Word Fugitives

Last October this page sought a word for a person "who, in looking up a word in the dictionary, is compelled to look across the page for another, equally interesting entry."

A number of readers thought of Webster surfer . Trish Anderton, of Berlin, New Hampshire, suggested word-dogging for the activity and used her coinage in a sentence: "Like a setter intent on sniffing out prey, she went word-dogging across the page." Ed Masten, of Memphis, wrote, "My own word search is often distracted by afliteration , like a bee in a bed of begonias." William R. Phillips, of Seattle, wrote, more ominously, "Some fear that excessive use of the dictionary leads to refer madness and is a gateway to stronger language."

Readers particularly liked travel-related coinages. Louis Greenwald, of Sacramento, wrote, "I have been doing that for years. I like to think of myself as a word traveler ." ...