BigFatDave - English

English

I've put together a highly abridged dictionary of the English language. My version differs from most other dialects in that it's a direct descendant of "Daveglish," a careful attempt at producing a language as close as possible to English while retaining its precision. (The dictionary here also differs from Webster's in particular in that it claims to be normative; that is, it defines a dialect, rather than attempting to document existing usage.) Like everything else on dave2, my Daveglish dictionary is not so easy for me to access, currently, and like everything else I've been replacing over the past few years, Daveglish received the "rethinking from the ground up" treatment. For example, I've done away with the concept of non-noun entries, recognizing that all concepts (i.e., all foundations of word meanings) are fundamentally nouns; my new dictionary only has non-noun entries when they've been orphaned from their parent nouns. (See lost for an example.) As another example of my "rethinking from scratch" approach, I've determined that my language isn't different enough from other dialects of English to merit consideration as a separate language, and so I've renamed it into English. I'll let the academics figure out what to name the only precise dialect of the English language that I'm aware of. I just call it "English."

Well, let me get out of your way, so you can enjoy our language. If you need me, I'm just an email away.

adj_pp: stands for: adjective, past participle; an adjective derived from the vb_past form of a word, where the parent noun is defined as the direct object of it; stands for: adjective, past participle; a noun derived from the vb_past form of a word, and meaning the result of it
adjective: a tool for denoting similarity to a noun (the parent noun); application artificially restricted to nouns (including pronouns)
adverb: similar to adjective, but application artificially restricted to non-nouns
algorithm: synonym for: program
anoNet: an internet government{adj_pp} by an anonymous object; based on TCP/IP
Atheism: a religion that belief{vb_present} there is no god
belief: an opinion that's relied on for making decisions
castrated operating system: an operating system with certain parts missing
communication: transferring information
communication protocol: a protocol designed to facilitate communication
composite object: an object that's made up of other objects
constructive moderation: a technique of moderation where the middle position is found by making sure that all information brought in is preserved, and made available to all participants; at least in theory, the goal is to emulate a Democracy where everybody knows all relevant information, and can therefore cast an informed vote
creation: causing an object to exist
data: information; technically the plural of "datum," but firmly entrenched in English as a singular form
data center: a site (physical location) where data is centered (housed in concentration); normally also a large-scale Web site, today
definition: the set of information necessary to fully understand something
Democracy: a government{noun_sbjct} that only makes decisions that are the winners of popularity contests among all members of the government{noun_do}
destructive moderation: a technique of moderation where the middle position is defined as the most popular position based on an assumption that all relevant information is already known; essentially just a glorified poll
dialect: the combination of a language and a supplemental dictionary
dictionary: a list of terms and their corresponding definitions; a central component of a language
discussion: an information exchange
DNA: stands for: Deoxyribonucleic Acid; a chemical structure used by most biological species to store information about themselves
DOS: stands for: Disk Operating System; a castrated operating system of the 1980s and 1990s; various versions developed and/or marketed by a number of companies, including Microsoft (as MS-DOS), Novell (as DR-DOS), Caldera (as OpenDOS), IBM (as PC-DOS), and others; displaced during the 1990s primarily by Windows
encyclopedia: a dictionary that restricts itself to defining a subset of a language, but attempts to define that subset more fully than a typical dictionary
euphemism: using a term that's not as bad-sounding as the correct term; a common technique for committing linguicide
fact: a correct opinion
GNU: stands for: GNU's Not UNIX; the first UNIX-compatible operating system that was creation{adj_pp} to save its users' freedom; started as a project by Richard M. Stallman around 1984
GNU/Linux: the most common variant of the GNU operating system, using the Linux kernel instead of the GNU Hurd kernel
god: an object that controls the real world
government: changing the behavior of an object; government{noun_sbjct}
guess: an opinion that's not a belief
HTML: stands for: HyperText Markup Language; the language for marking up text, to turn it into HyperText
HyperLink: stands for: Hypermedia Link; a Hypermedia overlay for citations, linking a cited resource in a unified way
HyperText: stands for: Hypermedia Text; a Hypermedia overlay for the text media type, allowing HyperLinks (among other things)
Hypermedia: a collection of "hyper" media types, intended as overlays on existing media types, in order to support unified access to information on an internet
identification: overlaying two object spaces, and then mapping an object in one object space to an object in the other object space
