When will “chillaxin” be considered obsolete?

the times they are a changing. bob dylan

Deliciate. I agree. This word needs to go. We all deliciate too much.

HOLY COW BATMAN NO FREAKING WAY!!! THEY SHOULD NEVER REMOVE THE WORD! YOU NEVER KNOW IF SOMEONE MIGHT NEED TO KNOW THE WORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i think that you should take away all the words from the dictionary

Delicate? Really? That is a commonly used word and it should definitely stay in the printed dictionaries!

Delicate? Really? That is a commonly used word and should definitely stay in printed dictionaries!

How about FUSTYLUGGS ?

Hmmm. Never heard of Deliciate, but I kind of like that word…. think I might start using it…:) shame if it will be removed. Thanks for letting us know.

Like brabble too. (I’m Dutch, so we have the same word with the same meaning and I kind of like that one too…

No word should ever be removed from an online dictionary. No matter how esoteric or rarely used, if I come across one in my reading and need a definition, I would dread to come to dictionary.com and not find it here. Even print dictionaries should keep them, and if they don’t, then they should appropriately advertise as “abridged,” because that’s what they are. And think of words such as “dial,” which we still use to call the input of a phone number. Should we remove the original meaning, because it’s rarely relevant in a push button word? In a word, no.

Please do not remove any words, as they existed once with a purpose, and were used in the writings of the past. They may not be relevant now, but they were once, and we should keep them in our chronicles.

i use the brabble all the time to describe the walla in films and in everyday through-town excursions. It gets my vote to remain a “real” word

All english words are valueable, no matter how little they’re used. How many times do you wish a word fit the meaning you need? The more words, the better.

I’ve actually heard people use the words “alienism” “aerodrome” and “brabble”……although my spell check seems to deem them wrong haha.

Poor things, those words. I think there are other words that are even more uncommonly used than these though.

Frigorific should get a second chance. I personally agree that alienism should be removed, since it give a negative connotation to psychiatric patients.

*gives

never heard any of those words before at all!

Hi ! I do agree but i do think that a rare word, cymotrichous, should be added. it means to have wavy hair and might be useful

Deliciate and frigorific definitely need to be given a second chance.

I think “aerodrome” deserves to stay. I’ve heard the word plenty of times in my life.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to remove any of the words just because we don’t use it anymore. There are TONS of words in the dictionary that most people would never use once in their lives. If those words will be removed then a lot of other “not often used” words will face the same fates.

Words are never, never obsolete. There is no need to remove them from dictionary whether on paper or online. It’s the words that makes the language.

I believe the word retard should be removed frome the dictionary because it hurts many people when it is used. I think that by removing it from the dictionary will help erase the use of the word!
Thanks!

some words have been removed because they were misinterpreted.for example the word Nigger

the original meaning of the word m,eant without a job unwilling to work lazy

it never refered to ones skin color that was/is a shift of usage by bigots and the black culture which is still currently in use today

as a whole today there are many white niggers

so to think that if a word is removed from print make it no longer valid is foolish

Scintillating, and titillating

Why? The more words we have, the more potential precision we have when describing or identifying something.

No word should be left out from an online dictionary, which is one without constraints of space, printing costs, etc. Here are some reasons:

1.Because of printing costs, space limitations, and other constraints, obsolete words are left out from a printed dictionary. So, an online dictionary is the only source widely available to know about such words.

2.Language is enriched by the old- it is the old which has developed the new. Language used today did not arrive overnight. It is a dynamic entity which has been evolving continuously, developing from the old into what it is today. What is current today will be the old of tomorrow. But without the language today, the language of tomorrow cannot arise. It sounds a bit too aloof and cold to just start to exclude old words. Old words are the ancestors of the words of today. They are the soil from which today’s words have sprung. We do not carry around our dead- we bury them or burn them. But corpses decay and stink, words don’t. Can we not give them a little online space dedicated to them to rest. This online space will be like a museum where everyone interested in them can come and know about them. I feel there are many people interested like me in old, archaic, obsolete, rare, rarely used, seldom used, and other words of these kinds. Such words are sometimes very endearing, like an old classic car, like an old room, like an old garment- they are pieces of history.

Words should never be removed from an online dictionary, because of their historic value.

this is messed up i an 14 and i use bever brabble aerodome delicate and supererogate i need a dictionary for all of thoes this is stupid

they should get a second chance

I will now start using all these words. Although, I don’t consider ‘alienism’ a rarely used word; I have heard my teachers use it quite often, even.

i love dictionary.com THANKSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Charabanc is used figuratively in the expression “charabanc ride”, meaning a nice tour meant to impress him/her. For example, “The senator was flown to Bagdad and given a charabanc ride through the military installations. He came home and voted for another hundred billion for he war.” This word should stay.

NEVER REMOVE WORDS FROM A DICTIONARY!!!!!!!!!!! WORDS ARE STILL WORDS, THEY ARE STILL PART OF A LANGUAGE!!!! WHO CARES IF NOBODY USES THEM????????!!!!!!!!! also, i hav heard the word “alienism” often

I agree with Phil; online, all words in current dictionary use should remain, though they may require an archaic classification. And I agree with Joss; aerodrome is an important entry.

Words are history; to deny them their place in the catalog is to deny us education and understanding about how we got to where we are.

I seriously used frigorific last week when riding in my friends car and he had the airconditioning on too high.

I agree with Victoria, Frigorific should get a second chance. It’s not such a rare word especially when it is so similar to the equivalent in other languages.

Has no one read 1984 by George Orwell?!

First!!

If people only read current literature, you may have a point. I still read classics and and research work that predates this millennium. When I run across a now archaic term, how will I be able to find it’s meaning if all the dictionaries have dropped the word? I think expulsing the older words is a bad idea — especially for online dictionaries.

The word ‘free’ should be removed from the dicionay cause nothing today is for free! Simple as that.

Shelby you idiot, please note that they did not take away delicate, but deliciate

Well… i dont think we should remove ANY words from the dictionary. really.I mean the printing costs too much? hey we are the ones paying for the dictionary! but if we do remove, it wont be a chaos everyone can visit dictionary.com!

I’ve encountered aerodrome and younker, and I’m from Israel…

I don’t believe any words should be removed no matter how little searched because it is always fun to find new words that no one has ever heard

Such as Brobdingnagian

Words that are rarely used. Shouldn’t those be the words in the dictionary, so when they ARE used people can find out what they mean?

I think that obsolete words should be removed from paper dictionaries. They should stay in the online dicitonaries since they don’t waste paper and are still there if someone REALLY needs them. However, I don’t think they deserve a space in a paper dictionary. Who even uses those anymore? :p

>they are considered obsolete, and will no longer be included in smaller print dictionaries.

It is the paper dictionaries that are obsolete, not the words in them. I ran into “supererogatory” just the other day when I spent a few seconds googling an 80-year old book.

I like Charabanc. It sounds amusing.:-) Frigorific sounds amusing as well. However, I don’t see why Alienism should remain a word. It does not even have a definition. Plus brabble sounds like another word for babble, while younker sounds like another word for yanky. Both may cause confusion. Finally, I think we all need to know the word supererogate.

As usual, a large minority of the people posting on the dictionary site ironically seem to be unable to read. It’s not “delicate.” It’s “deliciate.” Maybe if you had bothered to click on the link (that’s how Ye Olde Internet works, you know) you would have learned that it’s a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT WORD.

Personally, i think that if today’s generation didn’t talk so much “slang” and learned to use proper English than we wouldn’t have to worry about removing words from the dictionary. This is coming from a sophomore in high school….

I agree with Phil Fasso completely. This person really has a way with words.

as long as they will stay in dictionary.com
I’m cool with it

I have never heard of any of these words (though I am only 14), but I’m sure people use them. It is understandable, they can’t can’t put every word in the dictionary! It’s a bit too bad though. But it’s not like they’re gone forever, some people just won’t have access to their meanings. Good luck to anyone without internet access who gets a vocabulary test on one or more of these words

i say no,u neva know wen we all are going 2 need those words 4 diff purposes.every word is important and significant no ma how short. Its nt jst its time yet, hang on

I would be lost without ’supererogate’. Honestly. I LOVE that word, and use it regularly – it’s surprisingly flexible.
They can prise supererogatory out of my cold dead hands.

Also, to Sarah, that word is actually a word used to describe people scientifically, though it is very abused. There are lots more words that are used as insults when in fact their actual definition implies to negativity at all. But even if a word is used offensively, I don’t think it should be excluded because, if someone hears it used, they may want to know its true definition so they won’t misuse it themselves!

The elimination of words due to a handful of people’s perception of disuse is yet another form of censorship and should not be allowed nor tolerated.

That’s stupid. They didn’t even tell us what they mean. Aerodrome is the old English word for Airport.

Aerodrome is still relevant. Steampunk uses it all the time.

Never heard of Brabble before

Phil Fasso has changed my mind. No word should be rendered obsolete. Not as long as there is a chance a person might come across a word and wants to know what it means. The move “Rango” is proof of that. So please forget what I said about Alienism, brabble, and younker. Furthermore, I think there was a charabanc in the move “Hello Dolly”. I do, however, find it ironic that adding “s” makes it singular and removing “s” makes it a noun.

WHY ARE YOU DELETING THESE WORDS JUST BECAUSE YOU USE THEM RARELY DOES NOT MEAN THEY DONT EXIST THINK IF A TEACHER TELLS YOU TO LOOK UO WORDS AND ONE OF THOSE ARE THERE AND THE KIDS DO NOT HAVE IT BUT THE TECHER DOES ITS A FIGHT COME ON REALLY THINK OF EDUCATION THINK OF THE CHILDREN OF THE FUTURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DO NOT DELETE THESE OR ANY WORDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shelby,
The word they are removing is “deliciate”, not “delicate”. You missed the extra i.

I don’t think any word should ever be removed from thee dictionary. They will always be valuable. Save thee words of thee dictionary!

Well I might be some ‘Younker’ talking, but I don’t think these words should be removed!

I personally think that no words should ever be removed from the Dictionary. It’s just wrong.

Languages may change but words should remain permanent.

They should remove words like “Twitter” and “Twittering” or the like.

I don’t think any words should be removed from the dictionary because one day you might want to use something new. All words are valuable. So therefore I think I will start using the words stated above and I think these words deserve a chance in the dictionary!

Dictionary.com, I want to thank you for all these interesting posts you make

I find that all words should be kept, whether they are sensitive or plain rude. Alienism, for example, I would say is extremely insensitive today, which is why it is not said. It has developed a whole new meaning.
But the real thing here is the fact is that they were used before. Just imagine people in the future reading an older book using the word ‘Younker’. Being such an odd word, they would look it up. Think of the disappointment when it isn’t there. Books are already losing to technology, but dictionaries should always stay reliable. That means keeping the out-of-the-ordinary words. English grew on itself, and should continue to do so.

Remove words from an online dictionary?!! To what purpose would this serve? I am a prolific reader and since elementary school have been in the habit of looking up unfamilar words in the dictionary. Not all books were written in the 21st century or even the 20th century ~ how would a person with an inquiring mind find out the meaning of a lesser used word especially in literature? (Very few have a glossary in the back!) I realize that the meaning of a particular work may often be gleaned from the context it is used in, but I have often gone ahead and looked it up and been surprised at the word’s actual meaning. Please do not even consider removing any word from dictionary.com, no matter how archaic that word may be.
ps: I remember looking up the word ‘nigger’ about forty years ago and the entry said just one word ~ ignorant. Even as a child I knew ignorance had nothing to do with a person’s skin color and have found the word offensive ever since.

Why would we……….. remove younker…:)
keep up good work dictionary.com

Prasanna

It’s not delicate… it’s deliciate!! EVERYONE knows delicate is a word… duh. Kinda irrelevant, but I thought I’d mention it for those of you who don’t see the extra “i”.

i might say that if you ever find this word somewhere else, go online and check it out. i think only few people use physical dictionary nowadays, so a lot of us really don’t mind at all.

Aerodrome is commonly used in older books, although “airport” has largely replaced it in modern usage.. And I saw a vintage charabanc on the road in England only last year – if the thing still exists, so should its definition.

Eh, Shelby, they have no reason whatsoever to take away “delicate”. But they may take away “deliciate” which means “To delight one’s self; to indulge in feasting; to revel.”

Hmm… Maybe I should start saying brabble more, interesting word….

I may be 14, but I know half those words, like delicate and alienate… As a matter of fact, the word ‘alienate’ is in my SAT vocabulary book.

No one can tell me what I can and can’t say!!

If for practical reasons certain words are no longer printed in newer dictionaries, isn’t it equally practical to print one of archaic words – those which some may deem obsolete? I am an English teacher and we specially have to keep copies of ancient and tatty dictionaries in order to look up dated words with which we may be unfamiliar. How much more sensible then to make a single compilation of those words!

FRIGORIFIC, cmon thats gotta stay.

i think that a word is a word and if people want to no what the definition is then you should tell the and if you dont then atleast let them read it in the dictionary ……………..i <3 my bf

No way should any of these words be removed, they were once used in daily life and as a writer I am always looking for new words to use and manipulate. I absolutely hate it when words I know to be real or correct, show up on my laptop with a little, red, squiggly line underneath them. And who are these people to decide which words are important or not. I wholly agree with Phil Fasso.

Frigorific… seriously?

that word is more common than microwave

i believe words like fib should get the axe

I want to open up a party business, and now I want to name it “Deliciate”. <3

bad idea.. More words should get added instead removed

Though I understand words being removed due to printing costs ect, the point of dictionaries is to teach us new words, and expand our vocabularies. By removing words that are rarely used or ‘obsolete’ we are hindering our own education and intellegence. Besides, the more words that are removed, the more we kill our language, and through that, our culture. It’s pretty sad. When there are no practical restrictions that make themselves aparent in printed dictionaries, it’s sheer stupidity to remove words. And there is more than enough stupidity out there already, believe you me. Besides, that they’re rarely used makes those words cooler, somehow.

Regarding all the “No words should ever be removed from the dictionary” line of thought: Language changes. It has changed in the past, and will continue to change in the future.

If I were to quote the following passage:
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

Would anyone know what it meant? Does this webpage even allow some of the characters to be displayed correctly (I guess I’ll find out after I post. And that’s even with using more standard Latin characters as opposed to Runic). If someone was unsure about one of the words, would one be able to look it up at dictionary.com or most any other dictionary we currently use? Why not? It’s English, and from an important work of literature.

It’s the first sentence from Beowulf, writting in Old English. Old English moved into Middle English, moved into various forms of Modern English, constantly changing along the way. After hundreds of years of change, why did we decide to stop here? As much as we may have a short-term view of things, language will likely continue to change and adapt as it has in the past, and, someone reading this post in a few hundred years (or not) may have just as much idea of what it’s saying as we would trying to make our way through something written in an earlier version of the constantly changing versions of English.

I often read older books and need to look up words that are not commonly used today. No words, even those with archaic meanings, should be removed from an unabridged dictionary. Dictionaries on the web should be unabridged.

AERODROME! i rarely used this word. But, strangely, as a recent observation, this word is more in function then airport among the elder people in my place, Tripura, INdia. As i feel, words do not deserve the fate of mortals like us. They must stay to tell the tale of their time..They must stay..

Time devours everything, What are words!!

Wow, I looked up frigorific and found out that’s just the word I needed for my essay. Please don’t delete any of these words because they may be more helpful than researchers think they are!

out of the shortlisted 9 words..i have heard and even used more or less 5 words…
i do not consider they should be removed in one trial…all the words needs to be given a second chance..for these words can b turn out to be of great help for some wordsmiths who like to compose their own writings..

words removal is a big deal..and should be done with wisdom.!

They should remove the dictionary but leave all the words and definitions intact.
Or determine the range of vocabulary of the moral majority or the average American and dispense with the other 995,000 words

They will

As a meteorologist I wonder what they would rename a “Terminal Aerodrome Forecast” if they removed the word aerodrome? It is certainly a word that is in common usage amongst aviators and weather forecasters

So many times when I’m reading an old book, I come across a word I’ve never seen used and I look it up. Even if a term isn’t used at all anymore it still has historical significance.

Being a reliable source to find the meaning of rare/obscure/archaic/bizarre terms is kind of what dictionaries are FOR. Who needs to know the meaning of words they use all the time?

Also brabble is one of the most wonderful words I’ve ever heard and needs to stay forever. Brabble brabble brabble. Try saying it out loud: brabble. Fun, right?

Seriously?? words are words, even if you don’t use it very often. It doesn’t make a sense to remove it from a dictionary, I might need it one day. ‘Alienate’ is a word I knew from my junior school though.

Absolutely not! They can be thrown out of abridged dictionaries, but all words are still words. If they get removed completely from the dictionaries, they will be forgotten. They can always put (antiquated) at the end of the definition without removing the word.

Whatever happened to the practice of leaving the word in the dictionary but noting, in the definition, that it is obsolete? I dislike data loss and, as such, I don’t favor removing any words. Perhaps make a note that the word was decided to be obsolete in XXXX year.

–H

Words should stay in online dictionaries and probably also big handheld dictionaries, because if you read an old book, you can find out what words from it mean without having to look for really old dictionaries.

I don’t agree with this. No way should any of these words be removed. This is stupid! These words are interesting though. They should remain.

English is a very Dynamic language, time is changing the world is changing, so dictionaries should also follow. Some obsolete words shouldnt be totally removed by maybe categorized as rarely used or something like that. Although i agree with the idea of reducing paper dictionaries or dictionaries in general to be more optimal, i still think that the argument that some words are not being used thus should be omitted is not a very strong argument.

we can use the word aerodrum…

sorry aerodrome

OMG!!!!! they are NOT removing D-E-L-I-C-A-T-E from the dictionary everybody knows its a common word UNLIKE D-E-L-I-C-I-A-T-E

Wow. Just wow.

At Natalie: If the words are so interesting, why didn’t you know them before :3

Is Jane Austen obsolete? How about Shakespeare? Should their writing be removed from libraries because they’re just too archaic? As long as people are reading literature from hundreds of years ago, they will need definitions of words used hundreds of years ago.

Of course, a pocket or desk dictionary must necessarily delete old words to make room for new. But an unabridged dictionary should live up to its name, and an electronic dictionary is the only unabridged dictionary most of us have access to.

Let us to not brabble, but supererogately deliciate in a bever of dram.

word are words..if you keep on removing words from the dictionary and people stop using them no one will know any word..so please keep all the words! for humanity!!

I LIKE SUPEREROGATE!!!

I beg to differ from these learned lexicographers. These words may not be in regular use anymore, but they all must have found some place in old (which includes recently old) literature. Book lovers also keep referring to small dictionaries at times. As far as online dictionaries are concerned, I think they have enough space to accommodate words which once held some place in the language. And by the way, the small landing area for aircrafts in my city is still called an “Aerodrome” and it’s very much in use.

i think all words should not be removed from dictionaries.

I am disappointed that the listing for aerodrome is incorrect. It quite specifically means a paved landing strip that has no customs facilities. It therefore can’t be an airport.

PLEASE DON’T REMOVE THAT,,,,,
EVEN IF THE PEOPLES SELDOM SAID
IT IS STILL ESSENTIAL FOR US!!!!!!

PLEASE DON’T REMOVE THAT,,,,,
EVEN IF THE PEOPLES SELDOM SAID
IT IS STILL ESSENTIAL FOR US!!!!!!
Is Jane Austen obsolete? How about Shakespeare? Should their writing be removed from libraries because they’re just too archaic? As long as people are reading literature from hundreds of years ago, they will need definitions of words used hundreds of years ago.

Of course, a pocket or desk dictionary must necessarily delete old words to make room for new. But an unabridged dictionary should live up to its name, and an electronic dictionary is the only unabridged dictionary most of us have access to.

Adding a word to dictionary is always good but deleting is a foolishness. We might try to refer them anytime in future. Is just a word becomes burden to dictionary?

I remember “charabanc” from “Little Women,” when Amy, the youngest sister, tried to schedule a party for her art-school classmates. (Hannah called this form of transportation a “cherry-bounce.”) What will happen in the future if there is no record of such a word in even an online dictionary? That is a world I don’t want to inhabit. As for me, I’m going to use “brabble” as often as I can.

yes no words shud b removed as if they were important enough to gain a place in the dictionary then they shud remsin! come mwei bien hoola coomo commercila la umbecitio la com, mwei malla! so sorry espanol is my first language i have very not good english but i like words! muchiios grathias! la omegas

These words shouldn’t be removed, nor any words in the future. Words never go obsolete. Sure, you don’t hear them everyday, but that doesn’t create an excuse. Keep the words!

I have heard the word aerodrome before. Surely it is not so uncommon as to be removed…

But perhaps unused words could find a place in an historical dictionary…

@ hmmm What did I say? Haha I know just few of them not all.

The younker’s brabbling about how he supererogated at his job at the aerodrome despite frigorific winds deepened his alienism, but unaware of this, he instead deliciated in his success by bevering and by riding a charabanc.

How are these words obsolete?!?!???

All words deserve a chance and i also like deliciace and it is used!

I think it would be irrational if we try to discard if not eliminate words that seem to be obsolete because of their rare usage or simply because no one searched for them. I would rather suggest that a distinct dictionary be made transcribing seem- to- be obsolete words as a gesture of appreciation that after all they’ve been of used since time immemorial and that they merit a traditional value.

