If you're intersted in a word, you use a simple dictionary, like at dictionary.com. Of etymology or any other specific or vaguely connected details of the word are what you're looking for, you use an encylopedia.

And if you want to read about a word as if it was the center of the universe, and have simple aspects of it described in hilariously verbose language:

You go to wikipedia.

Try looking up vulgar words. It's INSANE the amount of detail they put into it. And they turn hilarious phrases with practically zero irony.

Like this one- "'Give me a bite of that shit' implies a deliciousness notably absent from the literal substance."

Somehow this scholar seems like a word scientist to me. Upon hearing and becoming familiar with a casual turn of phrase like the above, I imagine him furrowing his brow, writing down in detail what exactlty was meant, why, and every possible interpretation and explanation of what precise idiomatic, metaphorical, or euphamatic category it should fall under.

(You see what I did there? Tons of unnecesary description. It's fun isn't it?)

I can imagine him with his horn-rimmed glasses, at his computer at a dorm in college. He is eating a bag of potato chips and his roomate drifts in from the hall, saying "Yo give me a bite of that shit!" And then, after several awkward seconds, the writer hands over the bag, a funny expression on his face.

He then heads off to the bathroom to experiment. I mean really, how else would you come up with the phrase 'a deliciousness notably absent from the literal substance'.

There I go being all hypocritical again.

(Side-note: I misspelled hypocritical initially with an 'i' and the spell checker advised I should change it to 'hippo critical'. I could write an entire article just on that.)

Maybe I should write some wikipedia articles. I wonder if they have an entry for 'ba-dump ching'.

How about this- 'An onomatopoeiac expression indicating a combination of percussonistic beats often used to punctuate witticisms."

Honestly, if you don't know what 'ba-dump ching' or 'give me a bite of that shit' means, how are you going to interpret something like that? Eh, I guess different countries like England, Australia might benefit from cultural analysis. Still, you have to admit it seems a little silly.

And musing on the topic amuses me greatly either way.