castanyes blaves

Random ramblings about some random stuff, and things; but more stuff than things -- all in a mesmerizing and kaleidoscopic soapbox-like flow of words.

10/17/2005

 

Don't gawk

I was watching the "Stuck on you" DVD the other day and found out that "gawk" is, apart from the GNU version of the program "awk", an english verb:

Definitions of gawk on the Web:

* lout: an awkward stupid person

* goggle: look with amazement; look stupidly

wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

It is funny how biased one can be when learning new words of a language not in an academic way, but from using the words in everyday's life.

I remember playing "Civilization" when I was a kid, and learning the word "settlers" by context, simply by learning that this character in the game meant something I related to the Far West "colonizers".

Definitions of settlers on the Web:

* Settlers are people who have travelled of their own choice, from the land of their birth to live in "new" lands or colonies. In modern history, the word "settlers" is synonymous with terms like pioneers, colonists, or (as British people once called them) "colonials". It has been argued that all peoples are "settlers", since migration has featured throughout human history and prehistory. However, the word settler is generally used only in relation to modern or early modern history.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlers


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