Proto-Germanic *kattuz.


cat

Où'est donc qu'j'iron, mé et mes puches / Ma catte, et l'reste de l'écu?

c. 1830, George Métivier, Lamentations de Damaris:

Si ùn cat s'amord au lard, nou ne sairait l'en d's'amordre.

1903, Edgar MacCulloch, “Proverbs, Weather Sayings, etc.”, in Guernsey Folk Lore, page 514:

If a cat takes a liking for bacon, you can't break her of it.

Ils d'visirent pour enne haeure, mais la Louise était pas chagrinaïe au tour sa pâte, pasqué a savait que le cat était à gardaïr la pâte caoude.

2006, Peggy Collenette, “D'la gâche de Guernési”, in P'tites Lures Guernésiaises, Cromwell Press, published 2006, page 20:

They talked for an hour, but Louise was not worried about her dough, because she knew that the cat was keeping the dough warm.

From Old Northern French cat (variant of Old French chat) from Late Latin cattus.


cat

(Picardy, Anglo-Norman) Alternative form of chat

fro-noun

cat oblique singular, m (oblique plural caz or catz, nominative singular caz or catz, nominative plural cat)

cat oblique singular or (canonical masculine)
caz (oblique plural)
catz (oblique plural)
caz (nominative singular)
catz (nominative singular)
cat (nominative plural)


cat

Mi-aduc bine aminte că unul sărea de la al cincilea cat, și c-o mână își ținea pălăria. Grozav îi era de pălărie!

1892, Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea, Mr. Vucea:

I remember well that one was jumping from the fifth floor, and was holding his hat with one hand. That proud was he of the hat!

caturi (plural)
cat (accusative indefinite nominative singular)
catul (accusative definite nominative singular)
caturi (accusative indefinite nominative singular)
caturile (accusative definite nominative plural)
cat (indefinite singular)
catului (definite singular)
caturi (indefinite singular)
caturilor (definite plural)
catule (singular vocative)
caturilor (vocative)

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish قات (kat).


cat

cats (plural)
kat (alternative)
ket (alternative)

From Middle Scots cat, from Early Scots catte, from Middle English catte, cat, from Old English catte, catt, from Proto-West Germanic *kattu, from Proto-Germanic *kattuz.


cat

head

cat m (genitive singular cait, plural cait)

cait (genitive singular)
cait (plural)
cat (indefinite nominative singular)
cait (indefinite nominative plural)
cait (genitive indefinite singular)
chat (genitive indefinite plural)
cat (dative indefinite singular)
cait (dative indefinite plural)
cataibh (dative indefinite plural)
cat (definite nominative singular)
an cat (definite nominative singular)
cait (definite nominative plural)
na cait (definite nominative plural)
(a') chait (definite genitive singular)
cat (definite genitive plural)
nan cat (definite genitive plural)
(a') chat (dative definite singular)
cait (dative definite plural)
na cait (dative definite plural)
cataibh (dative definite plural)
chait (definite singular vocative)
chata (definite plural vocative)
cat
chat

From Old Irish catt, borrowed from Late Latin cattus. Cognates include Irish cat and Manx kayt.


woordenboek

nl-noun

woordenboek n (plural woordenboeken, diminutive woordenboekje n)

woordenboeken (plural)
woordenboekje (diminutive neuter)

Afrikaans: woordeboek

Negerhollands: woord-buk

→ Sranan Tongo: wortubuku

Equivalent to woord (“word”) + -en- + boek (“book”). Compare West Frisian wurdboek (“dictionary”), German Low German Woordenbook, Wöörbook (“dictionary”), German Wörterbuch (“dictionary”), Swedish ordbok (“dictionary”), Danish ordbog (“dictionary”), English wordbook.


gratis

Really syncophant^([sic]) stuff, but it may help. It's gratis in any case.