identity: an object that maps to another object
interface: literally: between edges; an object that connects between other objects
Internet: a large internet government{adj_pp} by the US Department of Commerce (DoC) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN); based on TCP/IP
internet: stands for: internetwork; a network connecting between other networks
Israel: 1948-(2009): the only Jewish country on planet Earth
language: a central part of most modern communication protocols; defined as the combination of a dictionary and a grammar
linguicide: literally: language killing; destruction of a language
linguistic evolution: a euphemism for linguicide
Linux: a UNIX-compatible kernel originally created by Linus Torvalds, normally plugged into a GNU operating system
list: an object containing a number of similar objects
loss: the transition from a state of having something to not having it [bad definition]
lost: [orphan adjective] having loss{adj_pp} one's direction
moderation: dragging a discussion towards a so-called "middle position" (a so-called "consensus")
NIST: 2009: stands for: the National Institute of Standards and Technology; a subobject of the United States government
noun_do: stands for: noun, direct object; a noun derived from the vb_present form of a word, and meaning an object that it's done to
noun_sbjct: stands for: noun, subject; a noun derived from the vb_present form of a word, and meaning an object that does it
Nucleix: 2009: a company based in Tel Aviv, Israel; claims creation of an algorithm to test if a DNA sample is "methylated" (and therefore likely to have been creation{adj_pp} naturally)
OOP: stands for: object-oriented programming; a programming method that's oriented around objects
object: a self-contained unit of thought (physical or otherwise)
operating system: a system for operating a computer; includes a kernel, a shell, an editor, a standard library, a compiler, and a manual
opinion: a subjective probability distribution
orphan: an object that's loss{adj_pp} its creation{noun_sbjct}
orphan adjective: an adjective that's been orphaned from its parent noun by linguicide
Plan9: an operating system created by a research team at AT&T in the 1980s and 1990s, with the goal of getting UNIX right - i.e., _really_ making all system services accessible as if they were regular files
program: a list of actions
programming: making programs
protocol: a set of rules, designed to allow a set of parties to accomplish something reliably; communication protocol
RLE: stands for: Run-Length Encoding; a technique for encoding information by replacing each set of consecutive identical objects with a single copy and a count of repetitions
real world: the set of all objects with Physically provable existance
redundancy: an unnecessarily repetitive object
religion: a set of beliefs about the world
repetition: a set of identical objects
science: an experimental attempt to modify opinions to agree with facts
set: a composite object where the state of the subobjects is insignificant
similarity: the inverse of "difference"
state: a particular configuration for a set of objects
stray: synonym for: lost
structure: a composite object defined as a set and a state
subobject: one of the "other objects" in a composite object
surprise: an event that changes an opinion
synonym: a redundant word - i.e., another word for a concept that's already in the dictionary
TCP/IP: stands for: Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol; the most popular internet protocol
UNIX: an operating system created by a research team at AT&T in the 1960s and 1970s, with the goal of making all system services accessible as if they were regular files; originally called "Unics," as a pun on Multics, a far more complex operating system that AT&T and some other companies were cooperating on creating, and that AT&T eventually loss{vb_past} faith in, and abandoned
user interface: an interface between a (normally human) user and another (normally non-human) object
vb_past: stands for: verb, past [tense]; the primary verb derived from a word, in the past tense (used for statements about earlier times)
vb_present: stands for: verb, present [tense]; the primary verb derived from a word, in the present tense (used for statements about the current time, and for general statements)
venture investor: an investor who likes to invest in ventures; typically mislabeled a venture capitalist, or a VC
Web: a group of HyperText (Hypermedia Text) pages (and possibly other resources) connected together using HyperLinks (Hypermedia Links), conceptually resembling a spider web
Web page: a Hypermedia page; normally a HyperText page, marked up in HTML (the Hypermedia Text Markup Language)
Web server: a server that serves one or more Webs; physically located at a Web site
Web site: a site (physical location) where Webs are housed (on Web servers)
Windows: a castrated operating system marketed by Microsoft; originally developed as a graphical environment for DOS, to compete with the X Window System marketed by SGI
world: the set of all objects
WWW: World-Wide Web; a Web consisting of the group of Web pages on the public Internet that are all connected to each other by HyperLinks
X: slang for: the X Window System
X Window System: a graphical environment developed for UNIX by SGI in the 1980s

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Copyright (C) 2008-2009 Dave Cohen; permission granted to modify and/or redistribute subject to the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.2 or later