I did not just write this post in order to direct you to the other word-of-the-day feeds on DW*

[conuly]

In regards to yesterday's post on the same topic, the entry at oed_word_of_the_day_feed is morigerous, which I will never ever have a chance to use in casual conversation, but I'm glad to know it already.

By contrast, merriamwebster_feed gives us penultimate and wordsmithdaily_feed has humdinger, so I think that a fair and unbiased comparison of the three will clearly show that the OED's feed is the obvious winner. Nothing against penultimate or humdinger, but I can use those in conversation even with small children and didn't need them defined for me today.

* I promise

Comments

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Your thoughts on copacetic? How does dictionary slang notation differ from its English as spoken meaning*?

Why do I suspect humdinger would be thought an HR actionable word? (cf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem)

*by people that a)think penultimate builds their word power or b)take umbrage they have to look it up.

[conuly]

Copacetic is a delightful word, and it doesn't get redlined. I like all words, even the ones I don't like.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

And yet, while complemented by those alive during the Apollo missions, it's just jive talk to some.

A time and a place for all words.

[nicki]

Humdinger is in the active vocabulary of all my immediate family. I have no idea why.

[rebeccmeister]

I mean, I did subscribe to the OED feed. But I'm not going to subscribe to the other two. I have a love-hate relationship with the m-w dictionary, in any case. It's a perfectly serviceable dictionary, but I'm annoyed by the online version.

[redbird]

I wind up seeing a lot of the Merriam-Webster words of the day in passing, as I look for definitions and/or spelling: M-W collegiate is the common dictionary of American publishers and editors for spelling and hyphenation questions. I also like their "word of the year" based (at least in part) on what people are looking up. "At least in part" because the 2019 word of the year is singular they, though I suppose people who want more prescriptive dictionaries might have been looking for either "no, really, it's good English" or, conversely, "that's bad grammar," (Almost everyone making that sort of dictionary argument (as opposed to "what dictionary should I use?") is using the dictionary to support a conclusion reached by other means.)

[delphi]

I'm definitely subscribing to all three - thanks for sharing them! While I may not need 'penultimate' or 'humdinger' defined, I'm always glad for a reminder to use them more often. Especially humdinger.

[conuly]

It's a humdinger of a word, that's why.

[thewayne]

The woman at the library who retired this month, in her second to last week, we were leaving work and she used penultimate wrong!

[low_delta]

I must admit that I thought penultimate meant second best, not second last. I'm embarrassed.

[conuly]

How so?

[conuly]

I'm convinced that they've been trolling the neocons and far right through their "trending words" feature. It's possible those are all legit searches, but I wouldn't put it past them to tweak it slightly, and more power to them if they do.

[rebeccmeister]

Hmm - well, I should take that back. The interface is better now, but for a while IIRC it was pretty junky.