My intention this week was a post that was short and sweet.
The phrase made me think of a definition of an éclair I’d once heard, but then when I Googled, I’d got wrong.
The Chambers Dictionary defined an éclair as “a cake, long in shape but short in duration”. This caused some controversy amongst some dictionary purists who thought that such a jovial description had no place in a book of word descriptions.
They were removed by the publisher in the 1970s, but many of them were reinstated in 1983 because of the affection in which they were held by readers.
Other interesting definitions come from Samuel Johnson (who is accredited with inventing the dictionary) include:
- Dull, adjective: Not exhilarating; not delightful: as, to make dictionaries is dull work.
- Oats, noun: “A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.”
Today the bearer of new (often lewd) definitions is Urban Dictionary.
In other news…
I entered a strange internet rabbit hole this week by discovering a new form of, well, I guess, art.
It begins with a simple, but limitless game called Line Rider. You draw lines on a screen with your mouse and a stick figure on a sledge follows the course.
Some people have begun syncing this to music and the results are magical.
Words can’t explain it nearly as good as the videos.