Prometheus other names

Summer Top Twenty

It was a long, hot summer – and one very rich in vocabulary! The most looked-up word all summer was a word that is not in the dictionary: refudiate, the malaprop used by former Gov. Sarah Palin on television and Twitter. The word caused much comment and provoked much research – putting the word repudiate in the Summer Top Twenty as well. Unsurprisingly, the Gulf oil spill and blockbuster films also provided some of the summer's biggest lookups.

Word History of the Month: conundrum

The word conundrum is a perennial on the Top 20 list – including this summer's list. Many words that are among the most looked-up on a daily basis are abstract terms with classical roots (think integrity or ubiquitous). Conundrum would seem to fit right in with them. But does it? Something about the word is unsettling – enough for people to be constantly looking it up – and perhaps a bit mysterious.

Notable and Quotable: D.H. Lawrence

D.H. Lawrence was born September 11, 1885. Long troubled by ill health, the poet, critic, and novelist (Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Sons and Lovers) died at 44. Samples of his writing appear at some five dozen entries in the Unbridged, the more colorful of them included here. (When was the last time you encountered "everywhere" used as a noun?).

Interested in seeing all the examples of a particular writer? Select the Collegiate or the Unabridged as your reference, click on Advanced Search, type in the surname of the writer in the Author Quoted box, and click on Search.

From the Mail Server

This month, editors heard from someone zealous about the need to add a new word to the lexicon, from another person looking for the rich story behind the word cheapskate, and from a set of correspondents eager to understand the rule that distinguishes vowels from consonants.

Happy Birthday 1666

The Great Fire of London began raging on September 2, 1666. By the time the fire ended three days later, St. Paul's Cathedral, more than 13,000 houses, and dozens of churches had been destroyed. A new London (with less wood) arose from the ashes.

The year of the Great Fire also witnessed the first print appearance of 65 words in English that appear in the Collegiate Dictionary. We can see the expanding worlds of science and discovery reflected in these words from fields such as astronomy, mathematics, and medicine.

prometheus celiac disease serology

prometheus energy company

prometheus performance systems llc

platos view of prometheus

prometheus real estate group

prometheus genealogy

prometheus p p

prometheus platinum travel

barix stl setup prometheus project

landes prometheus

prometheus statue in rocekfeller center

prometheus m120 spring

prometheus ovid

the prometheus group

prometheus white board

prometheus partners

prometheus overture mp3

health prometheus

ritual to prometheus

elizabeth barret browning prometheus bound

plume of prometheus combo

prometheus quiz

prometheus promodem 144 photo

greek gods prometheus

prometheus systems car

prometheus trust

faust and prometheus

prometheus captured

prometheus pictures

prometheus unbound by shelly

prometheus laboratories

instrumentation prometheus

prometheus facts

prometheus brother

prometheus god

apod february io the prometheus plume

prometheus unbound

neil kressel bad faith prometheus review

mercer prometheus walnut creek

information on prometheus

tv western prometheus

the story of prometheus

prometheus und epimetheus 1881

the prometheus myth

prometheus mythology

prometheus capital partners moscow russia

prometheus class msd

prometheus limassol

prometheus lighter

prometheus greek god family tree

pictures of prometheus

greek myths prometheus

prometheus and pandora info with

edwards p immortality prometheus 1997

prometheus serology 7 results

prometheus shelley

prometheus capital partners

about me not you prometheus

prometheus ibd

prometheus myth play form

theory of prometheus steals fire story

paul manship prometheus

prometheus by ovid

prometheus rising

prometheus interactive whiteboard

prometheus azathioprine

prometheus imports

prometheus decendents

prometheus feeders

prometheus cone shell

prometheus the science policy weblog

bickford prometheus garden

prometheus symbol

prometheus bound quotes

Words in the News

Sarah Palin sent this message out on Twitter on July 18: "Ground Zero mosque supporters: doesn't it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate." This sent refudiate to the top of the Top Twenty for the summer.

Why the buzz? For starters, refudiate is not (yet) in the dictionary. Then there was the controversy over subsequent tweets from Gov. Palin, first changing refudiate to repudiate, and then defending her coinage, invoking Shakespeare: "English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!"

beethoven prometheus

courting prometheus

prometheus lab

prometheus systems

the incredible hulk prometheus part

prometheus greek god

prometheus walnut creek

incredible hulk prometheus review

goethe prometheus

prometheus the greek god

who supplies imuran for prometheus labs

atlas or prometheus

prometheus pro-1

prometheus herakles io

prometheus type and shadow of

prometheus books leonard f wheat

prometheus author others archives

prometheus mural

prometheus titan

byron prometheus summary

who was prometheus the fire bringer

hms prometheus australian and china stations

symbol of prometheus the greek god

hms prometheus

roman counterparts for prometheus

prometheus family tree

prometheus modems

prometheus other names

add new comment prometheus

stories of prometheus

prometheus music to touch the stars

justice prometheus

society of prometheus

calendario laico di marcus prometheus

prometheus filbert scientology

project prometheus

prometheus upcoming this week updated archives

Just Foolin' Around

Christopher Nolan's hit movie Inception propelled the word inception to #2 on the Summer Top Twenty. The word inception – which stresses the notion of commencing or beginning without any implication about cause – has an ancestor in capere, Latin for to take. Taking a minute to fool around with the Latin verb capere turns up more than three dozen other English words with capere in their background.

Language Links

Interest in refudiate reminds us of the eggcorn. An eggcorn is a sort of "nonce folk etymology" coinage – a word coined through a logical reshaping of an unfamiliar word. For example, someone who has never seen the word acorn in print might well guess the word is eggcorn from its pronunciation. Eggcorns, unlike malapropisms, make sense. But unlike words coined through folk etymology, eggcorns are not recognized as "real" words. (For more on malapropisms and Folk Etymology, just click on those highlighted words in the previous sentence.)

For a list of common eggcorns, check out the Eggcorn Database. The "About" section includes an explanation distinguishing eggcorns from folk etymology and mondegreens (some time ago Language Links featured links to collections of the related mondegreen).