Dictionary.com offer a word of the day e.g.

Dictionary.com/Word of the Day/agon (http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/)

and a daily updated link for sites etc.

Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/help/linking/wordoftheday-expert.html)

Any chance of this getting added to the site?

I already get in in my e-mail but thought it might be of interest to the site. Possibly encourage creative use of that word daily / sentence containing that word?

What do you think?

So does my favorite, merriam-webster online.
http://www.m-w.com/

I like it. Our weekly Toastmasters International meeting does that as well, at the beginning of each meeting. The Wordmaster for the week presents the word, defines it, and keeps count of how many times it is used during the meeting.

I don't know how much of that would be adaptable to a forum like this, but with the importance of vocabulary in a writer's toolbox, I would like to see something of the sort.

The trickiest aspect of a word of the day, as I see it, is conveying not only the denotation, or literal dictionary meaning, but also the connotation, the shades of meaning that a word carries along with it.

I'll check it out, and see what Daniel says.

Great, thanks for following up Raven.

Actually, i think something even better would be quote of the day, e.g a quote from a novel

edit: ya really.

I think that's a good idea, but is there an appliction capable of doing that automatically, or would the quote have to be changed manually?

Manually would be a heavy task wouldn't it! :o

I would say there is an application to do it automatically

Anyway sorry to take over this topic, I'll make my own :p

I've thought about getting a
quote of the day" feature but haven't gotten to it yet.

Alternatively, we could have the word of the day feature.

Either way it would probably be from another site (or I could acquire a database). I could probably fairly easily get a word of the day, but it would be like the exactly word as dictionary.com.

Thoughts?

I'm in favour of it. Even if it is the same as dictionary.com, it helps build vocabulary, with some obscure words.

Obviously I'm in favour - if it's plausable, and Lpspider agrees.

If we do this, it may be worthwghile if our eagle-eyed members watch for and mention spelling variations between different dialects of English, and perhaps any special connotations that the dictionary definition does not make clear, such as a word being very often used to imply a degree of sarcasm. These shades of meaning make the difference between just using obscure words and painting subtly shaded word pictures.

I think it would be a wonderful idea and I agree with Cogito.

I think its worth a go. And a good idea.

I like the idea of a word a day.

I already do a quote a day on myspace and people seem to enjoy it.

I just thought I'd nudge this to see what's happening with it, since it's a good idea. Any progress?

Where exactly would the word be shown?

I was thinking on the home page, somewhere near the top, perhaps?

I'd like it to come with a thread so that we can post example phrases of our own using the word.

Actually, that's a very good idea, Gannon. That way it would have some practical and creative use.

I think it'd be cool, maybe we could learn some new words.

I like the idea, but currently any rss feed that has the word of the day that I can find simply clutters up the site (because the provider requires a link/description back to their site). This simply clutters it up to much.

I'll try to keep this on the "wish list" but for now I'm going to have to say no, for the above reason. One solution would be for me to establish my own site with a word database, but that might be more work that it's worth. :p

Today's word:

per·e·gri·na·tion Pronunciation[per-i-gruh-ney-shuhn]
–noun 1. travel from one place to another, esp. on foot.
2. a course of travel; journey.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Origin: 1425–75; late ME peregrinacioun (< MF peregrinacion) < L peregrīnātiōn- (s. of peregrīnātiō) a traveling abroad. See peregrinate, -ion]


—Synonyms 1, 2. trip, excursion, expedition.

Reference:
peregrination. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved June 24, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: peregrination - Definitions from Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/peregrination)

Thanks Lp and Cogito - are we allowed to copy and paste the dictionary.com WOTD in this manner though? Wouldn't want any one getting into trouble, either on this site, or with dictionary.com?

This should be covered under fair usage, and I was careful to cite the reference. If this is a concern, though, submitters could give theri own definitions after looking up the word in multiple sources.

Daniel, do you have any concerns with this? Or should we just scrap the individual contributions as too risky?

As long as you cite the source, it should be okay.

Figuline

A piece of pottery ornamented with representations of natural objects.

Whose figulines and rustic wares Scarce find him bread from day to day. --Longfellow.

Reference:
figuline. (n.d.). Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. Retrieved June 25, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/figuline

Maybe it'd be best to create a new thread elsewhere for word of the day? Rather than in the support forum. :D

That'd be good - where do you recommend?

Perhaps pinned in either The Lounge or General Writing?

Ok, I'll copy the current word to a new thread under General Writing.

General Writing seems like a suitable place.

Gannon had a suggestion, which sounds good to me.
Daniel, what do you think?

Cogito I think I'd like to see the Word of the Day be a folder rather than a thread for several reasons.

ease of use and reference
so as to enable threaded replies
so that we can be creative with each word in seperate threads and not mix that

and other reasons I'm sure, which sadly now escape me.

I think having them in one thread will cause them to mostly be overlooked, which would be a shame.

Let me know what you think, perhaps you could take it up with Lp?

Hmmm.... by folder do you mean have it's own forum? or...?

Yes, by folder I meant a subforum under General Writing. mammamaia points out that that could become unweildy though. I'm really not sure what approach is best.

If we did this, then perhaps the most recent day can be stickied.

I don't think discussion of the word should be barred.. but at the same time we need to keep it tidy.

Yes. I think it is a better idea for people to try to use the word in their writing (including the Word Games!), and mostly confine discussion in the WOTD threads to clarifoications of the exact meaning and connotations, just to keep it reasonably orderly. I don't recommend any enforcement, just hope people will keep the guidelines in mind.

WhispWillow suggested:
Edit: hmm, how will this work? There is inevitably going to be off-topicness or at least posts which aren't the word of the day, so it will be hard to see them :/

How about having the most recent in the first post or something?

That sounds like a maintenance nightmare, especially in keeping the WOTD history. For now I'll just do it as a regular thread, unless we come up with a better way to structure it.

I'll tell you what, do it in the thread for now and we'll get back to you

Thanks. I figured that was the best way to get it rolling. That doesn't mean it can't change later, of course.