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Messages - Alan W

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31
Words / Re: Word suggestion 'chatbot'
« on: February 17, 2024, 02:57:45 PM »
I've no doubt chatbot should be accepted as a new word. The only question in my mind is whether it should be classed as common.

The word has been around since the 1990s, but has taken off in a massive way in the past year or so, resulting from the flurry of large language models that have been made available for widespread use. This is evident in the News on the Web corpus:



Most words added to our lexicon start out in the rare category. However there are some that have been treated as common from the outset. Often these are words associated with technology: barcode, blog, clickbait, hashtag, login, ringtone, texted and texting, and username.

Right now, I think chatbots are written about more often than many of those other terms. It's possible the word chatbot will decline in prominence after a while, but I suspect it will remain a commonly known term for some time. I'll add it to our list as a common word.

(This post was written by a human being.)

32
Words / Re: Saturday 23 December 10-letter INSTALLING puzzle
« on: February 15, 2024, 05:05:16 PM »
I'm generally wary of changing anything to do with  words treated as plural. However, in this case the word, when stripped of its final s is almost always a verb in its -ing form, not a noun. It's true that some dictionaries give meanings for tailing as a noun, most commonly the projecting part of a stone or brick inserted in a wall, but all these senses are very rare indeed.

From what I can see, almost every use of the word tailings is for mining residue or similar. And the singular form tailing is hardly ever used for such residue.

For some reason the word tailings is used more often in Canada than anywhere else, but it is used in other places too. A very recent example is from the 13th of this month in the Melbourne Age:

Quote
It’s industry best practice, used at mines all over the world to avoid the toxic leaks and deadly collapses that bedevil large tailings dams.

I'll allow tailings as a rare word, no longer excluded under the plurals rule.

33
Words / Re: Word suggestion 'chatbot'
« on: February 15, 2024, 01:09:24 PM »
I did try chatbot myself, and if nobody else had suggested it, I would have raised the issue anyway.

Before applying my own intellect to this matter, it seems appropriate to ask a couple of chatbots for their thoughts. Firstly, ChatGPT 3.5:

Quote
Is "chatbot" a real word?

Yes, "chatbot" is indeed a real word. It refers to a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the internet. The term is a combination of "chat" and "robot," reflecting its purpose of engaging in conversation or dialogue automatically.

Is "chatbot" a common word in the English language or a rare word?

"Chatbot" is a relatively common word in the English language, especially in the context of modern technology and artificial intelligence. With the increasing prevalence of automated customer service systems, virtual assistants, and messaging applications, the term "chatbot" has become widely recognized and used in everyday language. It is frequently encountered in discussions about technology, communication, and automation.

And then, the Microsoft Bing Copilot (footnotes omitted):

Quote
Is "chatbot" a real word?

Certainly! The term “chatbot” is indeed a real word. It refers to a software application or web interface designed to mimic human conversation through text or voice interactions. These modern chatbots utilize generative artificial intelligence systems to engage in natural language conversations with users, simulating how a human would behave as a conversational partner. So yes, it’s a legitimate term used to describe these interactive conversational programs!

Is "chatbot" a common word in the English language or a rare word?

The term “chatbot” is fairly common in the English language. It refers to a computer program that can engage in conversations with users through text or voice interfaces. Chatbots are used for various purposes, from customer service to information retrieval, and they have become increasingly prevalent in recent years. While some people might consider it a bit buzz-y or narrow-focused, it remains a recognized and widely used term in the field of artificial intelligence and technology. So, if you’re curious about chatbots, you’re definitely not alone!

Quite good answers - although the Microsoft bot could be a bit more sparing with the exclamation marks.

I'll come back to this shortly.

34
Words / Re: Twilit/Spotlit common?
« on: February 10, 2024, 02:33:40 PM »
A big difference, I think, between twilit and spotlit is that spotlight is commonly used as a verb as well as a noun. So it is natural to think of spotlight as having the inflected forms spotlit or spotlighted, and spotlighting.