2010 September 27, Ann Charters, Samuel Charters, quoting John Clellon Holmes, Brother-Souls: John Clellon Holmes, Jack Kerouac, and the Beat Generation, →ISBN, page 162:


gratis

I know not how they sold themselves: but thou, like a kind fellow, gavest thyself away gratis; and I thank thee for thee.

c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

Reaſon, you roague, reaſon: thinkſt thou Ile endanger my soule, gratis?

c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 45:


gratis

From Dutch gratis, from Latin grātīs, contraction of grātiīs.


gratis

second-person singular present subjunctive of gratar


gratis

gratis, free (obtainable without payment)

head

gratis (neuter gratis, plural and definite singular attributive gratis)

gratis (neuter)
gratis (attributive definite singular)
gratis (attributive plural)

[ˈɡ̊ʁɑːd̥is]


gratis

[ˈɡ̊ʁɑːd̥is]


gratis

gratis (adverbial positive predicative)
gratis (feminine indefinite masculine positive singular)
gratis (indefinite neuter positive singular)
gratis (indefinite plural positive)
gratis (definite positive)
gratis (partitive positive)

Afrikaans: gratis

→ Caribbean Javanese: gratis

→ Indonesian: gratis

→ Javanese: ꦒꦿꦠꦶꦱ꧀ (gratis)

Borrowed from Latin grātīs, contraction of grātiīs.


gratis

Aku dapat kopi ini dengan gratis.

Borrowed from Dutch gratis, from Latin grātīs, contraction of grātiīs.


gratis

out of favor or kindness, without recompense or compensation, gratuitously, freely

Catalan: gratis

desctree

Dutch: gratis
Afrikaans: gratis
→ Caribbean Javanese: gratis
→ Indonesian: gratis
→ Javanese: ꦒꦿꦠꦶꦱ꧀ (gratis)

English: gratis

French: gratis

Galician: gratis

German: gratis

Italian: gratis

Portuguese: grátis

Romanian: gratis

Spanish: gratis

Norwegian: gratis

[ˈɡräːt̪iːs̠]


gratis

ݢراتيس (Jawi)


gratis

gratis (nominative singular)
gratisy (nominative plural)
gratisu (genitive singular)
gratisów (genitive plural)
gratisowi (dative singular)
gratisom (dative plural)
gratis (accusative singular)
gratisy (accusative plural)
gratisem (instrumental singular)
gratisami (instrumental plural)
gratisie (locative singular)
gratisach (locative plural)
gratisie (singular vocative)
gratisy (plural vocative)


gratis

Pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of grátis.


gratis

gratis (indefinite masculine neuter singular)
gratis (feminine indefinite singular)
gratis (indefinite masculine singular)
gratis (feminine indefinite neuter plural)


gratis

Borrowed from Latin grātiīs. First attested in 1638.


umsonst

for nothing; for the sake of doing it (without expecting reply)

sonst wersonst einersonst jemand(ein) anderer


umsonst

Das ist umsonst.

Was-mer gemach hon waar umsonst.


gratuit

gratuit (adverbial positive predicative)
gratuite (feminine indefinite masculine positive singular)
gratuit (indefinite neuter positive singular)
gratuite (indefinite plural positive)
gratuite (definite positive)
gratuits (partitive positive)
gratuite (alternative)


gratuit

méchanceté gratuite

fr-adj

gratuit (feminine gratuite, masculine plural gratuits, feminine plural gratuites)

gratuite (feminine)
gratuits (masculine plural)
gratuites (feminine plural)

→ Dutch: gratuit

→ Romanian: gratuit


gratuit

head

gratuit m (feminine singular gratuita, masculine plural gratuits, feminine plural gratuitas)

gratuita (feminine singular)
gratuits (masculine plural)
gratuitas (feminine plural)

From Latin grātuītus. Attested from the 16th century.


gratuit

free, without payment (which costs nothing, which is given or received without any payment)

(figuratively) useless (which proves unnecessary)

(figuratively) baseless, unfounded (unsupported by evidence or facts)

ro-adj

gratuit m or n (feminine singular gratuită, masculine plural gratuiți, feminine and neuter plural gratuite)

gratuită (feminine singular)
gratuiți (masculine plural)
gratuite (feminine neuter plural)
gratuit (indefinite masculine neuter singular)
gratuită (feminine indefinite singular)
gratuiți (indefinite masculine singular)
gratuite (feminine indefinite neuter plural)
gratuitul (definite masculine neuter singular)
gratuita (definite feminine singular)
gratuiții (definite masculine singular)
gratuitele (definite feminine neuter plural)
gratuite (feminine indefinite singular)
gratuitului (definite masculine neuter singular)
gratuitei (definite feminine singular)
gratuiților (definite masculine singular)
gratuitelor (definite feminine neuter plural)

Borrowed from French gratuit, from Latin gratuitus.


word

Then all was silent save the voice of the high priest, whose words grew louder and louder, […]

1894, Alex. R. Mackwen, “The Samaritan Passover”, in Littell's Living Age, volume 1, number 6:

Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

I can't believe you want me back.
You've got Jen to thank for that. Her words the other day moved me deeply. Very deeply indeed.
Really? What did she say.
Like I remember! Point is it's the effect of her words that's important.

2006 Feb. 17, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 1, Episode 4

(semantics) The smallest unit of language that has a particular meaning and can be expressed by itself; the smallest discrete, meaningful unit of language. (contrast morpheme.)

The smallest discrete unit of spoken language with a particular meaning, composed of one or more phonemes and one or more morphemes

Polonius: What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

The name was a confused gift of love from her father, who could not read the word but picked it out of the Bible for its visual shape, […]

2003, Jan Furman, Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon: A Casebook, →ISBN, page 194:

Well-meaning academics even introduced spelling absurdities such as the “s” in the word “island,” a misguided Renaissance attempt to restore the etymology of the [unrelated] Latin word insula.

2009, Stanislas Dehaene, Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read, →ISBN:

The smallest discrete unit of written language with a particular meaning, composed of one or more letters or symbols and one or more morphemes

“Ain’t! How often am I to tell you ain’t ain’t a word?”

1896, Israel Zangwill, Without Prejudice, page 21:

Fisherwoman isn’t even a word. It’s not in the dictionary.

1999, Linda Greenlaw, The Hungry Ocean, Hyperion, page 11:

A discrete, meaningful unit of language approved by an authority or native speaker (compare non-word).

But every word, whether written or spoken, which urges the woman to antagonism against the man, every word which is written or spoken to try and make of her a hybrid, self-contained opponent of men, makes a rift in the lute to which the world looks for its sweetest music.

1897, Ouida, “The New Woman”, in An Altruist and Four Essays, page 239:

The word, whether written or spoken, does not look like or sound like its meaning — it does not resemble its signified. We only connect the two because we have learnt the code — language. Without such knowledge, 'Maggie' would just be a meaningless pattern of shapes or sounds.

1986, David Barrat, Media Sociology, →ISBN, page 112:

Brian and Abby signed the word clothing, in which the thumbs brush down the chest as though something is hanging there. They both spoke the word clothing. Brian then signed the word for change, […]

2009, Jack Fitzgerald, Viva La Evolucin, →ISBN, page 233:

Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths. Consider for a moment the origins of almost any word we have for bad language – "profanity", "curses", "oaths" and "swearing" itself.

2013 June 14, Sam Leith, “Where the profound meets the profane”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 37:

In still another variation, the nonsense word is presented and the teacher asks, "What sound was in the beginning of the word?" "In the middle?" and so on. The child should always respond with the phoneme; he should not use letter labels.

1974, Thinking Goes to School: Piaget's Theory in Practice, →ISBN, page 183:

All 15.5 million ‘words’ (or so–the exact length depends on the repeat sequences, which vary greatly) in the twenty-second chapter of the human autobiography have been read and written down in English letters: 47 million As, Cs, Gs and Ts.

1999, Matt Ridley, Genome, Harper Collins, →ISBN, page 301:

I wrote a nonsense word, "umbalooie," in the Input Panel's Writing Pad. Input Panel converted it to "cembalos" and displayed it in the Text Preview pane.