But I really like some of these words! They’re cool! Now that we have online dictionaries and space is not an issue, as the above article states, why should these words be counted out? If people want to use them in papers and things, they should be able to!

I agreed with Phil Fasso – the only literate contributor!

I used “charabanc” the other day as a humorous word for a chartered bus.

no way…i don’t think the point of the dictionary is to add or remove words at your convinience. there is always a point in life when one might want to use a word such as deliciate. That is the beauty of the dictionary, to understand ANY word in the world without the fear that they have the right EDITION of the dictionary or not.

-Dubai, uae

I just looked up the words (I already knew the meaning of two) and it would be a pity if these are removed. Such words are what make the English language rich! Don’t get rid of them!

P.S. Except for alienism. However, someone else commented that dictionaries are for reference, so if someone comes across that word somewhere (maybe in an archaic medical reference book), it really would be sad if it’s not available for someone to look up!

In my opinion, I disagree. Though they are rarely read, heard of, or searched for, they should still be in the dictionary. Someone might find that word and wants to looks for its meaning. Just like alienism, I found that word a week ago.

no word should be removed

It is not a wise decision.

Please don’t remove any words from either the online dictionary of the printed dictionay. You never know some one some where would certainly use it….

Never take words out of the dictionary, or the makers of english will rage

Aerodrome is still used in aviation-related fields to describe an air field and the surrounding airspace. But I guess that lands it in the category of “technical jargon”

My dad is 96 yrs and he calls all types of coach a charabanc. And I love that word, deliciate. No words should be removed from an unabridged dictionary, without words people are nothing!

Right, first things first, the ‘removal of words from the dictionary’ refers to the single-volume, household dictionary. There are many different dictionaries out there, the more you pay (for a paper dictionary) the more words, and the more definitions you get. As I have stated in a previous discussion on this site, the full version of the Oxford English Dictionary is about 3 feet wide and growing all the time, words are NEVER removed from this, the master document of English vocabulary.
Secondly, great though it is, Dictionary.com is not infallible. As a fan of cryptic crosswords, it is common to come across archaic words or definitions, and not all of them can be found here.
Thirdly, @ Eric, the quoter of Beowulf. I am not sure where the OED draws the line historically, but I’m fairly certain it limits itself to words that use the modern alphabet, otherwise where do you draw the line? Ancient English; Scandinavian; Latin; Greek, hell if you wanted to do it properly you should probably start at cuniform and work your way forwards.
Words are influenced by fashion, in the nineties ‘cowabunga’ made it into the dictionary (after being coined in the fifties) when it was popularised by the Ninja Turtles. Just as words are elbowing their way in, others have to be kicked out, that is the price you pay for a small, light, cheap pocket dictionary, after all, it is a bit more likely that a person will want to know the meaning of some modern lingo they have heard from some kid in the street, rather than wishing to know the meaning of some 15th century word that went out of common usage at roughly the same time as leeches.

What about the word ‘Thrice’

aerodrome: 7,770,000 results from Google.

All words belong to beautiful language, and should not be removed. If lexcographers are keeping indecent sexy words in dictionary and then what is harm with “removed words.” Are they designed for damnation. I request you to please leave them as lexemes in English Dictionary.

Alienism isn’t an obsolete word, it isnt restricted to only defining the alienation of particular culture, to the latter it “can” be used to describe social phenomena like kids in the play ground excluding or applicably “alienating” another kid. I’m sure there are many more scenarios where this word is useful.
Also if i might say “Deliciate” is a brilliant word, for instance If i tell my friend that I “Deliciated that donut” i can confidently claim that it definately sounds more whitty and elegant than proclaiming “I ate the hell out of that donut”. =P

I really like the meaning of deliciate. At first I thought it was delicate (which I found outrageous at first to be chosen). But then I realized my eyes were fooling me and that there is an extra “i”. I think people could really deliciate more in life, especially among our often busy monotonous or rigorous lives. I also like brabble, which is similar to babble. However, brabble is the like more gruff tougher version of babbling, since it means arguing. Very interesting. I think I will be using these two at least. I agree words should not be taken from a dictionary because what if there in documents or books and someone needs to look up their meaning. Someone needs to preserve these words’ meanings and technicalities.

Someone already mentioned that none of these words should be removed from the dictionary and I have to agree with them because, words, whether used frequently, occasionally, or rarely are still part of the language.

charabanc and aerodrome are still in use

I think it might be a little irresponsible to remove these words, because they can often be found in well-read historical pieces. “Aerodrome” may not be used contemporaneously, but you’re quite likely to encounter it in in an older source. I’ve even played a video game where the modern version is called an airport and its less advanced counterpart is called an aerodrome.

Now, for the sake of space, I can understand that dictionaries need to drop a few words because they’re unlikely to be searched for. But, as others have said, it makes no sense to remove them from online dictionaries. That’s what the “obsolete” tag is for, no?

I live in DC – which is filled with sightseeing buses. Tourists constantly ask me “Where are the buses for the sightseeing tour?”

Little did I know that “buses for the sightseeing tour” can more easily be said as “charabanc.” I’m definitely going to try and revive this one.

The trick, I suppose, will be not to have people think I’m crazy and babbling.

I don’t think any word should ever be removed, but that’s just me. I don’t use many of these words, but I enjoy seeing them used, as for example:
“Hark you, soldier, there is a shilling for you, and keep yourself out of brawls, and BRABBLES, and dissentions, and look you, it shall be the better for you.” Henry V, Act IV Sc. 17

Also “frigorific” isn’t too obsolete…it’s still recognized by Spellcheck.

I cautiously disagree with the person quoting Beowulf. Unlike the proposition in this article, I don’t believe that a conscious decision was ever made to discard those words wholesale from the language. They evolved on their own over time.

If we were talking about removing archaic spellings and variants of words (such as “shew” for show, etc.) from the dictionary, then that argument would be valid. But the nine words discussed in the article are not merely dated predecessors of others: they have their own distinct definitions.

I agree that it would be cumbersome and largely unnecessary to keep every single obscure word in a pocket dictionary, but they should definitely remain online. Many older books that are still widely read use words that are not commonplace now, and we need the facility to learn their meanings.

I question the logic in removing rare words from the dictionary. I never look up words like “building” or “book” or “sister.” The words I look up are those I’ve never heard before, but have come across in my reading and need to understand. It would be a shame if something like Shakespeare became wholly inaccessible because people can no longer find the definitions of words that have become archaic.

My boss adores me because I supererogate on the job. My husband, on the other hand, is not too pleased with me at the moment because I was quite frigorific in bed last night!

this is such a shame!!!!! among all the words in the dictionary, they decide to remove these?!?!?! Brabble, Alienism, and superogorate are words that I’ve encountered before and would definitely come into good use! >:(

It’s curious that “aerodrome” is already considered obsolete when it has existed as a word for just over a century, and it effectively could not have existed prior to the invention of the airplane (or “aeroplane” for British English users). However, according to the Wikipedia entry for “aerodrome”: “The term is used in International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) documents, for example in the Annex to the ICAO Convention about aerodromes, their physical characteristics and their operation.” In essence, it is an industry term–so if it is still in use, how can it be obsolete? Just to make this more interesting, one of the definitions for “obsolete” from dictionary.com is “no longer in use, especially, out of use for at least the past century.” Poor old “aerodrome” has only existed for just over a century–either it became obsolete very quickly or the term to obsolescence has become much shorter!

Considering that the etymology of “aerodrome” was inspired by “hippodrome,” it is interesting that “hippodrome” is _not_ considered obsolete. A “hippodrome,” a site for equestrian activities such as horse racing whose origin dates to the ancient Greeks, would seem to be archaic considering that at least as practical transportation, horses were rendered obsolete by motor vehicles around the time of the invention of the airplane, although of course recreational horseback riding continues to this day.

What I find more intriguing is this statement from the last paragraph of this article: “but an argument could be made that if a word is rarely used or searched for, it may not matter if it is in the dictionary or not.” If a word is “rarely used or search for,” the implication is that it _is_ still used or sought, just not by many. But it would matter to the user and particularly to the searcher that the word is in the dictionary, right? The question becomes one of utilitarianism: What is the threshold of users or searchers before it does matter? The click-through article on the Guardian website states that the Collins’ lexicographers have established thresholds they monitor, but the specifics are not mentioned. So, my advice for those who want to keep every word in the dictionary is to start looking up as many obscure and esoteric words as possible.

@Lucas: RE: “Has no one read 1984 by George Orwell?!” That was one of the first things I thought of–this was Winston Smith’s job at Minitrue: Alter the past to fit the current position. It might sound alarmist and slippery-slope (“first you excise one word, then you’ll want to ban them all!”), but as an amateur historian I’m always wary of historical revisionism. (“Who controls the past . . . controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”)

@rob espey: RE: “the original meaning of the word [nigger] m,eant without a job unwilling to work lazy.” Where did you get this interpretation? According to the definition of the word “nigger” on dictionary.com, it always referred to black people in a disparaging manner: “From the earliest usage it was ‘the term that carries with it all the obloquy and contempt and rejection which whites have inflicted on blacks.’” Your interpretation sounds like a backhanded insult designed to validate the word.

However, this does return to the point about altering the past. Recently, there was an attempt to publish an edition of _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ that replaced the word “nigger,” which is sprinkled liberally throughout the novel, as was the custom in Mark Twain’s day. Although the word is today considered extremely offensive, that is how the book was written, and for better or for worse, it is a reflection of its time. This is another example of present practice trying to shape the past to its current convention. Not to slide down the slippery slope again, but will the next step be for history books to (Godwin alert!) describe Hitler and the Nazis as trying to “discourage Judaism” in mid-20th-century Germany?

Obsolete words and our views from the past: They are who we are. Stet!

How important is it that a word is used today? If it has been used before, it will be difficult for future readers to understand old texts if we delete old words and terms from our dictionaries. Then studying old times becomes only accessible for specialists.
That apart, studying old words is studying old lifestyles and ideas.. And there’s a saying that you can’t plan your future if you don’t know your past… Besides, old words make you think new thoughts. They are fun!

How much of Shakespeare would we loose?
Hamlet: Then saw you not his face?
Horatio. O, yes, my lord: he wore his beaver up.
Ham. What, look’d he frowningly?
Hor. A countenance more in sorrow than in anger. …

Unless we keep the mostly unused words how would we know what a beaver was. Indeed, we might think this was a misprint. “O, yes, my lord. He wore her beaver out.”

HELL TO THE NAH.No words should be removed.They were once used, nobody uses proper words nowadays.It’s all slang.Just because we don’t use the words, does not mean they should be removed.

I think they should keep all these words!

hey i’m A KID

@Shelby – check the spelling…it’s not “delicate” that’s on the list. It’s “deliciate”…a totally different word, meaning to delight one’s self; to indulge in feasting; to revel.

And to others, I agree that words should be left in the on-line dictionary, and in any dictionary titled “unabridged,” print or not. But notice this article is talking about abridged, “smaller, print” dictionaries. Those have had less commone words left out forever!!!

Let’s deliciate in the fact that the language is ever changing and ever adapting to keep up with the times!

Aerodrome is not obsolete. It is a word I use on a daily basis.

I don’t think that any word should be removed from the dictionary. Dictionarys are helpful and should have as many words as possible.

The word “dictionary” should be removed from the dictionary. That’s what it says on the cover anyway. No need to include it among the words listed inside.

I believe any “Curse word” definitions, derrogative insults and things like that should be removed from dictionaries because you don’t know who would be looking at it.

i don’t know about you guys but i made a list of these words for my next scrabble game!

Why just the other day while waiting in a frigorific lounge at the aerodrome, as I deliciated in a bever I overheard the following conversation: “During my stay in London, I took a charabanc tour of the city. As I boarded, aflutter with anticipation, a younker very kindly supererogated by offering his seat to me.”

As a doctor specializing in alienism, I must comment that I think all this brabble about removing words from the dictionary is insane unless they figure out a way to go through all books ever written and erase them from the text. Isn’t the purpose of ‘obsolete’ or ‘archaic’ notations in the dictionary to describe words like those? In conclusion, I find it amusing as I write this, that 6 of the 9 words on ‘death row’ were not recognized by spellcheck!

there shuld be a reason for evrything!!!!!!!!! so wats the good reson behind dat !!!!!!!!!!!! however in my opinion never removed words from dictionary,instead enriched it !!

Another word that is being removed from the Oxford English Dictionary is gullible.

Albigensian

Quite a few words that came from Shakespeare’s day are no longer in the dictionary. A dictionary only includes words that are part of the language as it currently exists. Now, you can have a special purpose dictionary that lists obsolete words, but that’s not the purpose or a plain dictionary.

That said, I agree that some of these words really aren’t obsolete. At the very least, aerodrome and supererogate need to stay. Heck, the former is even in Firefox’s spellcheck dictionary, and it’s missing a lot of words. And the latter should just stick around because, unlike the rest, there’s no other word for it.

Brabble should also stick around just because it’s so perfect for what it means. Rabble tends to brabble.

If there was one that had to go, I’d get rid of alienism, since it sounds like a disorder, when all it means is alienage: i.e. the opposite of citizenship.

words should never been taking out of a dictionary. they the the witnesses of our communication history. Charabanc for example is such a lovely “liaison” between English and French.

Yes, remember using aerodrome in writing—only the other day; don’t remember much about alienism, if ever used it. Now, tell me do you remember about gaol (British and I bet … archaic!), used that too and making many annoyed, possibly. But mind you everybody, this term, frigorific, is fantastic. I need to take up using, badly, and right away with justified reason. And why not at this very juncture, you see, there are some “younkers,” with alienistic, bet not alienism, characteristics, having great fun and pleasure from a distance jabbing yours truly using —frigorific (causing or producing cold). How! Well we live in modernity, don’t forget. And that’s how. Really!

After reading quite a few of the comments regarding the above blog entry, I think this would be the perfect time to point out a line that everyone seems to have ignored or missed: the words listed above “will no longer be included in SMALLER PRINT DICTIONARIES.” This does NOT mean that these words will be expunged from the English language altogether, so fear not, dear reader!

There is an absolutely marvelous publication that began its evolution in the 1850s. It has researched and listed every single word (etymologies included) in our language. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is currently a hard-cover set of about 20 volumes, and should be available for on-site use at any reputable public library. It is also accessible online (via subscription, of course – please go to http://www.oed.com for details), for a current annual fee of about US$350, so for light use or for purely entertainment purposes, I would go with the library’s copy, though it may not be officially “up-to-date.”

For those die-hard fans of the English language like me, I highly recommend a fascinating DVD series called “The Adventure of English.” It covers the evolution of our language from about 500 AD to the present (©2000) in 8 episodes of about 50 minutes each. For a quick view (about 15 minutes) of the first installment, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4c5v-cj2LA.

I would like to apologize for going on about this for so long, but as you can probably tell, I am more than passionate about our language… but in closing, you may find it comforting to know that the OED is in the business of collecting words, not wiping them out:

“We don’t throw an entry away from the Dictionary. Once a word has been added into the OED, then it stays there, even though it may well have fallen out of use 300 years ago – because it’s part of the picture of the history of the language. So, we’re an accumulating dictionary rather than a destroying one.” – John Simpson, Chief Editor of the OED

I don’t think “alienism”, “frigorific” and “aerodrome”should go at all for they well define a certain thing or condition.Whatever misinterpretation thay may arise comes from sheer ignorance and that is not the dictionary’s fault. In general I disagree with labeling a word as “obsolete” because languages must follow the flow of correct and educated use considering that we have a big mass of speakers who are not literate enough and thus not fit to rule on the appropiateness of words

@ Eric – Old English / Anglo-Saxon is a different language. Our current english dialect world-wide may have arisen from it, but we also have many Latin / French / Spanish and more modern Germanic influences and loan words. Proof? Can naitvie speakers of Modern English naturally understand, read, write, or pronounce Anglo-Saxon without training? No, because it is a different langue, and an extinct one at that. Hense none of its words are writen in runes in an English dictionary. Certainly there are words that are directly decended, nearly unchanged, but that is not the point. Words from extinct languages are not the same as rarely used words in modern languages. The fact that they are rare increases the likelihood that their meaning is unknown to the reader, and, gee, it would be nice to be able to look it up somewhere. They can be labled archaic, and they may be functionally obselete (being replaced by other words in the common usage), but we still need to know what they mean when we find them.

Aerodrome should certainly be kept, if any of them.

As far as words in general, I personally think the only reason a word should ever be removed is if its meaning has deteriorated to the point of being totally obsolete, that is to say, that it carries absolutely no new nuance in its definition than its much-commoner synonym.

I think that those words should not be deleted from any dictionary and if any are getting rid of it should be the bad words like nigger or retard >:(

Deliciate! What a fun word — to say and do! I intend to incorporate it into my vocabulary starting now! It would be delightful if “deliciate” got a second chance.

I understand that in a paperback dictionary there is only so much room, so you cannot possibly include all the words of the English language. Something must be left out. That’s what makes online dictionaries so valuable – there is room for all. And unlike a printed unabridged dictionary, it can be updated. There is no reason to delete words. And like Phil Fasso, I sometimes read old books and need to look up words that are currently obsolete. And what about novels and plays set in earlier times? They would need to make use of words not used often nowadays.

As for the specific words, I see aerodrome frequently, and I’m familiar with alienism, and charabanc. The others I can’t remember ever encountering. But from the comments, several are familiar words to others.

I use Delicate a lot!

Didn’t recognize any of the other words though..

Is brabble like “babble”? Cuz that’s what I always say.. Actually, spell check just let me know that “brabble” is not in *their* dictionary, and suggested I change it to babble..

I think it depends on the purpose of the particular dictionary. If it is for current usage, then omitting archaic or obscure words may make sense.

However, there is a vast amount of older literature out there that uses what we call “obsolete” language. A dictionary containing those old words is vital to anyone who reads such literature. I particularly enjoy reading fiction from the late 1800’s which often contains obsolete words.

I’d say that since the invention of writing, there really aren’t any “obsolete” words because once written, they never go away.

absolutely not! what if in classes they ask students to read very old book and these words are used? how would they find out the meaning? or if it’s an old version of the book that is available to a certain student and he/she does not know the meaning of these old words?
WE are not going to use them in an essay or on a regular basis, but that does not mean they should be should be deleted from dictionaries. If they are, however, deleted, then make a special printed dictionary for old words that will help students reading old writings, so as to separate them from words that are used more frequently.

I’m not familiar with those words, except for maybe one of them. I do get a kick out of the following comment, though: “All english words are valueable…”

Do you see the two errors?

At least on online versions, why would we want fewer words to be able to refer to? If they’re there, we can always look them up or discover them!

I agree with Phil Fasso; I know what an Aerodrome is from reading period novels and just because I havn’t run across the others doesn’t make them not worthy of being in the dictionary. If I were to run across the words I would like to think I could go to my trusty dictionary to get the definition. Are we going to make a law that all older writings need to be updated? No, we are not, we need to have access to definitions of older words so we don’t miss the points being made.

I think that they might consider removing some words from printed dictionaries, but you should always be able to find an obscure word in an online dictionary if nowhere else. Just because the English language is constantly changing doesn’t mean we won’t need to know these words. What if they’re printed in the books we have to read for school? Where will we be if we can’t define them?

Removing words from a dictionary is a form of censorship this is a perfect example from someone:

“some words have been removed because they were misinterpreted.for example the word Nigger

the original meaning of the word meant without a job unwilling to work lazy

it never referred to ones skin color that was/is a shift of usage by bigots and the black culture which is still currently in use today”

Wouldn’t it be more helpful to educate people than to get rid of a word that some one has turned ugly? The same goes for “retarded” or as used in a derogatory manner “retard.”

Mental retardation is a medical definition used for someone with limited mental functioning, with limited communication, social, behavioral skills. Just because it gets used in a derogatory manner and we prefer to use euphemisms instead of facing reality, doesn’t change the definition of a person with cognitive problems.

Let’s just re-write more history if it hasn’t been done enough already. Let’s remove all the things we don’t happen to like from the history books, dictionarys, classic novels, and any other thing people find offensive. There shouldn’t be any need for accuracy in our politically correct, sanitized world.

Not that the words up for deletion are offensive, but you really have to be careful about where some things lead. It may not stop. Should we remove the works of Plato & Aristotle from libraries because there are so many other books etc.? Who gets to decide such things?

I believe that the word brabble should stay in the dictionary as I have heard it used too many times……
……and although I’ve only just stumbled upon it now in this article, deliciate is a term that will prove to be incorporated into the humorous section of my vocabulary as I am sure that I will be able to incite many a laugh by means of it.

There is absolutely no reason for an online dictionary to have exclude some words; however I find it reasonable for a small print dictionary to take out unnecessary words to save space. Who actually uses a word like “younker” ever?

These words shouldn’t be moved because they have important meanings, they describe things..and those words were once used very oftenly in the 15’s and 16’s they made a history out of it.

Surely the whole point of a dictionary is to list ALL words and their meanings, whether they are in common usage or not. Words are a means of communicating ideas between people, so surely the more words available, the more clearly those ideas can be communicated. Otherwise we just keep degrading the language to the lowest common denominator, ending with isolationism and alienation.

All these words should stay in the online dictionary. It isn’t really causing an issue having these kind of words in the online dictionary, and it is fun to incorporate them into everyday speech. I think there should be a link that leads to a webpage of underused/obselete words so that these words can be viewed seperately, but it also allows everyone to continue to have access to these words.

