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We just completed another database upload, adding over 700 new words.
Our commitment to support this program with a database that represents pretty much the entire English language constantly keeps us on our toes, searching for new words, recording live those that could stand improvement, editing the accompanying information.
Every time one of our members adds a word that is not found in the database, we receive a call for evaluation. Many times the word was left out because it was not the base form of a word (dreams or dreaming instead of "dream").
Such variations are frequently not included, unless they are irregular.
Often the word is not found because it is misspelled or does not exist (as per Merriam-Webster and other lexical authorities). Sometimes it is a real find - a word that is not yet in our database, but should be.
One of the new words that now adorns our precious word collection is Mary Poppins' famous song title Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
The only reason why a project of eSpindle's dimensions is possible is the advanced technology of TTS (Text-To-Speech), and the good sound quality it now provides. We refer to our computer voice as "Mike," and Mike does amazingly well on most challenges, breezing through the bulk of words and sample sentences errorfree and even attempting that certain human sounding modulation.
Want to hear how Mike, the computer voice, says supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? - http://www.espindle.org/audio/words/97757.mp3.
Pretty impressive, hm ;-)?
By the way, this is what Wikipedia has to say about the meaning of this word, which is one of the longest words of the English language:"The word itself has obscure origins, pertaining as to when it was first used, but the roots are fairly clear, as Richard Lederer wrote in his book Crazy English:
super- "above," cali- "beauty," fragilistic- "delicate," expiali- "to atone," and docious- "educable," the sum meaning roughly "Atoning for extreme and delicate beauty while still being highly educable."
This is the perfect word for Mary Poppins to use, being that she thinks of herself as incredibly beautiful but also extremely intelligent, which makes up for it."
In response to adding supercalifragilisticexpialidocius to our database, I received this little sentence in my email box from one of our editors (thanks, Sandi!).
This sentence is of unknown origin. It goes like this:
Imagine a holy man, who walks barefoot most of the time, producing an impressive set of calluses on his feet. Many times, such a mystic will also eat very little, which makes him rather frail, and his minimal diet may lead to bad breath.
This would make him - are you ready for this? -
A "super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis."
