Poll: How often do you research a word or phrase "just for fun" during your downtime?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
May 27

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How often do you research a word or phrase "just for fun" during your downtime?".

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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 06:54
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Other May 27

I have absolutely no idea how often I do this. I read ‘Le Nouvel Observateur’ and ‘The Economist’ every week, and from time to time I have to look up the meaning of a word (usually a neologism) when I can’t figure out what it means…

 
Philip Lees
Philip Lees  Identity Verified
Greece
Local time: 08:54
Greek to English
Four percent May 28

I wonder what the seven people (at time of writing) who answered "I need a total break from words" are doing in the translation business.

expressisverbis
Christine Andersen
Daryo
Maria Laura Curzi
 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 07:54
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Serious fun! May 28

I check out words and solutions for crosswords. Sometimes I need to find out who a celebrity is, when it is someone I have not heard of - this is often the key to the big Sunday crossword.
Then there are all sorts of challenges and words I suspect the crossword compiler has invented for the ocasion! Most of them, however, are real words, but far fetched.
Then, while I have the dictionary open - online or especially the trusty hard copies with fascinating thumbnail illustrations - I
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I check out words and solutions for crosswords. Sometimes I need to find out who a celebrity is, when it is someone I have not heard of - this is often the key to the big Sunday crossword.
Then there are all sorts of challenges and words I suspect the crossword compiler has invented for the ocasion! Most of them, however, are real words, but far fetched.
Then, while I have the dictionary open - online or especially the trusty hard copies with fascinating thumbnail illustrations - I browse back and forth and find more fascinating words to ponder over.

I do this in both my main languages, and sometimes in the languages my family speaks, or I check up on something I have read or heard on TV - Swedish, Italian, German, Norwegian or French...
Or I check up some piece of jargon a journalist has used (or misused IMHO ).

I may even forget what I originally intended to look up, and then I have to start again, but so what?

[Edited at 2026-05-28 09:11 GMT]
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Maria Laura Curzi
Cilian O'Tuama
 
Brian Gallegos M.A.
Brian Gallegos M.A.  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 22:54
Member (May 2026)
Spanish to English
I look up words and phrases every day May 28

Languages have always fascinated me. My language pair is Spanish-English, so I do spend time every day exploring the various meanings of at least one Spanish word or phrase and how it's used in sentences.

 


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Poll: How often do you research a word or phrase "just for fun" during your downtime?






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