I’ve just remembered, didn’t a guy called Bowdler try something like this around the 18th/19th century? Look up bowdlerize.

@Phil Fasso – Could not have said it better myself.

If a word is less commonly used, than anyone who did use it would cause everyone to try to look it up, and then they wouldn’t be able to. So, in that since, if they’re obsolete, it makes them more crucial for the dictionary. But, if almost no one uses them, then they will waste paper & ink. In that since, it makes them less important. But, there is no reason to remove them from an online dictionary. So, I’m glad y’all won’t!

Online dictionaries should not have words removed. Print dictionaries should not keep every word if the benefit of keeping the word is outweighed by the cost of printing.

There’s no reason to have these words removed. Even if they are not the kind of words which you can easily use in everyday life….it would still be nice to keep both online and printed. someone and somebody will come across with these words in the future and would be frustrating not to find their meaning.

Never trust an editor!

Never delete a word from the dictionary. There’s always going to be some book somewhere that uses it and if it’s not in the dictionary where will we find the definition? Three cheers for the online dictionary!!!

most those words can be removed as some don’t even have a actual def. for them

Really? I think it’s sad that we even discuss the matter. It is what it is we have no choice but to deal w/ it,,,, no use in commenting, in fact why am I? Eww..

What? Remove old words from dictionaries/ They have to be joking. How are you going to read any old novels, essays, historical works without knowing what half the words mean. Take a guess? I agree with Sur Dev and Sandra. Are people going to be deprived of literature? Madness.

Hey,
I know “Aerodrome” …… so you can delete it.
other words.. seems to be so alien that I don’t think they can be used on earth now.
… so, you can also delete them.

just because a word may not be as popular doesnt mean it should be left out. however, if this is a printed dictionary, i dont think they shouldn’t be included for printing costs. online dictionarys SHOULD have new and old words.

It is outrageous to think that any sane person, entrusted with the editing of a dictionary, would mutilate the English language like this, just to comply with an inarticulate, linguistically crippled culture, that discards actual words, in favor of slang and abbreviations (and sometimes even coarse or profane expressions!) If they must eliminate entries, they should pick on pseudo-words, like “wi-fi” and “ain’t,” not real words that just aren’t heard very often. The purpose of a dictionary is to show people how words are spelled and what they really mean – and to teach new vocabulary words – not to follow the most trendy errors!

I had heard aerodrome, frigorific, and supererogate (which are actually quite common words,) and am delighted to discover the others!

When I attend a meeting, I set my phone to silent so it does not tintinnabulate when some one calls.

Removing words from the dictionary is akin to burning the book itself!! This is the beginning of the end of our language!!

As a foreigner I wish no words were ever removed from any dictionary! What if I come accross one of those removed words in an old text and need to know its meaning?

Gee, golly, gosh. . .waste not, want not. . . each and every idophone provides us with an open invitation for mentation!
Yes, we should have easily accessible repositories for all words – it is fine to identify them as “not in current use” or even “archaic” but we should never loose the ability to know both the word and its meaning.

The American lexicon is, for the most part, lacking enough as it is. Removing words will only further the “dumbing down” of the English language. If we continue to declare words obsolete then we will be reduced to using the mostly boring and monosyllabic words. With the intelligence humans possess we should not be communicating like neanderthals.

I think that the rarer the word, the more important it stay in the dictionary. After all, the rare words are often the ones we don’t know the definitions of, and therefore, rare words are the ones we would need to look up in a dictionary. You wouldn’t look up the words DOG, or BUG, or TREE in a dictionary!

They’re not talking about obliterating the words from the English language, they’re specifically culling words from “smaller print dictionaries.” The key words being “smaller” and “print”.

We’ve all seen the HUGE dictionaries in the library, can you imagine, as a college or high school student trying to lug around a “pocket” sized version of such a tome? Some of it *has* to be omitted from paperback novel-sized copies.

There are no plans to remove the words from online dictionaries, I think the columnist was just asking a question to get the conversation going.

We must be aware that many words, not in use today, appear in past literature and we would like to know their definition. The word “mountebank” comes to mind! On a second thought, they are still around!

Webster must be turning over in his grave. If he could have any say in this, he would definitely speak against removing any word from the dictionary, despite how rarely it is used. Someone who would remove words from the dictionary is, I must say, something less than a real man.

The point of a dictionary is to help people learn and maintain vocabulary. If we remove words, we limit our vocabulary and lose history, culture, even if it’s for only a small few who would look those words up? For the sakes of knowledge, history, and posterity, all words, even obsolete/archaic words, of the English language and all of their definitions should be documented in some lexicon.

What is so bad about alienism? Why is it in dnger?

What Phil Fasso said (on August 24, 2011 at 3:19 pm) :p

NO WAY!!

Delicate is used very often and even though the times are changing, these words shoul dbe kept for a bit longer.

I would totally ‘thumbs up’ Jessica’s comment if i could.

I think they should keep all the words. I that’s kind or disrespectful that a word should be removed from it’s home the dictionary. I would you like it if you got taken away from your home?

has anyone else read “1984″?

Aerodrome is a very common word in daily usage and why should it be removed at all??? There are many words which are not used frequently; but then should they be removed??? They are words not wears. They never become unfit for usage.

Most Esteemed, etc.:

The notion that obsolete words are brabble should be subjected to the
ministrations of an alienist.

It is hardly supererogatory effort to retain a word in a file that already exists, particularly when there are no space or printing considerations.

Perhaps the Collins people have eschewed the opportuinity to become a truly comprehensive English-language resource.. Or perhaps they have
misbetook themselves to the company of our contemporary academic
establishment, which deliciates itself in the exaltation of ignorance and
illiteracy.

Such is frigorifical to the minds of our younkers! Such advocacies should
be conveyed by first charabanc to the nearest aerodrome and hied along
hence!

Oh, and Eric–My inability to read something does not provide
concomitancy for denying me the ability to learn how to do.

Felicitously,

Your most humble, etc.

The Reverend Father James Rosselli +

La Porte, Indiana, 25.th August 2011

i can understand the printed ones cuz of money but online thats just dericlious. That makes me very sad

I have a decent vocabulary, but I’ve never heard of any of those words. I never hear scholars using those words either. Even if they were in use, they’d be considered archaic terms

i think i think the words need to be removed off the list because it hurts the athletes feelings and makes them mad at times i think they should put in respect instead of disrespectful so yeah lets keep that word instead of those words on the list you have on their………

We still use a corruption of the word bever around our way. We say bevey, off out for a bevey. And aerodrome is used lots, isn’t it? Anyway a pocket dictionary is just that, some words need to go to make room for words like ‘chav’, or they won’t fit in your pocket any more will they.

This is ridiculous! Even if we don’t happen to commonly use a word any more, that shouldn’t mean that it is removed from the dictionary. Who knows, one day we may need these words and whatever shall we do if we cannot find them because they have been removed from our lives?

I tend to think that if someone is still alive that may remeber the common usage of the word then it should stay, for instance, Aerodrome. I am sad to admit that beyond Aerdrome and Alienism, I have no idea what the otehr words mean, which is precisely why they should remain in a dictionary. I am in strong agreement that words should never be removed. I think that these words, some of which are less than 100 years old, have fallen victim to a society of accelerated cultural oscillations that leave little room for things like words to properly age and absorb into the greater foundation of English. If we didn’t allow obsolete words to linger would we still have “shall”, “thing”, or “them” ?

Wow Seriously…..Delicate is a commonly word used ….The others I never heard of? But still you shouldn’t remove them. There words, they deserve to be in the dictionary…Come you guys are being impracticable!! (Rolling my eyes)

they all deserve to stay in the dictionary

Deliciate should definitely stay in the dictionary. It is a commonly used word. When will we see the word: “Trolling” in the Dictionary. -_-

I personally think every word should get a second chance. I’m going to start using them more often now!

Responding to some of the comments, words shouldn’t be banished merely because they can be used to hurt someone. People still need to know what those words mean, and most (if not all) have legitimate uses as well. For example, “retard” is a term in music that means “slow down.” I imagine it’s used in biology as well.

I really hate to see any words banished, because the dictionary is the repository of the language. But I understand that not every dictionary publisher can afford the printing costs to preserve the language in all its glory.

You MAY mark a word as “obsolete”, but you MUST NOT remove any of them. By the way, it would be reasonable to indicate the period of time when the word was in active use (if it ever happened), and among which layer(s) of the society.

I think all the words should stay because someone could come across one in an old book and want to know what it means. If you can’t find the definition in a dictionary then odds are you’re not going to find it. Plus, they may become used more over time.

And people seem to be misunderstood, the word in the list is Deliciate, not delicate.

Well, it’s amazing how people don’t read things properly from some of these comments. However, no word should ever be deleted from dictionaries, the should just, as someone pointed out, be defined as ‘archaic’ or ‘rarely used.

I
Can hear their little screams
The words are going,”NOOOOoooooo…” D:

It’s ok little words, I still like you. ;n;
I’d use ‘younker’, but I’m going to get stranger looks from everyone than I usually do.

I have never heard – or read – the word “deliciate”. I like the sound of it and will start using it as soon as I find out what it means! Populate dictionaries as heavily as possible, or else humans might run the risk of not understanding a text written, say, thirty years before their time, let alone Shakespeare…

there are no words that don’t belong in the dictionary, except the filthy slang that exists today. obscure words are excellent and fun!! please don’t get rid of them. that would be getting rid of a piece of education, which is destroying a bit or priceless treasure. please heed my words

Oh Golly Wow!,,..the time will come that we will need that COUPLE OF WORDS ..,amf DISAGREE!!!..that words should stay in the DICTIONARY not on the TRASH BIN!…

i support the anonymous dude up top…… we could use a little less vocab homework…. or a lot………….

If a word is rarely used, shouldn’t that be all the more reason why it should stay in the dictionary? So that someone who has never heard it before can reference the meaning of the word. Isn’t that the point of a dictionary? Let’s see….
dic•tion•ar•y
[dik-shuh-ner-ee]
noun, plural dic•tion•ar•ies.
1.
a book, optical disc, mobile device, or online lexical resource (such as Dictionary.com) containing a selection of the words of a language, giving information about their meanings, pronunciations, etymologies, inflected forms, derived forms, etc., expressed in either the same or another language; lexicon; glossary.

D: One day, I`m going to look up one of these words in the dictionary because I may be reading some ancient literature for English class ( since they NEVER update curriculums ) and they won`t be in the dictionary. Just because they`re ” obsolete ” does not mean they aren`t words. They`re just not as common.

Why remove words from a dictionary??? There is no such thing as “too many words”. In fact, there aren’t ENOUGH word. In any language! Have you not been in a situation where you’re grasping for the right word, and you can’t find it? This is what the arts does – express what can’t be expressed in mere words – because language isn’t enough to express what we want to express. So why make the language poorer by eliminating words?

Out of the examples here, I particularly enjoyed:

‘ALIENISm’ — n — obsolete: the study and treatment of mental illness.

That’s kind of awesome actually! I may start using that.

Remove vulgarities from the dictionary like id**t or f*ck ???

I have heard of the word Younker before actually… It makes me laugh thinking about hearing it though… *snickers* Anyways, I think if they are not used often then it is fine to be taken out of the SMALL dictionaries, as long as it stays in the larger one.

Well, they’re quite awesome words… I’m sure that now I know them, I’ll use them, but I couldn’t have before because I had no idea that they existed…

Words should always remain in the dictionary. I typically use the dictionary to look up uncommon or obsolete words that I read, not words that are used all the time. There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to find the definition of a word. If it has ever been used its definition should be available.

I have used every single one of those words.

I see no reason for an online dictionary to remove any words, especially if they have been in use in the past several hundred years (e.g., since the time of Shakespeare or even Chaucer). Space, admittedly, is not at a premium. And (flash from the newsroom!) people still DO read literature from centuries ago. If you can’t look up a word in The Canterbury Tales or Hamlet in “the dictionary,” how are you going to understand what you’re reading?

Aerodrome is still definitely a very applicable word. There are lots of them still around. Keep that one in. I also agree with people who like Brabble, so that should get a second chance.

You should never remove words from the dictionary. That’s just ridiculous.

Also, we still use the word Aerodrome here in New Zealand!

In older automobiles you could retard the spark with a lever making it easier to start the engine.
Before you restrict the use of any word Please try to discover all of it’s possible uses i.e slow down.

i think they should stay in dictionary com but not in the paper books

Oh, look! Nine new, little, forgotten treasures to be added to my vast collection of words, which I like to call “The Vocabulary”!

This is so silly. Why would they remove them from the dictionary? So what they aren’t the most commonly used words? They’re still words, are they not? I think they are.

My fellow word lovers and linguaphiles, let’s not worry too much about this. Just because they are removed from the dictionary, it doesn’t mean that they are no longer words. You can still keep them alive! You can use them in sentences, pet names, T-Shirts, etc. A word will not lose its status as a word if it’s not in the dictionary.

Might I also add that there is no such thing as “THE Dictionary”. There are multiple versions of the dictionary, dictionaries for different languages, dictionaries published by different organizations, and dictionaries made for different purposes (i.e. medical dictionaries). A word may be removed from the Merriam-Webster dictionary, but it may still be in the Oxford dictionary.

Hey, just a recommendation: If you would like to see other words that have been dropped from dictionaries in the past, I’d suggest going to this website. http://savethewords.org/ I just “StumbedUpon” this a few days ago. It’s quite interesting, I didn’t know what an odynometer was until then!

It’s not DELICATE, but delic”i”ate with an extra “i” everybody!

words have feelings, too. don’t delete them!

THERE IS NO ect

@ Sheridan and his 10,000 brethren and cistern

Critical mass has been reached boys and girls, and I am officially saturated.

There is no ect

There are two Latin words which have come down history lane, to be used in the English language. They are “et cetera.” Et means “and.” Cetera means, “other things.” They are used at the end of a (partial) list, to indicate that, because of constraints of time or space, there are other similar items not shown.

They can be used in English as two words, et cetera.
They can be used, shoved together, as one word, etcetera.
They are most often used, with the tail cut off “cetera”, as the abbreviation etc.

Look closely at the order of the letters, ladies and gents. Because of the order of the letters in “ETCetera, the order of letters in the abbreviation is e t c. There is no ect Since it is an abbreviation, there is a period needed following it.

Since the meaning of the words and/or the abbreviation is already, “And other things”, there sure as Hell is no “and ect”! It looks like the user is stuttering in two languages.

I feel like King Canute trying to keep out the tide with a broom, trying to teach etymology and usage to the likes of some of the above who (mis)use this word and others. Can’t tell the difference between an unlimited, unabridged, on-line dictionary, owned by a corporation named Dictionary.com and a small, paperback, abridged, print dictionary, owned by a company named Collins. Think that, if a few seldom-used words are not listed in one specific dictionary, they’ve somehow disappeared from the ken of all wordsmiths. Don’t see the difference between deliciate and delicate. Rail about the removal of alienate when the word given was alienism. Claim to regularly use the word “aerodrum” and spell it wrong. If you can’t find a word, use a bigger dictionary. You’re already at Dictionary.com, what do you care what Collins does?

And they let these people vote? No wonder we had eight years of George W.!

I’ll have to say that if a word is unknown or not commonly used then that’s all the more reason for it to be in a dictionary. Mainly because, if someone were to come across the word, of course a dictionary would be the first place to look.

Also, I like to learn from dictionaries. Even if I’m not looking for anything in particular, I’ll sometimes flip through the pages and if I see an interesting looking word that I’ve never heard before, I’ll read the definition and learn from it.

sherry rosebud said: “I agreed with Phil Fasso – the only literate contributor!”

Now Sherry, I do think Phil posted a wonderful note, and I definitely agree with him. You, however, I do not. I feel sad that you felt it necessary to put down all the other contributors–many of whom had very interesting things to say. And yes, not all of them were literate, but so what? They are people’s opinions! Some of them are goofy, wierd, and strange. One might even say a few border on stupid! My suggestion for you: lighten up!

And there are several others of you who used name-calling to contribute to these posts–such as the person who called someone an idiot. Come on, be kind! Or perhaps I should have said, be eleemosynary.

By the way–I vote to keep all words in the online dictionaries!

I Think Delicate Should Be Removed From This List. I Hear That Word Used Everyday- It’s Even A Setting On The Washing Machine And Dryer! If The Younger Children Don’t Understand What It Means Then How Will They Understand To Make The Choices On Simple Laundry Machines Or The Dry Cleaners?

I just went through all of the words mentioned above and their definitions. I personally like all of these words and I think they deserve a second chance. By publicizing that these words will be removed from the dictionary, they got more people knowing these words and using them What will they do now?

All the words should stay, though we have not heard some of the words in the list, there is a chance that we may come across them someday.

I can excuse for printed dictionaries; but as for online dictionaries which are oftenly used, the words should remain no matter how obsolete they might be

Words are, for the lack of a better word, artifacts of our culture. If we removed them, they’ll be gone from our lexicon, much like the death of a language. See how much effort we have to exert to translate hieroglyphics.

ALL OF THEM PLZ

There is only one reason why words should not be taken out of a dictionary, online or print…Phil Fasso made a very good point), “Please do not remove any words, as they existed once with a purpose, and were used in the writings of the past. They may not be relevant now, but they were once, and we should keep them in our chronicles” (Phil Fasso on August 24, 2011 at 3:19 pm).

The older and less used words existed once before and gave meanings to writings in literatures and communications (written and verbal) in the past. Removing these old words now will remove part of our history, not to mention the meaning those words gave us in the past. Words are priceless, and as a provider of meanings of words, dictionary.com should know that!

Putting “dis” in the dictionary was a huge mistake. I understand the dictionary authors do not want to seem out-of-touch with the times, but that word has no place in the dictionary.

@Shelby, Hala, Fonda, & Sancy – You should read the list of obsolete words over. ‘Delicate’ is a fine word, meaning fragile or tender. ‘Deliciate’, on the other hand, is a rarely used word meaning to revel. Honest mistake; the eye does not read the complete word before sending it to the brain.

@Kitsune – Do you mean ‘delicate’ or ‘deliciate’? If you mean ‘delicate’, you have read the wrong word. Refer to comment above. If you mean ‘deliciate’, are you sure that it is in your SAT book? Maybe you should reread the list.

@Kerwyn – “Deliciate should definitely stay in the dictionary. It is a commonly used word.” You mean one of two things. Either you mean that ‘delicate’ is a commonly used word, in which case you should refer to my first comment, or you come from a community where one “delights one’s self, indulges in feasting, or revels” quite often. Let me know where that is; Are any houses for sale there?

@Father Jim – No critique. Love your use of the words.

Ciao, bellas; I’m off to save the world from the evil antihero named Expecially. If you need me, just put your signal in the sky. When word misuse is near, VocabGirl is here!

Cyberquill@ i agree with you. and i think everyone in the whole world should know what ‘dictionary’ means anyway… LOL ^^

I WANT ALL OF THE CUKOO WORDS TO STAY IN THE DICTIONARY NO MATTER WHAT . STUPID LEXICOGRAPHERS THESE DAYS…..

I am gonna start useing these words now and get all my friends and family to use it!
if they don’t well they’re silly!

@ Sara Knight

You might wish to revisit “eleemosynary” in the dictionary. It refers specifically and only, to the giving of alms, money, financial assistance to those in need. While such actions are kind, the meaning of the word is about fiscal transactions. Since there are none such in this thread, a more accurate, though less bravura word, would be “considerate.”

To the linguistic Chicken Littles

I have, in my house, eight dictionaries, from 300 page secretary models up to two 2000 page tomes, and I still end up at Dictionary.com. No two contain the same word list. The one big doorstopper is sixty years old and tends toward British and archaic words. The other, far more recent, gives technological and American usage. There are thousands of words that I can find in any given one, which are not given in some or all of the others. This has been going on for years, and the vocabulary of exactly none of you has been impaired. The sky is not falling. Stop panicking about a problem which doesn’t exist.

When will “Frenemy” be added to the dictionary?

No word should ever be removed from an online dictionary. No matter how esoteric or rarely used, if I come across one in my reading and need a definition, I would dread to come to dictionary.com and not find it here. Even print dictionaries should keep them.

Please do not remove any words, as they existed once with a purpose, and were used in the writings of the past. They may not be relevant now, but they were once, and we should keep them in our chronicles.

We are not supposed to remove anything in the dictionary.. no matter how rarely it is used. What if, people put these words on books, or even if they use it in conversations, then where are we supposed to look at when these words are used? I’m sure there are a lot of other words that are rarely used including these. Knowledge is power!

One word that’s creeped me out more than once has been “impactful”, and I hope it hasn’t appeared in any recent dictionaries. It hardly seems to belong in any legitimate dictionary, but if it does appear in a modern dictionary, it’d just be more cause for concern about society getting stuck in some loathsome, putrified abyss.

…That was great prose on my part, just great. I think I used the word “dictionary” enough times in a row. Sorry for the repetition, though maybe someone will find it amusing. (Besides which, I hope nobody takes my comments here too seriously, anyways. That would be too impactful for me. RETCH.)

Totally agree with Mel.
Paper dictionaries may have a space issue, but online ones should include and retain all words, however ephemeral, obselete or even offensive. These dictionaries have now become our collective memory and one of our cultural repositories.

That’s the last time I’m taking the charabanc to the aerodrome, then!

I personally like the words:
Aerodrome
Brabble
Frigorific
&
Supererogate

From now on I shall make an effort to incorporate these words into my daily vocabulary!

