Dictionaries, for the younger crowd, are books that physically list of all of the words. Largely they are used to check spelling, or more fully understand a word which inhabits the less fashionable regions of ones vocabulary.

Perhaps the most obvious and tediously pedestrian feature of dictionaries is that the words are arranged in alphabetical order. Of the first letter. This is great with words like "Drain" or "Rainbow". No lexicographical gymnastics required for those gems. Things get more sticky however, when words start with unusual letters. "Pterodactyl", "Gnome", "Write" or "Wrist" are examples here.

Now, if you heard one of those words, you could look up "Terodactyl" only to find you didn't find it. This is where the Second letter dictionary comes in. You think "hmm, maybe it starts with one of those odd silent letters, ill look up "Terodactyl" in my second letter dictionary". Sure enough, there it is "pTerodactyl: huge flying thing, extinct". And you could carry on with your life.

It has come to my attention, working in a somewhat international workplace, that the foreigners need dictionaries more than most. One such foreigner has said that the first letter is often obscured by regional accents. Either leaving off a letter " 'orrible" or being a bit Jonathan Ross "Wainbow". There would seem to be functionality here too.

By extension, I also invent 3-4th letter dictionaries. After that it gets daft.
-- bs0u0155, Apr 06 2016

//Jonathan Ross "Wainbow"// I am weminded of Woy Jenkins who, when Bwitain was deciding whether or not to join the EEC, said that he hoped "that this vewy important debate can be had without any wancour on either side".

Whilst I like the idea in theory, it is perhaps 20 years too late. I am pretty sure that if you handed the average teenager a printed dictionary, they would check the spine to find the on/off switch.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 06 2016


[Max] You just tell them it's e-Ink (like the Amazon Kindle) and solar powered.
-- hippo, Apr 07 2016


I don't think that would work how you describe. At least, not well.
I think what you really want is a phonetic dictionary. I don't know whether they exist already.
-- Loris, Apr 07 2016


o e, r ot o e, hat s he uestion: hether tis obler n he ind o uffer. he lings nd rrows f utrageous ortune, r o ake rms gainst a ea f roubles.
-- popbottle, Apr 09 2016


The nearest thing to this that actually exists is the backwards dictionary, generally of a dead language, which is invaluable to those scholars who often have to work with broken-off bits of stone inscription, or torn fragments of papyrus, bearing the ends of words, but not their beginnings.

I don't think those things ever had very long print runs, but I'm certain they do exist.

However, they are not this idea. This idea is excellent, except that it will be superseded by "[Name of Smartphone AI]!" "Yes?" "What's a Terry Dackle?". Probably last week.
-- pertinax, Apr 09 2016



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