The American Heritage® Dictionary Blog: Jacques Barzun

[Leo Wong]

http://bit.ly/RWtLP8

LW

[Eric Walker]

On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 19:05:56 -0800, Leo Wong wrote:

> http://bit.ly/RWtLP8

Sad to say, they don't seem to make them like that any more.


--
Cordially,
Eric Walker

[chance]

"Eric Walker" <em...@owlcroft.com> wrote in message
news:k84rj2$j44$1...@dont-email.me...

> On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 19:05:56 -0800, Leo Wong wrote:
>
>> http://bit.ly/RWtLP8
>
> Sad to say, they don't seem to make them like that any more.

I used to use AHD via online onelook dictionaries,
but the pronunication button has been inactivated.
What is the matter?

Thanks
CK

PS: I count Barzun among the great intellectuals
along with Niebuhr. I remember him to be the man
of a cover story of Time magazine in early '50s.
Not that I know well about them.

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

On 2012-11-16 04:05:56 +0100, Leo Wong <Mary...@gmail.com> said:

> http://bit.ly/RWtLP8

Thanks for passing this on. I found it interesting. However, I wouldn't
have followed your link if I hadn't seen that Eric had already done so.
It's a good idea to include in the body of the message some idea of
where the link will go. You never know if you're going to end up at a
pornography site.

Anyway, Eric won't be surprised to know that I don't agree with all
Jacques Barzun's opinions, but of his greatness there is no doubt.

Nonetheless, I was surprised by "In response to our questions about
whether there are usages he had ever changed his mind about or usages
he considered wrong but used anyway, Barzun answered straightforwardly:
'None.'" I think we should regard all our opinions as open to revision.

--
athel

[Christian Weisgerber]

chance <cinc...@yahoo.co.kr> wrote:

> I used to use AHD via online onelook dictionaries,
> but the pronunication button has been inactivated.

AHD5 is available at
http://ahdictionary.com

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber na...@mips.inka.de

[Mike L]

Yes. But once again we meet the meme about the precision of the French
language. Well, yes; but in my opinion French can also be a useful
medium for impressive vacuity. People write whole books of gibberish
in English, too; but it generally seems to _look_ like rubbish except
to true believers.

--
Mike.

[Eric Walker]

On Fri, 16 Nov 2012 17:22:28 +0100, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:

[...]

> Nonetheless, I was surprised by "In response to our questions about
> whether there are usages he had ever changed his mind about or usages he
> considered wrong but used anyway, Barzun answered straightforwardly:
> 'None.'" I think we should regard all our opinions as open to revision.

Having opinions that are open to revision and actually finding good cause
to revise them are quite different things. If a man take his good time
in forming his opinions, and have some wit, he may well never need to
revise them after.


--
Cordially,
Eric Walker

[chance]

"Christian Weisgerber" <na...@mips.inka.de> wrote in message
news:k85v4o$2i0j$1...@lorvorc.mips.inka.de...

> chance <cinc...@yahoo.co.kr> wrote:
>
>> I used to use AHD via online onelook dictionaries,
>> but the pronunication button has been inactivated.
>
> AHD5 is available at
> http://ahdictionary.com

The link dosn't work.
And copied and pasted into the browser address box,
the dictionary has opened but the pronunciation button
dosn't work either. Thanks anyway.

[Stan Brown]

On Sat, 17 Nov 2012 20:07:55 +0900, chance wrote:
> "Christian Weisgerber" <na...@mips.inka.de> wrote in message
> news:k85v4o$2i0j$1...@lorvorc.mips.inka.de...

> > AHD5 is available at
> > http://ahdictionary.com
>
> The link dosn't work.
> And copied and pasted into the browser address box,
> the dictionary has opened

Weird! I had the same experience. When I copy/pasted, Firefox
changed the link to

http://ahdictionary.com/

but I have never before seen a case where omitting the trailing slash
caused a link not to work.

--
"The difference between the /almost right/ word and the /right/ word
is ... the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning."
--Mark Twain
Stan Brown, Tompkins County, NY, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com

[Skitt]

chance wrote:
> "Christian Weisgerber" wrote:

>> chance wrote:

>>> I used to use AHD via online onelook dictionaries,
>>> but the pronunication button has been inactivated.
>>
>> AHD5 is available at
>> http://ahdictionary.com
>
> The link dosn't work.
> And copied and pasted into the browser address box,
> the dictionary has opened but the pronunciation button
> dosn't work either. Thanks anyway.
>
>

Both work for me.

