Art. Is it needed? Why?

Unsingned entry - 20:48, May 28, 2006 User:70.24.186.54.

For concrete nouns (e.g. Animals) an image can be very helpful. When placed near entries with multiple senses, the image can help contributors entering translations verify that they are entering the translation for the right word, in the right place. --Connel MacKenzie T C 03:32, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Is there a standard way for noting a particular spelling or definition is restricted to one country or region? (e.g. other dictionaries would note "Chiefly British" for a word used primarily in the UK but not in the USA). Thanks. 85.210.7.123 22:14, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Yes, you can use these templates in front of a definition line, or simply note such information (''in brackets''). See gas for example. —Vildricianus 09:50, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. 85.210.7.123 13:36, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

In German, it is possible to turn any verb into a noun by capitalising it. For example, spielen is the verb to play, and das Spielen is the noun meaning 'playing'. Is it necessary to make an article for both the verb, and the noun, the latter of which must have an initial capital letter, or should both be included in the same article? --Baryon 12:18, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

For English verbs, we don't make a point (I don't think) of having separate entries for every "-ing" form. (We do have some, and this is perfectly appropriate if the definition of that form has interesting aspects). So I would think that, by analogy, a consistent listing, on one page, of the various inflected forms for a German verb would be fine. (And in terms of helping people find the right entry even though it might be capitalized differently than the form they were searching for, that's obviously a problem that transcends German words, and we're working on general-purpose solutions.) –Scs 14:00, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

So I should, for example, add a 'noun' section to the spielen article? Thanks for your reply. --Baryon 16:41, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

That's a bit of a gray area. If you trust the reader to know enough German to know that every verb can be used as a noun, you don't need to explicitly define every noun sense, anywhere. But if you do define the noun sense explicitly, since the spelling (i.e. capitalization) is different, it should probably go on its own page. (I've seen some older entries that have separate differently-capitalized sections on the same page, but I think the current trend is that if the spelling is different in any way, it shound go on a separate page. Spelling is paramount here on Wiktionary.) –Scs 17:02, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

OK. Thank you. I suppose putting the translation of the -ing form on the English verb, but linking to the infinitive of the verb in German, would be good enough for people to get the gist of the German pattern. --Baryon 18:17, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

I am unable to create a new account. At first I had trouble seeing the validation image. I found that the only way to get around that was to disable my firewall. (If I had known what (3rd party?) cookie it was trying to create, I could have enabled that cookie.) After disabling the firewall I saw the validation image, but when I tried to create an account I got the message, “Sorry, you have already created 6 accounts. You can't make any more.”

I haven't created any account. I checked the creation log to verify that I didn't accidentally create one while stumbling around with validation images. --24.127.171.144 (Wikipedia:User:TEB728) 22:58, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

OK, maybe the reason I get no response is that I didn't actually ask a question; so:

• Is this the right place to ask for technical help? (At Wikipedia I would go to Village pump (technical); at Wiktionary no page seems particularly apt.)
• What makes the system think I have 6 accounts, when in fact I have none.
• How do I work around the problem?

--24.127.171.144 (Wikipedia:User:TEB728) 07:38, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

I don't know; perhaps someone else has created accounts from the same computer? Or IP address? Perhaps a cookie problem? Delete your cookies for en.wiktionary.org first and retry then. I suggest you ask this somewhere on Wikipedia, where there are more tech heads. —Vildricianus 14:51, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

That is a new error message; I've never encountered any mention of it before. Our equivalent to Village pump (technical) is WT:GP aka the Grease pit.

We may need to ask a steward to determine what is up with your IP. You might try releasing your IP address and power-cycling your cable modem (leave off for about 15 minutes.) Sometimes I am able to get a new comcast address using that method...but most of the time I retain the old address. The last time I tried it was a year and a half ago - Comcast may have changed their policy since then. --Connel MacKenzie T C 17:42, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the help. I don't know what did it, but I was finally able to create an account. Rebooting my cable modem didn't change my IP address. Maybe I screwed things up by floundering, trying to see the Captcha; anyway success happened 24 hours after that. --teb728 23:12, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Glad you got in. There's probably a bug somewhere which caused each of your unsuccessful attempts (before you got the stupid captcha working) to be incorrectly counted as a "created account". –scs 18:40, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure now the CAPTCHA images keep automated registrations away. — Vildricianus 21:57, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Sure, that's what they're supposed to do, but I didn't think that was the question here. –scs 23:45, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Assume humour. — Vildricianus 12:09, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

From the Grease pit. — Vildricianus 22:05, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

fwiw.. There is a link labeled 'Start a new discussion' at the top of Wiktionary:Tea_room, that starts a new article under Wiktionary:Beer_parlour.. It may be a little confusing for newcomers.

None of the other Discussion room pages have this type of link, so I'm thinking it may be a leftover from an earlier format?

--Versageek 00:01, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

follow up, I take that last sentance back.. Beer_parlour also has the link at the top..

Thanks. Fixed. --Connel MacKenzie T C 00:05, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

My mistake. —Vildricianus 14:08, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Could someone get us some Wiktionary-ish copies of the Wikipedia "This user is a sockpuppet" templates? Or do we already have them hiding somewhere? --Connel MacKenzie T C 16:03, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

We have them. Are they useful? The impersonator ones weren't either, apparently, and I don't see much difference. If they are we can put some big sadistic {{blockeduser}} template on User:Primetime. — Vildricianus 17:17, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

I have created this entry 3 times now but each time I come back to Wiktionary later, it's gone without ANY explanation or even a history! Why?? -Eep 23:55, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Please read WT:CFI. Made-up words are not up for inclusion here. — Vildricianus 11:13, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I've got a list of words and phrases in the African language Sesotho with the equivalents in English - I've added some entries individually but it takes quite a long time. Is it in any way possible to submit a bulk of terms as separate entries on Wiktionary at once?

