Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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.

8 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. Mmm... by Etherwalk · · Score: 5, Interesting

    All of these are things a kid should come across while growing up in a few parts of the world.

    Acorn is an especially disappointing word to lose--suddenly all these things falling from the sky don't have a word. We just live in a world where things fall from the sky and are undefined.

    Minnows are a bit strange to lose because it's a basic fish, for a pet or for feeding to pets or for following. But I suppose you could always learn the word when you got the pet.

    Finally, did they get rid of blackberries because it was racist?

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

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

  4. What can you expect? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What can you expect from a dictionary publisher that picked "selfie" as the word of the year in 2013 and "vape" for 2014

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    1. Re:What can you expect? by _xeno_ · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, yes, but as your own link explains:

      The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a word or expression that has attracted a great deal of interest during the year to date.

      So it's less that they chose those words and more that we, as English speakers, chose them.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
  5. 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?

  6. Who remembers Archimedes and RISC OS? by tepples · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They also removed Acorn, whose most lasting impact is probably the spinoff ARM Ltd. that maintains the instruction set used in these mobile computers.

  7. Re:Literally by ScentCone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This tends to drive language purists insane. They seem to endlessly complain when popular "made up" words get added to the dictionary, without really stopping to consider that every single word in the dictionary was "made up" at some point in history, as was every grammar rule in existence.

    Most complaints about change in language aren't about the introduction of some new meme-ish neologism or term that's sprung into use. The real (and justified) complaints are about changes that reflect a reduction in clarity, or which make expression surrounding critical thinking or subtlety less fashionable or in real terms more difficult. Changes in language that dumb communication down should indeed be fought against, and loudly. Giving in to the habits of the incurious, the poor communicators, and the lazy is just a way to make more of them.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.