Cool Gift of the Day
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
What it is:
A limited dictionary that explores the finest details of language and grammar, for the serious word geek.
Why we love it:
For most people, words are nothing more than a means to communicate ideas. They're a tool, like a car, or a computer, but just as there are computer geeks and car fanatics, there are word nerds. The linguaphile is obsessed, enthralled, bewitched by words, they may play scrabble, do unimaginably tough crossword puzzles and otherwise entertain themselves with the study of words. You can't give a person like this an ordinary dictionary, indeed, they certainly have one, probably more than one. They don't need an ordinary dictionary, they need a special dictionary, suited to their elegant taste in words. Enter the Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate, a dictionary designed especially for the verbal geek. Its definitions are prescriptive rather than descriptive (for the non word geek, that means the definitions explain how language should be used, not how it often is used) and utterly precise. You won't find definitions for commonly accepted words in this dictionary, only the words that need an extra bit of explaining are included here. Even the most serious of geeks will probably find something new and exciting to learn in this little dictionary, and learning something new about language is a word nerd's greatest joy.
Who we'd give it to:
Word geeks, writers, teachers, Scrabble experts.
Where to get it:
From
Amazon.com for an overeducated $11.56