Thanks Jak. --82.198.250.67 07:19, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Absolutely. I've just added a section to WT:FAQ as this question is asked frequently. --Connel MacKenzie T C 15:00, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

My links I have set in my preferences to ALWAYS underlink links. They just went away (nothing is underlined right now.) Anyone know why? --Connel MacKenzie T C 16:54, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Purge cache. Or wait. The opposite happens to me sometimes. — Vildricianus 17:00, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

d some studies and find out what are the lates ram chips and how fast are these new ram chips.give a summary account of the avolution of RAM chip technology and what are the significant difference or improvements along this evolutionary history

Sorry, we're a dictionary. You may want to ask on some hardware forum. — Vildricianus 18:17, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

But even if he does find the right forum, they'll just tell him to do his own homework. —scs 22:30, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

How do I point to my English user account from my Bulgarian user account? That is, what's the inter-wiki prefix? I've tried stuff like en:user or wikt:user, etc., but haven't hit on the right combination. Rklawton 13:38, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

From the Bulgarian Wiktionary, en:User:Rklawton should work. From the Bulgarian Wikipedia, both en:wikt: and wikt:en: should. — Vildricianus 15:11, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Also, ] is different from ]. The former makes a "visible" link in place, while the latter puts an interwiki link in the left-most column, beneath the Search box and toolbox. The leading colon is a good trick, but I suspect you had the correct combination for an interwiki link, but didn't notice it at the very bottom of the left-most column. --Connel MacKenzie T C 16:58, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

From WT:GP

What does this toolbox feature actually do? SemperBlotto 13:18, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

It gives a permanent link :-). Try it on an entry, and watch the url. It allows linking to a stable version (whereas the ordinary http://en.wiktionary.orghttps://dictious.com/en/word link would link to a continuously changing page). — Vildricianus 13:59, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Move to WT:ID? --Connel MacKenzie T C 04:37, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

This feature is important for pages like WT:BP, WT:RFD or w:WP:AN where a month later, the entire section you were linking to probably no longer exists. Using the Permalink feature, you can add the link to your bibliography for a school report, or include the link in an e-mail and not have to worry, if the recipient doesn't check there e-mail frequently. --Connel MacKenzie T C 05:21, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

DEAR SIR

I AM NOT CLEAR ABOUT THE ABBREVIATION OF NADP WHERE N=NICOTINAMIDE,A=ADENINE AND REMAINING TWO LETTERS DP=TRINUCLEOTIDE,HOW IT IS? PLEASE EXPLAIN ME SO THAT MY MIND BE CLEAR.

THANKS

[email protected]

• Click on the nicotinamide adenine trinucleotide link, or go to the Wikipedia article at w:Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide where all is explained.SemperBlotto 22:06, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

I think the question is how the DP stands for trinucleotide, which I still don't really understand myself. The Wikipedia article seems to say that NADP stands for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate. Is that something else? They don't have an article on nicotinamide adenine trinucleotide. Widsith 22:31, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Ah yes, this is what we in the trade call a cockup. I'll fix it later. SemperBlotto 07:03, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Fixed all links. Thanks for spotting it. SemperBlotto 07:26, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Hi,

I am new to this Wikipedia. I came to know that Wikipedia is an open source dictionary which is downloadable. But I can't find any download link. Can you please help me in this regard.? First of all can i download this dictionary?

Plz let me know..

Regards, Kumar.

here. Note that this is Wiktionary, which is related to, but not the same as Wikipedia. — Vildricianus 10:35, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

Should I place in an entry "Category:Example language" along with "Category:Example nouns" or is "Category:Example nouns" by itself enough?--Kaasje 09:08, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

The nouns category will do. — Vildricianus 09:15, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

I've noticed that Greek Recentchanges doesn't seem to be linked on the RecentChanges page. Is there a reason for this? Can it be added?--Brandnewuser 00:07, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm not aware of any specific reason it was excluded. The list of "recent changes" pages is at MediaWiki:Recentchangestext. I guess we should add a link to el:Ειδικό:Recentchanges titled "Ελληνικά"? Rod (A. Smith) 07:54, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

I am running IE6, with RealPlayer10 also installed.

When I click on the loudspeaker symbol, I am told .ogg is an unknown file type, and only given the option of saving it.

I'm not sure whether I merely need to associate a program (RealPlayer, I assume) with that file type, or whether I also have a problem with my firewall (McAfee, though IE6 might also be interfering even though the Windows firewall is turned off).

Any ideas? Enginear 13:54, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

WP gives a good explanation. — Vildricianus 15:30, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

You do have the link Vildricianus indicated, at the question mark, right? Should that be changed to "ogg help" instead of "?" for the WOTD thing? --Connel MacKenzie T C 15:39, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

I can't believe I never tried the ! Still, help may make it clearer for dumbos like me. Thanks. Enginear 19:10, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

If you categorize an uncategorized page would you mark it a a minor edit or leave it? I have unable to find anything addressing this and would like to know. --Yorktown1776

Minor edits will do here. — Vildricianus 18:12, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Dear Wiktionarians,

I am organising a workshop on Dictionary Writing Systems (DWSs) -

to take place in September immediately prior to EURALEX, the conference of the European Association of Lexicography. (Workshop: main conference: )

It would be very interesting for us to hear an account of the wiktionary project, and we would of course hope that the workshop (and indeed the main conference) would be interesting to you.

Is it likely that a wiktionarian (who is well-placed to speak about the project overall) might liek to coem along and speak to us?

The workshop is in Torino, Italy, The workshop will be a modest event, we are not expecting more than thirty people. The main conference is medium-sized, with 200-300. Both events are in Torino, Italy, with the workshop on Tuesday 5th Sept and the conference immediately after, 6th-9th.

Coudl you please respond direct to my email, [email protected] Thank you

Dear Wiktionarians,

I am organising a workshop on Dictionary Writing Systems (DWSs):

    A dictionary writing system (DWS) is a piece of software for 
    writing and producing a dictionary. It might include an editor, 
    a database, a web interface and various management tools (for 
    allocating work etc.) It operates with a dictionary grammar, 
    which specifies the structure of the dictionary.

to take place 5th September, 2006, immediately prior to EURALEX, the conference of the European Association of Lexicography.