DON’T YOU DARE!! PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW THEM AND IF YOU REMOVE THEM THEY WON’T GET A CHANCE TO LEARN THEM!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m a novelist, and this makes me really sad. Authors — I don’t care who they are or when they’re from — want their work to be timeless. When I read books, especially those written in past generations, I sometimes have to consult my dictionary to find a word’s meaning. It is much harder for the art of words to remain timeless if we allow time to erase the words which make it up.

As for the words in question, I can’t say that I’ve heard any of them in regular conversation, but I’ve encountered them in books before. For that reason, if no other, I think they all deserve a second chance. Our language isn’t merely a tool for communication and documentation, it’s a tool in the art of the written word. The history books can be updated and re-written in a more modern version of how we use our language — but literature can’t. How many obsolete words can you find in Shakespeare’s plays and poetry? Yet, even today, classrooms still teach us the English language with his work. Why? Because even if it’s an “obsolete” version of the English language, it teaches us — reminds us — of the power and the timelessness of words when we read something written more than five hundred years ago.

Danielle, PLZ DON’T SAY THAT!!!!! MY FRIENDS DON’T EVEN KNOW THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“I may be 14, but I know half those words, like delicate and alienate… As a matter of fact, the word ‘alienate’ is in my SAT vocabulary book.”

Delicate? Alienate?
Maybe you should learn how to read before attempting to take your SAT.

They are not talking about: Delicate, they are talking about: Deliciate
And
They are not talking about: Alienate, they are talking about: Alienism

There should be a complete unabridged list somewhere with obsolete or rarely-used words marked as obscure, for those of us who wish to carry on speaking English rather than this emerging Newspeak; for those who genuinely love the language; as a historical record.

If it was practicable they could create unabridged dictionaries on microformats, and there’s no reason why an online complete archive of words should not exist. I thought this site pretty much was one but maybe someone knows better.

The idea is double plus good.

Thomas, to my mind, “dis” should not be an entry, it should be appended to the entry for the verb/noun “disrespect”, noted as “hip hop slang” or something.

If they want to include references to how young people talk, they should go the whole hog, and add to the definitions of the proper words, such as ‘bad’ meaning ‘good’ or ‘anyway’ meaning ‘I want to stop talking to you now!’

Under no circumstances should we be able to open a dictionary to “LOL”, “XOXO” or “LMAO” when this happens I will start the killing.

not a single word should be removed,this is wrong as u never know,when do u need that particular word,these words are made to be used,now their removal is wrong.

I reckon those words should be included but wrong words should be omitted cos this guy was looking for hard words from the dictionary and he just randomly flicked to a page and wrote down the word ’sodomy’ without even seeing the meaning!

You are very democratic. By letting us know about your intentions to give our opinions on whether some rarely used words should be removed from the dictionary or not. I suppose that since language and speech is dynamic, it would be safer to let the rare words still remain in there. This is because you just never know when someone will need to use the word. Teachers of English must be held accountalble for the loss of words from the dictionary, for they should help in the popularising of certain rarely used words to allow for their incoporation in vocabularies.

I don’t believe any words that were once part of our language should be removed from a dictionary as they are part of our heritage and history and if they are used only rarely that means they are still used by some and therefore reason enough to include them.

I think they should not be removed. You never know when you’re gonna hafta say: Supererogate or Younker!

“Delicate” is in no danger of being removed from the dictionary any time soon. The word on the list is “Deliciate” (with an “i”). Relax, people! Read carefully. Smell the flowers. Have a nice day.

I believe, its not the matter of how many times a word has been researched for!

I mean, that’s what dictionaries are meant for? If you cant find the meaning of the word anywhere than have a look in dictionary.. .. and if you are taking it out from the dictionary, that means you are taking it out from the language. Therefore, subsequently shrinking the language!

I think if this practise prevails, than there will come a time when the whole language will revolve around few thousand words and phrases!

Agreement?

That has got to the most footle thing I’ve ever heard of, come on people pay attention this nothing but one big trap. if i have a bunch of tools and out of all my tools grip pliers are the least used, what makes you think there would not come a time that i would not need my pliers. Final, IT IS BETTER TO HAVE AND NOT NEED THEN TO NEED AND NOT HAVE.

Please tell me you can’t be serious. Half of these words – at least half – are still fitting for today’s dictionaries. Maybe the solution would be to teach people these words, instead of removing them for the sake of slack-jawed twits, who cannot even properly spell, or pronounce, simple words. For goodness sake; education, not deletion. At this rate, people are going to suggest you get rid of words like “the.”

Aerodrome and brabble should not be eliminated, they are not in disuse. How did they determine what words are in disuse? Did they contact every English-speaker? Nobody called me and I received nothing in the mail.

Aerodrome is the only one there that i dont agree with, it is still in use in movies and refered to in schools and museums if you remove it what will happen when children look it up. the others i havent heard or care for….

For an online dictionary there is NO reason to remove any word. However words could usefully be tagged “rare”, “obsolescent”, “for specialists only” “current slang”, “dated slang” etc. as an aid to the reader. For new entries it would be useful to indicate the date of entry.

Deliciate , Is a COMMON used word, all of my kids use it and so do I. It’s defidentally a MUST stay. Also Alienism is a must stay to. the words may be not used as commonly as they used to, exe. my computer says deliciate and alienism are mispelled, but I think the words should still STAY for good. no qeustion about, a MUST STAY.

Chippy

Deliciate , Is a COMMON used word, all of my kids use it and so do I. It’s defidentally a MUST stay. Also Alienism is a must stay to. the words may be not used as commonly as they used to, eg. my computer says deliciate and alienism are mispelled, but I think the words should still STAY for good. no qeustion about, a MUST STAY.

Chippy

No words should EVER be removed from the dictionary! EVER! Even if a word is out of date, it can still be found in literature. What if I was reading a Lord Byron poem and came across an obsolete word that wasn’t in a dictionary? How would I ever know what it meant??

Never get rid of words! Though these words may not be commonplace nowadays, if someone is reading older literature, they may need to know what these words mean.

what happens if you want to use the word aerodrome in a period movie??????????

*acquired. Sorry

How about ax, as in “May I ax you a question”?

@Phil Fasso: You have it backwards. A print dictionary is abridged unless it is marked “unabridged.” You can tell the difference easily because an unabridged dictionary is large enough to set for dinner.

And think back, people, to the pocket dictionaries many of us had in school. Those always left out many words that we expected them to have. There are lots of editions. If you want them all in print, go get an OED before they stop publishing the print edition, unless it’s already too late…

Truth be told, of the words in this list “Brabble” is the only one I knew of, which I have heard used before in context. However, the whole point of a dictionary is to find the meaning of words which one does NOT know. Removing words, and *especially* obscure ones, seems contrary to the reason for having a dictionary in the first place.

On the other hand, I can understand why lexicographers would want to remove them. If they are rarely used and rarely looked up(and I’m sure sites like dictionary.com keep records of words searched for), omitting “obsolete” words seems more efficient in regards to both space and production cost. To make matters worse, many bookstores are seeking smaller, slimmer books so they can pack more on a shelf. From a business standpoint, it just seems like a smart decision.

Perhaps the question we should be asking is: Are these being removed from the abridged version of the dictionary, or both abridged and unabridged? An unabridged version should be as complete and thorough as it’s name implies, but most people using an abridged version are doing so for the sake of convenience. Omitting obsolete terms from the abridged version would be understandable, perhaps even desirable. But removing them from the unabridged version voids the point of having an unabridged dictionary at all.

Of course, by using these words in this article, you realize you are bringing them right back in to the lexicon…

ALTHOUGH I HAVE NEVER HEARD OR READ THOSE WORDS BEFORE I THINK THEY MAKE AN OUTSTANDING ADDITION TO MY PERSONAL DICTIONARY AND MUST NOT BE REMOVED FROM ANY OTHER.

Exactly! Any time you read an older work you need to look those old words up – throwing the word away leads to throwing the old books away too!

Please don’t remove words from the dictionary, especially an online or comprehensive one. I agree with the person that mentioned reading old texts that use “obsolete words”, and trying to understand the meanings and intent of the authors. One of the great cathedrals in England was described as “awful”, but it wasn’t an insult, as long as you knew that in context, and at the time, the author was expessing that it the cathedral “filled him with awe”. Keep the old words! We have a hard enough time understanding things like the Bible, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution as it is; eliminate some obsolete words, and soon no one will be able to understand those documents in context.

True words should never be removed from the dictionary; this is how the English language will officially plummet to it’s death. However, I can understand why some poetic terms might be omitted although they are still used.

On another note, if words are removed over time, I would hate (utterly hate) for the reason to be because the word was “offensive.” Words like retard and alienate have there respective places in usage. Unfortunately kindness is no longer a virtue in our society. Removing words because they’re misused by many is not the word’s fault, it’s ours. Running from conflict never fixes the problem, so stand firm with God o’er head…and kindly watch your mouth.

Heh, Archon, why don’t you go “axt” a large group of Obama supporters about “etc.”, and “ex-seturuh”. Maybe you shouldn’t be putting political statements into your critiques, until you go listen to Maxine Waters or Barney Frank, (uses “shiboleth” without a clue as to it’s meaning or origin, he just likes to slur the “sh”. This started out as a discussion of words, but if you want to start making it political, let’s take it to another forum. If any word has been completely misused and abused, it’s “progressive”.

Words help me in senior english. english teachere LOVE words they have never heard of before, or never heard anyone say before. gets you good grades, and makes useful to make yourself seem a little more perspicacious than people take you for and your more likely to be taken seriously

Absolutely agree that ’supererogate’ is obsolete. When was the last time you saw somebody do more than is required

Aerodrome should stay. There are actually places in this world (in the US, even) that are still called an aerodrome.

I understand the need for a limited number of words in paper dictionaries. But I think the criteria for obsolete is a little ridiculous. We act as if only words used by the two youngest generations and pertaining to current technology are legitimate Yet words in usage right this minute include the vocabulary of an eighty-year-old who picked it up from his eighty-year-old great-grandmother when he was a boy. And if we sit and talk to that eighty-year-old, the words are part of our verbal repertoire now as well.

There are far more words in print than are used in common parlance, because conversation only elicits a narrow stream of words. Writing is much closer to thought, and we can use a far vaster range of words there than in complaining about work and the weather.

The words that we don’t run into all that often, or which are used historically or in specialized fields, are PRECISELY the ones that need to be in the dictionary.

Aerodrome is habitually used by local people in croydon south London to refer to what remains of the old croydon airport hanger that used to be London’s main airport 70 odd years ago

Not gone, Oui? — Simply someplace else. Censorship? NON!. Arf.

Wow… I am so proud of all the reasons exposed here to not remove those or any word. Each an every one of you are right. DO NOT REMOVE ANY WORD.
People in charge of making this happen… Let’s encourage the use of these words instead of planning of removing them.

Who cares if it’s been outdated or whatever?! Dictionaries are SUPPOSED to have ALL the weird words! Besides, what if you’re reading an ancient book and it uses all the “Forgotten Words” ?! If it was some important historical diary from 200BC, then, just like in the beginning of Lord of the Rings, History will fade into Legend, Legend will fade into Myth, Myth will fade into nothing!!!

Never purposely remove a word from the (any) dictionary. Words falling into disuse or obsolescence often find revivication and usefulness decades and millennia later.

Well, maybe not THAT serious…?

Dear Sarah, if we remove the word “retard” from the dictionary, how will mechanics know what they’re doing when the need to “retard” the timing on an engine? Just use a word properly and you don’t have to worry about it, for yourself. What someone else does to turn a word into a weapon can be done with a whole slew of words. The thought police will round to speak with you about this.

I personally
do not think anyword no matter how obserred it may be or how rearly used it may be people around the globe will still want to know the meaning for these unique words, over time people over curiosity may want a definition on a word on which they may stumble apon in day to day life and to see that word is not there would perplex any person. And this cause them to wiped out that word from there vocabulary.

And another thing, Removal of these words would not make them any popular this would make them even rare and as sayed perviously may be ignored for ever by all..
Removing them would just make things worse and would affect peoples lifes as they may be perplexed and arise curiosity on what this word may be.And seeing it is not there would just decrease peoples reassurance on a word which they have stumbled apon to search it on Dictionary.com.
And over time if this keeps on going, people would lose hope on this website.

So once again please dont remove any of these unique words
Thank you
Prem.

Please fix the comment behavior. If you submit a comment with a name but no e-mail address, you are presented with an error page with no way to get back to your comment to try again. Using the browser’s Back button clears the form. Required fields should be identified before submission, in the field names, and submissions deemed incomplete should gracefully be allowed to be edited before being resubmitted.

Supererogatory from supererogate what used very frequently last term when discussing moral obligation in my university philosophy course. (Glasgow University) The word was both printed in the texts (some of which were only recently written) and used vocally in the lectures.
Within this field it is useful to have a word which means an action which is good and admirable but goes above what you are morally obliged to do, without having to explain around the idea.
I think Supererogate, despite, perhaps, being little used, should remain in the dictionary simply because it is useful.

i dont think that it be cool to erase words from the dictionary… for erasing something from a dictionary is to erase it from the english language.

I may be dating myself here and it may be gone now but what is the State of Kentucky to do now… from time immemorial their example of how to fill in your responses has been “A younker is a young man.” Maybe they don’t use it any more but when I hear younker, that’s immediately what I think. Heck, they ingrained it into us every year from age 8 on…

Aerodrome is still very common in British English.

how would the scientists like it if we took away part of their language??? how ’bout pilots??? teachers??? the world???

What will be next? Eradicating old literature books that are obsolete? How do you even determine what’s obsolete? And removing old words obviously indicates that the lexicographers don’t expect readers to look them up, because they won’t come across them, which in turn means they won’t be reading any book that had used them. So adieu old books then, by logic and deduction?

I can understand the reason for taking out the words like Aerodrome, Bever, and Younker would be taken out of the dictionary. Because we have words that describe the same thing. However, I do agree that they should at least exist in a completely unabridged dictionary and online, where space doesn’t matter. For the same reason as comments above, that these words do show up in history, and how is anyone supposed to know what the meaning of a word is, if they can’t look it up.

The other words in the list have their own specific meaning and describe a certain thing with just one word. I’d like to see those words stay in the dictionary. I just added more valuable words to my vocabulary today because of this article. Perhaps we should start using more precise and meaningful words so that they aren’t considered obsolete.

I agree that there is no point in removing any word from an online dictionary. People, especially students, who read older text where such words were more common would be left without any true understanding or appreciation. Or even worse, they would create a new definition that completely obscures the original. For instance, most people never truly understood the joke about “Nimrod” (and that one is in the dictionary).

We should all save these words in a text file or word document, wait until they’re removed, then start using them and getting others to use them, so they have to put them back in. That would be hilarious!

That said, I can see the reason for deleting them from a printed dictionary, but in this day and age where you can look things up on the internet and you have apps for smart phones (including dictionary.com’s very own app), I see no reason to remove a word ever. This is just such a shame. If this is allowed to occur, I can see a future where our dictionary looks like something out of the movie “Idiocracy”.

I don’t believe that words should be removed from the dictionary just because they can have a bad connotation to them. If we did that, we’d have to remove words like “stubborn” as well. Only one of the definitions of “alienism” refers to mental illness, and basically that’s what the study and care of mental illness was called way back when. The other definition has to do with being an alien in another country. I think it’s important to know the history of words and how they’ve changed over time. Collins dictionary isn’t eliminating the words from the language, they’re just taking them out of the smaller dictionaries (which are abridged anyway) because they are so little used that you’re probably not going to be looking them up in an abridged or pocket dictionary anyway.

Its say Deliciate (pronounced DUH-LEE-SHE-ATE) not delicate

A major function of a dictionary is to give people a means to find out the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Words that are rarely used are likely to be the most unfamiliar. If you can’t find them in a dictionary then how are you going to find out what they mean when you encounter them? The most important role of a dictionary is to preserve that knowledge.

That’s horrible! No words should be removed from the dictionary. Sure, we don’t always use them, but they are an important part of our history.

I don’t think that words should be taken out of the dictionary!!!! That is NOT right or fair!!! STOP taking poor little words out of the dictionary just because some people don’t use them!!! I have heard of those words and I think that they deserve a second chance!!! Come on!!! Leave the words that are in the dictionary, in the dictionary!!!

Honestly, although these words aren’t used very often, it doesn’t give the right to limit our vocabulary. Also, if this is the first time to remove words from the dictionary, more and more words might be extracted, too.

I think words such as “eye” “foot” “and” “phone” (the definition of which, by the way, has nothing to do with communication/a communicating device)….. these sorts of words should be removed. Not only are these words common, but the meanings are common sense. Perhaps not all of the meanings are “common sense”, but they are basic things that can be explained simply. I have always lived by the thought that the more words you know, the more you know, the better off you are; and the better off you will be in the long run.
The words may not be used as often, but they were used at some point.
Keep all the words in the dictionary!!
Plus… How am I supposed to win playing scrabble if the word is a word, but is not a word in the dictionary?

Seems to me that taking words that are not used anymore out of the dictionary is like saying a DoDo is not a bird because it is extinct.

please dont remove it i use them is my decatholons…..

Wow!! I felt like almost all of the above mentioned words should be preserved and revived rather than shuned just cbecause their usage seems obsolete.. I copuld connect each word with a current situation in my life and i found them to be perfectly fitting!!! I want to bring them back!!

“an argument could be made that if a word is rarely used or searched for, it may not matter if it is in the dictionary or not”

That’s an argument that some illiterate might make, but it’s certainly not one that any competent lexicographer would make. You see, there are these things called “books” (as well as diaries, letters, newspapers …), some of which were written long, long ago, when people spoke a bit differently than they do now … which is all the more reason why people reading these works may need to know what the words in them mean.

And the argument fails even by your own ridiculous standards: aerodrome gets nearly 8 million google hits, and 200,000 for charabanc, both words I’ve run across on more than one occasion (and I’m American).

What a great reason to start using them again!
How about everyone decides to use at least one of these somewhere in an email everyday. Then, the recipient may be inclined to go look up what you meant, and enhance THEIR vocabulary.
And it slowly spreads out, bringing these terms back into usage. Maybe.
Could be fun.

Make it a game, with a name like “lexicovery”, from “lexical” (of language/words) and “recovery” (to bring back).
Points go to the most unusual ancient (or in-process-of-fading-into-obscurity type) word successfully viralized across the most email channels.

Verily, a plethora of farrago.

I’ve actually used “supererogate” within the past three weeks, although it was in a sermon and not in general day-to-day conversation or writing.

alienism. if anything the word will become more popular

put pokemon in the online ones plz

Aerodrome? Really? I use it occasionally. I suspect that people who work at an airfield use it all the time.

There’s a short story in just these words alone.

There’s a short story in just these words alone…

Oh my gosh! I read “aerodrome” in a sci-fi book I started reading last night! It’s called “A Second Chance at Eden”. I actually had to look that very word up to understand what was going on! XD

I forget the person above that mentioned the purpose of having words in the dictionary is so that when one is used that we do not know, we can look it up. What I took from the article is that these words were being removed from small dictionary’s (like the pocket dictionaries). Why not remove “a, am, is, are, was, were, been , be, being, have, has, had, do, did, does, may, might, must, could, should, would, can, shall, will?” There are many more that are so commonly used, and never have to be defined because they are taught through basic English, yet they take up an obscene amount of space on the page.

q mala onda

They shouldnt have removed ‘aerodrome’! That words used all the time!

Screw those lexicographers! frigorific and supererogate are awesome words! I’m gonna start saying them all the time now, and most likely use them incorrectly. I think they should take Lexicographers out of the dictionary. everything’s a friggen popularity contest isn’t it…… this is so not frigorific.

No word should be removed from the dictionary. If it was once in use, it’s valuable to still have an accessible resource to go to in case anyone ever comes across it and wants to know what it means. Think of the college English majors that may be left with no where to turn to find an obscure word. With today’s inline dictionaries, there’s really no good excuse to start censoring the dictionary.

PS I really like some of the words being considered for elimination. Think I’ll start using them in everyday conversation.

I hate that they make words “obsolete”. Vocabulary is so atrophied because society doesn’t place an importance on good speaking, let alone vocabulary enhancement, spelling, grammar, and such the like. A large number of people can barely compose a proper sentence, making up pronunciations and words like: “munincipal”, “more better than”, “doing good”, or my favourite, “a ‘whole ‘nuther’”.

I don’t understand why dictionaries are removing words that have had meaning for years now, in order to make room for things like “whole ‘nuther”…

Anybody ever read Chaucer or other works of his time? How many of those words remain in the dictionary? Languages evolve with the ages.

I believe that by removing these words, it’s almost as if you’re lowering today’s standards when it comes to using vocabulary. Although the words may not be so relevant to our daily lives, it never hurts to expand our vocab and learn something new.

I believe that we are slowly replacing our language with “wrds tht shd hav vwls n thm.” Shortening words is pointless, as is taking them out of the dictionary. In fact, the whole point of dictionaries is to look up words that you DON’T KNOW!!! The fact that Facebook and Twitter have become household words, but the word frigorific will be erased from the dictionary just sickens me. I mean, come on! It’s friggin’ frigorific! (Sorry, I just HAD to say that.) Some may say that these words are too old and archaic, but doesn’t that make them even MORE important to keep?

