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I was given a copy of Chambers Dictionary[0] by my sister for my 18th birthday, I still have it. According to wiki, it is "widely used by British crossword sol

I was given a copy of Chambers Dictionary[0] by my sister for my 18th birthday, I still have it. According to wiki, it is "widely used by British crossword solvers and setters, and by Scrabble players[..] It contains many more dialectal, archaic, unconventional and eccentric words than its rivals, and is noted for its occasional wryly humorous definitions". I've always loved its definition of "éclair": > "a cake, long in shape but short in duration" [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chambers_Dictionary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chambers_Dictionary

serverlessmom 5y ago
Wow! That's certainly a good one. A couple old favorites of mine are: mullet – a hairstyle that is short at the front, long at the back, and ridiculous all around, and regift – to give (an unwanted present) as a gift to another person, in a process which is likely to continue almost indefinitely.
DarylZero 5y ago
Funny about the eclair. My girlfriend said the same thing.
nichijou 5y ago
Except that I totally didn't get what "éclair" is.
- marginalia_nu 5y ago
  In which case you're probably looking for an encyclopedia, rather than a dictionary.
  - zamadatix 5y ago
    You'd go to an encyclopedia to find out the history, origins, detailed variations, regional specialities and so on about the topic of éclairs not to understand what an éclair itself is. A dictionary should perfectly well describe a thing without needing to pull out an encyclopedia and if you look at a updated/modern version of the Chambers Dictionary you'll get just such a definition: "A long cake of choux pastry with a cream filling and chocolate or coffee icing."
  - wombatmobile 5y ago
    The word you are looking for is 'patisserie'.
Jabbles 5y ago
Does your modern version have that definition still?
- eatmygodetia 5y ago
  Yes. They removed a lot of the fun definitions in the nineties, but by popular demamd they were brought back!
crtasm 5y ago
Anyone know of a good offline version for linux? (besides just searching within an ebook copy)
- interfixus 5y ago
  There is one linked in the article. Stardict format; any reasonable dictionary software will read it.
  - crtasm 5y ago
    That appears to be a 2007 copy of Websters? I'm looking for Chambers. Seems that there isn't an ebook of it, just phone apps. Discovered that their 13th edition accidently left out ~500 words: https://chambers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Chambers-Missing-Words.pdf https://chambers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Chambers-M...
VladimirGolovin 5y ago
A good éclair is certainly short in duration.

serverlessmom 5y ago

Wow! That's certainly a good one. A couple old favorites of mine are: mullet – a hairstyle that is short at the front, long at the back, and ridiculous all around, and regift – to give (an unwanted present) as a gift to another person, in a process which is likely to continue almost indefinitely.

DarylZero 5y ago

Funny about the eclair. My girlfriend said the same thing.

nichijou 5y ago

Except that I totally didn't get what "éclair" is.

marginalia_nu 5y ago
In which case you're probably looking for an encyclopedia, rather than a dictionary.
- zamadatix 5y ago
  You'd go to an encyclopedia to find out the history, origins, detailed variations, regional specialities and so on about the topic of éclairs not to understand what an éclair itself is. A dictionary should perfectly well describe a thing without needing to pull out an encyclopedia and if you look at a updated/modern version of the Chambers Dictionary you'll get just such a definition: "A long cake of choux pastry with a cream filling and chocolate or coffee icing."
- wombatmobile 5y ago
  The word you are looking for is 'patisserie'.

Jabbles 5y ago

Does your modern version have that definition still?

eatmygodetia 5y ago
Yes. They removed a lot of the fun definitions in the nineties, but by popular demamd they were brought back!

crtasm 5y ago

Anyone know of a good offline version for linux? (besides just searching within an ebook copy)

interfixus 5y ago
There is one linked in the article. Stardict format; any reasonable dictionary software will read it.
- crtasm 5y ago
  That appears to be a 2007 copy of Websters? I'm looking for Chambers. Seems that there isn't an ebook of it, just phone apps. Discovered that their 13th edition accidently left out ~500 words: https://chambers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Chambers-Missing-Words.pdf https://chambers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Chambers-M...

VladimirGolovin 5y ago

A good éclair is certainly short in duration.