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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.

3 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"...

  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?