Look up ragamuffin in a “stone-age” paper dictionary. It’s not there, is it? Don’t you want to know what it means? Aren’t you curious as to what it is? It could be a rag shaped like a muffin… or a muffin on top of a rag! Sure, you could look it up here, but what if your computer crashes right now and you have to wait two weeks to get another one and you’re dying inside the entire time because you just HAVE TO KNOW! This is the effect of erasing words from the dictionary. (By the way, a ragamuffin is a dirty child.)

To the people who think that they are removing words from the English language reread the article.

Uncommon words “will no longer be included in SMALLER PRINT dictionaries.”
that does not mean ONLINE dictionaries (and you can still search these words up on this site), or large dictionaries.

“An argument could be made that if a word is rarely used or searched for, it may not matter if it is in the [online] dictionary or not.” Key word is ARGUMENT.

LOL! What a frigorific idea! This is alienism! Seriously, do people realize that they are only removing them from the smaller print dictionaries? Although the lexicographers may be supererogating; due to space, etc., this is nothing new. On that note, we, younkers and oldsters, should all get on a charabanc (perhaps one by the aerodome?), deliciate over bever (and don’t forget the beverage) and stop the brabble and the bromide.

what about Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. I have almost never used this word in my life.(except to prove that their was a longer word in the dictionary than hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia which I have never heard of either)

aerodrome souldnt go:(

No words, no matter how obsolete or rarely used they are they should remain in dictionaries online and print. That’s the primary reason why dictionaries were invented or used. To look for the meaning, pronunciation, and part of speech of words which are OLD and RARELY USED. I mean, duh?

Have those lexicographers even have thought of this before making any propositions? Come on!

The word Frigorific is commonly used in the field of chemistry, even today. There is no substitute I am aware of to describe this particular trait of a chemical reaction. Are academics at post secondary institutions included in these assessments, or do you just gather a pile of underachieving Internet users and ask if they have ever shorthand texted ‘f-o-rific LOL’? They haven’t? Let’s scrap that one from the dictionary.

And this is how this is suppose to help!!! no word should be removed from dictionary because them they will completely disappear, but every word is part of our culture in contrary schools should encourage youngest to use such words it will broaden the “General culture”.!

I think they should remove “proofread” from the dictionary. With the shameless increase in typos and misspelled/misused words in magazines, newspapers, and (worst of all) blog-type news, it’s a word we don’t seem to need anymore.

It is imperative for change to occur although not at the expense of eliminating words; because no one hardly uses them? The best approach is to keep the words, allowing there to be diverse dialog among intellectuals; people Final; future writers benefit from a broad array of vocabulary words that will keep propagating in order to have multiple expressions of the tongue and conveyence of individuality and uniqueness. Futhermore, we are not a low class of species, which we show through ingenuity and how many amazing things we are able to do collectively and individually.

Kitsune… I am of the same age, and greatly disappointed in your ability to read. Those words are ‘deliciate’ and ‘alienism’, not related to ‘delicate’ and ‘alienate’. Naturally the latter are more common, though the former are near obsolete, thus they are on this page. Also, why do you possess a SAT vocabulary book? That is nowhere near relevant, and like I said we’re the same age…

As for my standpoint on the issue, the purpose of a dictionary is to find words we don’t know. Keeping words that are almost unheard of is of utmost importance. In fact, we should be deleting the most COMMON words in our vocabulary, e.g. ‘and’, ‘the’, etc.

Why?

Why should they get rid of any of the words.
All the words in the dictionary are important, just because they haven’t been used by you or I, there shouldn’t be excluded or discarded from our vocabulary, how do you expect our future generation to know these words if you discard them from our vocabulary,because our children are going to be shaping the world,and if get rid of these words your just taking away knowledge for them.

If people think that discarding nine words from our vocabulary is alright,well then a dictionary will not be complete.

Don’t get rid of these words from the dictionary, DON’T.

“Aerodromme” is still used in India. A civil aerodrome means a small airport which may have fallen out of service or used only for private jets. By that standards several other words should also go into obsolescence like. typewritter, pager, gramaphone and so on…

Anyway, I’m going to leave all of you to your brabble while I deliciate. Though I do have to say that I am extremely comfortable with the frigorific effects of the central air-conditioning unit, and will now bever in peace having been stuck supererogating at work all week due to the incessant need for companies to force people to do more with less.

I actually really don’t understand the entire argument over the attempts of print-dictionaries to rectify their costs by eliminating words they don’t think should be in their products. The truth is that dictionary.com is eating their lunch. Though I think that at dictionary.com they should not fall into the same trap of deciding what words are in common usage and which are not.

The fact that half these ppl can’t even properly read what’s in front of them (ie mistaking “deliciate” with “delicate”) just shows our own illiteracy and ignorance of our own language; even when it’s right in front of our face… So YES they should be kept. Besides, that’s what makes english the most beautiful languages in the world: variety. Plus the subtle differences that each word ascribes. There would be no shades of grey in our language without them. For that reason alone I believe english to be the most wonderful language there is. We already are forgetting enough of it as time passes. It would be a shame for it to be removed from record too!
PS: that being said I hope I didn’t misspell anything! lol =)

hello
i am from Iran and i am sorry for myself because i never heard these words and i want read and try to learn important words
i am sure be successful in way and please help me in way
thank you dictionary.com

I usually look a word up in a dictionary because I am NOT familiar with it. It seems pointless to me to remove a word just because it is rarely used. That defeats the whole object of a dictionary.

A dictionary should not be like a closet…get something new.. throw out something old. We should be encouraging people to expand their vocabularies not limiting them. I realize that dictionary publishers must edit what they include to make them manageable but perhaps there needs to be a recognized system for standardizing different types of dictionaries. It is frustrating to know a word exists and not be able to find it or know where to look to find it.

I disagree! Words are important, even if very few people look them up. They were added to the dictionary because they are real words, and they still are, even if they are a little out dated. Words like that are history, and a part of us.

They should keep the Alienism because its has the same info way is Alienate…

I mean the word
sorry for the slip

KEEP ALL WORDS!!!!

‘Aerodrome’ is still VERY widely used in the UK. Tap it into Google if you have any doubts — there are dozens of them still in active operation, including one that is used for filming internationally popular TV show Top Gear.

If we remove words that once were popular from “all” reference materials what will happen when literature containing those words is read? The poor reader will have to hope that the context of what they are reading will be sufficient….

I have never once heard those words throuout my life. They shold be obsolete in my own opinion.

ok, i MAY have heard of ‘deliciate’, but i’m not sure. i don’t even know what it means! but i don’t know, removing words just because they are not used…seems, i don’t know. isn’t a dictionary a book that teaches u new wierd words. and it is always frustrating to open a dictionary to find the meaning of a word u just read in a book, and then- it’s not there! honestly, dictionaries may endure a loss of profit cause people my think they are no good! i mean, a dictionary :a book of words and their meannings, and if it doesn’t do that, then wahat’s THE POINT! but i guess, u can’t have all the words in a dictionary, it’ll be too think won’t it. *sigh*
yeah, i guess, that’s i’ll have to say.

This is an asinine article. Words are not removed from “The” dictionary, as though there were one authoritative Mother of all Dictionaries. They are removed from small editions that are growing with new words added each year. A pocket dictionary, for example, cannot fit your pocket after a few years of new words added unless some other words are removed.

I vote for “global” to be removed. It was never needed. Worldwide is the perfect word. “I believe we are a player in the global mechanism.” Bill Dooks, Minister of Energy, Nova Scotia. I long for colonies on the moon so we can stop globalizing the earth.

Remove “gobsmack”. Most dictionaries never had it anyway, so let’s all agree it sounds delicious, but isn’t really a word.

eponymous gets my boot, but eponym can stay. No one uses eponymous correctly, so toss it.

A hundred meanings need to go, such as dynamic as a noun.

The dictionary should never have to give up its words. I love learning new and interesting words. I am going to start using some of these words now.

Aerodrome should be left in for sure! I think it’s a relatively common word. I always remember air shows happening at the aerodrome when I was young.

As a teacher, as a lover of words, as a former kid who used to LOVE to sit and read the dictionary, NO WORD, should ever be removed. It should always exist in some dictionary somewhere so I do understand the concerns of smaller abridged dictionaries. But it should never be completely removed, no matter how rarely used, since once it is gone, it is gone forever…

aerodrome is derived from the greek synthetical word AERODROMION made of AER which means air and DROMOS which means pathway or street verry common in our everyday language though 3000 years old as for aerodrome — aerodromion it means the airport

Iti is said that the word “CASSETTE” and “TAPE” will also get disappear from the dictionary……..

Please tell the people who produce high school exit exams or college entrance exams.

I agree with Sarah. The word retard should be removed frome the dictionary because it hurts many people when it is used. I think that by removing it from the dictionary will help erase the use of the word!
Thanks!

I also hope they never remove any of those words!! And don’t ever remove the word flibbertigibbet (a frivolous, flighty, or a really talkative person.)
It is amazingly fun to say!

By all means remove seldom needed words from print dictionaries that have finite space, but the idea that there is “an argument to be made” that ANY word should be struck from an online dictionary in this age of cheap memory and instant communication smacks of reductionism, Newspeak, and the wholesale destruction of our literary heritage and our access to it. We can archive all of the printed literature of all the countries of the world since the beginning of time on a single hard drive today. There is absolutely no excuse or coherent reason to remove words from online dictionaries aside from censorship or fashionable demagoguery.

Taking words out of a dictionary that has space is like cutting down a few apple trees in the middle of an open field because the land-owners are afraid the seeds from those trees will make new trees fill up the field. A word is only obsolete when everyone forgets about it entirely, almost as History only becomes myth when humans have stopped remembering it.

THEY SHOULD HAVE NO WORDS LOL

I remember “younker” from those old school “achievement tests” they used to give. It was on the memory section.

“A younker is a young man. A younker is a young man.” They would give a list of unfamiliar words such as this and then they would test you to see if you could remember them. The only other word I remember is, “A baloo is a bear.”

If words are removed form the dictionary because they are considered obsolete how will we read old texts? How will we understand literary works of the past? How will we connect with history or even remember it? How will the bridge from the past to the future be built?

Maybe, that is the goal to destroy the past so that we have no future. God help us!

Personally I do not think that a word should ever be removed from a dictionary. The word was put there for a reason, its use, and to say that a word has simply become obsolete is merely an excuse.

I stopped reading after about 20 comments. This is for the small abridged *PRINTED* dictionaries. These words are going nowhere, and everyone here can continue to use them in your confusing remarks to friends and others you may want to impress; and the rest of you can use the words as you have always used them.

It is funny and irritating is that so many people are complaining about some words being deleted from smaller printed dictionaries on an *online* forum within the site that they use to look up words. I guess there is no forum in the printed dictionaries….

Words, no matter how uncommon they may be, should never be removed from the OED; words are part of our linguistic heritage and should remain indefinitely. Personal dictionaries, however, should definitely be tailored to modern speakers; language’s inherent purpose is to express ideas to one another, and a dictionary should contain the latest and most common expressions.

No,absolutely not.Tendency should be to expand the English language,not to contract it.The languages are in a state of constant evolution,and if the mentioned words are excluded from the dictionaries that will be a treacherous act against the English Language.We have the case of Sanskrit language which became a dead languages because people stopped speaking it.In olden times,Arabs used to be proud of the richness of their language so much so that they would call themselves as ‘Arabs’(people with ‘tongues’),and peoples of other parts of world as ‘dumb’(people having no ‘tongues’).Thus, the act of expurgating the aforesaid words from the dictionaries will be a disservice to the English language.

“an argument could be made that if a word is rarely used or searched for, it may not matter if it is in the dictionary or not.”

An alternate argument could be made that if a word is rarely used, it will be that much less known and therefore more in need of inclusion.

I agree with Joss. The “aerodrome” deserves to stay. Even, I’ve heard the word plenty of times in my life.

I, for one, need a dictionary the most when the word is rarely or never used in everyday speech, not the other way around. Of course old words need to remain in the dictionaries, where else should we turn when reading old novels or documents, or when attempting to write convincing historical dialogue? (Can anyone tell I come from a household of literature nerds?)

Personally I especially adore the word younker, and would hate to see it go. In Swedish, we have a very similar word, junker, which in essence means young master. Junker is never used any more, but can still be found in books and movies with otherwise understandable language, probably much like the words in this list. So why remove them?

I agree with the following, well put!

“There is only one reason why words should not be taken out of a dictionary, online or print…(Phil Fasso made a very good point), “Please do not remove any words, as they existed once with a purpose, and were used in the writings of the past. They may not be relevant now, but they were once, and we should keep them in our chronicles” (Phil Fasso on August 24, 2011 at 3:19 pm).

The older and less used words existed once before and gave meanings to writings in literature and communications (written and verbal) in the past. Removing these old words now will remove part of our history, not to mention the meaning those words gave us in the past. Words are priceless, and as a provider of meanings of words, dictionary.com should know that!”

I still read many books written in 17th, 18th and 19th century English, and it would sometimes be difficult, if not impossible, to understand their meaning if the words were not in a (commonly available) Dictionary. Just because it is not “current, mainstream” knowledge does not mean it is not valid or important.

I don’t think so. Isn’t that the point of the dictionary, to look up the words you don’t know? If we take away the words we rarely use, which would be the ones we don’t know, we are left with all the words we do know, at which point the dictionary would be useless.

it is true that many of the words are not used in modern day English, but mainly that is only because most of the population would rather use uniform words to express thoughts or emotions, rather than ones that might suit the situation more clearly. it is not that it is rarely used, it is more that we as a people do not take the time to LEARN how to use less known words, which would become a great deal more known if someone where to simply take the time to use them. i think it is wrong that a word would be deleted from a dictionary, when we use so few as it is.

Well, there goes my Scrabble game.

That was dumb. LOL : )

I agree to what C Santos said in regards to maintaining words in dictionaries whether old or new or whether frequently used or not. But the opening statement said those oudated words are to be removed only from small print dictionaries. And this is necessary becasue english is ever expanding language. Every day new words come to live. So it is just to make sapce for new coming words of Englsih or any other language.

These words cannot and must not be removed from the english dictionary. These words are part of our roots and history. They cannot be taken away.

I understand the space limitations of printed volumes. We’ve all used them from time to time. There should be at least, if not online, a repository of all words that we have used. Without that, how will someone years from now know what was meant when an ‘obsolete’ word is found in a manuscript.
I also foresee that if that is accepted practice, soon (well maybe not soon) but most of the words in the dictionary will be ‘obsolete’ and replaced by PLZ, and BRB and other shortcuts.
A dismal future ahead for the language — any language.

What do you think about this word?

“Concur” usually means agree. Do you think that it is also a candidate for removal?

I don’t understand why this is so hard for people to understand…
Have you never been to an actual LIBRARY?? You know, where they keep all those sheafs of paper stuck together with various materials with all those squiggles on them that look kinda like the text online, but you can’t click them?
Have you actually LOOKED at an unabridged dictionary?? They’re MASSIVE!!
Read the text of the article SLOWLY and CAREFULLY… Please note how it says ‘…will no longer be included in SMALLER PRINT DICTIONARIES.’(emphasis added). Do you REALLY think that a dictionary you buy to have on your shelf to grab when you don’t wanna go online REALLY has all the words in that 2500 page unabridged dictionary???
ALL print dictionaries are abridged, except for those huge tomes usually reserved for libraries (cause they’re huge, and rather expensive).
Heck, most moderate to small dictionaries don’t have these words in them anyway, and a lot more you’d be more inclined to find in general use.
NONE of these words are stated to be at risk of deletion from this or ANY online dictionary, just that they have been added to a list of obsolete, or rare use words (and please actually LOOK at the words on the list…even better, click on them so you actually KNOW what word you are talking about: Alienism – not alienate, Deliciate – not delicate. Just CLICK on the word, and READ it’s definition!) and will most likely be removed from SOME small text print dictionaries.
Sheesh. Relax people, unabridged dictionaries will still have these words, and hundreds if not THOUSANDS more that are just as rarely used, and are ALREADY expunged from ’smaller print dictionaries’, and they’ll stay in online dictionaries as well as remaining as part of the living English language.
You love these words so much? Start using them daily, and encourage others to do the same. If they see a sudden resurgence in use, they’ll fall off the list…

(huff, puff…) Ok, sorry about that, but spouting off in outrage when about everything you’re complaining about is totally wrong, and only proves that you didn’t even read the article, REALLY gets my dander up… (^_^)

I am a potent believer of the pure language; however, English shall never be that language, and for this reason we should embrace its complexity and variety of vocabulary and sematics. Hence, every word that once was and is part of the English language ought to continue to be! Not only are such words as found above removed, but very unique ones as ‘airgonaut’, and ‘aquabib’; both words make this language special and intriguing. This is one of the few languages that can say with surety that it is easy to express oneself with, as it is efficient in it vocabulary.

Well i don’t think you should really remove them, it’s still interesting to know some of the words because you never know when your in a bank robbery and the guy tells you to look up the word aerodrome because the definition of aerodrome was the secret code to enter the bank account with a lot of money and when you search it up on your smart phone and go to dictionary.com and it’s not there your gonna have to tell him that that’s not a word because it doesn’t show up in the dictionary and then the guy’s gonna cry and then his salty have a chemical reaction to the ply wood on the floor and then mysterious plants grow up which polluted the air which turned people into zombies, do you want people to turn into zombies? No, so i suggest you at least keep some of the words.
(This was partially a joke but i’m also making a point)

The word ‘obsolete’ in itself should be deleted from English dictionaries because it is obsolete.Those who are deficient in the vocabulary of English language,brand a word which they are not familiar with, as “obsolete”so that they could hide their ignorance.

I still see alienism used today. I even use it. But how can a word be considered obsolete? That’s absurd…

doesnt mean you still cant say the words.

and please…. “The Times They Are A-Chagin’” is not the only song Bob Dylan has ever written.

I have no idea what “frigorific” means, but it sounds really cool. I’ll bet if we all started saying “Frigoric!” in place of “Awesome!” it would become a catch phrase.

“Here’s the World War I flying ace, back at the aerodrome in France. He is exhausted, and yet he does not sleep, for one thought continues to throb in his brain: Someday, someday I’ll get you, Red Baron!”

– You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, “The Red Baron”

I didn’t know any of the other words, but I knew “aerodrome” at once. As long as that musical is performed, that one’s going to stick around.

Hi people

NO! The English language is extraordinarily flexible and textural! If we’re going to start eliminating or restricitng words, why don’t we start with the nonsense words of “Ebonics” and “bling” and 100 other words that are meaningless strings of vowels and consonants?

Honestly words are something that should not be erased. Each concept has its value even if that value is only relevant when looking back to history and knowing what it meant to the people of its own time. Knowledge is precious we should never let any of it disappear regardless of how redundant it may be to the moment.

I do not think that any word should ever be removed. People will never know about it and if they are reading old text, documents, or novels, they may encounter one of these ‘obsolete’ words and be stuck. They won’t know what to do and will never end up knowing what it means.

I agree with a lot of people here; I don’t think any word should ever be erased from a dictionary, printed or online. Granted, I’ve never heard most of those words before, but I might start using them because a lot of them sound fun. If we erase a word from every dictionary, will it simply cease to exist in time? Someone had the fun of making up all these crazy words, why are we getting rid of them?

Language is a rudimentary part of society and culture as a whole. No one, and
I mean NO ONE, should ever lose sight of any aspect of language, the very God given miracle that separates us from beasts. Every word, ancestral or slang, should be kept from or removed from our culture as English speakers. Every word is precious, like a delicate artifact, ever destined for the educational purposes of society. Every piece we chip away from our language, we chip away the same fundamental weight from foundation of our home.

Why are they getting rid of brabble? It seems like a commonly used word in comparison to some of those other words. Hmmm.

brabble is an excellent word! BRING IT BACK. They should have a campaign out to get people to use these words, rather than take them out of the language. It’s so rich to use these words!

To take away a word is to remove a piece of living history. Every time a word is spoken a story can go with that word. So no word should ever be taken from our language as words are what make us and words are what shape us so we should NEVER NEVER NEVER remove a single word unless it is completely racist or offensive.

I’ve heard of Brabble before, you can keep that one.

Oh, and Airdome. That’s a keeper, because it can still be applied commonly.
Example : 9/11.

This just shows how lame our generation is. They should really MAKE us use those words I mean, what the heck? Why on Earth would they let us have less knowledge and take away such awesome words, I hate them!!!!!

<3 Aliana

I’ve heard Alienism used with different suffixes, though not as an -ism. It doesn’t really change the meaning though; instead of being a different entry that gets cleared just pair it up with Alienage as an alternative ending.

I feel that a word, once in use, should always have a reference to it, for historical use if nothing else. The history of a given time is too often reflected in the language of that period and it would be a great disservice to future generations for us to remove those words, lest they misunderstand what went before and repeat our stupidity.

Besides, once we have an alien apocalypse in a few years, those words will be used all over the place. *This here denotes sarcasm*

A word that should AT LEAST be removed from print dictionaries is “dictionary” — if you don’t know what you’re looking at, there’s something wrong with you! ;-D

All of the people who seem to be supporting the removal of these words have no elaborate arguments. In contrast, those who so far have been supporting the continued existence of those words have formed logical and well-thought-out arguments. Coincidence?

Nothing good can come from banishing the words; they’ve earned their place in time and history. If they stay, they’ll continue to be obscure to most but helpful to some. At least they’re AVAILABLE! On the other hand, if they are erased, they may be still irrelevant to the masses, but those who will have need for them will be at a loss.

