Contextualizebeta

universal grinder

noun
/ˌjuːnɪˌvɜːsl̩ ˈɡɹaɪndə/UK/ˌjunəˌvɜɹs(ə)l ˈɡɹaɪndəɹ/US

Etymology

From universal + grinder, from the idea that an object that is countable can generally be turned uncountable if put into an imaginary grinder and reduced to a mass of small pieces. The term was first used in print in a 1975 journal article by the American linguist and philosopher Francis Jeffry Pelletier (born 1944), after a suggestion of the American philosopher David Kellogg Lewis (1941–2001): see the quotation.

  1. inherited from grindere — “one or that which grinds; grinder”
  2. inherited from grinder
  3. compounded as universal grinder — “universal + grinder”

Definitions

  1. A notional mechanism whereby countable nouns are made uncountable.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for universal grinder. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA