A dictionary that no mnemonics can rescue

There rests a solid dictionary on every substantial writer’s desk. In the last few years, it may have moved to the Desktop but the lexicon still spells the final word for us. This is also the reason why the dusty, pink and colossal dictionary in our office is more wanted than the mafia is in Mumbai. Each one of us could kill for it. The dictionary is so important to us; the written word is so sacrosanct.

The Oxford University Press website states that previously, it was considered a formidable task to have a single generation of editors and staff work on setting up a dictionary. Given the amount of time, labour and precision that went into it, the dictionary emerged more than just a glossary. It emerged as the gospel truth.

Until the endemic entrepreneur arrived, that is. Start-ups are in fashion and everybody is in a hurry to start something new. A result of such haste is mnemonicdictionary.com.

Mnemonics are a memory tool that helps people by giving associations of words. A mnemonic can be a visual, a key word, an acronym or anything that can relate new information to something that is previously known. Mnemonics (or entrepreneurship?) are the premise on which this online dictionary works. It hopes to educate/ enlighten people in a fun way. It’s highly interactive and has lots of features like games, a comprehensive GRE wordlist, word tests, chat and discussion forum, SMS and e-mail words of the day. The creators have a taken up a great idea. An idea, however, does not make a dictionary. I don’t even need mnemonics to come up with the two words that denote the website; peripatetic and precipitated.

... contd.