tut tut you should have tried to find out before asking such a naive question
but thanks anyway as it gives me the chance to sumbmit another well researched "screed"
I tried my tip of using google by searching for "screed info" and the first result was
Free floating screed information - Search.comThe free floating screed is a device pioneered by Barber Greene Company in the
1930s that revolutionized the asphalt paving process.
not exactly what I meant
My UK dictionary did far better
its first definition is
"a long or prolonged spech or piece of writing"
and the place I usually consult on line
http://dictionary.reference.com/
chimed in with
1. a long discourse or essay, esp. a diatribe
and from American Heritage Dictionary
1.A long monotonous speech or piece of writing.
and from word.net
1. a long monotonous harangue
2. a long piece of writing
all the above were what I had in mind although to a builder it is
A smooth final surface of a substance, such as concrete, applied to a floor.

when I were a lad I used to enjoy the Readers Digest which had a monthly feature
"it pays to increase your word power"
as featured on Ian Messy's blog at
http://www.ismckenzie.com/2005/11/it...your_word.html
"To give you a glimpse into my family, when Reader's Digest showed up in the mail box each month, it would be brought to
the dinner table where we would compete against each other at "It Pays to Increase Your Word Power." Scraps of paper and
pens would be handed around and Mom would read the words and the multiple-choice answers. She would then read the answers
and the background, while we tallied our scores. The real object was to beat Dad, who always seemed to get 10 out of 10.
I still flip to Word Power, if I get my hands on a Digest."
But I see now that this has become a fun game there see
http://www.rd.com/games-and-humor/
and
http://www.rd.com/content/openGame.do?contentId=10748
which you can only access by registering
Basically I remain fascinated by the sheer mass of words in English due to the multiple sources which created the language
and the continuing infusiuon of new words "blog" a corruption of weblog is a very good example of course
Some years ago Robert McCrum and Robert MacNeil created a most wonderfully entertaining series on the BBC and PBS called
"the story of english"
http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/images/...glish_Book.jpg
available in both book form at:-
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0142...69#reader-link
"search inside this book" there for "french vocabulary" using a brilliant amazon feature to find this in the introduction
http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/images/...of_english.jpg
sorry Jesse-Joe but after several hundred years at war English has decisevly beaten France!!
and as a video VHS tape
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/...CLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
which I also have. it is a superb set
and reminds me that I was just watching disc 2 of another related English DVD set
"America" by the UK born master letter writer Alistair Cooke
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/...CLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
who had a 13 hour series on PBS
In the first program he carefully listed his pre-conceived ideas with which he first went to the USA in 1932.
amongst them was the fact that on the US west coast there was only one city (San francisco) founded by Australian convicts!!

[ April 05, 2007, 11:39: Message edited by: johnfowles ]