Because we're going even further off-topic, I promise to make this my last comment. First, Yardbird, I can't help thanking you for the learned gloss in your second and third sentences on the point you made sufficiently in your first.
Second, much as I enjoy reading old dictionaries, beginning with Sam Johnson's quirky first effort, words have a habit of changing meaning over time. The 1913 definition of "computer" would surely be lacking for today's purposes. Snafu wouldn't even have existed, although it had as many reasons to back then as it does today.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Yardbird" <yardbird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>Well, I still feel most at home with dictionary.com or Webster's. One man's meat, and so forth. As the noted American philosopher David Byrne says in volume 3, Chapter 32, verse 2 of "Life during Wartime," there's (sic) a million ways to get things done.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Adrian Spratt" <A.Spratt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2006 8:44 PM Subject: Re: define difficultI notice that the definitions on this website are ancient. I will stay with Google and thank Blake for his one-keystroke solution. Typically, Google also gives a link to the definition above the search results, although not in the simplified www.google.com/ie mode.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Yardbird" <yardbird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>Here's an example. I created a new message to wsmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, and in the subject line, typed only define difficult
And sent it off. Here's the reply: ----- Original Message ----- From: "Wordsmith" <wsmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <yardbird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 2 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:Difficult \Dif"fi*cult\, v. t. To render difficult; to impede; to perplex. [R.] --Sir W. Temple.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:Difficult \Dif"fi*cult\, a. [From {Difficulty}.] 1. Hard to do or to make; beset with difficulty; attended with labor, trouble, or pains; not easy; arduous.
Note: Difficult implies the notion that considerable mental effort or skill is required, or that obstacles are to be overcome which call for sagacity and skill in the agent; as, a difficult task; hard work is not always difficult work; a difficult operation in surgery; a difficult passage in an author.
There is not the strength or courage left me to venture into the wide, strange, and difficult world, alone. --Hawthorne.
2. Hard to manage or to please; not easily wrought upon; austere; stubborn; as, a difficult person.
Syn: Arduous; painful; crabbed; perplexed; laborious; unaccommodating; troublesome. See {Arduous}.
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