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How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 7:10 pm
by Gavin Chipper
I'm glad you asked. Countdown uses this free online dictionary to adjudicate words (it's certainly free in the UK anyway). Obviously there might be some doubt about whether certain mass noun plurals etc. are valid, but for headwords and your basic inflections, this is where you go.

The reason I'm posting this is that a lot of experienced posters (people who should know better) go into the spoilers thread having got some word at home and ask if it's valid. Well, where do expect the people you're asking are going to find out? They use the dictionary. The free dictionary that you can use yourself. So do it.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 8:58 pm
by Adam Gillard
Is CLOVERS valid?

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 9:16 am
by Jon Corby
Also, VASELINE? Susie disallowed recently in a game, but then offered in Catsdown the other night. Has the dictionary changed in the interim? I don't understand. Good idea for a thread though Gev, people can check in here now to see if their word has been offered before.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 12:02 pm
by Ian Volante
Mongooses?

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 6:38 pm
by samir pilica
RAMBURAS ?

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:35 pm
by Adam Dexter
Jon Corby wrote:Also, VASELINE? Susie disallowed recently in a game, but then offered in Catsdown the other night. Has the dictionary changed in the interim? I don't understand. Good idea for a thread though Gev, people can check in here now to see if their word has been offered before.
VASELINE is weird - it's marked as a trademark but it's lowercase. I would say the trademark supersedes the case, as many trademarks have a lowercase initial letter anyway (ebay to name but one - I have always thought of it styled as eBay but maybe I imagined it?).

That being said, if Apterous allows it, I would be offering it, whether it should be allowed or not. Paineder/est is a horrific example of this - no-one's going to throw away the 9 though.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 9:48 pm
by Adam Gillard
Adam Dexter wrote:That being said, if Apterous allows it, I would be offering it, whether it should be allowed or not. Paineder/est is a horrific example of this - no-one's going to throw away the 9 though.
Innis and I made a suicide pact before our 30BC game in the event that the word LOSINGEST was available in a letters selection.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 10:33 pm
by Gavin Chipper
Adam Gillard wrote:
Adam Dexter wrote:That being said, if Apterous allows it, I would be offering it, whether it should be allowed or not. Paineder/est is a horrific example of this - no-one's going to throw away the 9 though.
Innis and I made a suicide pact before our 30BC game in the event that the word LOSINGEST was available in a letters selection.
Innis ended up getting BENTER anyway.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 1:07 pm
by Mark Kudlowski
Ian Volante wrote:Mongooses?
Valid. The plural of "mongoose" is "mongooses" and not "mongeese".

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 1:39 pm
by Mark Deeks
Adam Gillard wrote:
Adam Dexter wrote:That being said, if Apterous allows it, I would be offering it, whether it should be allowed or not. Paineder/est is a horrific example of this - no-one's going to throw away the 9 though.
Innis and I made a suicide pact before our 30BC game in the event that the word LOSINGEST was available in a letters selection.
This word is genuinely used a fair bit in American sport. Although WINNINGEST is moreso. I know it looks ridiculous, but it's actually fairly useful.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 1:27 pm
by Stewart Gordon
You'd think that with an online dictionary you could just enter a word in the search box, and if it's a word then it'll find it, and if it isn't then it won't.

Sadly, it doesn't seem that this is the case with ODO. For instance, POETRIES brings up POETRY, even though Susie once told us there's no sense in which POETRY can become a count noun. And the plural of SALMON is explicitly given as "same" (I'll leave it up to you how to interpret that), but nonetheless SALMONS brings up SALMON. On the other hand, PETALOIDS and CURRYS don't find anything. Indeed, there are not only false positives but also false negatives, such as MATEYS.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 9:01 am
by Clive Brooker
Stewart Gordon wrote:You'd think that with an online dictionary you could just enter a word in the search box, and if it's a word then it'll find it, and if it isn't then it won't.

Sadly, it doesn't seem that this is the case with ODO...
I'm sure that when the ODO was being put together there were many competing requirements. It's hard to imagine the needs of Countdown being the highest priority.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 9:41 am
by Gavin Chipper
Clive Brooker wrote:
Stewart Gordon wrote:You'd think that with an online dictionary you could just enter a word in the search box, and if it's a word then it'll find it, and if it isn't then it won't.

