Private Notes on Words

A new feature launched this weekend: private notes on words. On any word page, where it says “Leave a comment, citation, or private note”, click on “private note” to leave a postit-style note for yourself.

This is kind of like writing in the margins of a book–if there’s something you’d like to remember about a word, or you want to leave yourself pronunciation tips or study notes or a comment-in-progress or whatever, and it doesn’t seem appropriate to make it public, write yourself a note.

I’m hoping students in particular find this useful, and also people using Wordie to create glossaries or dictionaries. I’ve corresponded with a few folks who have expressed an interest in such a use, and the combination of tags, private notes, and comments seems like a good emerging toolkit. One could use tags to aggregate the words in question (there are already a bunch of good de facto glossaries on Wordie as a result of tagging, like demon, archery and beer), then private notes while collecting definitions or usage notes, with the final result ending up as a citation in the comments.

Or, use it however you want. Any suggestions for improvements or additions are, as always, welcome.

Still More Glossaries

Here are a few more glossaries, which have also been added to the canonical Glossaralia post. My favorites in this batch are the weather terms and, despite the cheesois design, the Harry Potter words, many of which include audio files illustrating their pronunciation, or one person’s interpretation thereof. A nice touch.

Thanks to Cooper Green for the radio glossary, Katie for the investing and business links, and reesetee for the subtitling link. The glossaries:

Building Terms (contractorslicense.com)
Business Dictionary (BusinessDictionary.com)
Glossary of Cheese Terms (Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board)
Glossaries (glossarist.com, contains lots of broken links)
Harry Potter (Harry Potter Word Wizard, with audio)
Investing and Finance (investorwords.com)
Online News Terms (USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review)
Printmaking Terms (University of Kansas Spencer Museum of Art)
Radio terms (University of Delaware)
Subtitler’s and Translator’s Tools (transedit.se)
Weather Terms (weather.com)

Glossaralia

I’ve been coming across lots of online glossaries lately; here are some of the ones I’ve particularly enjoyed (possibly my fav: the cheese glossary. though maybe I’m just hungry). If you’re creating a Wordie list on a specific topic (scissors and shears, anyone?), these are a goldmine.

Many of these were discovered through the web site of Frank Dietz, a man who clearly loves glossaries. Thanks Frank!

I’ll be updating this list as more gems crop up. If there’s a glossary you’d like to see included, let me know in the comments.

Acroynms, military
Advertising (University of Texas at Austin)
Agriculture (New Mexico State University)
Art (ArtLex)
Aviation (AeroFiles)
Beer (Chowbaby)
Beer (Foster’s Group)
Building Terms (contractorslicense.com)
Business (Foley Hoag)
Business Dictionary (BusinessDictionary.com)
Business (Washington Post)
Cars (AutoSpeak)
Catholic Terms
Catholic Terms (US Conference of Catholic Bishops)
Cheese Terms (Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board)
Cigars (Chowbaby)
Coffee (Chowbaby)
Color (SAP Design Guild)
Computer & Internet (Sharpened.net)
Food (Chowbaby)
Footwear (ShoeGuide.org)
Furniture (TheFurniture.com)
Glossaries (glossarist.com)
Glossaries (Frank Dietz)
Hospital Healthcare (Montevideo Hospital)
Industrial Nuts (Industrial Nut Corp.)
Investing and Finance (investorwords.com)
Islamic Law (Mutma’inaa)
Islamic Terms (University of Southern California)
Jewish Terms (JewishEncyclopedia.com)
Lighting (Lithonia Lighting)
Lighting Design (Schorsch)
Law (NOLO)
Linguistics (SIL)
Nautical Terms (Answers.com)
Online News Terms (USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review)
Pest Management (University of California)
Philosophy (Stanford)
Plastics (American Chemistry Council)
Poetic Terms (University of Toronto)
Publishing (Rainwater Press)
Printmaking Terms (University of Kansas Spencer Museum of Art)
Radio terms (University of Delaware)
Railroad Terms (San Diego Railroad Museum)
Real Estate (Gibbons Realty)
Roofing Terms (pmel.org)
Sailing (SailingLinks)
Scissors and Shears (Claussco)
Sex (sex-lexis.com)
Sikh Terms (Sandeep Singh Brar)
Solar Heating (Go Solar)
Spirits, as in liquor, not ghosts (Chowbaby)
Subtitler’s and Translator’s Tools (transedit.se)
Sushi (Chowbaby)
Tea (Chowbaby)
Telecommunications (CHR Solutions)
Telecommunications (National Telecommunications and Information Administration)
Theater (CalPoly)
TV Advertising (Audience Analytics)
Weather Terms (weather.com)
Wine (Chowbaby)
Wine (Foster’s Group)