2003, How To Do Everything with Your Tablet PC, →ISBN, page 278:

Here the scribe has dropped the με from καθημενος, thereby creating the nonsense word καθηνος.

2006, Scribal Habits and Theological Influences in the Apocalypse, →ISBN, page 141:

If M. V. has sustained impairment to a phonological output process common to reading and repetition, we might anticipate that her mispronunciations will partially reflect the underlying phonemic form of the nonsense word.

2013, The Cognitive Neuropsychology of Language, →ISBN, page 91:

A sequence of letters, characters, or sounds, considered as a discrete entity, though it does not necessarily belong to a language or have a meaning.

(telegraphy) A unit of text equivalent to five characters and one space.

A unit of text equivalent to five characters and one space.

The size of a register in the MIPS architecture is 32 bits; groups of 32 bits occur so frequently that they are given the name word in the MIPS architecture.

1997, John L. Hennessy with David A. Patterson, Computer Organization and Design, 2nd edition, San Francisco, California: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., §3.3, page 109:

(computing) A fixed-size group of bits handled as a unit by a machine and which can be stored in or retrieved from a typical register (so that it has the same size as such a register).

(computer science) A finite string that is not a command or operator.

A finite string that is not a command or operator.

(group theory) A group element, expressed as a product of group elements.

A group element, expressed as a product of group elements.

[…] she believed them still so very much attached to each other, that they could not be too sedulously divided in word and deed on every occasion.

1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility:

As they fell apart against Austria, England badly needed someone capable of leading by word and example.

2004 September 8, Richard Williams, The Guardian:

The fact or act of speaking, as opposed to taking action. .

And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 26:75:

She said; but at the happy word "he lives", / My father stooped, re-fathered, o'er my wound.

There is only one other point on which I offer a word of remark.

"The Kaiser laid down his arms at a quarter to twelve. In me, however, they have an opponent who ceases fighting only at five minutes past twelve," said Hitler some time ago. He has never spoken a truer word.

1945 April 1, Sebastian Haffner, The Observer:

Despite appearances to the contrary [...] dragomans stuck rigidly to their brief, which was not to translate the Sultan's words, but his word.

2011, David Bellos, Is That a Fish in Your Ear?, Penguin, published 2012, page 126:

In what sense is God's Word living? No other word, whether written or spoken, has the power that the Bible has to change lives.

2011, John Lehew (senior), The Encouragement of Peter, →ISBN, page 108:

(now rare outside certain phrases) Something that someone said; a comment, utterance; speech.

Something that someone said; a comment, utterance; speech.

Our ancient word of courage, fair Saint George, inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons!

I have the word : sentinel, do thou stand; […]

c. 1623, John Fletcher, William Rowley, The Maid in the Mill, published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio), published 1647, scene 3:

mum's the word

(obsolete outside certain phrases) A watchword or rallying cry, a verbal signal (even when consisting of multiple words).

Among all other was wrytten in her trone / In golde letters, this worde, whiche I dyde rede: / Garder le fortune que est mauelz et bone.

Let the word be 'Not without mustard'. Your crest is very rare, sir.

1599, Ben Jonson, Every Man out of His Humour:

The old word is, 'What the eye views not, the heart rues not.'

Have you had any word from John yet?

I've tried for weeks to get word, but I still don't know where she is or if she's all right.

Word had gone round during the day that old Major, the prize Middle White boar, had had a strange dream on the previous night and wished to communicate it to the other animals.

1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:

He sent word that we should strike camp before winter.

Don't fire till I give the word

Their mother's word was law.

An order; a request or instruction; an expression of will.

I give you my word that I will be there on time.

Can I have a word with you?

I had a word with him about it.

There had been words between him and the secretary about the outcome of the meeting.

Her parents had lived in Botswana, spreading the word among the tribespeople.