   DWS Workshop:               http://nlp.fi.muni.cz/dws06/ 
   EURALEX main conference:    http://www.euralex2006.unito.it

It would be very interesting for us to hear an account of the wiktionary project, and its DWS, and we would of course hope that the workshop (and indeed the main conference) would be interesting to you.

Is it likely that a wiktionarian (who is well-placed to speak about the project overall, and its DWS) might like to come along and speak to us?

The venue is in Torino, Italy. The workshop will be a modest event: we are not expecting more than thirty people. The main conference is medium-sized, with 200-300.

Could you please respond direct to my email, [email protected]

Thank you very much, and looking forward to hearing from you,

Adam Kilgarriff

Adam Kilgarriff http://kilgarriff.co.uk Lexicography MasterClass http://lexmasterclass.com Lexical Computing Ltd http://sketchengine.co.uk University of Sussex EURALEX Board member

                     mailto:[email protected]

Hi. Great excitement. We need an entry for Nix capitalised. I tried to put it in, but was redirected to the lower-case word. Would you be able to un-redirect it or give it a separate page? Many Thanks. Andrew massyn 05:29, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Done. For future reference, when you are redirected, there is a small line just below the headword that says, e.g. "Redirected from Nix". If you click on that small link, it adds the "&redirect=no" to the url, so you can edit it just like you would any other normal page. --Connel MacKenzie T C 05:36, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

I spotted a misspelled word and decided to correct it. (stalagmite - under Noun it is spelled 'stalgmite’)

After clicking 'Edit', then looking through 'Help', I backed away, not understanding and afraid of doing damage. The Wiktionary:Sandbox was of little help.

Are there more graphic, step-by-step instructions?

Thanks.

The Wiktionary:Tutorial might be what you are looking for. (Right now it needs to be revamped to properly cover the inflection templates.) Ignoring that deficiency, it should help answer many questions you may have, at least initially. --Connel MacKenzie T C 17:45, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Apart from that, don't forget to be bold! If in doubt, feel free to ask any sysop. — Vildricianus 18:02, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

is it possible to get a downloadable version of wikitionary?

http://download.wikimedia.org/enwiktionary/20060528/ — Vildricianus 14:38, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Hi I'm new to Wiktionary and I was wondering if function of spell checker like in word processors exist here, example if I didn't know how to spell tomorrow and typed in TOMMOROW in word processor with spell checker would give me choice of possible correct words, so I may choose the correct one. It didn't do that here. Please someone let me know, and if it doesn't exist why not?

thanks Paul Kimm

No it doesn't exist. I don't know why it would have to, as it would only complicate editing. — Vildricianus 14:38, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

It would be a nice feature though. Other online dictionaries and Google do something similar. I understand they use something like soundex. Jonathan Webley 14:45, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

You mean a "did you mean..." thing? Yes, that would be nice but nigh impossible to implement with the current system. The closest we could get is displaying a link to Special:Allpages. — Vildricianus 14:47, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, like "did you mean..." in Wikipedia has one I think. If Wikipedia has one, why is it impossibe for wiktionary? Paul Kimm.

I think you mean Wikipedia's disambiguation pages. They are created manually and aren't useful for misspellings. Any software solution is not possible. — Vildricianus 08:19, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

I do have plans on implementing something like soundex for English language entries, via categories. The search page would then just transclude the category, such as {{Category:SOUNDEX:M232}} or something. At any rate, several technical challenges remain. Should move this request to WT:GP, I think. --Connel MacKenzie T C 06:38, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

I am working on a Children's Choir commission for the Oklahoma Centennial and am trying to encorporate some native American text for the middle section of a child's poem that I am setting entitled: I Live in an Ancient Land.

Any translations (in Cherokee or any of the tribes of Oklahoma) would be appreciated. Pronuniciations would also be helpful but not mandatory at this point.

Thanks, Mary Sallee, composer Norman, OK

How would I go about getting extract files of Wiktionary for a particular language to load into my personal database?

In case someone's still waiting (and checking back here!) for an answer: see m:Data dumps. (And it works, too. Matter of fact, just yesterday I downloaded the English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish wiktionaries, and they're all sitting right here on my laptop.) —scs 16:52, 8 September 2006 (UTC

Some software I'm writing needs a dictionary - what's the GFDL licence position on reusing lists of words obtained from the downloaded dictionary? IANAL and I need guidance. If I make use of the data does my software have to be GFDL too?

Can anyone please point me to a lame newbie's guide on the subject? - Peter Hitchmough 17:53, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Oh, I'm digesting the Wikipedia entry on GNU now.

Now I'm coming to an opinion: If I extract a word list from the document and make that a document containing the GFDL then I can use that document as input to my software. Disclaimer: I'm not aiming to construct some horrific love-child of Wiktionary and my program. Please excuse me conversing with myself by the way. - Pete

Hello,

Simply love Wikipedia in every way. Thanks to whomever put this site up! :.) Recently, a friend used the phrase " brow beat", and for the life of me, I can't figure where to find it here at the Wikipedia.com site. :.) Can anyone help me with locating words, phrases and so forth? It would be most helpful. Thanks in advance.

a guest

Unsigned entry 14:19, July 4, 2006 User:68.90.11.248

We do have an entry for browbeat (sometimes spelled as two words.) You've found the right place.  :-) Welcome. --Connel MacKenzie T C 20:38, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

i've been going through random pages looking for obvious problem or mispellings and requesting cleanup on them just to leave the definitions to smarter people then I am (after leaving feedback on what i assumed the problem was)

i've found alot of words in other languages that just say a single word as the definition

if noga means leg in polish and 3 other languages when u type in noga "leg" should either be defined or it should link you to the english definition for leg and be listed underneath it

i only speak english but its easy to tell single word definitions are just translations and should i request them for cleanup Danimal 15:52, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

That's not how it works. Foreign language entries don't get definitions, only translations. Please stop misusing the {{rfc}} template. — Vildricianus 15:55, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Then why not just link the foreign words to the english definitions??? Danimal 16:02, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

That's what we do !!! — Vildricianus 16:03, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

no i type in noga i get leg in three different languages when it could just go directly to the definition of leg in english leg isnt a definition of noga its a synonym dictionarys define that is practically a thesaurus if u dont speak english Danimal 16:13, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