Also, spotlit has both a literal meaning: illuminated by a spotlight, and a figurative sense: made the focus of attention. A very recent example of the literal meaning is from 6 February in Wales Online:

Quote
Each year, spotlit surveys are conducted at night by staff volunteers. By 2019, these reported the biggest number of great crested newts in all of Wales.

An example of figurative use is from an April 2023 article on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation website:

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His final major exhibition, John Olsen: Goya's Dog, staged at the National Art School (NAS) Gallery in 2021, spotlit the art that sprang from the less expansive and more anxious parts of Olsen's personality.

So I think it's reasonable for spotlit to remain in the common category.

However most dictionaries don't include twilight as a verb, and twilit, if listed, is labeled as an adjective (lighted by, or as if by, twilight). So its derivation is not quite so automatic. Not every kind of -light has a -lit spin-off word. Headlight hasn't given rise to "headlit" as far as I'm aware.

Twilit is certainly a word, but it isn't used as often as spotlit. A usage example from the Guardian in December 2021:

Quote
As I wait, the pink-footed geese fly overhead again, calling to each other as they circle the ruins and head out across the twilit marsh.

Whether this word should continue to be classed as common is not obvious to me, but I've decided to switch it to rare.

35
Words / Re: Bugalugs and Buggerlugs
« on: February 07, 2024, 03:49:56 PM »
The discussion of this in the More or Les topic was spread over several posts, starting with this one.

As mentioned in those posts, the earliest known use of buggerlug (note the singular form) was in a US publication in 1839. However that was in a different sense of the word than the one people seem to have in mind: "Chiefly English regional (Dorset) and in form bugalug. A likeness or model of a person, typically a person who is hated; an effigy. Also occasionally: something contemptible or undesirable. Now rare." I'm willing to say that this use of the word is so rare we can disregard it.

The way the word is used in some parts of the world nowadays is almost always in the plural form and with the meaning, as given by the OED:

Quote
Chiefly humorous. An annoying or foolish person. Usually as an affectionate form of address or mild term of reproof. Occasionally in singular. Now chiefly British regional, Australian, and New Zealand.

The earliest known use of this sense was in 1861 in a book called Life and Adventure in the South Pacific:

Quote
Shiver my timbers! old buggerlugs, if you don't come to terms pretty soon, I'll treat you to a salt-water bath.

Wherever the word originated, it does seem now to be associated with the lands down under. Apart from the OED and Wiktionary, it's found in the Australian Oxford, the Macquarie (from Australia) and the New Zealand Oxford.

Because it includes bugger, the word has sometimes been deemed offensive, probably an indication that it's not in very wide use. The speaker of the Northern Territory parliament in Australia ruled it unparliamentary language, and in 2022 the British Horseracing Authority forced an owner to change the name of a horse called Buggerlugs. The Mirror reported:

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The 'informal, old-fashioned' term is 'for referring or speaking to someone in a slightly insulting but friendly way' according to the Cambridge Dictionary. However just a day before the juvenile's debut at Beverley on Tuesday, Rhodes was told he would have to think of new name for Buggerlugs.

Bosses at the British Horseracing Authority felt that most people would be unfamiliar with it and notice the unpleasant swear word.

The horse's owner, who believed the word came from his native Yorkshire, planned to appeal.

I'll add buggerlugs as a rare word, together with the variant form bugalugs, noted by Wiktionary.

36
Words / Hakea
« on: February 05, 2024, 02:32:12 PM »
In the 7-by-many club topic, people have queried the absence of hakea, referring to some types of Australian shrub.

Hakea is the name of a plant genus, and hence is written with a capital H. This is no doubt why some dictionaries show it only with a capital. However the word is also used in the common names of various members of that genus. The Collins dictionary defines hakea as:

Quote
any shrub or tree of the Australian genus Hakea, having a hard woody fruit and often yielding a useful wood: family Proteaceae

An example is from the Age newspaper in June 2023, announcing the discovery of a new type of stink bug:

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The bug, yet to be officially described and given a scientific name, is the size of a pea, has curved horns and bright yellow tusks and is remarkably well camouflaged on its host plant, a local hakea species.