(theology, sometimes Word) Communication from God; the message of the Christian gospel; the Bible, Scripture.

And that worde was made flesshe, and dwelt amonge vs, and we sawe the glory off yt, as the glory off the only begotten sonne off the father, which worde was full of grace, and verite.

1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, John:

And so the Word had breath, and wrought
With human hands the creed of creeds
In loveliness of perfect deeds,
More strong than all poetic thought; […]

1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXXVI, page 56:

(theology, sometimes Word) Logos, Christ.

en-noun

word (countable and uncountable, plural words)

you get more with a kind word and a gun than you do with a kind word alone

desc

Chinese Pidgin English: word, 𭉉 (Chinese spelling)

Chinese Pidgin English: word, 𭉉 (Chinese spelling)

woord

computing: fixed-size group of bits handled as a unit

sana

computer science: finite string which is not a command or operator

sanat

fact or act of speaking, as opposed to taking action

кома́нда

order, request, expression of will — see also order, request

From Middle English word, from Old English word, from Proto-West Germanic *word, from Proto-Germanic *wurdą, from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥dʰh₁om. Doublet of verb and verve; further related to vrata.


word

I’m not sure how to word this letter to the council.

(transitive) To say or write (something) using particular words; to phrase (something).

He words me, girls, he words me, that I should not / be noble to myself.

1607, William Shakespeare, Anthony and Cleopatra, act 5, scene 2:

(transitive, obsolete) To flatter with words, to cajole.

[…] if one were to be worded to death, Italian is the fittest Language [for that task]

1621 November 30, James Howell, letter to Francis Bacon, from Turin:

[…] if a man were to be worded to death, or stoned to death by words, the High-Dutch were the fittest [language for that task].

1829 April 9, “Webster's Dictionary”, in The North American Review, volume 28, page 438:

(transitive) To ply or overpower with words.

Against him […] who could word heaven and earth out of nothing, and can when he pleases word them into nothing again.

c. 1645-1715, Robert South, Sermon on Psalm XXXIX. 9:

"Postcolonialism" might well be another linguistic construct, desperately begging for a referent that will never show up, simply because it never existed on its own and was literally worded into existence by the very term that pretends to be born from it.

1994, “Liminal Postmodernisms”, in Postmodern Studies, volume 8, page 162:

The being of each person is worded into existence in the Word, […]

2013, Carla Mae Streeter, Foundations of Spirituality: The Human and the Holy, →ISBN, page 92:

(transitive, rare) To conjure with a word.

Thus wording timidly among the fierce: / "O Father, I am here the simplest voice, […]"

1818–1819, John Keats, “Hyperion, a Fragment”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, page 181:

(intransitive, archaic) To speak, to use words; to converse, to discourse.

en-verb

word (third-person singular simple present words, present participle wording, simple past and past participle worded)

words (present singular third-person)
wording (participle present)
worded (participle past)
worded (past)
worde (alternative)


word

"Yo, that movie was epic!" / "Word?" ("You speak the truth?") / "Word." ("I speak the truth.")

(slang) Truth, indeed, that is the truth! The shortened form of the statement "My word is my bond."

"[…] Know what I'm sayin'?" / "Word!" the other man strongly agreed. "Let's do this — "

2004, Shannon Holmes, Never Go Home Again: A Novel, page 218:

"[…] Not bad at all, man. Worth da wait, dawg. Word." / "You liked it?" I asked dumbly, stoned still, and feeling victorious. / "Yeah, man," said Oral B. "Word up. […]"

2007, Gabe Rotter, Duck Duck Wally: A Novel, page 105:

"[…] I mean, I don't blame you... Word! […]"

2007, Relentless Aaron, The Last Kingpin, page 34:

(slang, emphatic, stereotypically, African-American Vernacular) An abbreviated form of word up; a statement of the acknowledgment of fact with a hint of nonchalant approval.


word

Alternative form of worth (“to become”).

