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June 2005Beyond the Dictionary: Quran or KoranTransliterating the name of Islam's sacred scripture from the Arabic into the Roman alphabet gives us more than one spelling, and that's just the beginning of what most of us don't know about this holy book. Learn more and see the article on Quran from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia, available online to all Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Merriam-Webster Collegiate subscribers. August 2005Beyond the Dictionary: stoicism and contemptThe July 7 bombings of the London transit system reminded some observers of fortitude and the stoicism of Londoners during the World War II bombings. Learn more about stoicism from an article in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia, available online to all Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Merriam-Webster Collegiate subscribers. Throughout the month, people talked about the civil contempt charges against reporter Judith Miller and looked the word up in the dictionary. To broaden your understanding of the many ways in which one can be in contempt, check out the entry for contempt in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. October 2005Beyond the Dictionary: aneurysmOctober is National Medical Librarian’s Month, which is appropriate as interest in medical terms is running high. Aneurysm, dysentery, and triage were just a few of the frequently looked-up medical terms last month. Merriam-Webster’s Medical Dictionary, newly available to Merriam-Webster Unabridged subscribers, offers particularly good coverage of these words, as well as 60,000 more words. April 2006Beyond the Dictionary: poetryApril is National Poetry Month. William Wordsworth's famous definition of poetry still seems to get it best: "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings from emotions recalled in tranquility." However, if that isn't enough, try out a more in-depth investigation of poetry in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia.
May 2006Beyond the Dictionary: genocideThe ongoing conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands and has left another two million people homeless. In September 2004, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell labeled the killings genocide; last month's protests over the conflict moved that word to the 77th position on the most-looked-up list.
October 2007Beyond the DictionaryNews reports on Iraq's benchmarks for democracy and on Myanmar's military efforts to crush their nation's pro-democracy movement have meant that the word democracy has been getting a significant number of look-ups — it earned the number 16 spot last month. The concept of representative democracy arose less from ancient Greek practice than from ideas and institutions that developed in medieval Europe, during the Enlightenment, and in the American and French Revolutions. The dictionary tells us "people" put the "dem-" in "democracy" but the Encyclopedia tells us much more. May 2009Beyond the DictionaryKnown variously as Mexican flu, North American flu and H1N1 influenza, the disease in the U. S. is most commonly known as swine flu. No matter what you call it, it's important to get a good medical definition of the illness. |