[Quantumcat (OP)]

It's a word I use all the time, but for some reason I can't remember it! It means the established, conventional, standard procedure in the maths/science world. I've been looking in dictionaries and thesauruses online but I can't find the word I need. I know it's fairly short and simple, not a long word. I think it has a very vague mathsy sound but it could be easily used in everyday talk too. When I can't think of a word I want, often a completely unrelated word will pop up and refuse to go away, filling the hole the right word should come out by and stopping me thinking of it. Well, this time that word is "lexicon". Sometimes the word has a similar sound or meaning and other times it is completely unrelated. I hope that doesn't throw any nice person off that wants to help me !!!!

Sorry this has nothing to do with science but it's the most popular forum here so hopefully posting here will increase the chances of someone helping me !!! :-)

Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. I need this word by monday when the assignment is due. If I don't get the word by then I'll just use the word "standard" though it doesn't have the exact feeling I want....

[chimera]

Pragma? Praxis? Anathema? (just kidding on that last one) []



The living are the dead on holiday.  -- Maurice de Maeterlinck (1862-1949)

[Quantumcat (OP)]

I like those words. I've been meaning to start a book to write in all the interesting words I pick up and I've heard enough ones this year I've wanted to put in that book to fill a good couple of pages. Maybe I might start that book after all?

[Ultima]

hmmm lexicon... how about criterion?

wOw the world spins?

[chimera]

I think I found it. Greek for the 'right path', the 'correct way',  or loosely even 'the straight and narrow', or 'best practice'.

Nice word, indeed has a few letters in common with lexicon. Don't see it a lot in normal language though, last time I came across it in a book must be almost half a year ago or so.

Monday, eh? you familiar with Pay-Pal? []

[chimera]

Just kidding.

Eudoxia, Eudoxis, Eupraxia, Eupraxis.

(if you look up their meaning use a dictionary, since quite a few characters had them for names and you'll be ploughing through those first in google...)

The living are the dead on holiday.  -- Maurice de Maeterlinck (1862-1949)

[Ultima]

Lol wtf, I used a dictionary and "define:word" search in google, I couldn't find anything for those words apart from references to greek literature. That’s some hard core wordage! Eupraxia sounds like it should be a learning disorder []

wOw the world spins?

[chimera]

eu = good

doxa = opinion

praxis = also the greek name of our bible book 'Acts', so guess...

on eupraxia:

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=eupraxia
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/difficultwords/data/d0005357.html

see also: eupraxia.com, eupraxia.net, eupraxia.org, eupraxia.info, eupraxia.biz, eupraxia.us, eupraxia.co.uk, eupraxia.de, eupraxia.tv, eupraxia.cc, eupraxia.ws, eupraxia.ca

all registered names, of course.

press [M]ore [Q]uit [P]lease go away

The living are the dead on holiday.  -- Maurice de Maeterlinck (1862-1949)

[optics]

Hi, My first post here and probably way off but - axiom ?? good luck remembering. jo

[chimera]

That's actually very sharp, means more like  'rule' or 'law', but that's pretty close  to 'standard' -   could well be the right one, he said it had a 'math' tinge...

The living are the dead on holiday.  -- Maurice de Maeterlinck (1862-1949)

[DoctorBeaver]

I agree with optics - axiom

[chimera]

Yup, simple, and common. Occam would give this the thumbs up too, I think.

just found this btw, can come in handy at times, maybe - for the puzzlers among us:

which words in English end in -gry?:

angry,hungry, puggry (had to look that last one up, tho, lol)

http://www.a2zwordfinder.com/

The living are the dead on holiday.  -- Maurice de Maeterlinck (1862-1949)

[Quantumcat (OP)]

*sigh* those weren't really the words I was looking for. Thanks for helping though.

The word's used in the context where you don't want to have to explain why you're doing something, for example your readers assume all angles start in the beginning of the first quadrant so you don't have to say "and from the beginning of quadrant 1, angle X" Would be called the "conventional/standard/established origin of angles" maybe? or some other word instead ...

I've kind of forgotten all "feeling" of the word, maybe there wasn't such a word after all? And yet the other day it was just at the tip of my tongue.

Why is it that the brain refuses to give you things when you want them? Often you have to think about something else for a little while then what you were trying to remember will pop up all on its own. It's so weird and annoying!!!!! Does it happen regularly to anyone else??

[chimera]

Happens to everyone, I think. My solution is just toss it in the air (aka let the neurons sort it out themselves) and if you're lucky it will fall out of thin air at an unexpected moment, totally inappropriate to the situation at hand, and way too late... []


a priori  ?

[added: 'assumed known' in French, thought you knew that, but anyway... narf]

The living are the dead on holiday.  -- Maurice de Maeterlinck (1862-1949)

[Ultima]

That works for me to, the best way I find, if you really need to remember; is to try and relate to some other memory. So for a word try to remember what you were doing last time you used it, or other words which are like its meaning etc. It doesn't always work but it’s the same if you've misplaced something, you go over all the things you remember seeing around the time you lost it.
I think it does happen to everyone, but something’s I’m better at remembering than others. I’m great at putting names to people I’ve only briefly met, but if someone asked what I had for breakfast yesterday I'd be hard pressed to remember. Plus there are always annoying exceptions, I might remember names of loads of random people but sometimes I will forget the name of someone I’ve known for ages and talk to all the time, for no reason! I once even forgot how to spell the word “of” it drove me nuts, seriously it seams crazy but I couldn’t think, I even thought it might be "off", "ov" or "ove" no joke!!!! It doesn’t help that I often remember dreams instead of something that’s real to [] I think I’m broken.


wOw the world spins?

[DoctorBeaver]

quote:Why is it that the brain refuses to give you things when you want them? Often you have to think about something else for a little while then what you were trying to remember will pop up all on its own. It's so weird and annoying!!!!! Does it happen regularly to anyone else??

If I put on my professional psychologist head I could explain that to you but as this is not a psychology forum I won't. Instead I'll just return to drinking copious quantities of Stella [)]

[DoctorBeaver]

quote:but if someone asked what I had for breakfast yesterday I'd be hard pressed to remember

I never forget what I had for breakfast. It normally consists of the remains of either last night's curry or last night's kebab! [:p]

[qazibasit]

well i didnt get you how can you forget the word which you use the most in your conversation are you suffering from dementia???

[Ultima]

I know weird huh, it's not a regular thing it only happened the once []. It's the same way some days im really hot at doing Maths whilst others I can hardly add... anyway its great it makes me an eccentric intellectual (I wish []) instead of just crazy. So im the only one to forget something that should be obvious then???

wOw the world spins?

[chimera]

Canonical.

Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Hector Louis Berlioz