Of course ALL the words should stay !. Especially Delicate !. It’s a very common word, I use it occasionally and everyone should know what it means, as all the rest too. Someone’s Feelings could be Delicate too, meaning fragile, easily hurt. A woman is Delicate, compared to a man. Many reasons to leave that word, as all the other words !.

Only ever heard Alienism and Brabble in those. Bit surprised that they’re considered obsolete honestly.

Under all circumstances, no word should be removed from dictionaries as long as they are listed as vocabularies and no matter how old those vocbulariesare. Sometimes I read old staff for Shakespear and the like of old writers and I come accross words that have been long back obsolete and never in the use. If they are not in the dictionary they will affect my comprehension to the subject.
Therefore, NOOOO. Do not delete words from the dictionary.

“Aerodrome” is should never be removed just because that word is never spoken by the layperson. “Aerodrome” is used a lot by pilots, aviation fans, and historians,

I will repeat what Mr. Phil says. as that is what i am thinking as well.

No word should ever be removed from an online dictionary. No matter how esoteric or rarely used, if I come across one in my reading and need a definition, I would dread to come to dictionary.com and not find it here. Even print dictionaries should keep them, and if they don’t, then they should appropriately advertise as “abridged,” because that’s what they are. And think of words such as “dial,” which we still use to call the input of a phone number. Should we remove the original meaning, because it’s rarely relevant in a push button word? In a word, no.

Please do not remove any words, as they existed once with a purpose, and were used in the writings of the past. They may not be relevant now, but they were once, and we should keep them in our chronicles

Pls don remove delicate. We need dem to elec da president, don we?

No words should ever be taken out of the dictionary, even is they are rarely used. It will decrease the amount of words that we will be able to learn one day. (even though we won’t be able to know every one)

These words should not only be removed, but outlawed. Persons caught using them should be sent to special prisons. We will need several new words, of course. A word to describe the use of an outlawed word (verb), and one to describe the user of these words (noun), and a word for the type of prison where they will be sent (noun), and a few appropriate adverbs and adjectives as well.

Why should the word ‘aerodrome’ be removed? What shall we call aerodromes from now on?

The words sound lovely, they shouldn’t go.

I get the need to trim the dictionary. But I think we should start with slang words first. Several people have mentioned specialized dictionaries for reasons to slim down the content of main ones. Well, this is a wonderful example of such a thing. Slang words should be pulled, put in a slang dictionary (many exist!), and once that is done it is very unlikely they’ll need to remove so-called out of date or obsolete words.

I disagree about removing words from dictionaries, especially on-line ones.

My reason is that these words are likely in some existing writted work, such as a novel. Since the words are not now in common use, there needs to be a way for readers to determine meanings.

I think that the Oxford dictionary, in particular, ought to never remove words.

When you remove words from the dictionary, you are ridding future generations of the ability to use them. How long until words that are in important documents are deemed unimportant, and are therefor removed and untaught? Leave the words, or we may be regretting it in the future when we have an almost completely different language and “English” is taught only as a dead language.

I think that all words deserve to be in the dictionary. What if people so come across one of these words, they would never know the meaning. I completely agree with C. Santos!

Alienism needs to go. Today, the English language is full of the use of alien terms, referring to other people from other countries, to life forms from other worlds. Alienism will just give our feeble minds more mental dysfunction in its current definition. I would think, in today’s standards, alienism would be viewed as “acting or having the characteristics of an alien” or “being an alien”.

I don’t think any word should ever be removed from a dictionary. You might put out an edition of words seldom used but never, ever, drop them from the the dictionary. It’s wrong, just wrong. You don’t go forward without know ing what came before. Leave them in the dictionary!

I feel like I’m in a world of Big Brother. Maybe Orwell really WAS right..all the cameras every where, and now they’re doing the same thing with dictionaries…scary!

Removing words from the dictionary, particularly if it were an online dictionary with no space concerns would be double plus ungood.

I can see the difficulty in publishing a paper dictionary. I’d imagine many words have been removed throughout the years. Perhaps publishing an archaic volume along with a current volume would solve the problem.

boooo dictionaries

Frightening…this is the beginning of censorship…not just of the written word but of free thought…what frightens me the most is that most of the comments here are from ppl in favor of it…

{Newspeak is designed to make it impossible to express any unorthodox thought. For example, one could attempt to attack the government by saying, “Big Brother is ungood.” Because of the language of Newspeak, there would be no words to explain or back up this statement and it would be comprehended as illogical, similar to describing winter as hot.} — from 1984 by George Orwell

I’ve seen a lot of comments of people ranting about “deliciate.” Keep in mind, The word “deliciate” is very different from “delicate”. “Delicate” means small and fragile, while “deliciate” means to pleasure oneself. Learn to read vowels.

Something to keep in mind when you start picking quotes to toss-
Removing words or not, from the dictionary, has to do with the cost to the publishers for printing and distrubting the book and/or disk versions.

I read enough comments to realise why comprehension should never be removed from any dictionary. LOL! 8D

Yes, I purposely enjoy using proper English when I spell as opposed to the watered down American version that replaced all our S’s with Z’s because it sounded like a Z anyway. I read just the other day that the ACT test scores to see if students were prepared for college and was just disgusted by it. The results were quite dismal for English and Reading and less than 1/2 to 1/3 of the students tested are not at all prepared for college which for the majority of people in the USA would be a complete waste of time and money anyway. No sense in throwing bad federal notes away on more bad education. LOL! 8D

Given the choice if I had children, I’d teach them at home, home school them. I believe they’d most likely receive a much higher education from me, than going to a public school.

Take care and good luck all!

Chuck

Since when did Aerodrome become obsolete? We have plenty of them around here. Maybe it’s just American’s that don’t use the word anymore. Although what would they use in place of it? They are not large enough to be called Airports and they’re too encompassing to be called just Airfields.

This sets a dangerous precedent.

All of these words have significant meaning in their historical context. Erase them and you’re erasing the collective memory of our culture, effectively erasing the knowledge we might all harvest profitably from our own history, and dumbing us all down.

Removing them is like pulling the history curriculum out of schools because its content is no longer current and fashionable enough to appear in People Magazine.

And who decides which ideas are “current”? When are we going to erase these words out of our collective consciousness because the very people who have chilled them out of the national dialog have decided FOR US that they are “outdated”?

Democracy
Liberty
Equality
Fascism
Representation
Oppression
Privacy
Middle class
Intellect
Discourse
Courtesy
Responsibility
Ethics
Truth
Untruth
Propaganda
Merit
Analysis
Coexist
Think

We ought to have every opportunity to investigate (and perhaps revive) the language and ideas that came before us. When you abolish a word, you abolishing an idea, and eroding our right as sentient beings to educate our children, enlighten ourselves, grow intellectually, improve our world and think for ourselves without censorship.

The words are not being eliminated–just from small dictionaries.
Otherwise there would be LARGE dictionaries.
I could do without illegal alien isms.

Words should never be removed. Wow, doesn’t anyone remember ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’?? Newspeak? Big Brother? It’s almost frightening how quasi-prophetic some of the old dystopian novels were……..

You should not remove any words from an online dictionary. As others have stated before me, while most people will not use these words in their lives or even hear or see them, at one point in time, they were used, and what better place than online to chronicle our history? Taking these words out of the paper dictionary makes sense, but please leave them in the online one.

Besides, “aerodrome”? That word is used in Final Fantasy, not to be too much of a nerd . It was used for its proper purpose there, too, so I already generally knew what the definition of the word was before I clicked on it.

I’ve definitely heard of brabble. It was on my SAT a few years ago. Why should any of these words be taken out of the dictionary–they’re still words. Maybe there should be an obsolete dictionary created–that would be interesting.

I think that if this happens, eventually every word from the dictionary will be removed. Our children will be stuck with using nonsense words. Shame. It’s a real shame.

I just love Dictionary.com. Thanks Guys!

I don’t think that any word should ever be “deleted”. If we got rid of all the words that are never or rarely used then we would be getting rid of a lot of words. If you think about it in 100 to 200 years if we continue to get rid of words that aren’t used, we aren’t going to have any words left. Because my generation has come up with so many shortenings and abriviations(i know this word is spelled wrong but it says it’s not in the dictionary) that if we keep going the way we are that is all that’s going to be left in that amount of time. And to be completely honest, i would not want to live in a world like that.

Nobody talks about Boss Tweed, or The Teapot Dome Scandal, or Watergate or the Savings and Loan Scandal anymore. Let’s erase those from the reference books. And nobody needs to know about The Gulf of Tonquin, or the Mi Lai Massacre. Nobody will ever need to look all that stuff up. Let’s erase those too…

Y’know nobody ever talks about Black Tuesday or The Great Depression anymore. We ought to take them out of the reference books. Nobody needs to know about that old crap. It’s not relevant to our times at all…Wait. What?

Oops. Nevermind.

The fact that all of these things *are in the past* is exactly why we need to keep them. So we don’t get fooled again.

Vicki, you are so right. People should learn to speak proper English instead of using so much slang. The sad part is that you hear bad grammar everywhere, even from educated people. Notice how newscasters and commentators are committing the same grammatical errors as “regular” people do. One mistake that drives me crazy is the use of “more” instead of using proper endings for words. Example: He is more happy than ever; it is more simple, etc. Whatever happened to dropping the y and adding “ier” for happier? “Simpler” is the proper word. Another phrase I find annoying is “went missing.” How about simply using missing or disappeared? Even time I hear “went or gone missing” it drives me crazy because children hear this on the TV and believe it is proper.

The word “capacitative” needs to become a real word, or maybe “capacitive” in the sense of not deriving from “capacity” directly but from “capacitor” because, say you have something that has a greater capacity, Farad-wise or volume, we need to be able to say “This is more capacitive than this,” or when it comes to anger that is held in and released all at once, being able to say the term “capacitive/capacitative anger,” because saying “My anger is like a capacitor” and having to explain what a capacitor is, is very annoying. Most people do not see the derivative of the word, but if you directly derive a word from the word “capacity,” and that word has the definiton of “to be able to hold a capacity, or holding a capacity.” I use the term all the time, whether I am referring to electronics or my anger, and I feel as if it should be a real word.

Also, this is somewhat more of a moral statement, but they should consider removing the word “impossible” from the written dictionary, because when people say that “Nothing is impossible,” they grab a dictionary, and find the word and show it to you, and then give up on what they were doing. It’s a word most people already know from the start, so it isn’t necessary to keep in the dictionary. It will give a slightly higher motivation. Even though it will still remain a word, even some words become obsolete and isn’t used as much, such as “ignoramus.”

Multiple common electronics terms need to be included in the dictionary. Lot of them are not long and confusing, and I really wish that “Tesla Coil” would also be added because they are becoming more and more popular within the last decade after Arc Attack came into play.

Aerodrome is still used in Zimbabawe and the rest of southern African former British colonies as aerodromes still exist and are used in the region. Go to these countries and everyone knows and has probably seen what an aerodrome is. I guess that would likely be the case with other commonwealth countries such as NZ, Aus and India. As it means something that still exists i say keep it.

It’s deliciate, not delicate. No one uses deliciate so I agree that it needs to go.

People are overlooking the fact that the word is deli-ci-ate NOT delic-ate.

Alienism is pretty commonly used! Especially if you live along the U.S.- Mexico border…

I think, though it shouldn’t be removed, the definition of gay (that was so common so short a time ago! meaning happy, joyful, optimistic, positive, idk it was just very positive) should have a notifier that says ‘obsolete,’ ‘outdated’ or something to that effect. Since if you mean anything other than homosexual these days, you are going to get some funny looks.

@Shelby Look closer. It’s not delicate. It’s deliciate. I made the same mistake at first.

I LOVE THESE WORDS <3

So, i get why some words are being removed. it makes sense . . . but as a literary and a believer in the strength of words, no word should ever be cut from the dictionary. how else do poets find words that are similar in meaning to the one they want to use but that word doesn’t rhyme? and sure paper has its limits but the net is limitless (at the very least theoretically) so even the most obscure word should find life on the internet always.

I like all of these words! I think we should make people aware of these words instead of taking them out of the dictionary. I also believe that we should remove all of the slang words out of the dictionary and make a completely separate dictionary for them.

i think you all have waaaayyyyyy too much time on your hands if your commenting on dictionaries. Like really people!!!!!!

I would like to point out that the word above is DELICIATE, not delicate. Additionally, if we have the storage space on the internet, which I assume we do, why don’t we keep the word? Save the endangered words!

I don’t think Deliciate should be removed for the fact I hear it still being used and I also agree with some of the other comments that we should not remove words because even if they are just not used in there eyes they may be used in others eyes. Also I think if we should delete any words from the dictionary it should be words that are a combination of letters and words like w00t. words like that belong in a texting dictionary.

Just the other day I was taking a leisurely stroll past the local aerodrome with my wife, perusing an arcane text concerning alienism, and enjoying a splendid bever before dinner. Suddenly, I spied two comely young lasses engaged in a brabble, standing beside a derelict charabanc which had lost its wheels. “Hark, yon maidens! Do not deliciate in ye quarrel, but rather quell this extraneous verbal exchange!”, I proffered through a mouthful of cheese danish. My wife instantly bestowed upon me a look so frigorific it could have easily glaciated a thousand burning suns. “Supererogate not, Maximillian! Thou art no longer a younker, and wouldst do best to divert thine eyes back upon yon tome, lest ye incur mine wifely wrath!”, she snapped.

TAKE THAT, LEXICOGRAPHA-WHATSITS! DOWN WITH THE WORD MURDERERS, OR “WORDERERS”, I SAY!

As a history teacher, I believe they all need to stay, in particular ‘Aerodrome’. I do find it amusing that ‘Younker’ is deemed obsolete, does that imply “a young noble or gentleman” does not exist in today’s society?

When I am reading classics, I often look up obsolete words. The Bronte sisters used tons of words I never heard before. I’d prefer the old words remain in the dictionary.

um…y does evry1 care bout thiss !!! its the Dictionary who cares what words are in it lol

The phrase ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’ is referring to the reading of the written word. Understanding the spoken word is often more difficult due to nuances in pronunciation and dialect, and the lack of standardized resources to turn to. Authors and historians often use very specific words and phrases to communicate an idea or special situation more exactly. I personally believe that all words should be kept available for reference. I am disappointed when I can not locate the definition of another word I just read or heard. It still amazes me how many words are misused!

I don’t care very much for the other words but delicate is a commonly used word and if anything is should change it should be it’s definition.
Just as William Shakespeare wrote, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” the reason we have dictionaries is not to look up words for their spelling but for their definitions. That being said: what a business wishes to omit to cut costs is of little difference if the definition is correct.

I use the word “alienism” all of the time. So do people I know. I didn’t know anyone would ever consider that an uncommon word. I use it to describe the state of being an alien (as in foreigner). That’s a pitty if for some reason they think people don’t use it.
When considering how many literary works we still have from the past and that are so commonly read, it seems ludicrous to me to eliminate them from dictionaries. I can understand them being removed from very small dictionaries, but in which case they should demonstrate on the cover of these books (and anything advertising them to purchase) that the dictionary does not include uncommon or rarely used words. Considering the online dictionaries have, essentially, limitless space (as opposed to paper dictionaries), it would seem even more absurd in my opinion to eliminate these words (or any similar such words) from their dictionaries.
I hope they reconsider some of these words. I have not heard of any of the others, but I am very surprised with the “alienism” one.

I think no word should be removed from the dictionary.

I have heard people using Aerodrome, brabble or for that matter ‘deliciate’. We still use these words in India.

Admiration and approbation to Lucas on August 24, 2011 at 5:04 pm for apprehending the whole point of this underhand word depletion initiative early in the debate. I can heartily recommend a reading (or re-reading) of Mr Orwell’s fine work. As you do, remember it is really a book about people in general. Pay particular attention to the book within the book.

What happens when someone is reading an old text? Where will the reader find help with “obsolete” words in these texts, especially a younger reader? It might make it very difficult for him to read it. Take for example Oscar Wilde’s “Dorian Gray”. It contains many descriptions of rooms where some of the words are less frequently used today because the materials are not as common as they used to be. Does this mean that these words will get dropped to? What is a reader meant to do in this situation, just skip the words?

I’ve been using dictionary.com since I found it in the net. It contains all the worlds and meanings I have ever been looking for, no matter how rarely used or met. This is definitely the best dictionary ever so I put away all the heavy and thick paper volumes of Collins of Oxford that hardly ever contain the stuff I need and look for in vain.

Please, I am begging you, do not remove the words just because they are hardly ever used or met!!! Don’t be just another popular dictionary where some words cannot be found. Don’t follow the paths that others do as this is the thing that makes you so great!

the only word i knew out of all of them was delicate and that word is used A LOT!!! anyway hi!!!

In my opinion, if I paid for a paper dictionary and a legitimate word was not in there, I would demand my money back. That is like buying a reading book and leaving out every 100th page.
“Jack screamed…….and ate a tuna sandwich.”
Granted, there are online dictionaries, however as a producer of paper dictionaries, do you really want to encourage people to look up words online?
Besides, there are either a small amount of these “obsolete words”, which wouldn’t make a big impact on printing. Or…there are a lot of words being labeled obsolete and there’s going to be a lot of mad customers.

do not remove words from thr dictionary ppl

hi

Dictionaries seem to be moving to including mainly words used by the younder generation. I regularly drive past an aerodrome and occasionally have seen charabancs in the street. I use both words on occasion and more interestingly what we we to call these in the future if these words are considered obsolete?

Aerodrome is still in common usage. The AA route planner lists 12. Leavesden Aerodrome for example is anticipated to be the site of the Harry Potter theme visit. Panshanger aerodrome is in active use (where you can have an hours flying lesson for £75). Any researcher of RAF grandparents may wish to know what the difference is with an airport.

Charabanc is less commonly used, however in my family history studies I understand that one of my great uncles used to turn up to his bereaved sister-in-law and take them on charabanc rides. It is not so uncommon that it ought to be deleted.

But in some ways do I care what you do. I have a collection of dictionaries and there are others on the web. If you choose to make yourselves less useful by deleting words (exactly how much space are they occupying on your server??) then up to you.

whoopsies i though it said delicate…… :\

What?! Where would Biggles land his plane without an aerodrome? Children reading these fascinating stories will want to know exactly what is meant by an aerodrome. And, “deliciate” is a beautifully descriptive word that should be revived, rather than removed from the very books we rely on for elucidation.

No one is talking about dictionary.com removing any words. They said in smaller print dictionaries, which means not all will lose them. Really, not all dictionaries have every word in them to begin with.

Also, the word up for consideration to remove is deliciate. Not delicate.

Reading the entire article is fun-damental.

please dont remove anything 4m the dictionary

Words should not be remove from the dictionary…as we never know if someone would need to refer them.

Also words never get obsolete, may be using less compared to others but do remeber……they are being used, either less or more.

I think you could almost refer to removing a word form the dictionary as a crime. Words are such an important part of peoples lives that we couldn’t live without them. all those words should be given a permanent second chance!

Aerodrome cannot possibly be removed! It still features in the names of several places – Casement Aerodrome is an example in my own country – it’s where the Air Corps is headquartered, so everyone here knows of it, and it features frequently in the media.

Any word which is in constant use as a geographical designation must remain. The others on that list can go.

Tax

Aerodrome definitely deserves to stay. I use it a lot of times and I also know many people who refer to airports with this noun.

An abridged portable paper dictionary has to remove words sometimes for sheer reasons of physical bulk. An unabridged or online dictionary never has any reason to remove a word. We need access to the meanings of words that we may encounter in our reading of old books. A poster suggested that removing “alienism” was all right because the word might offend mad persons. This is wrong. No matter whom it offends, we need to know what it means when we encounter it. This trend of word-killing may not be a conspiracy, but it might as well be: its effect is to cut us off from ideas we might derive from old books.

Next, we simply remove all those people who are too obsolete to make use of ‘obsolete words’. Then those who remain can continue to enjoy the discovery of hitherto rarely used words and begin to make use of them anew! How’s that for a resolution?

When they say that the word is “rarely” used doesnt that mean that the word is actually used???
You should definitly not take words out of the dictionary, people might need the words, you can not assume that people will not need to use the word or find the meaning.

If they completely axe Frigorific we totally need to take it back, because that is just a fun word to say.

All words should be in the dictionary. Because if you’re, say, reading a book from the 50s, or the eighteenth century, and there’s a word you don’t know, what would you do if the web didn’t even have the definition?

Not bad, I have used and heard the words Aerodrome and Deliciate.

People created the dictionary for a specific reason, to record and pass on the history of one’s language. Words listed as obsolete or dated are still useful, even if rarely used in some places or in common conversation. Some novels are written in Olde English, and one were to come across an unfamiliar word would one not like to be able to look up that word? What happens when words we use today become dated? Will we forget those too?

Sincerely,
The Wolf

~
Removing a word from the dictionary because it is rarely used or “obsolete” is one of the stupidist ideas that I have ever heard.

Why do dictionarys even exist? -Because when you see or hear a rarely used word or that you are not familiar with, you then look the word up and increase your vocabulary.

If you need to remove words, remove the most commonly used words.

~

People, read the word carefully. DELICIATE, not DELICATE. Notice there’s an extra I after the C in DELICIATE.

These all need to stay because I have no idea what any of these mean

none of these words should be taken off, even when obsolite!!!!!