No, "leg" is a translation of "noga". But "noga" doesn't mean "leg" in all languages. And the page for "noga" goes many other information, such as declensions, gender etc. — Vildricianus 16:16, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

lol dude your not getting my point if i type in noga and theres no definition its not a dictionary whats so hard about typing in the definition of leg and the definition of whatever it means in the other languages, you cant use the word your defining in the definition especially when it's the only word your using Danimal 16:25, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Apparently, the one not getting the point is you. We don't give definitions for foreign language entries, period. Try making a proposal on the Beer parlour if you want to change that. — Vildricianus 16:27, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

The point is we don't know what language you're searching in. manger for example is an English noun and a French verb. It is also desirable for reasons of grammatical explanations, derived terms, pronunciations, etymologies, etc etc. Widsith 16:29, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Okay why wouldnt it work if you just treated every word as an english word someone searches for manger you put a trough which livestock eat from, anf below that put french manger- "To take into the body by the mouth for digestion" instead of just to eat your not defining manger with to eat your just repeating it and your also assuming that foreign words all have direct english translations Danimal 16:40, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

In English, "to eat" is an excellent definition of the French term (or in WiktionaryZ jargon, "expression") manger. The approach we are taking here is fortunately consistent with the current WiktionaryZ terminology model.

As the Wiktionary (or WiktionaryZ) entry (WiktZ: "expression") for manger matures, its definitions (WiktZ: "defined meanings") will become more numerous and perhaps more verbose, but the English one for the primary sense ("meaning") of manger will probably include the word "eat".

(For those who care, WiktZ has defined meanings map to expressions with "match quality" values.) The quality of the French:manger->"to eat" map is "good".

There is no reason to exclude the word "eat" from definitions ("meanings"), except arguably in the primary definition ("meaning") for the English term ("expression") "eat". If you want to understand the model better, see http://wiktionaryZ.org or contact me on my talk page. Rod (A. Smith) 08:58, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

i agree with this stuff.

Hello,

I have a series of questions that are not intended to be antagonistic; it is a manifestation of my confusion. Why create a multilingual dictionary for English? Isn't that why we have dictionaries in other languages? There are nearly half a million words in the English Language, requiring a herculean effort to identify and define all of them. Shouldn't the focus primarily be on those words, instead of indiscriminately compiling a list of all known words in all languages. It strikes me that an English language dictionary of all English words is an endeavor that is noble, focused, achieveable and ultimately satisfying while one comprised of all known words in all known languages will lead to linguistic pandemonium and create an ultimately un-browsable dictionary, browsing being a supreme pleasure for logophiles such as myself. Please enlighten me.

Thank you. — This unsigned comment was added by 71.110.18.51 (talk).

As Wiktionary develops, so does its software. Language-limiting features are being added as we go along, for searching, indexing, using, etc. Eventually, all language Wiktionaries will (theoretically) have all the same words, described in their own language. That's the goal - with an infinite number of volunteers, it will probably happen...eventually. --Connel MacKenzie 16:41, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

I think it would be good if Template:Fi01a etc. somehow linked to a list of all such Finnish templates. The most usable list is currently at Wiktionary:Finnish inflection types but I suppose the templates should instead link to Wiktionary:Finnish inflection templates. I can add the links (in noinclude), but should they be just plain links, or should a new category be set up for the templates? 213.216.199.2 23:26, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Category:Finnish inflection templates already exists but is almost empty. So I'll add the templates there. 213.216.199.2 10:50, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

(Sorry for the late reply, and I should probably cross-post or move this thread to WT:BP since my reply may result in a policy discussion, but...)

I personally like the idea of documenting each set of inflection templates on the corresponding Category:Inflection templates page, but I don't think that preference has achieved any traction. It's a wiki, though, and if somebody wants to move your docs to a new "Wiktionary:Index to Finnish Inflection Templates", that's always an option, so in the meantime, Be bold! Rod (A. Smith) 09:23, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Many of the kanji pages dont have stroke order. e.g. http://en.wiktionary.orghttps://dictious.com/en/%E9%9D%A2

is it possible to put in a link on all the pages that dont have a stroke order? A link to: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/wwwjdicinf.html#sod_tag

or even to the matching http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwhalsod.cgi?2087_%CC%CC

not sure what solution would work well, but the web seams to have a shortage of stroke order diagrams.

Eddy Parkinson

(Please sign your posts with "~~~~". It helps us more easily see when each post occurred.)

There are ways we can gather such information, and your idea sound good, though perhaps better than the external links would be a project to begin creating such diagrams under the GDFL license. I think there was a (probably defunct) project to do that but I cannot find it now. With the technical component, we should probably start a draft proposal in WT:GP to fing thw best technical approach to getting the list. Then depending on how ambitious this project becomes, it may benefit from additional participants. Rod (A. Smith) 09:43, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

I was just wondering where the 'WIK' in Wiktionary comes from...What does WIK mean? Barb

I was wondering the same thing! Ella

It's an abbreviation of "wiki". Rod (A. Smith) 05:30, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Is there a template I can use that will hyperlink among the different projects? I have a definition for an obsucre (go figure!) word within Wikipedia and slim-to-no knowledge of the inner workings of this grand clock. 66.69.58.90 02:12, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

To link to an English Wikipedia article, use the following syntax:

]

Usually, you'll also want to hide the "w:", so use the pipe syntax:

]

Does that answer your question? Rod (A. Smith) 04:04, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

Hi there! I don't seem to be able to use the "Move" option. I get the following message:

Not logged in

From Wiktionary

Jump to: navigation, search

You must be a registered user and logged in to move a page.

Return to Wiktionary:Main Page.

I'm registerred and logged in... could someone please let me know what seems to be the problem? Is it that I'm not allowed, or some mistake with my registration, or something???