Variant of worth (“to become, turn into, grow, get”), from Middle English worthen, from Old English weorþan (“to turn into, become, grow”), from Proto-West Germanic *werþan, from Proto-Germanic *werþaną (“to turn, turn into, become”). More at worth § Verb.


word

Ek het ryk geword.

Ek word ryk.

Sy word beter.

to become; to get (to change one’s state)

Die kat word gevoer.

Forms the present passive voice when followed by a past participle

af-verb

word (present word, present participle wordende, past participle geword)

word (present)
wordende (participle present)
geword (participle past)
worde (alternative)

From Dutch worden, from Middle Dutch werden, from Old Dutch werthan, from Proto-Germanic *werþaną.


word

挨仙㕭𭉉
aai¹ sin¹[sen¹] ju¹ wut³
I send you word.
I will send you word.


word

first-person singular present indicative

(in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative


word

Ȝe knowe ek that in fourme of ſpeche is chaunge / With-inne a thousand ȝeer, and wordes tho / That hadden pris now wonder nyce and ſtraunge / Us thenketh hem, and ȝet thei ſpake hem so / And ſpedde as wel in loue as men now do

a. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “Book II”, in Troilus and Criseyde, lines 22–28:

You also know that the form of language is in flux; / within a thousand years, words / that had currency; really weird and bizarre / they seem to us now, but they still spoke them / and accomplished as much in love as men do now.

A word (separable, discrete linguistic unit)

A statement; a linguistic unit said or written by someone:

A byword or maxim; a short expression of truth.

A motto; an expression associated with a person or people.

A piece of news (often warning or recommending)

An order or directive; something necessary.

A religious precept, stricture, or belief.

The act of speaking (especially as opposed to action):

The basic, non-figurative reading of something.

The way one speaks (especially with modifying adjective)

IN þe bigynnyng was þe woꝛd .· ⁊ þe woꝛd was at god / ⁊ god was þe woꝛd

c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.), published c. 1410, Joon 1:1, page 44r, column 2; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word.

(rare) The human faculty of language as a whole.

wordes (plural)
word (plural)
vord (alternative)
weord (alternative)
woord (alternative)
worde (alternative)
wourd (alternative)
wurd (alternative)

English: word

Middle Scots: word, wourd

Scots: wird, word, wurd

From Old English word, from Proto-West Germanic *word, from Proto-Germanic *wurdą, from Proto-Indo-European *werdʰh₁om. Doublet of verbe.


word

Sē þonne þisne wealsteal · wīse ġeþōhte
ond þis deorce līf · dēope ġeondþenċeð,
frōd in ferðe, · feor oft ġemon
wælsleahta worn, · ond þās word ācwið:

Then he deeply thinks over this wall-place
and this dark life with wise thought,
shrewd in mind, oft recalls the long bygone
swarm of slaughters, and utters these words:

c. 992, Ælfric, "Sermon on the Nativiity of Our Lord"
Ðyllīce word María hēold ārǣfniġende on hire heortan.

Such words Mary held, pondering them in her heart.

word (nominative plural)
word (nominative singular)
word (nominative plural)
word (accusative singular)
word (accusative plural)
wordes (genitive singular)
worda (genitive plural)
worde (dative singular)
wordum (dative plural)
ƿord (alternative)
uord (alternative)
wyrde (alternative)

desctree

Middle English: word, vord, weord, woord, worde, wourd, wurd
English: word
Middle Scots: word, wourd
Scots: wird, word, wurd

From Proto-West Germanic *word, from Proto-Germanic *wurdą.


word

Unknown. Perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥dʰos (“sweetbriar”). Compare Latin rubus (“bramble”), Persian گل (gol, “flower”).

ƿord (alternative)
uord (alternative)
wyrde (alternative)


word

word (nominative singular)
word (nominative plural)
word (accusative singular)
word (accusative plural)
wordes (genitive singular)
wordō (genitive plural)
worde (dative singular)
wordun (dative plural)


livre

They like to see them awarded comfortable pensions. Is it 700,000 livres a year to the Polignac family?