Sadly, it doesn't seem that this is the case with ODO...
I'm sure that when the ODO was being put together there were many competing requirements. It's hard to imagine the needs of Countdown being the highest priority.
I can imagine. The Countdown community would have just been a small bunch of people requiring consistency from a dictionary. There would have been other people of higher priority demanding inconsistency.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 1:06 pm
by Stewart Gordon
Clive Brooker wrote:I'm sure that when the ODO was being put together there were many competing requirements. It's hard to imagine the needs of Countdown being the highest priority.
What other requirement would have competed with this one, exactly?
Gavin Chipper wrote:I can imagine. The Countdown community would have just been a small bunch of people requiring consistency from a dictionary.
It isn't just the Countdown community that would benefit from such consistency. It would be anybody wanting to use it as a dictionary for any word game, or indeed any random member of the public wanting to know whether something's a word or not.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 5:36 pm
by Stewart Gordon
Adam Dexter wrote:VASELINE is weird - it's marked as a trademark but it's lowercase. I would say the trademark supersedes the case, as many trademarks have a lowercase initial letter anyway (ebay to name but one - I have always thought of it styled as eBay but maybe I imagined it?).
Is the rule that the word must start with a lowercase letter, or that the word must be composed entirely of lowercase letters?

(It's weird that we play the game with uppercase letters and yet have this rule. But then again, the same is true of many other games....)

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 6:21 pm
by Gavin Chipper
Stewart Gordon wrote:
Clive Brooker wrote:I'm sure that when the ODO was being put together there were many competing requirements. It's hard to imagine the needs of Countdown being the highest priority.
What other requirement would have competed with this one, exactly?
Gavin Chipper wrote:I can imagine. The Countdown community would have just been a small bunch of people requiring consistency from a dictionary.
It isn't just the Countdown community that would benefit from such consistency. It would be anybody wanting to use it as a dictionary for any word game, or indeed any random member of the public wanting to know whether something's a word or not.
My post was sarcastic. I don't think Clive's was though.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 6:34 pm
by Gavin Chipper
Stewart Gordon wrote:
Adam Dexter wrote:VASELINE is weird - it's marked as a trademark but it's lowercase. I would say the trademark supersedes the case, as many trademarks have a lowercase initial letter anyway (ebay to name but one - I have always thought of it styled as eBay but maybe I imagined it?).
Is the rule that the word must start with a lowercase letter, or that the word must be composed entirely of lowercase letters?

(It's weird that we play the game with uppercase letters and yet have this rule. But then again, the same is true of many other games....)
According to this Apterous ticket, it has to be all lower case.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 7:57 pm
by Philip Wilson
Stewart Gordon wrote:
Adam Dexter wrote:VASELINE is weird - it's marked as a trademark but it's lowercase. I would say the trademark supersedes the case, as many trademarks have a lowercase initial letter anyway (ebay to name but one - I have always thought of it styled as eBay but maybe I imagined it?).
Is the rule that the word must start with a lowercase letter, or that the word must be composed entirely of lowercase letters?

(It's weird that we play the game with uppercase letters and yet have this rule. But then again, the same is true of many other games....)
Perhaps the rule specifies proper nouns rather than whether the word starts with or contains any capitals, so then the question would be: Is eBay a proper noun?

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 9:17 pm
by Philip Wilson
Apparently it isn't! I still wouldn't want to risk it though!

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 9:40 pm
by Gavin Chipper
Philip Wilson wrote:Apparently it isn't! I still wouldn't want to risk it though!
According to what? But anyway in the Apterous discussion (for non-members who might not be able to read it) it was confirmed that words have to be all lower case to be allowed.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 9:53 pm
by Philip Wilson
Gavin Chipper wrote:
Philip Wilson wrote:Apparently it isn't! I still wouldn't want to risk it though!
According to what? But anyway in the Apterous discussion (for non-members who might not be able to read it) it was confirmed that words have to be all lower case to be allowed.
According to the link in the first post in the thread.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:11 am
by Gavin Chipper
Right - I'm confused by this thread now. Was this:
Philip Wilson wrote:Apparently it isn't! I still wouldn't want to risk it though!
a response to this:
Philip Wilson wrote:Perhaps the rule specifies proper nouns rather than whether the word starts with or contains any capitals, so then the question would be: Is eBay a proper noun?
?