--Enboifre 13:18, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

The ability to move pages is restricted to accounts older than 96 hours, to prevent vandalism. I'll update that message to reflect this. — Vildricianus 13:22, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Simply that. I have no idea how to do so. Doremítzwr 15:20, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Depends on what you need to be done. Often it's simpler to add manual stuff instead of a template, but once you start doing repetitive things, you could create one. m:Help:Template and the pages linked from there should help you get started. If you have more specific questions, feel free to ask them, here, or in the Grease pit. — Vildricianus 19:43, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

I was looking at the entry for "sepulchre" and noticed that under the synonyms is listed "sepulture" which in turn has listed as a synonym for "the act of sepulchering" "internment".

My understanding of internment is confinement particularly during wartime as in a prisoner of war camp or civilian confinement. The point being that everyone is alive (at least at the time of internment). On the other hand I believe the synonym being sought is "interment" or burial in the ground.

I do not know the process for submitting requests for changes and hope that this is the correct venue for same. Please accept my apologies if I am mistaken.

Corrections from "anyone" are welcome; I agree with your assessment. You should Be Bold and correct it. When I have questions about specific entries, I often leave my questions of the entry's talk page, but this is also a fine venue. --Connel MacKenzie 19:29, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

I started writing an article on a New Zealand Maori church, and words from Maori are used to describe leaders, followers and teaching. I have given English alternatives in the article but a link would also be a good idea. Some Maori words are already given in Wikipedia - but is this or here the best place to put definitions?

Herne nz 06:57, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes, this is the place. --Connel MacKenzie 07:07, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

They should look something like this . .

==Maori==
===Interjection===
kia ora
# hello

I offer my apology in advance; as I'm not certain, whether this is the proper forum to express my opinion on this subject?

I consistently hear people in the media; and the general population use the word presume; when they aught to have used the word assume. A presumption is grounded in some form of sufficient evidence, where as an assumption is not. I take the popular usage of the word "presume" to fall within the category of a misnomer; or perhaps an idiom: a figure of speech; such as "I guess?" "I assume?"

Case in point;

The following is a quote from the Wicktionary on the definition of the word "presume".

" Transitive: 1. To assume something is true in the absence of contrary proof.

   You are presumed to be innocent until found guilty. " 

From my perspective, the use of the word assume in this context is clearly a misnomer; the second statement, does not follow from the first! The transitive example above aught to be deemed offensive to any intelligent human being. "It is always, and everywhere wrong to believe anything, on insufficient evidence."(?) Logically; the phrase "presumed innocent..." must have been adopted by the legal establishment; only because there is sufficient universal evidence to conclude; that "the human character" arises in the 1st place from benign uncorrupted origins. Social law is based upon principles such as prudence; it is for this reason that individuals are afforded the benefit of doubt; it is not an arbitrary assumption. "1." aught to read; 1. A conclusion prudently accepted as true; based upon some measure of intrinsic proof. Thanks for listening!68.49.29.206 20:31, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

This is a good analysis...but I think it belongs in the tea room instead. In general, we try to be descriptive of language, not prescriptive. So I think the conclusion will be to list both meanings separately (or perhaps just separated by "or".) --Connel MacKenzie 08:19, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

How do I add the IPA pronuciation?

Choose IPA from the Templates menu in the edit screen and add symbols as necessary. A guide to what the symbols represent can be found here. By the way, please sign what you write on talk pages and in other discussion fora with four tildes (4×~). Raifʻhār Doremítzwr 15:50, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Hi. Over at the English Wikipedia we have a charming tradition where an admin does something which turns out to be controversial, people start to discuss how it should really be handled, and to promote greater harmony various admins then do the same thing a dozen more times to show just how 'right' it was in the first place. This is about to become relevant for Wiktionary because the latest jihad (which began here) is a view that articles containing lists of specialized terms and explanations of those terms belong on Wiktionary rather than Wikipedia. There is some merit to that... but how would something like w:List of legal terms best be 'ported' over to fit within the standard practices of you Wiktionarians? There are half a dozen large lists currently being considered for deletion from Wikipedia on these grounds and dozens more if this view is accepted. Would it make sense to do something like ] for these? A little less user friendly than the list since you have to click back and forth, but does Wiktionary support 'word collections' any other way? --70.111.62.110 22:34, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes. They are called appendices. Look at Special:Allpages in the "Appendix" namespace and you will find many (some better than others). They do not have a common format. SemperBlotto 07:08, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

It looks like you are going to get a lot of appendices soon then. As people will probably want new accounts if/when they move, it might be an idea to have a welcoming committee, together with some pointers to how things work on Wiktionary, with special emphasis on the differences compared to Wikipedia. As you may gather, some people are not happy at the prospect of the move. You might want to contribute to the debate yourselves here. West London Dweller 16:14, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

P.S. It's a pity accounts don't work across wikis - or at least some wikis.West London Dweller

FYI, single login will be implemented in the next few weeks. Expect highly visible announcements soon about when it will begin to be phased in. Rod (A. Smith) 23:11, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Wonderful! I'll be intrigued to see how a couple of issues have been resolved viz when the same person has two differently named accounts on two wikis now; and when two accounts of the same name are owned by different people. I'm not expecting an answer - I can wait a few weeks and find out then. Regards West London Dweller 07:36, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

• The latest I've heard is that SUL will not be turned on until the boardvote is over (just in case it were to cause voting complications.)

• The English Wiktionary uses Special:Import to move Wikipedia articles to Wiktionary's Transwiki: namespace. I have partially automated this. So, to mass-import a Wikipedia category is fairly trivial now. Moving it from Transwiki: to somewhere else is not.

• What items or phrases stand out in {{pediawelcome}} that you would like to see enhanced or refined? Or are you suggesting a Wiktionary:Mass import page be created?

• --Connel MacKenzie 07:36, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

I am trying to teach myself a bit of French, and have found the Wiktionary very useful. There is one problem though, I can't type the French diacritica on this computer. Is there a way to search for words without having to know the right diacritica? For instance I searched for "tete" but I just got a "No page with this exact title exists".

thanks, Rukawa 219.103.175.36 08:08, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunately, you can only search exact spellings. Sometimes a 'redirect' will have been set up by someone from a form without diacritics, but I don't believe there is any way to tell the system to default to 'accentless' letters. For cases when you do know the diacritics you can edit any page you get the diacritic marks from the 'symbols drop-down'. Specifically, if you edit this section and then look below the 'Save page' button you should see a drop-down box which defaults to 'Templates'. Click on that and you will get a list of different 'symbol sets' to display. Choose 'French' and a list of appropriate characters should appear to the right. Then just click on one of those to have it appear wherever the cursor is located (or was last located) in the editing window. Once you have spelled out the word you can then cut and paste it into the search box. Alternatively, you could cut and paste the whole list of characters to a text editor and then use that list to compose your words. --CBDunkerson 11:44, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

At the bottom of edit boxes (when editing a page like this, for example) you can change "Templates" to "Latin/Roman" and enter diacritics that way...then cut-n-paste into a new tab.  :-( Diacritic reduction is a very hot topic right now (especially for zh: and ja:) and several creative ideas are currently being discussed. So, you shouldn't have too much longer to wait. I hope. --Connel MacKenzie 08:15, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Something quite different: you may not be aware of it, but you probably CAN type the accents/diacritics on your computer, you just don't know how. A simple google got me a long list of alt codes which should work (press alt and keep it pressed while entering the numbers). Those alt codes might be different for different computers, so I suggest you search in your computer (if you're using Windows, try searching for "Character Map"), there should be a list somewhere. Although it doesn't seem to work on this iMac. Paul Willocx 17:04, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

• Also of note: you can turn on a preference in WT:PREF to have a similar box for entering special characters in the search box. --Connel MacKenzie 13:14, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

Could a Korean speaker please verify this suspicious looking edit? --Connel MacKenzie 03:32, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

My improvisation/unorthodox solution to such things has always been to Google-Image search them and see what comes up ;) heheh. (In this case, the first one (낙지) returns pictures of octopodes/puses/whatever; the second one returns pictures of various cooked things and also a baby...) Beobach972 05:10, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Wow, what a clever, simple trick. I hope I remember it, the next time I find something like this. --Connel MacKenzie 18:23, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

This is correct. 낙지 is the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris). 문어 is an octopus in general. --Jeannot12 09:57, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Thank you. --Connel MacKenzie 18:23, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Throw-a-way Child, Throwaway Child or even TOO MANY MOUTHS TO FEED? it is throw-away child. — This comment was unsigned.

You know, I'm writing something, and my grammar-checker has just raised a flag that I thought curious. What do you all think, which is correct : "There are still a wide range of witch hunts going on" or "There is still a wide range of witch hunts going on" The first seems natural to me; the second, to my grammar-checker. Beobach972 05:25, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Well obviously, grammatically speaking, the latter makes more sense. But given the "witch hunts" immediately after the "range", it makes sense to think of range as plural as well... seems to me that the second cannot be wrong, though, while the first might be, natural as it sounds. Possibly both are correct. Paul Willocx 10:01, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Your grammar checker is correct, as you are referring to a single range (as denoted by the ‘a’ before “wide range”). Though I imagine that it was helpful enough to offer “There are still wide ranges of witch hunts going on” as an alternative. Raifʻhār Doremítzwr 17:03, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

This is a very commonly asked question. Purist grammarians insist on "there is" because the noun that follows is a singular noun: "a wide range". However, it can be argued that "there is/are" is referring to the witch hunts themselves, in which case, "there are" would be correct.

So one solution that is often put forward is to consider whether you are referring to the items as a whole or individually, and then to use "is" for the whole or "are" for the individual items.

For example, in "My team is an effective force", "is" is correct as "My team" refers to the team as a whole, and so a singular verb applies, but in "I asked the team what they thought", "the team" refers to the individual people in the team, and so "they" (plural) is appropriate. It sounds unnatural to say, "I asked the team what it thought" as that makes the team sound like an inanimate object (and objects cannot have opinions) and that a single opinion is being sought rather than the individual opinions of the team's members.

So the simple solution is to use a singular or plural verb depending on whether the intended sense is the collection as a single entity or the individuals of the collection, respectively. While this goes against the strict grammatical rule, remember that language is intended to communicate, and so does not always fit nicely into the strictures imposed upon it by inflexible grammatical rules. — Paul G 10:30, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

This is an excellent analysis. Beautiful work, Paul G! --Cromwellt|Talk|Contribs 15:12, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

I'm new around here, can I ask a question? --Chris

• You have done. SemperBlotto 18:49, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

I seem to be seeing a lot of squares around here, in place of actually characters I mean. The main characters that are displayed as squares are the IPA and Alchemical or Astro symbols. I'm using IE version 6.0.2900.21.80.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519 - if you got all that! Anyway what can I do to see the symbols and fonts properly? Replies here or on my talk if you like!--Williamsayers79 17:52, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

Ditch IE and download a better browser. Firefox displays the characters correctly, is free, quick to install. Download it from here. — Paul G 10:19, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Works a treat - cheers marra! --Williamsayers79 08:09, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

What does this mean? Someone said this is their motto....I would like to know the meaning.

Thank you for any help you can give me.

— This unsigned comment was added by 70.124.141.62 (talk).

Don't know, but lufu has an entry, as does ond. And Old English was really big on "æ" ligatures, so onrædan might be the correct spelling. --Connel MacKenzie 19:23, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Could someone please inform User:Hnidopich what {{ttbc}} is for, in his native language? He seems to be adding definitions as "ttbc" instead of for the various definitions. --Connel MacKenzie 19:18, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I was wondering if there is a way I can look up a word/synonym that will bring up a page that contains all the synonyms for that word in every language. Therefore, an alphabetical list of languages would be present, and next to each language would be a list of synonyms that suit a specific type of meaning.

blessings,

--K

Entries in English Wiktionary aim to do something close to what you seek for English words. For a more comprehensive list of cross-language synonyms, you may be interested in WiktionaryZ. Is there a specific word whose synonyms you seek? Rod (A. Smith) 07:50, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Is the following comment from the top of Category:Scottish_Gaelic_nouns correct?

