Re:Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most ...
by rorykoehler on Thursday April 07, 2016 @12:21AM
(#11444697)
At what point does a word's existence become invalid? Searching for 'sesquipedalian' brings up pages upon pages of dictionary links on Google. Clearly this word exists only in dictionaries and is so rarely used as to be almost imaginary by those who use it. To put it another way, if it wasn't in the dictionary would it exist at all?
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Re:Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most ...
by Spivak on Thursday April 07, 2016 @01:10AM
(#11444868)
Yes because an English dictionary is a historical record of how English speakers and writers use words and phrases making no judgement as to their 'correctness' or whether an audience of current English speakers would understand you were you to use them.
The purpose of a dictionary is to aid you in understanding the meaning any English speaker or writer is trying to convey independent of the time period or location, not to dictate valid and invalid words. Some words might be dropped from abridged dictionaries when they fall out of popularity but in 'The English Dictionary' (which doesn't really exist but is approximated by dictionaries like Oxford's) words are added but never removed.
This is different, than say, the mission of L'Académie française which is to act as a language regulator and maintain the official vocabulary and grammar of French.
Re:Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most ...
by paublyrne on Thursday April 07, 2016 @01:10AM
(#11444872)
That's a good point. The makers of dictionaries have always sought catalogue language rather than create it. That's what Samuel Johnson set out to do. Without dictionaries we certainly would have lost a lot of words from our collective knowledge along the way.
Sesquiedalian seems to have been popping up since the 1600s.
http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/176752?redirectedFrom=sesquipe...