Then you say it's according to the first link in the thread. This thread? So this link? Or maybe the entry for Proper Noun (where it says a proper noun has an initial capital letter)? If you meant that, you've been a bit cryptic about it, especially since you posted your conversation with yourself immediately after the clarification I gave saying it wouldn't be valid. From the Apterous link:
Just on iPad, eBay.... contestant guidelines state explicitly that words containing capitals are not allowed. eBay is the example cited.
So unless you think this is a lie, it's case closed, regardless of what the definition of a proper noun is according to Oxford dictionaries. There's no "I still wouldn't want to risk it though" about it. It's simply not valid!

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 9:27 am
by Clive Brooker
Gavin Chipper wrote:My post was sarcastic. I don't think Clive's was though.
Correct. My point was that an online dictionary for general use probably wants to do things like pushing you towards what it thinks you meant if you enter an invalid word. It will also devote a lot of its energy to the meanings of the words it lists, something Countdown has little interest in, and perhaps the minute detail about exactly what derivatives are or aren't valid will be seen as a lesser issue.

Consistency is obviously good, no dispute there. However, it isn't always black and white. With comparatives and superlatives, for example, the fact that the dictionary doesn't specify the -ER or -EST form is often guidance as much as anything.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:34 pm
by Philip Wilson
Gavin Chipper wrote:Right - I'm confused by this thread now. Was this:
Philip Wilson wrote:Apparently it isn't! I still wouldn't want to risk it though!
a response to this:
Philip Wilson wrote:Perhaps the rule specifies proper nouns rather than whether the word starts with or contains any capitals, so then the question would be: Is eBay a proper noun?
Yes it was a response to: 'is eBay a proper noun?' and apparently it isn't because it's a verb.

Gavin Chipper wrote:Then you say it's according to the first link in the thread. This thread? So this link?
Yes, this thread, and that link.
Gavin Chipper wrote:Or maybe the entry for Proper Noun (where it says a proper noun has an initial capital letter)? If you meant that, you've been a bit cryptic about it, especially since you posted your conversation with yourself immediately after the clarification I gave saying it wouldn't be valid. From the Apterous link:
Just on iPad, eBay.... contestant guidelines state explicitly that words containing capitals are not allowed. eBay is the example cited.
So unless you think this is a lie, it's case closed, regardless of what the definition of a proper noun is according to Oxford dictionaries. There's no "I still wouldn't want to risk it though" about it. It's simply not valid!
Nope, it wasn't a response to that, but sorry for being cryptic anyway. However if everyone knew or remembered every rule nobody would ever risk anything, and they do. So just to clarify what I meant, if the letters E B A and Y were in the selction and I couldn't see another word that was either safer or longer [unlikely situation I guess with those letters, but anyway] even if I knew eBay was a verb and not a proper noun, I wouldn't risk it because it has a capital letter, albeit not at the beginning.
I know it was a bit confusing answering my own post, sorry for that, but I remembered after wondering if eBay is a proper noun that I could look it up and find out! Dohhh :roll:

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 1:40 pm
by Jon Corby
But eBay isn't eBay, it's just ebay. So now what?

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 2:05 pm
by Gavin Chipper
Jon Corby wrote:But eBay isn't eBay, it's just ebay. So now what?
It's in the dictionary as "eBay". If it was just "ebay", I'd say it's valid.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 4:35 pm
by Jon Corby
The dictionary is shit. What's happening at COLIN this year regarding word validation?