What an earth are Scottish Gaelic nouns doing in an English dictionary??? This whole lot should be moved over to gd.wiktionary.org

If not, is it OK to delete it? Thanks, Deilbh 15:29, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

• Crud removed. "ALL words in ALL languages" here - as in every Wiktionary except Simple English. SemperBlotto 15:48, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Correct regarding Simple English Wiktionary. There we are working hard to define only English words, using simple English definitions, so that people whose knowledge of English is limited can use it. --Cromwellt|Talk|Contribs 15:49, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Hello,

Have just stumbled across Wiktionary and my immediate reaction is -- wow! A very important resource and well done so far.

My second reaction: this database of words would be incredibly useful for people learning a language -- would it be possible to set up a page where one could select two or more languages and generate a straight-text list of word pairs common to those languages?

eg:

English Greek Spanish Japanese apple milo manzana  ??? three tria tres san etc etc

This output could then be processed in Excel and used, for example, as a source for language-learning flashcards -- which would be incredibly useful for anybody who has spent hours typing in their own vocabulary lists. Another useful format might just be to output two languages in a format such as:

(EnglishWord) (SpanishWord) (EnglishWord) (SpanishWord) etc.

I'm sure some creative scripting could accomplish this quite quickly, as all the necessary information is just sitting there in the Wiktionary database. If some more technically minded person can figure out how to do this, and can actually implement it, I (and many others I presume) would oh so love to see it --

David Braue wiktionary AT braue.com

Unfortunately, I believe it would be rather difficult to automatically choose the appropriate translation of a word with many meanings... that would almost certainly require someone to pick and choose translation for every word. But I don't know, the Programming Gurus may have some ideas though? \Mike 15:53, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Hi David,

I'm new here and am also interested in the potential of this site for translation as well as foreign language learning. As far as flashcards are concerned, there are 2 sites that I've seen that make use of them for building foreign language skills:

http://www.flashcardexchange.com

http://www.wordchamp.com

I also have a 5 year old child who is starting Spanish immersion kindergarten in a week. I basically think that your simple idea would be very useful for beginning language learners, but first you would have to come up with a standard taxonomy. For example:

Time: second minute hour day week month year decade century millenium ... that's a fairly easy one, since it's so linear, though you might ask where fortnight, semiannual and biannual fit in, or if they should be included at all

Color: red orange yellow green blue indigo violet ... harder, also linear by angstrom unit but where does puce or chartreuse fit in, or for that matter, black and white?

Another possible means of ordering is by usage frequency with the most commonly used words in the category listed first. But the problem there is that a word that is common in one language rarely maps into a word that has the same commonality in another.

Also, think about pictionaries.

Just some thoughts...

Regards, cdesi

Hello. I'm coming from the English Wikipedia as a result of a request on w:Talk:Chode. It is claimed that chode can also refer to choad. According to Talk:chode, this went through RFV and you concluded that no such word exist (however, you do have an entry for choad now). I thought that this link and this one are sufficient proof that the word exists. However, I'm not familiar with the procedures here. I hoped that somebody would do the necessary and know how to overturn the RFV, or perhaps conclude that these links are not sufficient evidence.

Thanks for listening to a clueless newbie; it is a humble experience for somebody who quite knows the policies and procedures on English Wikipedia pretty well. -- Jitse Niesen 13:12, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

The way to overturn an RFV here on the English Wiktionary is to provide three quotations that show the word in use (confer Template:nosecondary) from published books spanning a year or more. The RFV was for the bizarre senses of the term, while the citations found supported the two definitions currently listed here. Note that neither of the souces you linked, support the bizarre definitions directly. The en.wiktionary.org community has concluded that the "wider than long" definition is simple recurring vandalism.

Please note that there are two types of RFVs: one for the entire term, one for specific senses/definitions. The RFV process has not yet been expanded to separate the two more clearly.

--Connel MacKenzie 16:26, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply. I didn't realize that the RFV was specifically for the "wider than long" definition. I'm happy with not mentioning that meaning. All I'm proposing is that chode should mention, in addition to its archaic meaning, that it's an alternative spelling for "choad", just like choad mentions that that word can also be spelt "chode". In fact, since this is not covered by the RFV, I'm was bold and add that to chode. However, I now had a look at the history and see what you mean with "recurring vandalism" (for what it's worth, we're having the same problem at Wikipedia), so I've having some doubts whether this was a good idea. Could you please check my edit and adapt according to your guidelines (I couldn't find how to order both meanings), or revert if necessary? -- Jitse Niesen 03:53, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

What is a 'berral nut'?

I think you mean barrel nut SemperBlotto 07:29, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm looking for a couple of words:

• A word that means: deliberately interpretting an instruction by the literal meaning rather than the spirit of the words. (A form of disobeying without technically disobeying.)

• I saw this word on wikipedia but I can't remember what it was: a term from psychology for the fallacy of assign a motive to action, as assuming that someone did something to deliberately incovenience you rather than they were behaving in an unrelated manner.

Thank you. RJFJR 13:08, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

obstructive; obstructionist; pedantic? Andrew massyn 21:37, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

For the first maybe literalism? Other online dictionaries have an entry for that one. For the second perhaps you mean "intentionalist fallacy"? Though I can't find that in wikipedia anywhere, google has some hits. Speed8ump from 65.188.215.217 07:05, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Hi, I'm from the pt wiktionary and we're having there a big argument about the policy decision process and about what should be regulated by an official policy. It would help us a lot if we had an idea of how these questions are treated here at the en wiktionary. So if anyone would be so kind to explain it to me, even briefly, or point to a page where this is explained, I would be very thankful. Looking at the Category:Policies_-_Wiktionary_Top_Level and scanning through the Beer Parlour it seems to me that the votings are not very usual nor important (and by that I mean that consensus and discussions play a more important role than votings) and that there are just a few official and semi-official rules, am I correct? My main question is: is there any official or traditionally accepted policy on voting? --Schoenfeld 12:32, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I personally would not look to en.wikt as the example for refined decision making. I am not sure how things work on all projects, but many decisions are made here through fairly random processes, rather than one set in stone, tried and true method. The best way to go about it, in my opinion, is to figure out what the most people on your project find acceptable and then clearly state that somewhere obvious as a policy. We are more or less impotent when it come to establishing policies, we opperate more on the "trend" level, just try and do it how most other people are doing it and it works out. Causes plenty of debate, but it does work out. - TheDaveRoss 14:55, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Got it, thanks. --Schoenfeld 21:49, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

If I'm in the WT namespace, and I write ], it will link to WT:apple. But how do I link to WP:apple? The following does not work: ] Thanks, Lumbercutter 23:13, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Pre-empt the link with a "w:" and it will link to en.wikipedia ] yeilds w:apple.