--
Skitt (SF Bay Area)
http://come.to/skitt

[chance]

"Skitt" <ski...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:k88iqd$g0i$2...@news.albasani.net...

Do you mean that the pronunciation button works, too?

Thanks
CK

[Skitt]

chance wrote:

> "Skitt" wrote:
>> chance wrote:
>>> "Christian Weisgerber" wrote:
>>>> chance wrote:

>>>>> I used to use AHD via online onelook dictionaries,
>>>>> but the pronunication button has been inactivated.
>>>>
>>>> AHD5 is available at
>>>> http://ahdictionary.com
>>>
>>> The link dosn't work.
>>> And copied and pasted into the browser address box,
>>> the dictionary has opened but the pronunciation button
>>> dosn't work either. Thanks anyway.
>>>
>>>
>> Both work for me.
>
> Do you mean that the pronunciation button works, too?
>
> Thanks
> CK
>
>

Yes, if by "pronunciation button" you mean the little speaker icon right
after the main word entry.

I use Firefox 16.0.2.

[Nathan Sanders]

In article <k86l8s$qj5$5...@dont-email.me>,

The more you learn, the more you realize just how little you really
know. If ones opinions are based on knowledge, then it seems
reasonable that more knowledgeable people will have more flexible
opinions.

(I think there is probably a ceiling effect, so superhuman geniuses
are excluded from the above.)

Nathan

--
Department of Linguistics
Swarthmore College
http://sanders.phonologist.org/

[Joe Fineman]

na...@mips.inka.de (Christian Weisgerber) writes:

> chance <cinc...@yahoo.co.kr> wrote:
>
>> I used to use AHD via online onelook dictionaries,
>> but the pronunication button has been inactivated.
>
> AHD5 is available at
> http://ahdictionary.com

I am not sure what you mean by "available", but that URL, for me,
brings up only an opportunity to buy hardcover and smartphone
versions -- not direct online access.

At present I have the 4th ed. on my desk computer (it came on a CD).
It is all there, but wretchedly executed -- it often takes 5-10 s for
an entry to come up, and you cannot access a cross reference to the IE
root directly; you have to jot it down and look it up in two steps.
Now, apparently, the option of having it offline has been canceled
entirely. I think somebody at Houghton Mifflin has a bad attitude.
--
--- Joe Fineman jo...@verizon.net

||: It's pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness; poverty :||
||: and wealth have both failed. :||

[Joe Fineman]

Mike L <n...@yahoo.co.uk> writes:

> Yes. But once again we meet the meme about the precision of the
> French language. Well, yes; but in my opinion French can also be a
> useful medium for impressive vacuity. People write whole books of
> gibberish in English, too; but it generally seems to _look_ like
> rubbish except to true believers.

Barzun himself has been heard about this meme -- in Chapter VI ("The
Case against Intellect") of _The House of Intellect_:

...In certain nations, the conduct of politics is as regularly
hampered by Intellect as ours may be by its absence.... In those
countries it is not the supposedly volatile and inflammable
emotions that cause division and war; it is the responsiveness of
the mind to idea, it is the energy that drives everyone to work
upon ideas instead of practical arrangements.

The model of this political activity is well known: it is
France.... Certain intellectual habits that are conspicuous --
articulateness, quick recognition and comparison of ideas, a
repertory of formulas for all the vicissitudes of discussion --
such things can be widely diffused by schooling, and as the mark
of the educated class will give a stamp to a whole culture....
The Schoolmen and the Jesuits, the Napoleonic and Republican
schools codified the arguments and phrases which give French
social life its lively tone, but which also denature politics and
hinder government.... The leading part of the nation is
articulate and has a passion for entertaining ideas. It is this
pleasure, this sport -- the opposite of British fox-hunting or
bird-watching -- which gives the appearance of logic to public
affairs in France, and makes responsible men think it more
imperative to score a point by showing up an inconsistency than to
grope toward a conclusion and try it in action.

He proceeds to quote Bagehot:

...What I conceive to be about the most essential quality for a
free people, whose liberty is to be progressive, permanent, and on
a large scale...is much _stupidity_.... I need not say that, in
real sound stupidity, the English are unrivalled....

--
--- Joe Fineman jo...@verizon.net

||: If you handle other people's money, you must pay yourself :||
||: well to protect yourself from the temptation to steal. :||

[chance]

"Skitt" <ski...@comcast.net> wrote in message

news:k88oc3$g0i$4...@news.albasani.net...

