English Words: Their Origins and Historical Evolutions +

1. A computer-generated test that humans can pass but spamming computer programs supposedly cannot get around.
2. A string of letters used to make sure that humans are trying to enter a site as opposed to some kind of spamming program. These wavy, ghostly, distorted letters must be typed into a box in order to gain access to a page or site.

Websites often ask people to decipher a few wiggly letters because they are trying to find out if a user is a human or spamware.

The electronic hoop people are required to jump through was invented in 2000 by a team of programmers at Carnegie Mellon University because someone at Yahoo! went to them hoping that they could come up with a program to stop criminals from using software to automatically create thousands of e-mail accounts and then using those accounts to send out spam.

The Carnegie Mellon team developed CAPTCHA which stands for "completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart". The purpose of the CAPTCHA is that reading those swirly letters is something that computers aren't very good at doing.

The CAPTCHA has become widespread all over the web. According to Luis von Ahn, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon, who was part of the original CAPTCHA team, estimates that people fill out close to 200 million CAPTCHAS every day.

Von Ahn is confident that the good guys are still ahead for now, but the point at which cyber-criminal software can reliably read CAPTCHAS is probably as few as three to five years away.

The real innovation among cyber-criminals will come through social networking and Web-based services. This past year (2008) spammers increased with the targeting of web-based e-mail from large, free, reputable providers, using new techniques to break CAPTCHAs and to generate massive numbers of personal accounts. Mail from these domains was the least likely to be blocked by IT departments.

The real innovation among cybercriminals will come through social networking and Web-based services. This past year spammers expanded to targeting web-based email from large, free, reputable providers, using new techniques to break CAPTCHAs and generate massive numbers of personal accounts. Mail from these domains was the least likely to blocked by IT departments.

1. Something which is puzzling or confusing.
2. Word puzzle.
3. A riddle, especially one with an answer in the form of a pun or a play on words.
4. Etymology: believed to have first appeared in 1596, an Oxford University slang term for "pedant"; also "whim", etc.; later in 1790, "a riddle, a puzzle"; also spelled quonundrum; the kind of unmanageable pseudo-Latin words which were once considered the ultimate of humor among the educated in classical languages.

Most linguistic and dictionary sources say the word is "of unknown origin" or "of uncertain origin"; however, it is often used in modern writing and spoken by speakers on the radio, TV, etc.

1. A scarcity of something; such as, a dearth of new ideas, a dearth of job skills, a dearth of financial aid, or a dearth of food.
2. Lacking a sufficient supply; for example, of food that results in a famine: "There is a growing dearth of rice in Asia."
3. An acute insufficiency; scarcity, shortage, paucity; deficiency; insufficient supply: "There is a dearth of skilled workers in this area; especially, because there is a lack of sufficient funds to pay them."
4. Etymology: from about 1250, derthe, "scarcity", abstract noun formed from the root of Old English deore, "precious, costly, dear".

Originally the sense of the Middle English word was used with reference to famine, when food was scarce and costly; but the word was extended to the meaning of "scarcity of anything" from about 1330.

1. To persuade someone to behave in an immoral way.
2. To seduce someone sexually.
3. Episode of dissipation; a period of indulgence in immoral behavior.
4. A wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity.
5. Corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality.
6. To reduce the value, quality, or excellence of; to debase.
7. Etymology: from Old French, to leave work, to be idle; to turn someone away from work; to entice away, to lead astray.

Supposedly originally, "to trim (wood), to make a beam".

The sense of Old French debaucher underwent the following phases of development: to split, to cleave; to separate; to turn someone away from his/her work or from her/his duty; to entice away; to lead astray.

1. To throw into a state of confusion.
2. To confuse or to disconcert; to upset; to frustrate: "The politician was completely discombobulated by the critics in the audience."
3. Etymology: from 1834, American English, a fanciful coinage of a type popular then (originally discombobricate).

Possibly an alteration of or a play on the words discompose, discomposure, etc., "a loss of the ability to remain calm and self-assured, especially under difficult or emotional circumstances"

Large tracts of abused land on the peripheries of cities and beyond, where urban sprawl meets urban dereliction: landscapes of wasted land where the planners gave up.

They are a world of contaminated former industrial sites, mineral workings, garbage dumps, container stores, polluted river banks, sewage works, and expanses of tarmac (black top) used for airport parking lots and military compounds.

Alan Berger of Harvard University's department of landscape architecture coined it to describe urban badlands.

Drosscapes are most prevalent in the United States, where the wide-open spaces beyond many city limits invite abuse.

"In Europe, where land is in shorter supply, they take slightly different forms. Europe recycles land more efficiently, but even so the continent is dotted with "brownfield" sites awaiting redevelopment. Some are toxic, some are havens for wildlife and, disturbingly for conservationists, a large number contrive to be both."

"Drosscaping, as a verb, is the placement upon the landscape of new social programs that transform waste (real or perceived) into more productive urbanized landscapes to some degree."

1. Intellectually weak or obtuse; stupid; mentally very slow.
2. Lacking responsiveness or alertness; insensitive.
3. Dispirited; depressed.
4. Not brisk or rapid; sluggish.
5. Not having a sharp edge or point; blunt; such as, a dull knife.
6. Not intensely or keenly felt; for example, a dull ache.
7. Arousing no interest or curiosity; boring: "It was a dull TV program."
8. Not bright or vivid. A reference to a color; such as, a dull brown.
9. Cloudy or overcast: "It was a dull sky."
10. Not clear or resonant: "We heard a dull thud."
11. Etymology: originally meant "slow-witted" and was borrowed from Middle Low German dul, and was a descendant of the prehistoric Germanic adjective dulaz.