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 4:44 pm
by Ben Wilson
Jon Corby wrote:The dictionary is shit. What's happening at COLIN this year regarding word validation?
Probably the apterous dictionary, as with last year.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 4:44 pm
by Jon Corby
Ben Wilson wrote:
Jon Corby wrote:The dictionary is shit. What's happening at COLIN this year regarding word validation?
Probably the apterous dictionary, as with last year.
Was there an electronic terminal for electronically checking the validity of words electronically? I don't recall.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 4:46 pm
by Ben Wilson
Jon Corby wrote:
Ben Wilson wrote:
Jon Corby wrote:The dictionary is shit. What's happening at COLIN this year regarding word validation?
Probably the apterous dictionary, as with last year.
Was there an electronic terminal for electronically checking the validity of words electronically? I don't recall.
I had an app on my phone and iPad that did it last year so I can act as 'final authority' in case there's any disputes.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2021 11:05 am
by Philip Wilson
Just want to check something I probably should know but am not sure. Example, the dictionary defaults to 'agonized' and states 'British = agonised', when typing in 'agonised'. Therefore does this mean 'agonized' is valid as well, as it is implying it is not British, but it is different to how it treats US spellings, in that it just informs what the British word is.
Thanks

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2021 12:22 pm
by Gavin Chipper
Philip Wilson wrote: Tue Mar 09, 2021 11:05 am Just want to check something I probably should know but am not sure. Example, the dictionary defaults to 'agonized' and states 'British = agonised', when typing in 'agonised'. Therefore does this mean 'agonized' is valid as well, as it is implying it is not British, but it is different to how it treats US spellings, in that it just informs what the British word is.
Thanks
I think it's saying AGONISED is specifically British, whereas AGONIZED is more general. In any case, as far as I know, the exclusion rule relates to US English specifically, not just any non-British (e.g. South African and even North American should be OK) so it should be fine.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2021 3:22 pm
by Philip Wilson
Gavin Chipper wrote: Tue Mar 09, 2021 12:22 pm
Philip Wilson wrote: Tue Mar 09, 2021 11:05 am Just want to check something I probably should know but am not sure. Example, the dictionary defaults to 'agonized' and states 'British = agonised', when typing in 'agonised'. Therefore does this mean 'agonized' is valid as well, as it is implying it is not British, but it is different to how it treats US spellings, in that it just informs what the British word is.
Thanks
I think it's saying AGONISED is specifically British, whereas AGONIZED is more general. In any case, as far as I know, the exclusion rule relates to US English specifically, not just any non-British (e.g. South African and even North American should be OK) so it should be fine.
Ah right, thanks for that.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2021 6:31 pm
by Stewart Gordon
It's weird. It seems that a "British" label means that the headword is both British and American but an alternative, specifically British form is being given (hence both are valid in Countdown). But OTOH, a "US" label seems to mean that the headword is British and not American.

That said, it seems it doesn't really mean it's specifically British - Australian English, for instance, may use the same forms but this isn't indicated. Indeed, Lexico doesn't seem to indicate Canadian, Australian, Indian, etc. spellings generally. But I happen to know that Canadian English seems to mainly follow the Oxford spelling register of UK English, though it does have some US influence (e.g. they call tyres tires).

But it does in places indicate words that are specific to a particular English dialect, such as some Indianisms (gherao, lakh) and some Australianisms (barbie, brummy).

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2021 9:55 pm
by Philip A
There are lots of headwords spelled -IZE which give the British spelling as -ISE and both will be allowed on Countdown. A headword ending with -IZE also doesn’t need its British variant spelling -ISE to be specified to be allowed (as long as it’s a verb); hence MINORISED was allowed here https://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_6335. Note this rule is NOT applied vice versa, so for e.g. ADVERTISE, ADVISE and SURPRISE are the spelled headwords and therefore advertize, advize and surprize are not valid.

Countdown adopts what’s called an Oxford Spelling Rule - because the -IZE spelling is in fact the Oxford spelling, and therefore would be the headword in Oxford Dictionaries. The -ISE “British” spelling is used in all of the UK. -IZE, contrary to what some people think, is not strictly an Americanism. Its usage in the UK dates as far back as the 16th century. Learn more about it here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_spelling

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2021 10:07 pm
by Philip A
Now with that cleared, here’s a miscellaneous subject I would like to concern (sorry we’ve had this before!);

Apterous rules the following invalid:

- Entries given as nouns, but are defined using words which begin with the same initial letter as the headword’s spelling - these are obviously abbreviations. Examples are PSIA https://www.lexico.com/definition/psia?locale=en and QGP https://www.lexico.com/definition/qgp

- Letters of the English alphabet, given as nouns in ODO (e.g. q, qs, v, vs https://www.lexico.com/definition/v?locale=en (says also v))

These are invalid on Apterous, which I think is sensible as they are not words. My hunch would be they are given as “nouns” because they can be used in a nounal context (e.g. I got two cs and three bs, and then I drove my SUV round the bend). These entries are so short that they’d be useless for letters rounds on Countdown, but if I was a lexicographer I would probably disallow them.