Thanks
CK

[Christian Weisgerber]

Joe Fineman <jo...@verizon.net> wrote:

> > AHD5 is available at
> > http://ahdictionary.com
>
> I am not sure what you mean by "available", but that URL, for me,
> brings up only an opportunity to buy hardcover and smartphone
> versions -- not direct online access.

There's a big entry field with a "Search" button that will bring
up the definitions, much like merriam-webster.com. Maybe they play
geolocation games and only give us furriners access, dunno. I do
have a print copy of AHD5, but the web search is more convenient
when you're already at the computer.

[Eric Walker]

On Sat, 17 Nov 2012 14:48:09 -0500, Nathan Sanders wrote:

> In article <k86l8s$qj5$5...@dont-email.me>,
> Eric Walker <em...@owlcroft.com> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 16 Nov 2012 17:22:28 +0100, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> > Nonetheless, I was surprised by "In response to our questions about
>> > whether there are usages he had ever changed his mind about or usages
>> > he considered wrong but used anyway, Barzun answered
>> > straightforwardly: 'None.'" I think we should regard all our opinions
>> > as open to revision.
>>
>> Having opinions that are open to revision and actually finding good
>> cause to revise them are quite different things. If a man take his
>> good time in forming his opinions, and have some wit, he may well never
>> need to revise them after.
>
> The more you learn, the more you realize just how little you really
> know. If ones opinions are based on knowledge, then it seems reasonable
> that more knowledgeable people will have more flexible opinions.

I have read that three times over and still fail to see the how the
"then" flows from the stated "if". Recall, we are not speaking here
about microbiology or cosmology or some field where tomorrow's
discoveries may somehow vitiate today's beliefs: we are speaking about
the rectitude of certain usages in the English language. I cannot think
offhand of what new knowledge might change the mind of a man already
learned in the ways of our tongue as to rectitude.


--
Cordially,
Eric Walker

[Nathan Sanders]

In article <k89hr1$8cu$1...@dont-email.me>,

I think that proves my point.

[Eric Walker]

On Sat, 17 Nov 2012 22:42:26 -0500, Nathan Sanders wrote:

[...]

>> > The more you learn, the more you realize just how little you really
>> > know. If ones opinions are based on knowledge, then it seems
>> > reasonable that more knowledgeable people will have more flexible
>> > opinions.
>>
>> I have read that three times over and still fail to see the how the
>> "then" flows from the stated "if". Recall, we are not speaking here
>> about microbiology or cosmology or some field where tomorrow's
>> discoveries may somehow vitiate today's beliefs: we are speaking about
>> the rectitude of certain usages in the English language. I cannot
>> think offhand of what new knowledge might change the mind of a man
>> already learned in the ways of our tongue as to rectitude.
>
> I think that proves my point.

I'm certainly glad to hear it. You seem to be having a deal of trouble
doing it the usual way, arguments, logic, facts, and the like.


--
Cordially,
Eric Walker

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

> Mike L <n...@yahoo.co.uk> writes:
>
>> Yes. But once again we meet the meme about the precision of the
>> French language. Well, yes; but in my opinion French can also be a
>> useful medium for impressive vacuity.

It's not by chance that the postmodernist claptrap we used to hear
about originated in France. I read an autobiography by Jacques Derrida
that showed that he was perfectly capable of being intelligible when he
felt like it.


--
athel

[Lanarcam]

Le 18/11/2012 11:21, Athel Cornish-Bowden a �crit :

There a sort of trend here among "intellectuels", that is those
who have escaped the sneered at "travail manuel", which tends
to value ciphered language. I once produced a piece of code
that was convoluted and a coworker exclaimed, "waow, that's
complicated", and it was meant as a compliment. Everybody
knows that a good program is elegant, terse, intelligible,
but for most*, here, that appears too be too simple to be valued.

* Not for all, of course. Those who have spent hours digging
into a mishmash of poorly written programs to find stupid
and elusive bugs value well structured, clear code. It seems
that in the so called social sciences, the more incomprehensible
you are, the more praise you get from the crowd of awed supporters.

[CDB]

Now, entities ...

[Leo Wong]

On Thursday, November 15, 2012 10:05:56 PM UTC-5, Leo Wong wrote:
> http://bit.ly/RWtLP8

In The Vocabula Review, Mark Halpern, Jacques Barzun: His Life and his "Life" http://fb.me/Ms27SDnw Subscription

[Joe Fineman]

Been a bear, 'd'a' bit me! None of us is getting any younger.

The pronunciation button works for me too.

--
--- Joe Fineman jo...@verizon.net

||: A good theorem becomes a definition. :||