Wiktionary:Glossary

A glossary of terms used in the Wiktionary community but not in the body of the dictionary. See also Appendix:Glossary, which contains terms used in the body of this dictionary. (There is also the Wikipedia:Glossary.)

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A

• accessibility - The ease with which web pages may be navigated and read, especially by those with disabilities who may, for example, use screen readers.
• adj., -adj – Adjective. E.g.: {{en-adj}}
• adv., -adv – Adverb. E.g.: {{en-adv}}
• AF, AutoFormat — AutoFormat (talk • contribs), an all-purpose formatting-bot created and operated by Robert Ullmann (talk • contribs).
• AGF – Assume good faith, a general principle of public wikis.
• alt – Alternative, as in "alt form".
• anchor - An HTML marker used to direct a web browser to a position which is not at the default top of page position.
• anon, anonip – Someone who edits Wiktionary without signing in. Also, IP.
• attributive(ly) – (deprecated template usage) (nonstandard, by confusion) Said of a superficially adjective-like use of a non-adjective. (Note: in real life this is not at all what this word means: adjectives are regularly used attributively, and conversely, there are other adjective-like ways to use non-adjectives. Also note that some editors do use this word in the way that real-life people do.)
• autopatroller – A user whose edits are not marked in Recent Changes with a red exclamation mark meaning "this edit has not yet been patrolled." In other words, a user who is deemed trustworthy enough to patrol their own edits. See Wiktionary:Whitelist.

B

• b.g.c., bgc - (not used in articles) books.google.com
• block - To (temporarily or permanently) prevent a specific user - by username or IP address - from editing Wiktionary by entering the user on a list of blocked individuals; only admins can do this.
• bluelink, blue link - A link to an existing Wiktionary (or other Wikimedia) page; contrast redlink.
• bookmark - The term Frontpage uses for the anchor HTML tag.
• bot - An automated or semiautomated process used to perform tasks on Wiktionary, an abbreviated form of robot. Bots are governed by WT:BOT.
• BP - The Beer Parlour discussion forum for general policy discussions and proposals, requests for permissions and major announcements. E.g.: WT:BP.
• bugzilla - The bug tracking system for the MediaWiki software formerly used on Wiktionary, Wikipedia, and other Wikimedia wikis, homepage bugzilla.wikimedia.org. It was replaced by Phabricator.

C

• cat, category – See Appendix:Glossary#category.
• catboiler, category boilerplate – A standardized explanatory text that appears at the top of many categories, and is usually provided by a template.
• CFI – Wiktionary:Criteria for inclusion, WT:CFI.
• CGEL – Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.
• clitic pronoun - A weak pronoun; a pronoun of one syllable which is dependent on another word and cannot be used on its own. Compare with emphatic or strong.
• CSS – Cascading Style Sheets, used in creating web pages.

D

• desysop - To revoke the admin privileges of a Wikimedia administrator.
• dewikify - To convert one or more intra-wiki links to plain words.
• diff - An automatic comparison between two revisions of a page, or a link to a page showing the difference between two revisions.
• DT - Derived terms.

E

• ec, E/C – Edit conflict (which see).
• edit conflict – What occurs when someone tries to save a page that he started editing before its latest revision was saved; see Help:Edit conflict.
• ELE - Entry layout explained, the style guide for Wiktionary.
• en – English.
  • enWP, enwiki – The English Wikipedia.
  • enwikt, en.Wikt, enWT – The English Wiktionary.
• est – Estonian.
• etymon – The source word in an etymology.
• extant – Of a word, in current use (as opposed to archaic or obsolete).
• exp - Expression.

F

• FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions.
• FL, fl – Foreign language.
• form-of entry – A non-lemma entry; that is, an entry that contains a term that is a modified form of another term.
• Fr, fr – French.

G

• GBS — Google Books Search, http://books.google.com.
• ggc — http://groups.google.com, a reference for search for citations in usenet.
• GP — Grease Pit (WT:GP), a place to discuss technical issues in Wiktionary.

