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The Collins death row

A list of 24 words by vanishedone.

About

Times Online: 'Dictionary compilers at Collins have decided that the word list for the forthcoming edition of its largest volume is embrangled with words so obscure that they are linguistic recrement. Such words, they say, must be exuviated abstergently to make room for modern additions that will act as a roborant for the book. Readers who vilipend the compilers’ decision and vaticinate that society will be poorer without little-used words have been offered a chance to save them from the endangered list. Collins... has agreed that words will be granted a reprieve if evidence of their popularity emerges before February, when the word list is finalised.'

Comments

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  • vanishedone commented on the list the-collins-death-row

    I've seen apodeictic in a recent translation of the Critique of Pure Reason (indeed, the OED definition references Kant), and it's just a variant of apodictic, which is also crucial in Husserl's phenomenology. Someone at Collins doesn't care much about modern philosophy.

    Edit: compossible turns up in Leibniz too. This is hardly obscure material.

    September 22, 2008

  • yarb commented on the list the-collins-death-row

    This strikes me as a rather pathetic publicity stunt by Collins. I've run into several of these words in recent reading; some (mansuetude, vaticinate) several times.

    "Make space"? Very funny.

    Wankers.

    September 23, 2008

  • vanishedone commented on the list the-collins-death-row

    Oh, I agree it's a publicity stunt (and yes, I'm helping it along). It's that these aren't ever so obscure that makes it odd, really: you've seen mansuetude and vaticinate, I know apodeictic and compossible from texts that are standard on undergraduate Philosophy courses, and elsewhere people are pointing out that periapt is common in D&D. So what were Collins thinking when they opted for targets that make them look like shoddy researchers whose dictionary would fail to meet undergrads' needs?

    September 23, 2008

  • reesetee commented on the list the-collins-death-row

    Appealing to the lowest common denominator, perhaps?

    September 23, 2008

  • Telofy commented on the list the-collins-death-row

    Just added them all to dict.cc. They'll stage a superb comeback.

    September 26, 2008

  • chained_bear commented on the list the-collins-death-row

    Somehow I missed this.

    I'm with yarb.

    Wankers.

    October 8, 2008

  • bilby commented on the list the-collins-death-row

    Embrangle. Need this.

    October 8, 2008

  • asativum commented on the list the-collins-death-row

    Say, aren't dictionaries most useful for looking up words you don't already know? So wouldn't a dictionary containing only commonly used words be less useful than one with lots of unfamiliar words?

    Soon-to-be-broke wankers.

    October 8, 2008