I'll add it as a rare word.

37
Words / Re: Bugalugs and Buggerlugs
« on: February 05, 2024, 12:07:21 PM »
No, we don't currently accept either of those words, or any other variants as far as I can see. One way to check such things would be to create a puzzle in "Your Puzzles" with the "Choose your own letters" option, and see if the word of interest is accepted.

I'll look at this suggestion in due course, but I must share one usage example. I was surprised at how recent were most of the citations given by dictionaries, so I had a look in the excellent Trove database, provided by the National Library of Australia, which allows you to search many old newspapers and other periodicals. I found the following short item in the 3 April 1942 edition of The Areas Express and Farmers Journal, published in Booyoolee, South Australia:

Quote
THE WEIGHT OF THE BULLOCK.
At the Jamestown Market of Messrs. Goldsbrough, Mort & Co. on March 10 the competition for estimating the weight of the bullock given by Mr. Jas. Pilkington was won by Mr. W. Scott of Jamestown with estimate fo 659 lbs. with Mr. J. L. Kennedy second with 656 lbs. The correct weight was 658 lbs. Nurse Buggerlugs also estimated 656 lbs.

On the face of it, it would appear that Nurse Buggerlugs was a competitor's actual name, unlikely as that seems. Perhaps people were able to enter using an alias. But, in any case, why did not the nurse share in 2nd prize if she had the same entry as J.L. Kennedy? I think an inquiry is called for.

38
Words / Re: Wednesday 17 November 7-by-many TIEBREAK puzzle
« on: February 03, 2024, 02:43:08 PM »
So what about tiebar? Does that also fail to be recognized as a single word? Well, almost. However, Wiktionary does list it as a single word.

What I didn't see, was any dictionary listing it as an accessory to be worn with a necktie. All the dictionaries that included it - whether as one word or two - defined it as a bar that ties things together in a machine or a building. Nevertheless people do use tiebar for a clothing accessory. Here's a quote from the Standard (UK) in 2022:

Quote
While all of the products are lust-worthy, it’s the tailoring accessories - cufflinks, lapel pins and tiebars - which truly are worlds apart from anything else on the market.

The machinery sense is also used, generally in specialist publications or websites. For example, in the 2017 book Pavement Engineering
Principles and Practice, Third Edition:

Quote
Tiebars are placed along longitudinal joints to keep two adjacent concrete slabs tied together or across pavement slabs and concrete shoulders...

I'll add tiebar as a rare word.

39
Words / Re: Wednesday 17 November 7-by-many TIEBREAK puzzle
« on: February 01, 2024, 05:26:30 PM »
I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to send the teabreak suggestion back to the pavilion. I couldn't see any dictionary with it as a single word, though many listed it as a two-word expression.

40
Words / Re: word suggestion: versicule
« on: February 01, 2024, 05:17:22 PM »
To clear up any confusion, versicle is already an accepted rare word in Chi, and could have been played in Monday's Challenge puzzle.

Versicule seems to be much rarer, but it is listed in a few dictionaries, including Merriam-Webster, the Shorter Oxford and Wiktionary - as well as the OED. The usage example I found was in the 1935 fantasy novel Mistress of Mistresses, by E.R. Eddison:

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‘That’, said that learned man, ‘agreeth with the conclusion whereunto, by process of ratiocination, I was led upon consideration of that stave or versicule recited by your lordship about one hour since, and composed, if I mistake not, by your lordship...'

I'll add versicule as a rare word.

41
Words / Re: Thursday 18 November 7-by-many BOTCHES puzzle
« on: January 31, 2024, 02:33:53 PM »
Bestest is in a few dictionaries, as an informal, often humorous or childish variant on best. It dates back to the 1700s according to the OED.