It is recorded as having come from Middle English dulle, dull; from Old English dyl, a parallel form of Old English dol, "foolish, presumptuous", and related to Old English dwellan, "to lead astray".

1. To settle securely or snugly: "We found our mother in the library, ensconced and reading in an armchair."
2. To cover or to shelter; to hide securely: "He ensconced himself in the next room in order to eavesdrop on the conversation."
3. To place or to conceal in a secure place.
4. Etymology: "to cover with a fort", from en- "make, put in" + sconce, "small fortification, a shelter"; probably from Dutch schans, "earthwork".

1. To captivate or to charm: "She is an actress whose grace, skill, and virtuosity enthrall her audiences."
2. To put or to hold in slavery, to subjugate: "He was enthralled by illusions and superstitions."

1. To shun, or to avoid, something on principle or as a matter of course; especially because someone thinks it is not proper and should not be done: "The new political group eschews the killing and destructiveness of terrorists."
2. Abstain from, forgo, give up, stay away from; something that is unworthy or injurious: "Many people need to eschew diets that make them too fat."

1. A persistent searcher or investigator.
2. To search and to discover through persistent investigation: "Rather than traveling to ferret out pieces for acquisition, they focused on the restoration of the museum pieces."
3. Etymologiy: in use since about 1398, from Old French fuiret, diminutive (used to express smallness) of fuiron. "weasel, ferret"; literally, "thief"; from Late Latin furionem (related to furonem "cat", and also "robber"); probably from Latin fur, furis, "thief". 4. The name for a domesticated polecat, Mustela putorius, common in the Old World; such as Europe.

The ferret has been used for several centuries in Europe, and even earlier in Asia, to hunt rats, mice, and rabbits. The Romans were familiar with the sport, too; and Pliny states that the animal was used in his time for rabbit hunting. Pliny the Elder, Gaius Plinius Secundus (23–79 AD) was an ancient Roman nobleman, scientist and historian, and author of Naturalis Historia, "Pliny's Natural History".

Domestic ferrets are found in many color types including albinos, brown, and black. The name is also applied to a related wild species, the North American, or black-footed, ferret, Mustela nigripes, which inhabits the Great Plains and is now extremely rare.

Its range nearly coincides with that of the prairie dogs, which constitute most of its diet; and it is often found in prairie dog burrows.

The severe reduction of the prairie dog population by ranchers is probably partially responsible for the rarity of the black-footed ferret, although it was apparently not numerous when the West was first settled by Europeans.

Ferrets are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Carnivora, family Mustelidae (weasel family).

1. A total failure, especially a humiliating or ludicrous one.
2. A complete and ignominious failure.
3. A sudden and violent collapse.
4. Etymology: from about 1855, theater slang for "a failure". By about 1862, it acquired the general sense of any "dismal flop", on or off the stage.

Here are a few theories about the origin of the term fiasco

It may have resulted via a French phrase fiare fiasco, "to turn out a failure", from Italian far fiasco, "suffer a complete breakdown in performance" or literally, "make a bottle", from fiasco, "bottle", from miedieval Latin flasco which is the source of English flagon and flask.

Fiasco was adopted into English in the late nineteenth century in its newly acquired sense of an "utter and often ridiculous failure".

The reason for all this is unclear today; but "the usual range of fanciful theories has been advanced for the origin of the usage, but none is particularly convincing" according to John Ayto in his Dictionary of Word Origins.

Dr. Ernest Klein in his Klein's Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language suggests that "the Venetian glass-makers used only perfectly flawless material for the articles manufactured by them. If in the course of their work the glass showed any flaw, they set it aside to make of it a fiasco, a common bottle or flask."

"According to an Italian dictionary, fare il fiasco once meant, "to play a game so that the one that lost would have to pay the fiasco", in other words, he would buy the next bottle (of wine). That could be one reason for the connection of the word with the notion of "a costly mistake". This idea is presented by Douglas Harper in his Online Etymology Dictionary.

1. Used primarily in the United States referring to a sudden real, or apparent, change of policy or opinion by a public official, sometimes while trying to claim that both positions are consistent with each other. Used mostly in the United Kingdom to mean a U-turn. 2. Used as a noun and as a verb:

• As a noun: a type of loose rubber sandal: "She wore flip-flops to the beach." and it also refers to a sudden change of opinion: "The senator was accused of doing flip-flops on important social issues."
• As a verb: to suddenly, or frequently, change one's opinion: "The presidential candidate kept flip-flopping on whether he would raise or lower income taxes."

1. The verb form of flop means, to sit, or to lie down heavily in a sudden, awkward way by relaxing the muscles and letting the body fall: "He flopped down onto the bed while she flopped into the chair with a sigh."

• To move limply, or heavily; to swing and to move in a loose, awkward, or uncontrolled way: "The curtains were flopping around in the breeze which was coming through the open windows."
• To fail completely; to be completely unsuccessful: "The play flopped, or bombed, and all of their attempts to set things right also flopped miserably."

2. The noun form of flop refers to a sound made when someone, or something, suddenly falls, lies, or sits down: "It fell to the ground with a flop."

A U.S. informal reference to a very inexpensive (cheap) hotel for poor people who do not have anywhere else to live; such as a crowded flophouse.

A British term for the same thing is a doss-house.