I have no comment

These words should not be erased, even how obsolite they are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The should never remove a word, only add new ones. You may need them for Scrabble someday.

I completely agree with Phil Fasso (August 24, 2011, 3:19 pm).
If there’s EVER been an accurately-used appearance of a word in print (hardcopy, online … whatever), it should NEVER be removed from ANY dictionary. From my view, that’s the primary purpose for a dictionary – to help readers determine the meaning of a word that otherwise would leave them befuddled. And words like deliciate and frigorific are terrific examples of such words. I don’t look up words like ‘work’ in a dictionary because I already know what they mean. It’s the obscure words that carry weight in a dictionary. And I’m 100% certain that a reference can be found to all of the words in your list in literature somewhere in time. If words are to be deleted from a dictionary, burning the books in which those words appeared is the next step. Brrrrrrrrrr, that’s a scary thought.

In smaller a dictionary removing the archaeic words isn’t a bad thing. They have limits to what space they have and if it comes to a battle of which words stays, go with the old words that are unknown. Removing a word from a dictionary doesn’t make it not a word. There is no way to make a word not a word unless its meaning is completely forgotten. As long as the larger dictionaries still carry the word, the word will still exist. Online dictionaries should never have words taken out. There is no issue with space, and even if a word isn’t searched for anymore – if just one person looks for it once, the definition is still needed somewhere.

“Who controls the past, controls the future.”

Orwell understood that language and thought are closely linked. When we limit language (a la Newspeak) we limit thought, and thereby freedom. No word should be removed from the dictionary.

Please note, it is not delicate that’s being removed, but deliciate. See the additional I?

I don’t think words can ever become ‘obsolete.’ People have become obsolete in their creative abilities to use them.

What’s the question?

I think people are misunderstood. They are merely saying these words are being removed from SMALL PAPER DICTIONARIES:

“Recently, researchers for the Collins Dictionary released a list of words, such as charabanc and aerodrome, that are used so rarely that they are considered obsolete, and will no longer be included in smaller print dictionaries.”

I’m sure they understand to keep the words in online dictionaries because online dictionaries have “infinite” space (I use the word infinite loosely because it costs money and space to maintain bigger and bigger servers of course)

THESE WORDS MAKES ME WANT TO BARF!!!

Why remove actual words to make room for word fad definitions (i.e. LOL)?

I feel that they should stay in the dictionary SPECIFICALLY because they are never used. One day, people will see those words and they might just start using them again…I think it’s dumb to take out words…

I happen to think frigorific is a fantastic word and shouldn’t be removed!

That said, I think a lot of folks didn’t read the post clearly and missed the part where it said these words ” will no longer be included in smaller print dictionaries.” Economy of space, people! Like it or not, we have to make way for “blog” and a sixth definition of “twitter.”

I have faith Dictionary.com and those glorious eighteen-pound dictionaries will keep these words for some time to come.

Dangerous for a dictionary to stop describing and start prescribing.

I think you need to keep aerodrome. I grew up with this word, though I agree it’s not in vogue at present.

Aerodrome is still used, and is so much better than it’s American equivalent, airdrome, which, in my opinion, sounds stupid and is unecessary. Get rid of airplane and airdrome – that makes more sense to me.

Throwing words away is like deleting history. It’s narrow minded.

When I was a younker, my grandfather, who studied Alienism, used to take me on a charabanc. We would brabble sometimes because I would deliciate in sitting on the top of the charabanc, so I could see the aerodrome when we passed it, but my grandfather would moan that the open roof meant it was frigorific. When the charabanc reached its destination, we would have a Bever at a local pub. The staff were always really nice and would supererogate so we always left a decent tip.

You can’t say words are obsolete!

The word “supereroge” (and related words: supererogative & supererogatory) CHANGED MY LIFE! I think this is a case where a distinction should be made between a word that is unknown and used rarely because it is simply neglected by educators, and a word that has become irrelevant. Supererogation remains a very important concept in moral and ethical philosophy — for reasons that would probably interest most people, if they’ve ever held (or lost) a job, wanted help with something, or tried to help someone. It’s an elegant term that provides a useful conceptual distinction between the categories of acts that are morally obligatory and acts that, while not strictly imperative (deontologically), are nevertheless morally praiseworthy.
Indeed, it may be an example: for Collins to retain this term even in small dictionaries, if it is uncertain that such an inclusion is necessary, should be considered as a supererogatory service to readers…

If we were to remove words from the dictionary, online or not, wouldnt that basically be like removing them from the english language? i dont think it would be good to remove them completely… or at all for that matter…

POPPYCOCK!!! keep them all

I think deliciate should not I repeat SHOULD NOT BE REMOVED! I like that word.

Actually I think you should KEEP THEM ALL!

Aerodrome should stay, It’s used often enough. I think chillaxin’ should have never been added in the first place, or any other slang for that matter, it’s just annoying.

They are there for a reason. DO NOT REMOVE. I tell you who we should remove, the politicians. Keep everything else.

I don’t think any words should be removed from the dictionary, although I do see the reason in it. Speaking of which words should get a second chance, I vote Alienism and Younker. I’m only 11, and I know what they mean. Also, the text said they would only be removed from the smaller print dictionaries, so the large dusty copies you see in the libraries will be kept. Good discussion topic, though.

no word should be earsed because what if a teacheror parent ask do you know what this word means. And she or he doesnt know if they dont have dictionary they go online and cant find it and he or she had to do it for a assingment.and they cant find one dictionary at a store.teacher going to get mad.soooo please dont earse not one word from the dictionary.all words matter we use them everday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the vernacular and the lexicon collide again. dictionaries “of limited space” are dictionaries of dubious consideration, unless the literature is relegated to an abecedarian account of Sesame Street vocabulary in a pre-school setting. we are all doomed. *sigh*

They really should keep them all. So many comments on here already say what I firmly think, so there is no need to repeat what I believe importance. Not just that, personally, I love expanding my vocabulary. Always do I have the thesaurus open in a tab when I am online. It comes in quite handy. I do a large bit of writing stories with other people, so descriptiveness is quite essential. As well as when writing, you tend to use certain words frequently. Then when doing so, it becomes repetitive und even boring.

Example: “Eyes” To describe such, I personally use “orbs,” “oculi,” “lenses,” “hues,” etc.

I find it quite important to have a variety of words for the same intention. When looking up words online, a large handful of my common words are noted as archaic for the meaning I choose to use them for. Which is a shame, really. Most of which are quite beautiful.

Keep it, someone might need to know it.

I took the radical step of reading the actual article to which this half-formed piece linked. It makes perfect sense to remove words from smaller print dictionaries as new editions are published. Preserving these words and their definitions in larger print editions or digitally is also great.

You may now continue your hysterics.

if it’s a word, it should be in the dictionary =|

Deliciate (delic*i*ate) not delicate.

Words should never be deleted from the dictionary. You never know when it may come up again and besides in a way words in the dictionary are another version of our history. Besides that how can researchers for the Collins Dictionary possibly know if I am sitting in my home looking up a word in my dictionary. I just think it is wrong.

Having once been a teacher I would hate to see any words removed from the dictionary. They all have meaning.

The more rare the more need for them in a dictionary.

If someone wants to print an abridged dictionary because they don’t want to pay for the paper, then it should be labeled as ‘abridged’. But these words need to be recorded in an accessible place for the readers of today. If that falls to the online dictionaries, so be it.

The classics still use the words and many of today’s readers need somewhere to look up the meanings. Many of today’s writers should look up the meanings of words before committing them to paper (or type).

I just so happen to LOVE words that are older and more vintage. Charabanc is one of the really good ones still left! Old-fashioned words are still very much alive and can be used intelligently if one wishes to use them. It is sort of like Latin — not hardly dead, but most definitely immortal! Keep the words in the dictionary!

I think that they should not remove these words from online dictionaries because some people (like me) don’t know the meaning of these words and if people who do not know these words come upon them they should be able to find their definitions somewhere.

I think that they should not remove these words from online dictionaries because some people (like me) don’t know the meaning of these words and if people who do not know these words come upon them they should be able to find their definitions somewhere..

I don’t often go to the dictionary for words I know the meaning of, hear and use all the time. It would make more sense to remove words like Bird and Cat…Just Say’n.

@ brushfire… I must humbly disagree with the first paragraph in your comment.

“I cautiously disagree with the person quoting Beowulf. Unlike the proposition in this article, I don’t believe that a conscious decision was ever made to discard those words wholesale from the language. They evolved on their own over time”

The decision to discard the original Old English WAS in fact a conscious decision. It was not however made by the speakers of that language. The decision was made by Norman the conqueror, a French man who, after conquering the Old English territories forced all inhabitants to speak French for 300 years instead of Old English. The Old English speakers did not decide to get rid of their language; the decision was made for them. The only 2 surviving literary works in Old English are Beowulf, and Caedmon’s Hymn.
Just sayin….

wow that is so cool who knows what Slewed means please answer

I say, definitely keep Aerodrome, Alienism, Bever, Brabble, Charabanc, and Deliciate, but that Frigorific, Supererogate and Younker have to go. Frigorific doesn’t even sound like a technical term, but rather a made up word, like ginormous

Whoops, typo. I think that Alienism should go as well, becuase it is derogatory to people with mental illnesses.

Honestly it really doesn’t matter if unused words get taken out of the dictionary or not. As long as there is a recorded record record of all known English words (such as on dictionary.com), there is no real use to keep them in the dictionary and it will lower printing costs. If words no matter what they are, were taken out of the dictionary, it would exponentially get larger and larger as new words are created and printing costs would go up etc. So is there really a need to have EVERY word in the dictionary???

supererogate/supererogatory are common in the language of international morality and justice (a 30-40 year old field of inquiry)

Only The Party from George Orwell’s 1984 eliminates words from the dictionary! DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER!

Remember 1984? In Newspeak, George Orwell argues that reducing words in the language we reduce the possibilities of expressing “illegal” thoughts. If you don’t have a way of saying it, you’ll stop thinking it in the end. Talk about alienism!

Removing words other than exotic proper nouns from dictionaries is a crime in my opinion. So what if they get one hit every four years? They’re words. Be a nerd one day and trawl through a paper dictionary for a few minutes. I’ll bet you my house, my bank account, AND my lakeside summerhouse that there will be words you’ve never used or never heard of.

Ryan

I know you would probably say I don’t have any authority to say that, but some words really fall on disuse. English is one of the languages with the largest vocabulary in the world, with more than 1 million words. I wonder why there are so many words if only a few are going to be used. I’m learning english as a second language (my first one is portuguese) and this website helps me so much when I have to read something in the web I can’t understand. Yes, I have a very strict vocabulary yet, but it becomes much harder when I have to learn words and expressions that either have lots of siynonyms or have lots of meanings. It would be much better if there were more specific words or expressions instead of this crazy mix.

But I agree these words should be kept in dictionary for historical purposes.

Sorry for the grammar mistakes i have probably commited.

What rubbish ! how can you even think of removing words………… has the world (or some in the world) gone mad. Why not remove books, music, movies, photos, art work etc just because they have not been looked at, heard, read etc. Why not just live in a cave with a wooden club and a wooden plate and dress in animal fur. We are supposed to be a civilised intelligent race – treasure what our ancestors and we have created and take delight in them. If words are no longer used perhaps encourage their usage rather than delete them. Are we such a use and dispose society with no values whatsoever!

I agree with many of the comments about not removing any word or expression from the dictionaries, especially the ones online, because even though they are not in aural use anymore, they will always be found in some kind of printed material, such as the classics. Besides, we might always bring it back with a new concept. For example, the word budget entered the language from French meaning a small bag to carry coins [as was the usual thing to do during the Middle Ages]; later, the meaning of the monies allotted for project came up and the word was not only revived, but it was borrowed back to French with that meaning!

its
D-E-L-I-C-I-A-T-E
not delicate, you dumb, illiterate people

i have never heard of anyof those words, except delicate. people use that word all the time, i think i used it yesterday! you cant make a word obsulete just cause you think people arnet using it. that is a very delicate topic

remove them all

]

I think it’s wrong to ever even consider the cutting of words from dictionaries. Who knows? Maybe there is that one random old guy who uses a word us younglings wouldn’t understand, and we decide to look it up. I know that I do that all the time. Words are important, and if you’ve ever seen 1984, you would know that taking words that are “unnecessary” out of the language is a form of discouraging free thought, atleast in my opinion.

I personally never herd these words, so if you guys remove them I probably wouldn’t have noticed, but what about the people who have. Are they going to announce it in the news so that everybody could know not to use them no more?
Its just like I don’t know ALL the songs, movies or books and just because some of us don’t know them doesn’t mean they are going to be removed. Same with words we don’t and we won’t know all the words or even use them, but who knows some people might know them or even use them. And they shouldn’t be removed!

I’ve denifitely used brabble – like what would call most of this discussion. Oh well, now that I know all these words, I might as well start using them. I think I’ll go deliciate a bever.

My Dad’s a pilot, so I’m used to hearing the word “aerodrome.”

Personally, I think no word should ever be deleted from a dictionary…ever.

No word should ever be removed from an online dictionary. No matter how esoteric or rarely used, if I come across one in my reading and need a definition, I would dread to come to dictionary.com and not find it here. Even print dictionaries should keep them, and if they don’t, then they should appropriately advertise as “abridged,” because that’s what they are. And think of words such as “dial,” which we still use to call the input of a phone number. Should we remove the original meaning, because it’s rarely relevant in a push button word? In a word, no.

Please do not remove any words, as they existed once with a purpose, and were used in the writings of the past. They may not be relevant now, but they were once, and we should keep them in our chronicles.

P.S.Phil Fasso YOU ARE AWESOME YOU SOUND SOOOOO MUCH LIKS PETA OFF OF THE HUNGER GAME SERIES BY SUZAIN COLLINS

I think that NO words should be removed at all. Who knows–someday someone will need those words. If they removed it, I’d be pissed off and it’s SO WRONG to remove an rarely used words. Someone unique might want to use them to show their uniqueness.

Lots of looooove, Rannie

I actually came across the word supererogate in my summer reading assignment today. heh. derpie derp.

Leave all the words in the dictionary. It’s a historical piece. Better than a history book. The older the dictionary, the better.

i think that its really stupid to remove WORDS from a DICTIONARY

almost all the words are often used by me, even if they remove all the words people are still going to use these words in conversations, not many would be affected, except the ones using Microsoft Word, coz its gonna underline it with red…………..just ignore………….not my comment

i think that its really stupid to remove WORDS, from a DICTIONARY, they are meant for people to look up words and find them, not to look up a word and find out that it has been removed!

When I was a younker I use to supererogate my time as I deliciate in a frigorific bever while riding away in a charabanc from the aerodrome; alienism would not brabble the insanity of illiminating a single word in this sentence!

All words should be kept if only for reference.

Alienisum… Is that a derogatory term?

They need to keep alienism and aerodome! BOTH HIGHLY USEFUL!

For what my 2 cents is worth, here are my thoughts –

REMOVE:

• aerodrome
• alienism
• bever
• younker

KEEP:

• brabble
• charabanc
• deliciate

NOT SURE/DON’T CARE:

• frigorific
• supererogate

Yeah, I think all words should be kept in the dictionary. And if there is such a hurry to take a word out of a reference, why not a really bad, disgusting word that people shouldn’t use?

How about making a dictionary of rarely used words? That way the words will still be around for everyone to see and use.

the point of a dictionary, especially an online one is to find the definition of a word which we do not know, that incluses, and maybe specifies, ones that are old

I agree with so many; If all you have in a dictionary is a collection of words that people use commonly, who would use it? We’d all know the definitions already. Printing Costs? If I were to go to a bookstore looking to buy a dictionary, I would pay at least two dollars more for a dictionary that has even just ten more words than the $2 less dictionary. It is the right of the company to publish however many words in their dictionary they like, but please, Dictionary.com, NO WORD REMOVAL! When I have free time I often look through a dictionary to expand my vocabulary, I then use those words in my everyday conversation. I hope that the old, obsolete, archaic(yes I realize that was slightly redundant) words remain in more than a minority of dictionaries. Pocket dictionaries are one thing, but this? Also, I might add in regards to ‘Eric’, no one directly picked any words to remove from the English language or it’s dictionaries in order to make it the way we see it today; that was a slow, slow process. I think that if we actually remove words from the English language as they become ‘less used’, our future archaeologists will have more of a challenge reading ancient literature discovered from digs and elsewhere. There would also be no reason for the word “Vernacular” to exist if everything spoken were part of the vernacular. This a dumb idea; removing words from a dictionary? How will words be remembered if not through the Dictionary?

NEVER!!!!

Interesting collection of comments here: some enlightening and insightful, some just “off.” I especially liked the poster who questioned deleting the word “delicate,” not realizing she’d misread the actual word: “deliciate.” Oh well, not everyone’s at the high end of the bell curve!

I’m voting for “frigorific.” I think Kanye West or Jay-Z should put it in a rap song, then wait to see if MTV over-reacts and bleeps it!

I’ll also side with those who feel that an online dictionary should hang onto as many words as they can. As a professional corporate writer, I value finding just the right word to express a shade of meaning that another word doesn’t quite hit, so I like to have my options open to me.

Also, another poster pointed out that new words come into our vocabulary (and thus, into our dictionaries) because they build on older terms. Having the older words around—even if they’re noted as archaic—helps us find the path from where we are to where those words came from.

One more thing: until everyone learns how to spell, I think every site’s “Comments” app should have a built-in spell checker. To me, nothing works faster to knock points off of peoples’ perceived IQ faster than misspelling or misusing words. That’s why there ARE dictionaries: so no one has to look like an idiot for not spelling things correctly.

The sad reality is that most people (and I’m talking about college educated people, too) don’t know how to spell, so society needs the spell checker as a crutch for all those who were goofing off during grammar lessons, or didn’t do their spelling homework, or maybe they’re simply dyslexic.

The spell checker should be enshrined in the Bill of RIghts, and made available to all people regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, creed, sex, marital status, familial status, age, disability, veteran status or sexual orientation.

Is anybody with me?

Half the people commenting here are either not very bright, or completely misunderstood the article. It’s entirely reasonable for smaller dictionaries to remove obsolete words from their pages.

Some people were complaining about words being removed from dictionary.com, when it was quite clearly stated that that would not be necessary. Also, they are not being removed from larger more comprehensive dictionaries. Other people misread the words, for example “deliciate” (which, funnily enough is not recognized by my computer’s dictionary) is not the same as “delicate”.

like 9 words will make a difference in a dictionary, just keep them

THEY SHOULD KEEP ALL THE WORDS IN THE DICTIONARY BECAUSE IF SOMEONE NEEDS TO KNOW ONE OF THE WORDS THEY WON’T FIND IT!!!!

“Alienism” almost sounds useful. Other than that, my vote is that there’s no need for those words. Never heard of them, and would probably never use them.

I think that you should keep all the words. Why? Well, like you said before, the online dictionary has more space, or rather “unlimited space” then the regular paper ones. Just because we hardly use those words, it doesn’t mean you should throw them away. For example, what if a word from that list came up in our book that is very old. We would want to search it up and find out, however we can’t find the definition in the paper dictionary. Therefore, they should keep all the words!

Brabble is still a great word. Sounds like a Lewis Caroll ‘nonsense’ word. I think I’ll keep it in my vocabulary, even if Collins won’t.

@ Jimmy

Don’t “misunderestimate” me. I didn’t bring politics into the discussion; (Semicolon for Cassandra) I was still on the topic of linguistics. It was plain who the real captain of the ship of state was, during the Bush era. Cheney was at the helm and W. was just the figurehead, with about as much intellect and ability to steer the craft as a real pine figurehead. The talking-head hand-puppet should have been chosen to look and sound good to the American public. I could begin to appreciate Carlitos’ distaste for hillbillies, but, this man was born and raised in Connecticut. He somehow managed to graduate from both Yale and Harvard and still couldn’t manage to string two words together without tripping over his mouth. Bush-isms were endemic. Comedians still get gigs by referring to them.

Not that I’m thrilled with Obama and cohorts either. I didn’t vote for him. I could damn the new administration with faint praise by saying that it seems that we’re losing ground a little less quickly than we were. It’s ironic that you mentioned Franks’ slurred “sh” in shibboleth. That’s exactly why the Israelites chose the word in the first place, to root out the infiltrators.

@ Prem

I usually only correct for errors of fact, rather than usage. Having read your post I can only hope that English was not your first language. Don’t worry about the 9 candidates for exclusion, or words like perplexed. Focus on the more mainstream words. Anyword should be any word. Obserred should be absurd. Rearly should be spelled rarely. Apon should be upon. There, should have been their, in that usage. Rare should have been rarer. Sayed should have been said. Perviously is spelled previously. Peoples’ has an apostrophe to indicate possessive. Don’t has an apostrophe to indicate abbreviation and, to say something like, “on which people come upon”, is rendundant. The “on” and “upon” mean essentially the same thing. Construct your work to eliminate one or the other. If you spoke Farsi or Hindi first, your English shows promise. If you were born in Alabama, don’t let Carlitos know.

