OK: how much did your subscription to WOTD actually "help" you to learn some new words? How many of them do you actually remember?

This is a topic about WOTD discussion, so I presume this fits into the main idea of it. Topics don’t always have to be named and talk about words.

This might better fit into the Omnibus section.

As far as how much it ‘helps’... I don’t think that’s why I like this website so much.  I enjoy this as a means to discuss word histories, strange etymologies, curious facts, humorous notions, etc.

I do not consider WOTD useful in the same way that writing, drawing, travelling or cycling are not useful to me. Those are things that I enjoy doing. Learning new words is part of the benefits of having a good time. Sometimes I use a few of the words from WOTD, other times I am just happy to know (at least for a few minutes) that there is a special word for that obscure concept and forget them without guilt.

By the way, I am not for word economy, but for word proliferation. Communication would be so much easier if we were able to use the right word at the right time.

Well, perhaps… I was going for the thing that this topic is about WOTD (particularly about the discussion).

If you are having difficulty retaining our words of the day, I must ask to what extent are you using our entire course of vocabulary building resources.  yourDictionary that backs up its Word-of-the-Day service with a suite of testy little games: cross-word puzzles (for spelling and meaning), semantic scrambles (for meanings), and spell-binders (for spelling) based on our Words of the Day.  (Don’t ask how often we update them.)

Remember also, vocabulary-building is but one of several goals of our service, which also include correct usage, discovering ourselves and our history in words and having fun doing so.  

—RB

[quote author=Dr. Language link=board=omni;num=1044973031;start=0#5 date=02/11/03 at 10:10:58]... with a suite of testy little games…

(From AHD)

tes·ty

Irritated, impatient, or exasperated; peevish: a testy cab driver; a testy refusal to help.

A rare and delicious opportunity to catch out Dr. L?  Or is this the beginning of the transformation of the meaning of this little word?

But, to return to the point and to get back on topic:

WOTD has "helped" me over the time I have been receiving the service in different ways.  From time to time I have relearned words which I had forgotten or at least rarely called to mind when they may have been apposite.  I have encountered words of greater or lesser interest that were previously unknown to me and which may be useful, at least to know and understand even if not to use directly.  Indirectly, I have learned about the opinions, fetishes and foibles of others who have an interest in words - consider the mixed reactions to jeechet, sadly now lost to posterity.

Is this "help", is this mere "diversion"?  I neither know nor care - I simply keep coming back for more.

Maybe the sentence is too parsimonious, so it is difficult to get that idea.  :)

Oooh, not just made of gold but set in silver too? How delightful!

I don’t know if it’s significantly improved my vocabulary, but I value the mental exercises that the Agora inspires. I may forget the specifics, but the idea remains.

[quote author=Dr. Language link=board=omni;num=1044973031;start=0#5 date=02/11/03 at 10:10:58]If you are having difficulty retaining our words of the day, I must ask to what extent are you using our entire course of vocabulary building resources.  yourDictionary that backs up its Word-of-the-Day service with a suite of testy little games: cross-word puzzles (for spelling and meaning), semantic scrambles (for meanings), and spell-binders (for spelling) based on our Words of the Day.  (Don’t ask how often we update them.)

Remember also, vocabulary-building is but one of several goals of our service, which also include correct usage, discovering ourselves and our history in words and having fun doing so.  

—RB

No, not at all! I don’t have any difficulties (if you referred to my post). I actually use it for a variety of reasons (as I use your site in that much reasons). It is so much more than a vocabulary "builder" site.
But, as I feared, it served little or nothing to the majority of those who visit these pages. They are more "factographers and word collectors" than true interesants in "wordlore". I hope this will change soon… 8)

and What is the difference between factographers and word collectors and true interesants in wordlore? (whatever interesants and wordlore are).

Since intéressant, -e, is the French adjective for interesting, I’m assuming interesants means "persons interested."

Wordlore would be the lore of words.  Then again, I’ve been wrong before, and most likely will be again in the future.  

I share you assumptions, but I don’t understand the difference. Today is obtuse day for me.  :)

Ahh, should have read your question more closely.  

I think he’s making a distinction between someone who merely collects facts, perhaps as a hobby, and someone who is truly passionate about words and dedicates their entire life to the pursuit of words, their history and etymology, and the understanding of their effect on people, society, and culture.  I fall somewhere in between those two extremes.  

Then again . . .  ;)

What does ‘uncronopio’ mean? 8)

Un Cronopio refers to a place in Argentina, doesn’t it Luis?

-Tim

uncronopio comes from un + cronopio. un is the equivalent to the "a" indeterminate article in Spanish, while cronopio is a type of literary creatures invented by one of my favourite authors: Julio Cortazar (who is Argentinian).

Cronopios appeared in the book "Historias de Cronopios and Famas" (translated as Cronopios and Famas) in 1962. These were times of great experimentation in literature written in Spanish (and other languages too). You can see a review of the book in English here. Some comments by readers. More comments here.

A list of all the short stories included in the book is here.

An English version of one of the stories of the book (but that does not refer to the cronopios) is in my site. Yes, I have uncronopio as my domain name. Unfortunately, most of the information about cronopios is in Spanish. If you see the book, please give it a try, because according to Pablo Neruda:

Anyone who doesn’t read Cortazar is doomed. Not to read him is a serious invisible disease which in time can have terrible consequences. Something similar to a man who has never tasted peaches. He would quietly become sadder . . . and, probably, little by little, he would lose his hair.

PS. I remember that, in the early 1980s, there were three bookshops by the same owner in Mendoza (one of the large cities in Argentina). They were called "Historias de", "Cronopios" and "Famas". That was a beautiful homage to the largest Cronopio of us all.