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Authors Alarmed As Oxford Junior Dictionary Drops Nature Words

Posted by Soulskill on from the sign-of-the-times dept.

Freshly Exhumed writes: Margaret Atwood, Andrew Motion, and Michael Morpurgo are among 28 authors criticizing Oxford University Press's decision to scrap a number of words associated with nature from its junior dictionary. In an open letter (PDF) released on Monday, the acclaimed writers said they are "profoundly alarmed" and urged the publisher to reinstate words cut since 2007 in the next edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary. Among words to be dropped are acorn, blackberries, and minnows.

7 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Understandable, given the market share by by+(1706743) · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm assuming they kept "iPhone" and "Android," and just removed "Blackberries"...

    1. Re:Understandable, given the market share by stephanruby · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's actually all part of their new freemium strategy. They give away their junior dictionary for free, or for below cost. But then, when the kid really needs to find a word like "forest" because the kid has actually no idea what a "forest" is outside the context of Minecraft, and the school purposefully makes him read completely outdated tree-hugging communist manifestos from long dead authors that may contain the word "forest" in them, then the parent feels naturally obligated to upgrade to the next version.

  2. Doubleplusgood by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The first edition of the newspeak dictionary is out. Doubleplusgood news brothers!

  3. Simple Definition by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 5, Funny

    What constitutes a forest might be complicated in the UK. But it's simple in the US .

    No, what constitutes a forest is simple everywhere. It is just defined as ...er... a ...um... ok who who thought dropping 'forest' from the dictionary was a good idea?

    1. Re:Simple Definition by camperdave · · Score: 4, Funny

      Ask a pirate?

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  4. Re:Daddy, where do trees come from? by PPH · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sort algorithms.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  5. "cut and paste"? by YoungManKlaus · · Score: 1, Funny

    its "COPY and paste" you bastards!!!!