1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial, published 2007, page 115:

He never, it should be noted, totally renounced his inheritance: a critic of the court round, he benefited to the tune of a cool two million livres a year from royal largesse […].

2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 30:

(historical) A unit of currency formerly used in France, divided into 20 sols or sous.

(historical) An ancient French unit of weight, equal to about 1 avoirdupois pound.

Borrowed from French livre. Doublet of arratel, libbra, Libra, libra, lira, litra, litre, and rottol.


livre

lire en quelqu’un comme dans un livre ouvert

Louisiana Creole: liv

Inherited from Middle French livre, from Old French livre, a semi-learned borrowing from Latin librum. The strictly inherited form would be *loivre. Doublet of liber.


livre

(Europe, informal) metrical pound, half a kilogramme, 500 g

pound (unit of weight)
(North America) imperial pound ≈ 454 g

pound (unit of weight)
imperial pound ≈ 454 g

(historical) various values between 300 and 600 g

pound (unit of weight)
various values between 300 and 600 g

Louisiana Creole: liv

→ English: livre

→ Romanian: livră

Inherited from Middle French livre, from Old French livre, from Latin lībra.


livre

first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive

inflection of livrer:
second-person singular imperative


livre

French: livre
Louisiana Creole: liv

From Old French livre, from Latin liber.


livre

pound (unit of weight varying between 380g and 552g)

French: livre m

From Old French livre, from Latin lībra.


livre

From Old French livre, from Latin līber.


livre

From Old French livre, a semi-learned borrowing from Latin liber, librum.


livre

head

livre n (definite singular livreet, indefinite plural livre or livreer, definite plural livrea or livreene)

livreet (definite singular)
livre (indefinite plural)
livreer (indefinite plural)
livrea (definite plural)
livreene (definite plural)


livre

livre n (definite singular livreet, indefinite plural livre, definite plural livrea)

livreet (definite singular)
livre (indefinite plural)
livrea (definite plural)


livre

si come li sires qui vuet en petit leu amasser choses de grandisme vaillance […] por acroistre son pooir […] i met il les plus chieres choses et les plus precieux joiaus que il puet, selonc sa bone entencion, tout autressi est li cors de cest livre compilez de sapience

1260–1267, Brunetto Latini, “Cist premiers livres parole de la naissance de toutes choses [This first book talks about the birth of all things]” (chapter 1), Livre I - Premiere partie [First book - First part], in Livres dou Tresor [Book of the treasure]; republished as Polycarpe Chabaille, compiler, Li livres dou tresor par Brunetto Latini, Paris: Imprimerie impériale, 1863, page 1:

Just like the lord, who wishes to accumulate very valuable things in a tiny place […] in order to increase his power, […] puts there—according to his good intention—the dearest things and the most precious jewels he can, so the body of this book is filled with knowledge

book (collection of sheets of paper in a specific order)

fro-noun

livre oblique singular, m (oblique plural livres, nominative singular livres, nominative plural livre)

livre oblique singular or (canonical masculine)
livres (oblique plural)
livres (nominative singular)
livre (nominative plural)

Middle French: livre

French: livre

Norman: livre

Semi-learned borrowing from Latin liber, librum.


livre

livre (medieval French equivalent of a monetary pound)

fro-noun

livre oblique singular, f (oblique plural livres, nominative singular livre, nominative plural livres)

livre oblique singular or (canonical feminine)
livres (oblique plural)
livre (nominative singular)
livres (nominative plural)

Middle French: livre


livre

head

livre m (oblique and nominative feminine singular livre)

livre (feminine nominative oblique singular)

Middle French: livre

Semi-learned borrowing from Latin līber.


livre

Guinea-Bissau Creole: livri, libri

From Old Galician-Portuguese livre, libre, from Latin līber, from Old Latin loeber, from Proto-Italic *louðeros, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁lewdʰ-er-os, from *h₁lewdʰ- (“people”).


livre

first/third-person singular present subjunctive

inflection of livrar:
third-person singular imperative

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.