Mac Users and the Thesaurus
The Thesaurus.com conundrum continues…but I have great news for Mac users. Built right into my MacBook is an extraordinary reference library, complete with a thesaurus. Now, it isn’t quite as stupendous as the thesaurus.com of yesteryear, but it’s pretty darn close.
Besides the thesaurus, Mac’s reference tool even connects to Wikipedia – that mother of all Wikis. This thing makes me look incredibly smart on an hourly basis.
I’m loving it, I’m working it…and it’s working for me.
(and, yes, I wanted the image to be that big – that’s how happy and grateful I am)
Filed under Critical Copywriting | Tags: blog writing, Blogging, blogs, copywriting, google alerts, Julie Roads, Mac, Mac tools, Macbook, reference tools, references online, synonyms, thesaurus, thesaurus.com, wikipedia, wikis, Writing Roads | Comment (0)thesaurus.com changed their source and material
So, it seems that thesaurus.com did not succumb to my blog rant. At exactly the same time that I wrote my April 15th post, thesaurus.com was changing their entire site. The result is that it is now terrible and completely unhelpful.
Even more interesting is that someone who didn’t identify themselves left a comment on my blog maintaining that I was responsible for the whole shebang. I don’t think so! It was fun to think that they just changed one little entry, but I don’t think my blog post could make them completely revamp their whole site.
Unless this had happened a lot – still then it wasn’t just me. I like to think I’m powerful, but come on!
Filed under Myth or Reality, News | Tags: blog writing, Blogging, blogs, copywriting, google alerts, synonyms, thesaurus, thesaurus.com | Comment (0)blogging is powerful…and so are google alerts
Okay. So this is either a HUGE coincidence or good things happen to those that blog in the name of writing and word justice.
On April 15th, I wrote a blog post about thesaurus.com listing ‘weak’, among other degrading words, as a synonym for ‘female’.
Then, during my web marketing workshop on the 16th, I took my class to see the offensive entry…and it was gone (cue music). They also changed the ‘male’ entry. The ‘female’ replacement is:
| Main Entry: | feminine | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective | |
| Definition: | Of, relating to, or characteristic of women. | |
| Synonyms: | distaff, womanish, womanly, female | |
| Source: | Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved. |
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Fascinating. No comments were left on my blog, by the way. My detective skills think this happened: thesaurus.com got a Google Alert about themselves, read my post, changed their entry. As I said, it could be some crazy coincidence…but I don’t know. My other guess is that some irate woman that works at thesaurus.com happened upon the ‘female’ entry on their site and demanded it be changed…still the timing is mind-boggling.
Thesaurus.com – thank you for doing the right thing. No matter why the ‘female’ entry has been changed, the bottom line is that it has been changed – thank goddess.
Filed under Critical Copywriting, News | Tags: blog writing, Blogging, blogs, copywriting, google alerts, synonyms, thesaurus, thesaurus.com | Comment (0)when words – and websites – are wrong
Call me picky…
Here I am looking for good words and ideas for an event for a women’s domestic violence agency and THIS is what I find. (And yes, I use thesaurus.com all the time – I love it, it gets the creative juices flowing – it’s like my own little writer’s club – the words speak to me and invite my brain to move in every direction.)
| Main Entry: | female |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | womanly |
| Synonyms: | changeable, child-bearing, delicate, effeminate, effete, fair, feminine, fertile, gentle, girlish, girly, graceful, ladylike, maidenly, matronly, modest, muliebral, oviparous, petticoat, pistil-bearing, pistillate, pure, refined, reproductive, sensitive, she-stuff, shy, soft, tender, twisty, virgin, vixenish, weak, womanish, womanlike |
Look at the 3rd to last synonym…no, your eyes are not deceiving you. They have ‘weak’ listed as a synonym for ‘female’. Last time I checked, that was an opinion – a lame, misogynistic, sexist, patriarchal opinion.
If you are reading this thesaurus.com – bring it on. Show me how this is fact, I dare you.
And, please take your opinions off of your resource page….now, I’m off to find a new online thesuarus. If anyone knows one that won’t offend 51% of the population (and some good men out there as well), let me know. By the way, there are other words you’ve listed that are also offensive and not truly synonyms of ‘female’ – shy, virgin, soft…I could keep going.
Oh – and here are some ‘weak’ females:
Serena Hilary Madonna
