Protected: Fry’s Quiz
New Words added to the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary
PLANNING A STAYCATION THIS YEAR? LOOK IT UP NOW IN
MERRIAM-WEBSTER’S COLLEGIATE ® DICTIONARY, ELEVENTH EDITION
SPRINGFIELD, MA, July 2009—Hardworking word-lovers everywhere can now learn the meaning of the word staycation (“a vacation spent at home or nearby”) along with nearly 100 other new words and senses added to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition. America’s best-selling dictionary offers its new 2009 entries in its updated print edition and online at Merriam-Webster.com.
“Our language evolves in many ways,” said John Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster Inc. “As we’ve seen from our Open Dictionary feature on Merriam-Webster.com, people enjoy blending existing words, like combining ‘stay’ and ‘vacation’ to make staycation. Staycation is a good example of a word meeting a need and establishing itself in the language very quickly. Our earliest record of use is from 2005, but it seems to have exploded into popular use in 2007.”
“Another example of this kind of creative wordplay from this year’s list,” said Morse, “is frenemy: one who pretends to be a friend but is actually an enemy. But, in addition to these ‘portmanteau words,’ we have added new words from more predictable categories, like science, health, technology, and popular culture, which have also seen widespread use across a variety of publications.”
Many of the new words reflect the importance of the environment (carbon footprint, green- collar), government activities (earmark, waterboarding), health and medicine (cardioprotective, locavore, naproxen, neuroprotective), pop culture (docusoap, fan fiction, flash mob, reggaeton), and online activities (sock puppet, vlog, webisode). Other words added include haram, memory foam, missalette, and zip line.
For a sample blend of the latest Collegiate Dictionary entries—and their definitions—please visit www.Merriam-Webster.com. For additional information on how words are selected for a Merriam-Webster dictionary, or to arrange an interview on this topic with Merriam-Webster’s Editor at Large Peter Sokolowski, please contact Arthur J. Bicknell, Senior Publicist, at the above address.
Merriam-Webster, Incorporated
Merriam-Webster Inc. acquired the rights to revise and publish Noah Webster’s dictionaries in 1843. Since then, Merriam-Webster has maintained an ongoing commitment to innovation, scholarship, and love of language. Today, the company continues as the leader in both print and electronic language reference publishing with reference products, learning tools, and word games. For more information about the company, visit www.Merriam-Webster.com.
iPhones and iPod Touches get a much needed update – 3.0
Apple today, released version 3.0 of their iPhone and iPod touch Operating System. This highly anticipated release includes many updates and upgrades that make these devices even better.
The new features include:
- Cut, Copy and Paste
- Landscape View for Mail, Notes and Messages
- Landscape Keyboard for Mail, Notes, and Messages
- Support for Multimedia Messages (MMS) which will be available to ATT customers later this summer. The date is still TBD.
- Find My Phone feature which locates a missing or stolen iPhone. This feature is integrated in MobileMe.
- Remote Wipe is now an option in MobileMe to protect your data in case the phone winds up lost or stolen.
- Turn by Turn GPS-based directions
- A new Voice Memo app has been added
- Spotlight search for contacts, emails, and media content stored on the iPhone
What does this mean for education?
As we all have either seen or heard about, the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch are phenomenal devices to extend learning on-the-go. In this age of technology, we need to embrace and utilize the tools which make teaching engaging and effective. With the latest tools available to developers, applications that run on these devices do more and make more things possible than ever conceived before. Innovative Knowledge is hard at work developing and testing the next-generation of it’s mobile learning suite and should be on the App Store by the start of the new school year.
Academic Fitness Daily Trainer is an application, set to be released on the new iPhone/iPod Touch 3.0 platform, that will provide students with review questions that tests their knowledge and ensures they are ready for tests, quizzes, and overall school success. The material is presented in an interesting and engaging way and has pictures that accompany each question in order to assist students.
Here is a sneak peek of the application:
