Let’s start the week with a listener suggestion. This one is from an anonymous listener. The word is diction. It is noun with two similar definitions. One is the choice of words. The second definition is, clarity or distinctness of pronunciation and speech.

The word comes from the latin dictus meaning to say. As I am sure you can guess, dictus is the root of several dict words like dictionary, dictate and jurisdiction.

Today’s quote is from Oscar Wilde by way of Eric Jean of Montreal, Quebec. Eric has a weekly blog podcast at DeadWhiteMales.net. His podcast offers a brief discussion of literature and the arts. “The aim of the show is not to pretend to any exclusive knowledge. Rather, simply to share his own thoughts on these subjects in an effort to make them that much more interesting and approachable.”

Here is his recommended Oscar Wilde Quote:

“Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.”

- Oscar Wilde, dying in a Paris bedroom.

Oscar Wilde was a 19th Century Poet and playwright. He is most famous for his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and the play The Importance of Being Earnest. The Complete text of The Importance of Being Earnest is available from WikiSource. If you don’t like reading you can watch the 2002 movie.

Today’s word was heard on Dawn and Drew’s Monday podcast. The word is shiftless.

Shiftless is an adjective that means lazy, lacking drive and motivation or just incompetent. I will withhold judgment on Dawn an Drew’s listeners but sloths are notoriously shiftless.

Dawn’s last name is spelled Miceli.

Today’s word can be found in a post on BoingBoing.net. The post is about Wikipedia.organd the recent discussions about it’s future. The word is inimical. It is an adjective that describes something harmful or hostile. It comes from the latin inimcus which is also the root of the word enemy.

Clay Shirky used the word when describing the difference between Wikipedia’s structure and the traditional academic distribution of knowledge. He wrote, “of course librarians, teachers, and academics don’t like the Wikipedia. It works without privilege, which is inimical to the way those professions operate.” What I think Clay is saying is Wikipedia, to borrow yesterdays word, disintermediates the traditional vetting and storage of knowledge and the academic establishment doesn’t like it.

Twenty years ago knowledge went from an author through an editor, a publisher and then into a library where a librarian then made it available to a researcher. And if it was really special information like a journal article or encyclopedia a user probably couldn’t take it out of the library. Today, with the Internet and specifically Wikipedia, any author can contribute and any user can get the content with out the editor, publisher or librarian.

You can find a link to Cory’s Complete post at Corante.com.

Today’s word provides an interesting study in the differences in various dictionaries. The word is disintermediation. I was reminded of the word by IPaction.org. “IPac[tion] is a nonpartisan group dedicated to preserving individual freedom through balanced intellectual property policy.” If you think intellectual property laws favor large organizations at the expense of individuals and independent you should check out and hopefully donate to IPaction.org.

I thought disintermediation would be a good word because podcasting is disintermediating audio content. And that is the first definition of disintermediation. A noun that describes the removal of intermediaries or distributors from the supply chain. It is a word that was thrown around a lot back during the Internet boom. When everyone thought manufacturers were going to sell everything direct to consumers and all the retailers would be put out of business.

The other definition was new to me. Also a noun, it refers to the diversion of money from a saving account to a higher yield investment like stock.

As I mentioned earlier the differences in the reference sources is interesting. Only one listed both definitions (Encarta). Five listed the diversion of money and only two listed the the definition I was familiar with, the removal of intermediaries.

Both definitions:

• Encarta

Removal of intermediaries:

• AskOxford.com


• Wikipedia.com

Diverting savings:

• Merriam-Webster
  
• WordSpy.com


• Bartleby.com


• InfoPlease


• Dictionary.com