@Countdown Team would you and Susie agree to disallow these entries?

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2021 8:39 am
by Thomas Carey
Image

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2022 7:59 am
by Arthur Page
How come ‘alateen’ and ‘marmite’ are allowed yet not ‘Vaseline’

Especially with alateen because all sources point towards the C being capitalised.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2022 8:31 am
by Graeme Cole
Arthur Page wrote: Fri Jul 22, 2022 7:59 am How come ‘alateen’ and ‘marmite’ are allowed yet not ‘Vaseline’

Especially with alateen because all sources point towards the C being capitalised.
Alateen is capitalised on Lexico so perhaps this is a dictionary error on Apterous?

Marmite is allowed in the sense meaning a cooking pot. The yeast extract spread is named after the pot.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2022 8:42 am
by Fiona T
Graeme Cole wrote: Fri Jul 22, 2022 8:31 am
Arthur Page wrote: Fri Jul 22, 2022 7:59 am How come ‘alateen’ and ‘marmite’ are allowed yet not ‘Vaseline’

Especially with alateen because all sources point towards the C being capitalised.
Alateen is capitalised on Lexico so perhaps this is a dictionary error on Apterous?

Marmite is allowed in the sense meaning a cooking pot. The yeast extract spread is named after the pot.
Premium gives more alts, including alateen -

Alateen
Pronunciation: /ˌaləˈtiːn/
(also Al-A-teen, Al-a-teen, alateen)

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2022 9:36 am
by David Williams
Vaseline has a history, if you do a search. It used to be lower case in the print dictionary, all the example sentences on Lexico are lower case, and the word is being used in a generic sense, yet for the main entry they have reverted to upper case. I really don't know what evidence of change of usage would have prompted that decision.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2022 11:18 am
by Gavin Chipper
Arthur Page wrote: Fri Jul 22, 2022 7:59 amEspecially with alateen because all sources point towards the C being capitalised.
Calateen?

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 1:44 pm
by Stewart Gordon
Recently I was looking to see what cheeses are capitalised.

Brie, Caerphilly, Camembert, Cheddar, Double Gloucester, Edam, Emmental, Gruyère, Jarlsberg, Parmesan, Red Leicester, Roquefort and Stilton are all capitalised according to Lexico. The only ones I've found that aren't are feta and pecorino.

You would have thought cheddar, at least, would have been lowercased by now.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 2:27 pm
by Philip A
Stewart Gordon wrote: Thu Jul 28, 2022 1:44 pm Recently I was looking to see what cheeses are capitalised.

Brie, Caerphilly, Camembert, Cheddar, Double Gloucester, Edam, Emmental, Gruyère, Jarlsberg, Parmesan, Red Leicester, Roquefort and Stilton are all capitalised according to Lexico. The only ones I've found that aren't are feta and pecorino.

You would have thought cheddar, at least, would have been lowercased by now.
Rule of thumb here is if a cheese is named after a place, it would be capitalised; names of places are proper nouns after all.

If you look at the ‘Origin’ section, it becomes clear: Brie is named after the French region of Brie, where it originated; Gruyere is a district in Switzerland; Cheddar is in South-west England.

Whereas, if a noun describing a type of cheese is derived from another word, it would be lower-case; feta is from the Greek word ‘pheta’; crowdie or crowdy is derived from 19th century ‘crud’ + -ie; pecorino is Italian for ‘of ewes’.

Also, parmesan can be lower case when referring the chicken dish, parmesan; whereas the cheese would be Parmesan (parmigiano ‘of Parma, where it originated).

