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10 Years of Wordsmith.org
| From: | Wordsmith (garg AT wordsmith.org) |
| To: | (linguaphile AT wordsmith.org) |
| Subject: | 10 Years of Wordsmith.org |
| Date: | March 14, 2004 |
March 14 is Einstein's birthday, it's Pi Day (3.14) in the US, and it's
also the birthday of Wordsmith.org. Ten years ago today our first word went
to a handful of friends. Today, 570,000 subscribers, 210 countries, 3000+
words, and some 500 million copies of AWAD later, we still believe in the
magic of words.
We are still tickled on discovering a curious word, and we still believe
a dictionary is the most fascinating book ever made.
We have grown to where we are now because of your passion and participation.
To mark the occasion, we are distributing a few special gifts:
- To Greg Hitchcock of Seattle, who has been the longest continuing
subscriber, since March 1994, a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary
on CD-ROM, courtesy Oxford University Press.
- To each of six lucky subscribers, randomly selected, a copy of the
American Heritage Dictionary on CD-ROM, courtesy Houghton Mifflin Company.
One year ago today, the Wordlovers' Library Project was inaugurated. Since
then, 365 libraries in 47 countries have received A Word A Day book, thanks
to the Harnisch Family Foundation's sponsorship.
As from today, we are offering RSS feeds of A.Word.A.Day.
Also, for bloggers who wish to link to a
particular word, a permalink will be included at the very end of each daily
newsletter.
Tidbits:
Assorted statistics:
- Subscriber distribution, country list, interesting email addresses, etc: stats.
Looking back:
- Mar 14, 1994: The beginning: Wordsmith.org born as a grad school experiment
- Feb 9, 1998: Subscription hits six digits: 100,000 daily readers of AWAD
- Oct 8, 2000: Information overload? AWAD goes five days/week instead of seven
- Oct 11, 2002: A Word A Day, the book published: debuts at #1 on Amazon.com
- Mar 14, 2003: Wordlovers' Library Project launched
- Mar 14, 2004: Decennial: Wordsmith.org celebrates ten years
Interesting words:
- Longest word featured, 45 letters:
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (a kind of lung disease)
- Shortest words featured, 2 letters:
aa (a kind of lava), os (bone, mouth), Rx (prescription)
- First word featured: zephyr (a gentle breeze)
Readers are what really makes this community resonate. Thank you for being
a part of us! Keep sending your comments.
Anu Garg
(garg AT wordsmith.org)
But words are things, a small drop of ink, / Falling like dew upon
a thought, produces / That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
-Lord Byron, poet (1788-1824)
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