http://www.allaboutdictionaries.com Sat, 24 Dec 2005 15:58:50 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en “Nurse, start him on a 20 cc/hr IV of lipids. He’s NPO.” For many in the medical field, this makes perfect sense. Most of us can even understand everything in the first sentence, but the abbreviation “NPO” is likely to flummox people without a background in the ... http://www.allaboutdictionaries.com/dictionary-of-medical-acronyms-and-abbreviations-dmaa We live in an abbreviated society. Abbreviations permeate our lives like insects, finding their way into all the nooks and crannies of written and spoken language. Often, abbreviations come into being because they are truly useful, like the shortening of “North Atlantic Treaty Organization” to NATO. Other ... http://www.allaboutdictionaries.com/the-american-heritage-abbreviations-dictionary The compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary was a monumental task, and ultimately took more than seventy years to complete. However, many people are unaware of a fascinating story behind the scenes of the dictionary’s compilation, a tale of irony and madness surrounding an American expatriate surgeon named Dr. ... http://www.allaboutdictionaries.com/madman-and-professor-collaborate-on-oxford-english-dictionary New concepts, words and usages of business and technical terms are finding their way into the language of America’s entrepreneurs because of the refinement and specialization made possible by the Internet. For small business innovators, this can be an opportunity and an obstacle. One resource designed to clarify their path ... http://www.allaboutdictionaries.com/the-small-business-dictionary Abbreviated and online representations notwithstanding, praise remains overwhelming for Black’s Law Dictionary (at least the 6th Edition) as a definitive source of basic word and concept definitions, as well as an exceptional starting point for finding legal case authorities. Begun in 1891 and updated with a second edition in 1910, many ... http://www.allaboutdictionaries.com/blacks-law-dictionary-blacks-law-dictionary At one time, choosing a good German English dictionary was a very difficult task due to the large number of variations in spelling and pronunciation that various German-speaking regions maintained. With the introduction of a sweeping language reform law in 1998, that has all changed. For the first ... http://www.allaboutdictionaries.com/the-german-english-dictionary If you’re interested in a French to English dictionary, you’re in good company. French-English dictionaries have always been strong sellers in the bilingual dictionary category of American book sales. With French being a popular choice for foreign language classes in American schools, as well as Paris being a ... http://www.allaboutdictionaries.com/the-french-english-dictionary A rhyming dictionary or rhyme dictionary is full of words, just like any other dictionary. The difference is that in a rhyming dictionary, words are arranged not alphabetically, but according to their end sound. This allows poets, songwriters, puzzle solvers and any one else with an interest in rhyme to ... http://www.allaboutdictionaries.com/rhyming-dictionary-rhyme-dictionary The Urban Dictionary (founded in 2003) is one of the virtual world’s answers to two challenging realities: a fast moving national (or perhaps planetary) lexicon and the growing demand of users to be part of a word’s definition process. The Urban Dictionary is a street slang dictionary that allows users to ... http://www.allaboutdictionaries.com/the-urban-dictionary With Spanish being the second most common language used in the United States, citizens who use English as their native language and Spanish as a second language often need a reference work to help them translate from one language to another. Whether attempting to express a known English concept ... http://www.allaboutdictionaries.com/the-spanish-english-dictionary