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 4:03 pm
by Gavin Chipper
You have to tread Caerphilly with cheeses.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 5:33 pm
by Fiona T
Fun fact - the French call a pie chart a camembert

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 5:35 pm
by Mark Deeks
Stop with the cheese puns. They're giving me a haddock.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 5:35 pm
by Mark Deeks
Wait.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 6:29 pm
by Gavin Chipper
A couple of fun facts:

1. We're producing more varieties of cheese than the French.

2. We import two thirds of our cheese.

That is a disgrace.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2022 5:24 pm
by Arthur Page
Is ‘GUSTNADO’ a word? It appeared on yesterday’s countdown on round 11 yet I find no mention of it in the UK dictionary (on lexico’: only the US one. Is it allowed?

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2022 5:51 pm
by Fiona T
Arthur Page wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 5:24 pm Is ‘GUSTNADO’ a word? It appeared on yesterday’s countdown on round 11 yet I find no mention of it in the UK dictionary (on lexico’: only the US one. Is it allowed?
It's in premium as "Entry from US English dictionary"

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2022 6:32 pm
by Stewart Gordon
Philip A wrote: Thu Jul 28, 2022 2:27 pmRule of thumb here is if a cheese is named after a place, it would be capitalised; names of places are proper nouns after all.
Whereas, if a noun describing a type of cheese is derived from another word, it would be lower-case; feta is from the Greek word ‘pheta’; crowdie or crowdy is derived from 19th century ‘crud’ + -ie; pecorino is Italian for ‘of ewes’.
True, but I would expect there to be exceptions with cheeses just like there are with so many things. Check out madras for example.

As an aside, I once tried MADRASES on Apterous, but it was rejected. But going by this entry, it's allowed by the portions rule. Maybe the dictionary has changed, or there is/was an error in the Apterous dictionary?

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2022 8:47 pm
by Philip A
Stewart Gordon wrote: Wed Aug 10, 2022 6:32 pm
Philip A wrote: Thu Jul 28, 2022 2:27 pmRule of thumb here is if a cheese is named after a place, it would be capitalised; names of places are proper nouns after all.
Whereas, if a noun describing a type of cheese is derived from another word, it would be lower-case; feta is from the Greek word ‘pheta’; crowdie or crowdy is derived from 19th century ‘crud’ + -ie; pecorino is Italian for ‘of ewes’.
True, but I would expect there to be exceptions with cheeses just like there are with so many things. Check out madras for example.

As an aside, I once tried MADRASES on Apterous, but it was rejected. But going by this entry, it's allowed by the portions rule. Maybe the dictionary has changed, or there is/was an error in the Apterous dictionary?
Was probably an error; MADRASES was added to the Apterous dictionary in 2013.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2022 8:53 pm
by Gavin Chipper
As Fiona mentioned here, Tom Chafer-Cook has made a checker that doesn't require any sort of account. I thought this would be a good place to mention that. I'm not sure exactly how it works though - whether it takes it directly from Apterous or whether it has a stored list from Apterous that may or may not be fully up to date or what.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2022 9:36 pm
by Graeme Cole
Gavin Chipper wrote: Sun Nov 06, 2022 8:53 pm As Fiona mentioned here, Tom Chafer-Cook has made a checker that doesn't require any sort of account. I thought this would be a good place to mention that. I'm not sure exactly how it works though - whether it takes it directly from Apterous or whether it has a stored list from Apterous that may or may not be fully up to date or what.
I poked about in the HTML source to find this out, unsuccessfully. However, in doing this I discovered the numbers target generator can't generate targets above 997. So here's a drive-by bug report and suggested fix, which for want of a better place to post it I've just stuck here in the hope that Tom will see it.

Code: Select all

    _randomNumberButton.click(function() {
        _randomNumberResults.val(Math.floor(Math.random()*(999-102)+101));
    });
The "102" should be "100".

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 1:40 am
by Thomas Carey
:0 years of co events ruined!

As for Gev's question, it uses the live version of apterous. If apterous is down at the time, it gives an error.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 8:24 am
by Gavin Chipper
Thomas Carey wrote: Mon Nov 07, 2022 1:40 am :0 years of co events ruined!
All voided. A disaster.

Re: How do I know if my word is valid?

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 9:29 am
by Matt Morrison
I'm looking forward to the day that someone pokes about inside Graeme and finds all the easter eggs he's been contributing to co events for the past decade.