Nice Reference Tool

Alice Toth, Tuesday, May 1, 2007 @ 11:01 am

There I was the other day, skimming through the New York Times online when I mistakenly double clicked on a word (which is why I shouldn’t continually mess with my mouse settings, but that’s another post). The next thing I knew, a popup window appeared displaying a definition of the very word I had double clicked. Disconcerting at first but with a closer look I realized  that the New York Times has given me a reference search tool right at my fingertips.

Putting it to work, this time intentionally, my double clicking on “hubris” returned the following:

NYT Guide to Essential Knowledge

hubris
in Greek tragedy, the characteristic of the hero which causes him to ignore warnings by the gods or oppose their commands.

Dictionary

hu·bris (hyū'brĭs) pronunciation also hy·bris (hī'-)
n.

Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance: “There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris” (McGeorge Bundy).

[Greek, excessive pride, wanton violence.]
hubristic hu·bris'tic (-brĭs'tĭk) adj.
hubristically hu·bris'tic·al·ly adv.

WordNet

The noun hubris has one meaning:
Meaning #1: overbearing pride or presumption

Ah, now the sentence makes sense.

The feature isn’t available everywhere on the site; for instance, I was on one of their blogs and double clicking did nothing. However, within the main articles at least, any uncertainty I have about a word can easily be dispelled with minimal disruption to me, i.e., I stay within my browser, stay within the article, and increase my word wealth. No fuss. No muss. Just what this user likes.

Related posts:

1. Types of Flow – A Quick Reference
2. A Good Reference – Jenifer Tidwell’s “Designing Interfaces”
3. Writemaps: A web based site map generating tool
4. Max Does it Again – 50 Great AJAX Reference Sites
5. GWT as developer tool

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