Also of note is the template {{wikipedia}} which yeilds a point such as the one which can be found at Newton. - TheDaveRoss 23:22, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

TheDaveRoss is da man. Exactly what I needed. Thanks. Lumbercutter 02:37, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I've added this to WT:FAQ. --Connel MacKenzie 01:36, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure there's a word that fills in the blank in this sentence:

English is _______ in adopting words from other languages.

It's the same word one would use of a host whose door is always open to visitors. It's sort of an inverse or contrapositive of "generous": gladly willing to receive. The words "liberal", "congenial", "garrulous", and "promiscuous" all come cloose or share aspects, but none of these words is right. —scs 14:04, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

I think that if Wikt had a Wikisaurus for unselfish or tolerant you might have some luck with synonyms of those. Neither seem right, but maybe on the list of near-hits you have there. - TheDaveRoss 14:51, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps a synonym of welcoming, accomodating, receptive, accepting, open, or even, when it comes to French, German, etc neighbourly. --Enginear 19:15, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

"not passé" --Connel MacKenzie 15:07, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

I would submit permissive. Lumbercutter 01:13, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

My memory may be faulty, but here I go anyway. I remember my grandmother telling me about her brother supporting himself (at nine years old) by working as a "nit picker" in a textile mill (early 1900s). She said that cotton lint would gather around parts of machinery and that children, because of their small and nimble fingers, were hired to pick the lint from the machinery. I realize she may have said "lint picker" but that is not what I remember. I can find no reference to this definition of "nit picker." Thank you, Katy Brown

I'm surprised we don't have an entry for nitpicker. (It's not like we don't have any of 'em around here! :-) ) My understanding is that it comes from the once-important pastime of picking nits -- lice eggs -- from your friend's or sibling's hair. —scs 12:38, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Turns out we do have entries on nitpick and nit-picking. See also the Wikipedia article. (But perhaps you knew all that. In answer to your explicit question, I've never heard the textile mill explanation, and I can't find any support for it on the web. It seems quite possible that your grandmother and her brother had heard the term "nitpicking" and, blissfully unaware of its real meaning, invented their own.) —scs 13:32, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Possible, but it seems much more likely to me that there was no misunderstanding or invention on their part, but rather that that's just what that task was called colloquially in that region, or that mill, at that time—analogous to how masons sometimes call mortar "mud". It's a natural process for technical terms (that is, the colloquial ones that the workers use, not the written ones that managers use) to be jocular parallels to other aspects of life. For example, I'd bet that the term "wild weasel" was born among military pilots as a jocular, colloquial usage and only later became the "normal" term for AAA/SAM-radar-baiting. I could easily see such a lint-picking job being called "nit-picking" by the workers. That it never got into a dictionary or the internet and now has disappeared has more to do with its jocular, colloquial, technical, and now-obsolete nature than with its never having existed. Lumbercutter 18:00, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

P.S. I just looked up "slang" in AHD4, and its two noun senses combined describe exactly the process that I was trying to get at above: "1. A kind of language occurring chiefly in casual and playful speech, made up typically of short-lived coinages and figures of speech that are deliberately used in place of standard terms for added raciness, humor, irreverence, or other effect. 2. Language peculiar to a group; argot or jargon: thieves' slang." Katy, you can be pretty confident that what your grandmother was using was a real, but now-obsolete, textile-mill-slang sense of the word "nit-picker". That would not mean that it was used in all textile mills or for many decades. It could have been much more localized than that. Lumbercutter 18:07, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

I see that technical dictionary information can be appropriate for wiktionary (eg. Appendix:Legal terms, Category:Computing) On the automobile wikiproject, we have a few glossary articles like w:Automotive design terminology and w:Car body style. Are some of these appropriate for moving to Wiktionary? Are there any policies that pertain to technical entries specifically (beyond attestation or any of the other criteria for inclusion)? Is technical dictionary information discouraged in any way? --Interiot 15:28, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

I would say, absolutely yes, it's appropriate! Personally, the only thing I like to do specially for words in large, specialized vocabularies is to tag them in some way, e.g.

beltline

1. (automotive design) The line going from the hood which usually follows the bottom edge of the windows and continues to the trunk.

notchback

1. (automotive design) A cross between the smooth fastback and angled sedan look.

And of course obviously the tag should be consistent. Since it's not always obvious what the best tag name is, and since we might want to categorize or otherwise handle specialized vocabularies specially, it's very handy to invent a template to use for the tagging; for example we already have {{mathematics}} (i.e. Template:mathematics) which expands to "(mathematics)". See Category:Label templates for a list of the tags that exist so far. (But I have to warn you that there's a little bit of dissent on the project right now about the aggessive use of templates in this way; see Wiktionary:Beer parlour#category/tag for railroading terms? for part of that discussion, or Wiktionary:Beer parlour#Category:English nouns for a bunch more of it.)

Also, I notice that some of the "specialized" terms in your automotive design glossaries aren't so different from the ways the terms are used in everyday life, so you'll want to be careful that in doing a wholesale import of everything you've got, you don't create too much redundancy or duplication of senses. (For example, we've already got hood, spoiler, and wheelbase, and convertible, limousine, and station wagon.) —scs 16:42, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

In trying to answer a question on a Wikipedia help desk, I'd love to use this

template. Assuming the license allows me to do this, what's the easiest way to do this? Thanks, --217.41.58.235 10:00, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

If you're only going to use it once or twice, the best and easiest way would be to copy the code from Template:nyms and insert at relevant places. If you'd like to be *very* strict about the license, you could point to that page in you edit comment or wherever, but I don't think most people would bother ;) You may want, however, to change the links as they at wp will refer to pages/categories which presumably does not exist on wikipedia. If you'd like them to point to the wiktionary pages, just add 'wikt:' after each '