The American Heritage dictionary
by William Morris, American Heritage · first published 1982
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…answer is that if you have to ask why you would want to pay for a dictionary, then you aren't the kind of person who needs to pay for a dictionary. The long answer is that good dictionaries, such as American Heritage Dictionary, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, and the OED itself, are produced by scholars and experts, guided by editorial panels comprised of scholars and experts, require a great deal of work to produce…
on “Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts” ↗Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications ARRL Antenna Book American Heritage Dictionary, 5th Ed. Bible/Lectionary, Breviary, and Catechism If fiction counts, I will probably never delete Flatland or the complete Joseph Conrad from my Kindle.
on “Ask HN: What books do you keep on your desk?” ↗I'm a professor. I write a lot, and I use Bookshelf 1996 mainly for the third edition of the American Heritage Dictionary, which is great. The interface is better than the interface for the iOS app. You can get the 4th edition for free at https://ahdictionary.com, and it's good. I'm just old-fashioned enough to dislike…
on “Killed by Microsoft” ↗The American Heritage dictionary deserves a mention, not only for its extensive usage panels of writers, but for its practice of putting the most current meanings first, so that the dread “Webster’s defines X as…” is not followed by…
on “Using the Wrong Dictionary (2014)” ↗…Portuguese "próximo!" to summon the person at the front of a line). Sorry other readers didn't like your etymological excursion; it reminds me of Lewis Thomas after he got ahold of a PIE reference (maybe the American Heritage Dictionary). Maybe people didn't feel it was relevant enough?
on “Thermostats, Locks and Lights: Digital Tools of Domestic Abuse” ↗…the linked PDF, you'll find this: Reciprocity means a mutual or cooperative interchange of favors or privileges. Something is reciprocal when it is performed, experienced, or felt by both sides. (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition.) The GPL license is reciprocal, because it is “performed, experienced, or felt” by both sides—the licensor and the licensees both use the GPL. In non-legal…
on “A federal court has denied a pre-trial motion to dismiss a GPL enforcement case” ↗…language is that this use is fine, but you might want to avoid it in writing because some people mistakenly think it's an error. But it has a long history. > Further, as they/them implies plural, From American Heritage Dictionary 4th Ed. (En-En) > Usage Note: The use of the third-person plural pronoun they to refer to a singular noun or pronoun is attested as early as 1300, and many admired writers have used they, them, themselves,…
on “Google advised mental health care when workers complained about racism, sexism” ↗It was mentioned in a different article on HN the other day a Professor somewhere who still swore by an old CD of Microsoft Bookshelf [1]. That Professor believed that the American Heritage Dictionary, 3rd Edition included in Bookshelf remains one of the best dictionaries ever assembled. Bookshelf CDs also included Roget's Thesaurus. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bookshelf
on “DOS Nostalgia: On using a modern DOS workstation” ↗I think the American Heritage Dictionary (1969) was the first general dictionary to show reconstructed Indo-European etymologies for English words [1, 2]. That’s where I learned about the supposed common origin of “science” and “shit,” more…
on “Surprising Shared Word Etymologies” ↗…you'll see from the definition of am and pm below. To avoid any confusion (and to make sure you arrive on time), it might be best to say 12 noon or 12 midnight instead. US English is similar[2]: > The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Fourth Edition, 2000) has a usage note on this topic: "Strictly speaking, 12 a.m. denotes midnight, and 12 p.m. denotes noon, but there is sufficient confusion over these uses…
on “Ask HN: What does 12:00 AM mean?” ↗Intelligence is defined as the ability to acquire, understand, and use knowledge in The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition. Based on that definition I think we are well on out way to building an artificial intelligence that is more capable than the overwhelming majority of the planet.
on “Every Reason Why I Hate AI and You Should Too” ↗…misanthropic /mĭs″ən-thrŏp′ĭk, mĭz″-/ adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of a misanthrope. Characterized by a hatred or mistrustful scorn for humankind. Hating or disliking mankind. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
on “Google Antigravity just deleted the contents of whole drive” ↗…know what to say. That's plainly wrong, in my opinion. After all, "download" is defined as "To transfer (data or a program) from a central computer or website to a peripheral computer or device." by The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th Edition), so when you just watch videos, you download them already, don't you? What about watching them in browser, somewhere in embed on some website? Does that constitute…
on “Tell HN: Chrome says "Suspicious Download" when trying to download yt-dlp” ↗…want them to mean then sure. But then that’s pointless and you’re just saying you just want to be stubborn. The "semantics game" I'm using is the long-understood definition of the term 'source code'. American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition: > source code, noun > 1. Code written by a programmer in a high-level language and readable by people but not computers. Source code must be converted to object…
on “Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera Data Set for Academic Use” ↗