Re: file searching/vista help

[Bill Troop billtroop@xxxxxxxx]

The Random House dictionary is very open to criticism. It's a pity
that Rodale (if I recall correctly) used its organization of senses
as a basis for grouping senses in his wonderful 'Synonym Finder' --
speaking of which, (1) why isn't Rodale's Synonym Finder available on
the computer and (2) why does XyWrite's syn finder function seem to
be better than anything else I have found?

At 4/21/2008 04:23 AM, you wrote:
Reply to note from Paul Lagasse  Sun, 20 Apr
2008 08:08:12 -0400

> > The problem is that I suspect that many people misinterpret
> > "willy-nilly" to mean "carelessly, sloppily, done `with the
> > side of your foot'" (as my mother used to say).
>
> You're a prescriptivist, eh. Most dicts now carelessly let many
> people have their way with a second def of willy-nilly,

To my surprise, Random House Unabridged Dictionary has "in a
disorganized or unplanned manner; sloppily" as the *first*
definition. Really.

OED makes a concession to the extent of "2. erron. Undecided,
shilly-shally", but doesn't even mention the "sloppily" sense. But
RHUD's primary definition is clearly "erron." as well.

--
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxx