I'm generally off-put by the level of discourse on Yahoo Answers. I know that as an embedded librarian, I need to respect the culture of the environment, but seriously, how many people are going to ask how long it will take for opiates to leave their system? I was hoping to find a question that I could approach using some of the new resources we talked about in class, but I spent so long browsing that I just had to pick something to answer to make myself feel better.
So this was another short one, and I happen to love words, so it certainly wasn't the greatest reference challenge I've ever attempted. I also took a shortcut, in that as a sophomore in high school, my guidance counselor gave my class a grand speech on why we shouldn't be sophomores, particularly the "-mores," so I began knowing what I wanted to find.
I wanted so badly to OED this question into submission, but unfortunately the mighty Oxford does nothing for free. Instead our book mentions OneLook.com and Dictionary.com. I tried OneLook first, hoping for a tidbit from Merriam-Webster or the Compact OED (referenced in the text.) Instead the search engine directed me to Wikipedia (gasp!) I turned instead to Dictionary.com, which in turn directed me to the Online Etymology Dictionary, which gave me what I wanted, a link to the Greek roots of the word.
I then Dictionary.com-ed the definition of oxymoron, which itself contained an allusion to the "wise fool," and was able to offer this up to the user.
Here is a link to the question: Sophomore
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