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I'm CJ Cooney, a writer on communication, ideas, culture and history. This blog is a chronicle of my adventures in lexicography.

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If reading were a sin, the average person today would be a saint.  And this dictionary in progress would be blasphemy. More...

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blandishment
orthogonal
laconic

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REFERENCEER
REF-ren-sear. Noun. 1. Anyone who enjoys reading or browsing dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, and other sundry reference materials. 2. A publisher of reference material. 3. CJ's book blog adventure.

blandishment
BLAN-dish-ment
verb
praise calculated to cajole; allurement; flattery
1978James A. MichenerChesapeakeIn the dark night the two men glared at each other, with Steed determined to resist the blandishments of his captain.1985Carl SaganContactBut he resisted many invitations and some proffered blandishments to found an electronic church.1989Ken FollettThe Pillars of the EarthTom's family pushed through the disconsolate crowd, ignoring the halfhearted blandishments of the sausage seller and the knife sharpener.

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orthogonal
or-THAWG-uh-nuhl
adjective
at right angles; intersecting at right angles; irrelevant or extraneous, usually in reference to an issue or subject
1985Carl SaganContactThey're made of a niobium alloy, they have peculiar patterns cut into them, and they're obviously designed to rotate in three orthogonal directions very fast in a vacuum.1989Charles SheffieldProteus UnboundIf I wanted to talk fancy like Leo, I'd say it's like their science is orthogonal to ours. They move along a completely different axis of understanding.1998Michael CrichtonTimelineWhat we have developed is a form of space travel. To be precise, we use quantum technology to manipulate an orthogonal multiverse coordinate change.'2001Robert LudlumThe Sigma Protocol...she went into standard E&S, evasion and search, tactics. That meant flattening yourself against a wall with a pistol drawn, then shifting to an orthogonal wall, and repeating the process.

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laconic
luh-KAWN-ik
adjective
terse; quiet; of few words
1914Algernon BlackwoodThe DamnedAnd then, while that dreadful house stood listening about us in the early hours of this chill morning upon the edge of winter, she told me, with laconic brevity, things about Mabel that I heard as from a distance.1922Zane GreyTo The Last ManThe tone was impersonal, dry, easy, cool, laconic, and yet it could not have been more pregnant with meaning.1985Carl SaganContactShe was troubled that in their haste to do a full sky survey in less than a human lifetime, to listen to all of the sky at a billion frequencies, they had abandoned both the frantic talkers and the laconic plodders.

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