An example from the 5th of this month, in the entertainment site Den of Geek, actor Millie Gibson on her role in Doctor Who:

Quote
I think the Doctor and Ruby’s relationship is very different to what viewers will have seen before, in the sense that they’re kind of like two schoolgirls giggling and chatting and plotting, and yeah, they’re just the bestest of friends, and I think that’s such a beautiful thing to see on screen.

I'll add bestest as a rare word.

42
Words / Re: Thursday 18 November 7-by-many BOTCHES puzzle
« on: January 31, 2024, 02:22:25 PM »
Regarding tetch and tetches: I have my reservations about accepting a word on the basis of it being "eye dialect", that is, a way of writing a word that indicates a (usually non-standard) way of pronouncing it. This could open up the floodgates to every spelling variation used in dialogue by fiction writers.

However, the Shorter Oxford does list tetch, meaning a fit of petulance or anger, possibly a back-formation from tetchy. (The dictionaries seem unconvinced about a link between tetchy and touchy.) An example of the fit of petulance sense: "Either short outbursts of unfocused tetch and filthy temper or centuries of insoluble sectarian intransigence and filthy temper." (From a mock-zodiac article in a magazine that is apparently now defunct.)

One use of tetch that I didn't see in any dictionary is for a very small quantity. For example, on the delishably.com site, "Just a tetch of sugar. No more." And from the Crooked Timber blog, "As you can imagine, I'm a tetch frustrated by this development." In fact, this seems to be the main use of the word these days, especially in Variety magazine. E.g. "At the same time she sold her giant Bel Air mansion for a tetch over $14 million..."

I'll add tetch and tetches as rare words.

43
Words / Re: lambent common?
« on: January 30, 2024, 02:59:31 PM »
Quote from: TRex on January 30, 2024, 08:04:03 AM
I've probably encountered it before, but not with sufficient frequency to make it part of my vocabulary!

You have encountered it before, TRex, because you already questioned its common status, in 2019!

Let this be a prompt to me to answer your request soon.

44
Words / Re: Calaboose
« on: January 28, 2024, 02:04:53 PM »
In 2020 the word calaboose came up during a discussion of caboose (a railway carriage at the back of a train). I wrote, "Yes, calaboose is classed as common. I don't think it's ever appeared in a 9- or 10-letter puzzle, but it could be the seed word for a 7-by-many puzzle. Without doing any research into the matter, I wonder if there might be a stronger case for calaboose to be made rare." However, I didn't take the matter any further at the time.

There's no doubt in my mind that the word is not a common one, so it will be treated as rare from now on, and no longer function as a 7-by-many seed.

Although, who can forget the plaintive final verse of "No Particular Place To Go", by Chuck Berry?

Quote
Ridin' along in my calaboose
Still trying to get her belt a-loose
All the way home, I held a grudge
For the safety belt that wouldn't budge
Cruisin' and playin' the radio
With no particular place to go

As for the claim by Wiktionary that calaboose is used in Australia as well as the US, it surprised me, but it seems it's not total nonsense. One of the quotations supplied by Wiktionary is from Capricornia, by Xavier Herbert, a classic Australian novel written in the 1930s set in the Northern Territory. (The definition displayed when you click on a word in Chihuahua doesn't show supporting quotations. To see these, go to the Wiktionary website by clicking on the link below the definition.) Other quotations given allude to the word's influence on Pacific pidgins and creoles. Kalabus is a word for prison or prisoner in Tok Pisin, the creole language widely used in Papua New Guinea.

The word was also used by Robert Louis Stevenson in stories set in the south Pacific. It was also used in We Were the Rats, by Lawson Glassop, a WWII novel about Australian soldiers in Tobruk, North Africa. So it seems calaboose has had some use in Australia and other places outside the US, but it's not part of our current idiom.

45
Words / Re: Wednesday 3 January 7-by-many PRIMARILY puzzle
« on: January 24, 2024, 09:13:49 PM »
Sorry. Of course I meant to say as rare words. What a silly Billy!

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