H

• hard redirect - A use of the MediaWiki software on which this site runs to automatically redirect to a page the user who attempts to access a particular other page; contrast soft redirect.
• headword - The word described by a given dictionary entry. Usually, the headword has the same spelling as the page name. Exceptions are for entries in languages with optional diacritics (e.g. līber), entries without Unicode representation (e.g. sign language entries and hieroglyphics like (deprecated template usage) wi), and when MediaWiki prohibits the preferred spelling (e.g. :-)).
• headword line – At the core of each entry is a headword line, which lists the headword in bold, often followed by basic grammar and orthography details, e.g. gender, inflected forms, alternate orthography in languages with multiple orthographies like Japanese, Korean, and Serbian. Some editors use the phrase inflection line instead.

I

• IMO, IMHO – In My Opinion, In My Honest Opinion (Internet slang phrase).
• inflection line, infl - See headword line. E.g. {{infl|tr|adverb}}
• invective infixation - dystmesis, accompanied by insertion of an invective between the parts divided, e.g., "abso-bloody-lutely".
• IP – Someone who edits without signing in (and is therefore logged as an IP address). Also, anon, anonip.
• IP lawyer - Intellectual Property lawyer.

J

• JS - JavaScript

L

• L1, L2, etc. – The first-level, second-level, etc. headers on any Wiktionary page, corresponding to (and generating) HTML elements <h1>, <h2>, etc. In wikitext the level also happens to correspond to the number of equal signs surrounding the header text, so ==English== is an L2 header and ===Noun=== is an L3 header.
• LDL - Limited Documentation Language; see WT:LDL.
• lemming – A dictionary other than Wiktionary (with the implication that blindly trusting other dictionaries, rather than real-world usage, might be unwise).
• list word - A word that while frequently defined in lists, has no actual usage.
• LOP - Appendix:List of protologisms, see protologism

M

• MediaWiki – the software that runs Wiktionary
• Monobook – the name used for the CSS file used to control the appearance of Wiktionary on your web browser.
• mop – admin tools on wiki sites are sometimes likened to janitors' mops, for which reason being given sysop rights is sometimes referred to as being given the mop

N

• namespace - An optional prefix to a page title, eg "Help", "Template". Thus Help:How to check translations is a page within the "Help" namespace.
• NISOP – Non-idiomatic sum of parts: a term (such as "brown leaf") that can be understood from its constituent parts and is not an idiom, thus probably not suitable for inclusion in a dictionary.
• nl – Netherlands, Dutch.
• nonce – Said of a term that was coined for a particular utterance.
• NPOV – "Neutral Point of View". (Articles are meant to be written from a NPOV, not from a POV or particular Point Of View.)
• ns/NS - namespace

O

• OBE - Overtaken By Events.
• OED – Oxford English Dictionary. Also SOED (Shorter), OED1 (1st edition), OED2 (2nd edition), NOED (New).
• OmegaWiki - Previously known as Ultimate Wiktionary and WiktionaryZ, a project stemming from Wiktionary but using a relational database for storage. homepage
• OneLook - A multi-dictionary portal with wild-card word-search tools
• OTRS - Open source Ticket Request System

P

• per nom - in accordance or agreement with the nomination.
• Phabricator - The current bug tracking system for the MediaWiki software, which has replaced Bugzilla.
• POS – Part(s) of Speech. (POS) is a placeholder which can be replaced with any of the approved POS headers.
• POV – "Point of View"
• protologism – A word which has not yet been used widely enough to merit inclusion in a dictionary.

R

• redirect — See soft redirect and hard redirect.
• redlink, red link — A link to a Wiktionary (or other Wikimedia) page that does not exist; contrast bluelink.
• RFA — Request for adminship.
• RfAP — Request for audio pronunciation; i.e. request that an audio file be added to an entry.
• RfC — Request for clean-up, see WT:RFC.
• RfD — Request for deletion, see WT:RFD.
• RfV — Request for verification, see WT:RFV.
• RHU — Random House Unabridged.
• rm, rmv — Remove (used in edit summaries).
• rv — Revert to prior content.
• rvv — Revert Vandalism.

