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What is the Dicshunary?
Normal dictionaries wait until a word is old and stale before publishing them. They need to have proof that a word has written, published citations, or is in wide popular use.
The Dicshunary aims to provide a home for all the small, endangered werds that might only exist in the language of one neighbourhood, one family or even one person.
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How does it work?
The Dicshunary invites contributions of werds and definitions from all visitors to the site, and offers them a range of services such as "Werd of the Day", or the facility to have your own dictionary on your own website (hosted in the backgrond by Dicshunary.com).
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Is the Dicshunary Open Source Software?
Yes, it is. The dicshunary is built in PHP/MYSQL using many fragemnts of open source code.
It is in stable alpha release, and the project is hosted in public CVS at http://dicshunary.sourceforge.net. If you want to use it or help to develop it, please get in touch.
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What are the Dicshunary's literary interests?
Of course the Dicshunary loves literature. If you use any werds you learned here in your writing, we would love to hear about it.
For now, here are a few bits of relevant literature that helped the Dicshunary work out what it was for.
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Extract from 1984 - George Orwell
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The Futurological Congress - Stanislav Lem
- here is a link to an extract of the part of this book that was so interesting to the Dicshunary: the definition of Futurology: the idea that by making up words, and playing with definitions, you can test the limits of human imagination, and predict events, ideas or inventions that will come into being.
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Do I have to be drunk to use the Dicshunary?
Well... no. But it helps. The first time the Dicshunary (then the Custom Dichsunary.. see below) was given physical form it was installed in a custom built bar made of sterlingboard. The bar had little holes cut in it at the perfect angle to snuggle in next to a keyboard and monitor, and to allow people to peer over each other's shoulders as they used it. Many wonderful words dribbled out of people into the Dicshunary once they'd had a few of the evil homebrewed yellow alco-pops that were served continuously.
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What does the Dicshunary have to do with Ken Campbell?
(if you don't know who Ken Campbell is, you should read Dave Farmboroughs Ken Campbell page)
Well then, although there is no direct link between the Dicshunary and Ken, we love him, so we thought you should know who he is. Also, it was after listening to King Mob's recording of Ken performing "Wol Wantok" That you can buy from ellipsis that the Dicshunary decided it needed to be mo betta.
If you want to learn more about Wol Wantok, check out seeker Meryfela's "Wol Wantok" page.
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Why should I register with you shitesters?
Update! You can now get personalised rss feeds of your werds if you have an account. For example,
http://dicshunary.com/rss.php?user_id=1 will give you a feed of all the werds Saul Albert adds to the Dicshunary. Sign in and you get your own feed which you'll then syndicate on your blog, no doubt.
You can do a lot with the Dicshunary without registering, but there are a few things that registration is useful for. For example, say you want to create a category for all the cheeky, cute little pet names that your loved ones call you. You wouldn't want people adding nasty, bad, naughty words to that category would you? It would hurt wouldn't it to see your 'snuffle bunnikin' names juxtapposed with vile, greasly hate-snot words. So, if you log in, you can make a category and can then change it later, remove naughty words, or words you're tired of, you can ask to be emailed when someone adds a word, among other features.
You can also keep track of your words and provide useful feedback to the Dicshunary so it can improve. To persuade you to register we promise this: we won't send you any spam, or give your email out.
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Wasn't there a site that did the same thing as the Dicshunary?
Yes. That was The Custom Dicshunary, which was in fact the predecessor of the Dicshunary, but it had an unhealthy Microsoft Word fixation that made it a bit limited so we put it on ice. It is preserved for posterity at http://dicshunary.hypermart.net.
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Why do I need a dictionary on my site?
Everyone should have a dictionary. Defining the terms of your own communications by inventing words is essential, you do it anyway, and having a dictionary on your site just makes it easier for you to share them.
Also, it doesn't have to be frivolous (no.. really, it doesn't). Many art/science crossover projects (for example) seem to stumble over the fact that different groups of specialists use the same words to mean different things, or use different words to mean the same things. How will your project develop if you don't manage to agree on the terminology?
If you add a dictionary to your site, not only can you store, share and collaboratively develop your lexicon, words added will automatically enter dicshunary.com, so you'll be sharing your werds with the world.
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How about a few links?
Internal
External
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Has this question ever been asked before?
No. This is the first time ever!
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