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Full Disclosure: My friends' son started the company and I'm pre-inclined to offer support. However, if there were no such friendly connection I'd still be touting this product. Just got my razor in the mail and slap me silly if I'm lying, but it's the best shave I've ever had and I'm saving a bundle to boot. It's all by mail and you get replacement blades (with nifty trim attachment mounted on back) in the amount and time interval that you choose. Shipping is free. I make advertising for a living, but I'd push this product pro-bono if asked...it's that good. I get no commission, but tell em Ricky sent you--cause I love getting pats on the back.

So much for the sharper stuff, now on to the duller.




Most looked-up and most misspelled Words

PARADIGM was the word most frequently looked up in 1998 in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary.

I’ll bet it’s fallen down the list since then cause I don’t hear it around the office much anymore, but about 10 years ago every so-called expert in everything from marketing to metaphysics was talking about paradigm shifts.


Some other words frequently looked up, besides obscene words, were UBIQUITOUS, ESOTERIC, OXYMORON, SERENDIPITY, HUBRIS, OBSEQUIOUS, and ECLECTIC.

Not a single one of the above would get me searching…but just offhand I can think of two that generally do: entrepreneur and commitment (or any word where I know that there’s a double letter set but not sure which it is or whether there’s more than one)

In 2001, the ten most frequently looked up words in the Cambridge Dictionaries Online were SERENDIPITY, IDIOM, PARADIGM, UBIQUITOUS, DICTIONARY, PRAGMATIC, EFFECT, GRY, JINGOISM, and FOIBLE. The most frequently looked up article in the World Book Encyclopedia is said to be SNAKE.

Snake is funny. Must be folks just before going on a camping trip or just after returning from one.

The words most likely to be misspelled (ratio of incorrect to correct spelling) according to a study of Usenet traffic some years ago were DUMBELL, OCCURRENCE, MEMENTO, FRUSTUM, COLLECTIBLE, AMATEUR, DAIQUIRI, PASTIME, ACCIDENTALLY, PLAYWRIGHT, EMBARRASS, ACQUIT, HARASS, and PRONUNCIATION.


Frustum?

In geometry, a frustum[1] (plural: frusta or frustums) is the portion of a solid (normally a cone or pyramid) that lies between two parallel planes cutting it.




The same study showed the words most frequently misspelled (by gross count) to be: RECEIVE, A LOT, AMATEUR, SEPARATE, REALIZE, THEIR, DEFINITE, INDEPENDENT, WEIRD, EMBARRASS, ARGUMENT, NO ONE, ACQUIRE, ACCIDENTALLY, OCCURRENCE, COLLECTIBLE, RIDICULOUS, MANEUVER, LIAISON, GAUGE, ATHEIST, GRAMMAR, SUPERSEDE, KERNEL, and CONSENSUS.

Interesting that it’s usually a question of:
Is it one word or two?
Is it e before i or vice versa?
Which letter is doubled?
Is it s, or c, or z?
Does it have a u ?
Does it have a silent or redundant (or is that redundent) letter?


Mondegreens

Mondegreens are opposite of malapropisms; they’re something being misheard rather than missaid. Generally applied to song lyric confusion as per:

"Excuse me while I kiss this guy."

"Excuse me while I kiss the sky."

Purple Haze, Jimi Hendrix

"There's a bathroom on the right."

"There's a bad moon on the rise."

Bad Moon Rising, Creedence Clearwater

"The girl with colitis goes by."

"The girl with kaleidoscope eyes."

Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, The Beatles

"Bring me an iron lung."

"Bring me a higher love."

Higher Love, Steve Winwood

"Mama don't take my clothes 'n' throw 'em away."

"Mama don't take my Kodachrome away."

Kodachrome, Paul Simon

"You make the best homemade stew around."

"You make the best of what's still around."

When The World Is Running Down, The Police


The word boycott comes from Charles C. Boycott. He was hired by an Irish earl to collect high rents from tenant farmers who completely ignored him.

The quark, a building block of the proton, got its name from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, from the line "Three quarks for Muster Mark! Sure he hasn't got much of a bark".


Antagonyms

Words that can have opposite (or nearly opposite) meaning.

Apparent: Not clear or certain (For now, he is the apparent winner of the contest.) vs. Obvious (The solution to the problem was apparent to all.)

Assume: To actually have (To assume office) vs. To hope to have ("He assumed he would be elected.")