S

• sandbox - A page that users may edit in whatever way they want. There is a public sandbox at Wiktionary:Sandbox or users may create their own.
• sc - Script. Terms appearing in the English Wiktionary that are written in scripts other than the Latin (roman) script use a script code to select the optimal fonts for readers. Templates like {{t}} and {{term}} accept a parameter named {{{sc}}} to specify the script. Caution: the ISO 639-1 code sc is for the Sardinian language. See tr. E.g. {{term|λόγος|tr=lógos|lang=grc}}.
• scap - (specific to #wikimedia-tech channel) sync-common-all-php.
• SIL – SIL International, formerly the Summer Institute of Linguistics; home of Ethnologue, and official registrar of the ISO 639 two- and three-letter language codes (such as en for English).
• skin – The appearance (and behaviour) of Wiktionary on your web browser, which is controlled by CSS and JS files. See Help:Customizing your skin.
• soft redirect - A page which tells the user to see another instead; contrast hard redirect.
• SOP, SoP — "[The] sum of [its] parts." Describes a multi-word term whose meaning follows directly from the combination of its constituent words. Such terms are generally not permitted on Wiktionary, per WT:CFI.
• speedy, speedy delete - To delete a page on sight, without discussion.
• stemmer, stemming - Software used to produce the stem from the inflected form of words.
• stop word - A word ignored by a search engines, usually one on a list of such common words.
• sum of parts, sum of its parts - See SoP.

T

• template – A way of automatically including ("transcluding") the contents of one page within another page, used for many automated processes such as generating headword lines, inflection tables and so on.
• TR – The Tea room.
• tr - Transliteration. Terms appearing in the English Wiktionary that are written in scripts other than the Latin (roman) script are followed by a transliteration. Templates like {{t}} and {{term}} accept a parameter named {{{tr}}} for the transliteration. See sc above. Caution: the ISO 639-1 code tr is for the Turkish language. E.g. {{term|λόγος|tr=lógos|lang=el}}.
• transclude – To include by transclusion, see below.
• transclusion – The inclusion of the contents of one page within another page, by calling up the first page as if it were a subroutine (in analogy to procedural programming). See MediaWiki Help:Transclusion. The term is applicable to wikis in general, but here on Wiktionary, pages which can be transcluded are restricted to the Template namespace and the User namespace (articles from main namespace can be transcluded by preceding the article title with a colon).
• transgressive – verb form in some Balto-Slavic languages that expresses a coincidentally proceeding or following action.
• TTBC - Ambiguous or possibly incorrect translations needing checking from a native speaker.

U

• umbrella category — A category that acts as a container for other categories, usually one for each language, without containing entries. E.g.: Category:Dated terms by language.
• usex — Usage example, an example sentence for a sense.
• UTC – Coordinated Universal Time.

V

• !vote – An ironic reference to the essay Polls are evil; a reminder that wiki-voting is not a substitute for discussion, and is not the only means of making a decision. The exclamation point is a computing term for "not". Used wherever one might use vote in a sentence (as a noun or as a verb).
• VIP - Wiktionary:Vandalism in progress, a page to list recent vandalism sprees.

W

• WEAE - Well-Enunciated American English.
• wheel war – A struggle between two or more admins in which each undoes the other's admin actions — in particular, unblocking and reblocking a user; undeleting and redeleting, or unprotecting and reprotecting an article. Note: "wheel" was the older UN*X term for "admin".
• wikify, wfy, wikification – To create wikilinks and/or to format in accordance with Wiktionary's standards.
• wikitext, wiki markup - A markup language, the simplified alternative to HTML used to write pages in wiki webs.
• wikt – Abbreviation for Wiktionary. Often used with language prefixes, as in: en.wikt and fr.wikt both have millions of entries.
• Wiktionarian - One who edits Wiktionary.
• WiktionaryZ - See OmegaWiki.
• WMF - The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., the parent organization of Wiktionary and other projects.
• WordNet - The lexical database for the English language found at Princeton University: [1].
• WP – Wikipedia.