Bad: Bad vs. Good.

Bound: Moving ("I was bound for Chicago") vs. Unable to move ("I was bound to a post", or less literally, "I was bound to my desk")

Buckle: to hold together (e.g. buckle your belt) vs. to fall apart (e.g., buckle under pressure)

Cite: For doing good (such as military gallantry) vs. for doing bad (such as from a traffic cop)

Cleave: To adhere tightly vs. To cut apart

Clip: to attach vs. to cut off

Dust: To remove dust vs. To apply dust (as in fingerprinting)

Effectively: in effect (doing the equivalent of the action but not the real thing) vs. with effect (doing the action and doing it well) [Contrast "he is effectively lying" (colloquial?) with "he is lying effectively"]

Enjoin: To order someone to do something vs. To stop someone from doing something [such as in law by an injunction]

Fast: Moving rapidly vs. Unable to move ("I was held fast to my bed.")

Fix: to restore to function (fixing the refrigerator) vs. to make non-functional (fixing the dog)

Goods: [Slang] good things vs. bad things ("I have the goods from the warehouse robbery, but I'm worried the cops have the goods on me.")

Hysterical: Being overwhelmed with fear [in some cases] vs. Being funny

Incorporate: When a village is incorporated, it is formed, but when it is incorporated into a city, the village is subsumed.

Lease, Let, Rent: [in essence] To loan out for money vs. To "borrow" for money

Left: To remain vs. to have gone (Of all who came, only Fred's left. Does it mean he's the only one who still remains or that he's the first to depart? )

Mad: carried away by enthusiasm or desire vs. carried away by hatred or anger

Oversight: Watchful and responsible care vs. An omission or error due to carelessness

Practiced: Experienced, expert (I am practiced in my work) vs. Inexperienced effort (The child practiced coloring.)

Presently: Now vs. after some time

Quite: Completely vs. Not completely (e.g., quite empty [totally empty]; quite full [not completely full, just nearly so)

Ravel: to disentangle or unravel vs. to tangle or entangle

Refrain: In song, meaning to repeat a certain part vs. To stop (Please refrain from using bad language)

Reservation: what you make when you know where you want to go vs. what you have when you're not sure if you want to go

Root: To establish (The seed took root.) vs. To remove entirely (usually used with "out", e.g., to root out dissenters)

Sanction: Support for an action (They sanctioned our efforts.) vs. A penalty for an action (The Congressman was sanctioned for inappropriate behavior.)

Shop: To search with the intent to buy ("I shopped for a book at several stores.") vs. To search with the intent to sell ("I shopped my manuscript to several publishers.")

Skin: to cover with a skin vs. to remove outer covering or skin

Strike out: An ending, as in "The batter struck out." vs. A beginning, as in "I thought it was time to strike out on my own."

Transparent: Easily seen ("His motives were transparent.") vs. invisible

Trim: To add things to (trim a Christmas tree) vs. or take pieces off (trim hair)


Ten most misunderstood words in America…

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”

Apparently the bewigged boys in Philly had more pressing business to attend to-- so rather spend time over-thinking this thorny issue, so they kept it short and sweet and doomed us forever after to suss out their intent.

I’ve heard the fundamentalists parse the thing to death and claim that the word “establishment” is a clear indication that the founders were deliberately narrow in their proscription because they assumed the preeminence of religion in the fabric of society and law. They argue that “establishment” refers solely to the issue of a declaration promoting one branch of Christianity over another. In short, they are saying that the founders had absolutely no intention of separating church and state, but rather were simply stating their intention to not interfere with religious institutions and leave them free to do as they wished without government involvement. Funny though, when you read the founders individual writings on the matter
almost to a man (Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Madison, Hamilton, Washington, Morris (both of em) Livingston…and others) they couldn’t be more specific and clear about their intent to do nothing of the sort. These guys were inheritors of a legacy of oppressive religious power and corruption and ill-fated encroachments on the body politic and of all the issues debated over the many years leading up to and following the constitutional convention, this is the one that probably enjoyed the most unanimity of opinion and agreement. Can you imagine any of those guys listening to some of the debate today and wondering how anyone could get them so wrong? Poor saps prided themselves on their powers of eloquent and precise argument and articulation and here we are almost a quarter of a millennium later trampling on the pristine perfection of their meticulous masterpiece.

These guys had fun with words too…