Hollie, great piece of writing.

blah… do we all need to mundify our memories with such subservient, imperious interrogation; some inept attempt to justify milquetoast rationalizations?
-all aliteration aside, adjectives should be obsolete in gerenal… everything is relative, be it succinctly said with more laconic indignation than i could care to ‘conjure’: when you participate in such consumption of the aforementioned, and more often than not transmogrified cacophony, you truly only hear what you care to listen for… i would happily return monosyllabic grunts and ubiquitous underlinings of the underlying quaquaversal. though, i’m sure i selfishly have too much to say!
have a good day.

remove words?! that would be removing the purpose of a dictionary!
how else will we find the meanings of words that you have never heard/read before??
a dictionary would be useless if it didnt include every word.
you would destroy the fun of a dictionary aswell; where else will we find odd/weird/cool/unusual/unused/unknown words to slip into coversation or assignments to baffle people?

Ooh ooh! Now that I know what “bever” and “deliciate” mean, I’m going to use them in my Dungeons & Dragons campaigns everytime the adventuring party stops at a tavern! And as everyone knows, a D&D game without taverns is like a circus without clowns.

“And so, deserving of respite, our heroes spend a handful of what was once Bragnor the ogre chieftain’s gold to settle over a hearty bever of twice-seared quail and brown lager. While the band so deliciates, Balleog the cleric continues to ponder the riddle spilt from Bragnor’s dying lips as the barmaid returns offering cracked pepper…”

Also on the slate: using “younker” instead of “young nobleman,” and using “frigorific” to describe spells such as Ray of Frost, Cone of Cold and Ice Storm. “The frigorific blast from the dwarven wizard’s white rod bites through your chainmail….”

Yeah, I think that might work. Thanks, Dictionary.com!

Just because there words aren’t used doesn’t mean that they should be left out of the dictionary! Although those words aren’t that commonly used they should be kept because I know I’ve had a few of these words in my spelling lists at school and I would have been hopelessly lost if it weren’t for my trusty pocket dictionary

They are crazy if they take words from any dictionary. You might not use the words but that does not mean someone else doesn’t so why take it out the dictionay.

Words become obsolete when they aren’t used. And how can they ever be used, if they get removed from existence? All that is takes is for one person to discover any one of these words, like it, find it interesting and start using the word for it to live.

I say keep them all! I can only imagine that in our lexicon, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of words that aren’t used daily. However, isn’t discovering new words, that which makes learning fun?

Okay, idiots, the word that is going to be removed is deliciate… not delicate. You are stupid.

Why has the word “aborticide” been removed from dictionaries, on paper and online? Too politically incorrect no doubt. Too much like homicide and genocide, which it is. Aborticide is the act of destroying a fetus in the womb. Killing little master Fetus and little Miss Feta is committed by aborticidal abortisadists.

No matter how little used a word may be, it should still be in the dictionary, maybe not a compact dictionary for space reasons, but definitely in any full dictionary. Just because the word is rarely used doesn’t mean that someone wouldn’t look the word up if he or she stumbled across a reference to it, or that someone wouldn’t want the option at least of using the word. So many of the words in the dictionary aren’t known or widely used, except by a select few, but that doesn’t mean they’re not words worth of defining.

but you told me that when one is truly saved they will want to grow, glorify God and not sin. but doenst a false convert do that too?

Does anyone ever pay any attention? They said the words would be removed from small print dictionaries not all dictionaries. Why would they especially remove it from online dictionaries when they have a vast space to store knowledge. Also, some people were confused between the words deliciate and delicate…people….>.>

I agree with Phil Fasso. There are those of us who occasionally read esoteric or archaic texts for either research or personal interest. Having a full unabridged dictionary available to locate the meanings of archaic words is very useful. I personally keep all my old print dictionaries just in case a word I need has been ‘retired’ from use. I also keep dictionaries in 7 different languages in case I need to translate something.Consider this; Latin may be considered a ‘dead’ language but tell that to the botanists and biologists. Language is a living thing but in order to study the living things in this world, having fossils from another age to examine are extremely helpful. Let’s keep the old as a foundation and keep building and creating new words as the need arises!

ALL words should be in the dictionary. If I look a word up and it is not in the dictionary I am using, I will throw it in the trash.

You can’t remove a word from a dictionary! Then it’s not even a complete dictionary!

A lot of you aren’t even reading the article–correctly, or perhaps, not at all. The word is “deliciate” not “delicate”. Furthermore, the words “will no longer be included in smaller print dictionaries”; not removed from all dictionaries. Additionally, no one ever said that they would be removed from online dictionaries, the article read, “an argument could be made that if a word is rarely used or searched for, it may not matter if it is in the dictionary or not.”

Get it together, people. This article was short, and the vast majority of you couldn’t even comprehend its content. If you can’t make intelligent, relevant comments, then please don’t comment at all.

Several of those do have replacements (aerodrome, airdome; alienism, alienage; etc.) so I guess that’s okay, but bever, char-à-banc, deliciate, supererogate – English has already lost plenty of useful words that have no real modern equivalent. It doesn’t need to loose any more.
Regardless of use, words should only be categorized as obsolete if they have suitable alternatives.

All the words can stay as long as the expression ” on a go forward basis” is outlawed .

Before we zoom over the vast fields of our dictionaries, let’s land on an aerodrome so we can deliciate in the last bever of this list of words. I would much rather take a tour of our beautiful language on a charabanc than feel like a younker wondering through the endless field we call the English lexicon. Ever since this article was posted, there has been a brabble going on in the comments section over whether or not these words should be subject to alienism from our dictionaries. In my opinion, to oust these words from our iridescent language would be very frigorific, and personally, I think doing so is a perfect example of what it is to supererogate.

Well… The last time I saw a list of dictionaries, Collins wasn’t on it. So there.

They take away our plantets, now our words. What’s next……

why dont they stop whining about space in the dictionary and just come out with a part 2

Supererogate should absolutely stay I have read that many times in books the last year, and should at least stay in there another 5 years or so until the are ultimately added to an online site quite like this one as an out of date term. No word should be forgotten or able to find online in a dictionary source. They should always be provided but as for common dictionaries found in a desktop setting only words used within the last 75-100 years should be in them.

Since when has no-one used alienism? i use it all the time!

Great, so when you read an old novel that contains archaic words you can’t look them up because they are archaic. But you can find the meaning of the word ‘is’ even though most of us learned that one before we started kindergarden.

Aerodrome is a great word. I grew up in Rural Indiana and there were many Aerodrome around. But I didn’t know the word for them; now I do.

Removing words is a dangerous and unnecessary proposition.

Dangerous : because each word is not only a word, but a representation of an idea. Thus by eliminating the word (and its definition) you eliminate a way to communicate an idea. Specially, but not limited, when the word represents an abstract concept. Not to mention that ideas on old books that use the word would be lost for all but the few that still know the meaning.

Unnecessary : because there is no danger of running out of words.

The only valid reason would be to conserve space in a death tree form dictionary.

Is there a dictionary for words taken out of the dictionary?
Because they should put those in there, then.
Just saying. I might need the definition of those words someday, but if they are taken out of printed dictionaries, we still have our old friend dictionary.com, right?;D

I’ve never heard of these words before..but I think they should stay because they were created for a reason and we shouldn’t just throw them away :/

Most of the words in the list to be removed are Latin derived words and they are very common in Latin based languages like Portuguese, French or Spanish. Since English is the global language, these words should exist to ease the communication with foreign speakers.

I think this gentleman said it all…..

“Sikander Javed on August 24, 2011 at 4:06 pm

Words are never, never obsolete. There is no need to remove them from dictionary whether on paper or online. It’s the words that makes the language.”

@Archon on August 29, 2011 at 10:19 pm
@ Jimmy

Don’t “misunderestimate” me. I didn’t bring politics into the discussion; (Semicolon for Cassandra) I was still on the topic of linguistics. It was plain who the real captain of the ship of state was, during the Bush era. Cheney was at the helm and W. was just the figurehead, with about as much intellect and ability to steer the craft as a real pine figurehead. The talking-head hand-puppet should have been chosen to look and sound good to the American public. I could begin to appreciate Carlitos’ distaste for hillbillies, but, this man was born and raised in Connecticut. He somehow managed to graduate from both Yale and Harvard and still couldn’t manage to string two words together without tripping over his mouth. Bush-isms were endemic. Comedians still get gigs by referring to them.

Not that I’m thrilled with Obama and cohorts either. I didn’t vote for him. I could damn the new administration with faint praise by saying that it seems that we’re losing ground a little less quickly than we were. It’s ironic that you mentioned Franks’ slurred “sh” in shibboleth. That’s exactly why the Israelites chose the word in the first place, to root out the infiltrators.

@ Prem

I usually only correct for errors of fact, rather than usage. Having read your post I can only hope that English was not your first language. Don’t worry about the 9 candidates for exclusion, or words like perplexed. Focus on the more mainstream words. Anyword should be any word. Obserred should be absurd. Rearly should be spelled rarely. Apon should be upon. There, should have been their, in that usage. Rare should have been rarer. Sayed should have been said. Perviously is spelled previously. Peoples’ has an apostrophe to indicate possessive. Don’t has an apostrophe to indicate abbreviation and, to say something like, “on which people come upon”, is rendundant. The “on” and “upon” mean essentially the same thing. Construct your work to eliminate one or the other. If you spoke Farsi or Hindi first, your English shows promise. If you were born in Alabama, don’t let Carlitos know.

Hi Archon, old friend. It appears that they have not been posting my comments anymore. The last one was agreeing with you about your politics; Jimmy, it seems, may be one of those reasons we suffered 8 years of W. There are many people on this blog that make me afraid for 4, heaven forbid 8, years of Bachmann or Perry. Maybe we’ll get 12 or 16 because whereas they claim to have some intimate knowledge of the US Constitution, they exhibit very little of it. As you may not be, I am also not an “Obama-supporter” in any other sense than that of him being President and me being an American citizen. Much like the troops- I don’t care for the phony wars and needless destruction, but I support the poor men and women tasked with making it so.

Anyway… I love to see you mention my name in so many of your posts, it makes me feel like a celebrity to have the most smug sonofa on this blog letting everyone know how I feel about Alabama, which coincidentally, is not where hillbillies are from as far as I’m concerned. You get the good old-fashioned southern man from those good old-fashioned southern states. In my opinion, I would consider proper Appalachia as the home range of the hillbilly.

I think all words should stay, u never know when u could use one of them

I think the words need to stay even if they are no longer used. Where else will you look up words you don’t know when reading older books and works from ages ago? Are they going to delete the words from books they may have been written in as well? Just because we don’t use them, doesn’t mean we don’t need to know what they mean.

Speaking to those who have expressed distress at these words’ removal: If you value retaining these words for the sake of their potential for greater exactitude of speech, consider three words in light of that value: “smaller print dictionaries.” The above does not imply all dictionaries produced in the future will omit these words, but only some dictionaries intended for practical use. You will also readily observe that “dictionaries” are already a diverse class of books, of widely varying degrees of inclusiveness.

No word should be removed from the dictionary! There was a reason for it to be made so why should it not be used today? And even if not a lot of people search for those words, some people might! What if someone wonders what one of those words mean and try to look it up in the dictionary and its not there! So no I don’t not think the words should be removed from the dictionary.

To all the people who kept saying delicate shouldn’t be removed from the dictionary, the word is deliciate, not delicate.

Aerodrome, frigorific, are great words.
Who said they are not used? All depends on your field of interest and education!
Not used by some but very used by others… Just let time remove them and not an association of people who do not represent all fields of interest or profession

What is this Orwell’s 1984? Don’t take out words.

I’v recently heard of Alienism and Aerodrome. *shrugs*

agreed

all you people are just lame nerds who really gives a care ? there will always be internet to look up stuff?i mean really!who even uses a dumb dictionary anymore!omg big whoop? o m g om g i cant belive their taking one word that i would never use out the dictiionary! please yall geeky nerds???/

I think “Aerodrome” definitely deserves a second chance!

looking at these words, i can tell you I’m about to start using them A.S.A.P

they should remove dictionary and definition from the dictionary

I agree with keeping them in the online dictionaries. If you read some of the short stories by O.Henry and Kate Chopin, you might find yourself needing a dictionary.

“Frigorific” sounds like a word George Bush made up.

I think many of you are missing the point. They are taking them out of smaller print (read pocket size) dictionaries, they are not being taken out of the English language in general.

most printed dictionary’s aren’t even bought by the public mostly by schools otherwise people just look it up online like this website.

We should leave them in the dictionary because if we do we’ll use them more.

Un-add surplus words from dictionary plus-good.

All of the realy long words should be removed

none of thease words should be gone just because we used them same as no history should be removed they should stay as a marking of humanity

leave them in because if you are having a test and you have to look them up they wont be there and FAIL. And also the words will be important because they are original. Never delete original words. I use Delicate every day basically. So please don’t delete them.

sry bad grammar im 10 hey just bacause we barely use them i for got to put one more thing >
they will probaly take it off cause they want to save money and when it comes to money uno >but thet should record the words some way and be avalable some how to public

We should NEVER remove words from the dictionary!!! I personally think ALL these words are quite interesting and unique, and should never be removed. They are part of our heritage as Americans, as someone else said, as people used to use them quite regularly, so we should keep them, if only to preserve our heritage.

do u know how many words i have needed to find desparatly and out of 10 different kinds of dictionaries i didnt find them?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DONT TAKE WORDS AND REMOVE THEM FROM THE DICTIONARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EVEN IF THEY ARE UNCOMMON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHO CARES???????????????????????????????????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The removal of words is not only sad, but also how are people going to learn what these words mean or how to pronuouce them. Correctly spell them and many more children are going to need them in life. History is also lanuage!!!!! I am in college and still use a dictonary.

No word should ever be removed from an online dictionary. No matter how esoteric or rarely used, if I come across one in my reading and need a definition, I would dread to come to dictionary.com and not find it here. Even print dictionaries should keep them, and if they don’t, then they should appropriately advertise as “abridged,” because that’s what they are. And think of words such as “dial,” which we still use to call the input of a phone number. Should we remove the original meaning, because it’s rarely relevant in a push button word? In a word, no.

Please do not remove any words, as they existed once with a purpose, and were used in the writings of the past. They may not be relevant now, but they were once, and we should keep them in our chronicles.

fregues, jamas las quiten ( are u kiding, dont remove them) im honduran

No word should be removed. If we removed it, then we would be removing its history and culture behind it. Besides, gramophones and records aren’t used these days, yet people have them because they are SPECIAL. it should be the same way with words, since the oral language is beautiful.

While it is reasonable to leave the words out of smaller print dictionaries I oppose deleting them from larger/online dictionaries.
Partly to keep a record of our language changing over time. And especially because it may be necessary to understand something written in an earlier time. Are we saying that our own history is irrelevent? If so the barbarians are not at our gates. They are running things!

none should be removed:)

There is an Ardmore aerodrome just down the road. I’m pretty sure Dairy Flat is an aerodrome too. What are we supposed to call them ?
They are not airports….

We don’t need to remove these words, we need to start using them. Deliciate is delicious, and brabble seems positively vital in today’s political climate…

All words should have a chance and they should never be kicked out! The only thing that should be kicked out is kicking out words!!!

Never remove a word… NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You know, those words should never be deleted, what if someone needs to know the definitions? Sure, they could go on dictionary.com, but if the online dictionary is deleting words, then I’m a bowtruckle.

P.S. Seeing as I’m Hermione Granger, I like all words and books.
P.P.S. The word bowtruckle is underlined red in the “leave a comment” box. They should add that word.

Hi again, I just figured out how to make an emoticon.
I have never heard of any of those words, but maybe, probably “brabble”. AHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Brabble” is UNDERLINED RED in this “leave a comment” box. Let’s see the others….:-)
Deliciate. Underlined red.
Frigorific. Underlined red.
Charabanc. Not. Whew.
Younker. Yes underlined.

Hi again, I just figured out how to make an emoticon.
I have never heard of any of those words, but maybe, probably “brabble”. AHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Brabble” is UNDERLINED RED in this “leave a comment” box. Let’s see the others….:-)
Deliciate. Underlined red.
Frigorific. Underlined red.
Charabanc. Not. Whew.
Younker. Yes underlined.

I think you shouldn’t take words away from the dictionary because the dictionary is how you learn new interesting words like i learned that alienism means the study of mental illnesses. You know how people say you should learn something new everyday well taking away words from the dictionary wont help that especially with people that love to learn new words. But of course that’s just my opinion.

If your going to take words out, then why make so many words up? I mean really, at least half of the words in a dictionary people never have and probably never will hear of. So why even bother making them up?

I believe that all words serve a purpose, and should all have their chance of being said. So I’m challenging myself to use at least one esoteric word a day. Also, brabble is a great word and I shall be using it more.

I wouldn’t mind it if “bling” fell out of common and marketing use, but I think there should always be some record of the shifting of language. If there is a concept, something we wish to express, and there is a word for it, then that word has a purpose and is part of the language. The more words we remove from our collective lexicon, the less nuanced our conversations and our minds.

I’ve definitely heard the word “aerodrome” before. Didn’t realize it was so uncommon. And “younker” sounds familiar, though I didn’t know what it meant.

As a side note, I really like the word “bever”! I wish it wasn’t obsolete, or I’d probably use it!

Why would you leave words out of the dictionary? Are people TRYING to eliminate our vocabulary altogether? In the Shakespearean era people had a vocabulary of hundreds of thousand words where as in the modern era humans only have about 3-4,00 words.

I use delicate frequently.

It’s like one of those 1st words I learned in English…
seriously do not remove Delicate.

Alienism will soon come back, because people use -ism or other suffix
and attach it to every word they know.

I may not use the word Aerodrome very often, but I do use it. Maybe it is more particular to some countries, e.g. Australia. I don’t believe any word should be removed from a full dictionary, but they can come out of the concise dictionaries. Aerodrome however, is not one of those words!

Urban dictionary is on the lead,
because paper-dictionary gave them less choice of words…

People make new word, because they are not able to find words that
these people removed.

In my opinion, words shouldn’t be taken away from the dictionary online or on book. No matter how rarely used or known, they deserve to stay. You never know when you might need the word itself or find it and not know what it means. Then you go looking for the word in a dictionary and discover that the word itself isn’t there. I mean, what are you going to do when you read an old novel. Be serous. Words old, unused, or forgotten should stay written. That way their never really forgotten and anyone can look for them whenever needed.

what about peop, it isn’t fair.
peops had anough and it wants its rights

Peop isn’t in the dictionary. its the hole in letters. qeopadgbQROPADB all have peops in them.Spred the word and be part of history. Help get peop in the dictionary.

Peop said pee-op

NOOO!!!! DON’T REMOVE THEM!!! They’re such great words and people may want to use these words in essays – heck I’ll add em to my vocabulary right now!!!

I don’t think any of those words should be removed and personally I have heard and read at least four of those words. If you remove them from the dictionary they become dinosaurs and hence extinct and a word is always a word!

Absolutely, never, ever, and no way at all, remove a word.

Well… Whoever wants to get rid of aerodrome has obviously not talked to any pilots.

Well… I had to find the dictionary definition for aerodrome school. If it was removed I wouldn’t be able to do my homework!!

Words are words, letters in an order that sound a specific way. Some may spell them wrong or make up new ones, but does it really matter? I say if they have a meaning and people use them then keep them, the more the merrier, or have we forgot how to live and take risks?? Also if ‘lol’ isn’t already in the dictonary then it should be. It is an acronim and there are many other ones also in the dictonary. GO TROLFACE!

Shelby, you need spectacles.

HOLY COW BATMAN NO FREAKING WAY!!! THEY SHOULD NEVER REMOVE THE WORD! YOU NEVER KNOW IF SOMEONE MIGHT NEED TO KNOW THE WORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
…..
….
AND SO MANY COMMENTS ARE HERE!!
THERE’S ONLY REMOVE A WORD IN DICTIONARY YOU REACT LIKE THAT!!!!
>:(

YA RIGHT SHE/HE’S CORRECT!!
>:(

i dont think any words should be obsolete.
the “obsolete” ones i just learned about sound quite funny when i say them out loud! ☺

It’s all about economics (and perhaps global warming). The less words they print, the less paper they use. The less paper they use, the cheaper the dictionary (and less trees are killed). They said they’ll only delete them words from the smaller print dictionaries. Fine. If a word isn’t in them, one can always check online or the larger unabridged prints. Perhaps a little more diligence may suffice.

All we younkers brabble too much and supererogate over a frigorific topic. Lest we all get afflicted with Alienism, let’s go take a charabanc to the aerodrome, have a bever, and deliciate every moment of it.

Now, who says those words are hardly used…..

Aerodrome and delicate need to stay but otherwise I think those words are ridiculously pointless remove

How about ‘basically’ and ‘actually’? They are so used and abused that deserve to b e removed.

people it is not delicate it is deliciate! and as I spell these they are already underlined in red,..

Even though I’ve never heard of these words before..I think they should stay because they were created for a reason and we shouldn’t just throw them away just because they are the least used. Some unknown scientist or historian is probably using these words for an important reason.

English is one of the newest languages in the world, so it uses alot of other languages word spelling and phrasing to create it. For example in french ‘grands parents’ is ‘grandparents’ in English and ‘week-end’ in french is ‘weekend’ in English. (F.Y.I. I do study french at school!).

Did you know that there is a mobile phone texting dictionary!
This is made for all those people that suck at short hand fast texting.

AND to speak pig latin all you need to do is:
with any english word move the first letter of the word to the end,
and add ‘ay’ to the end of it!

For example: Hello = Ellohay

ANYWAY I USE ‘delicate’ ALL THE TIME!

Leave them in. A person reading an older novel can come across them and may need to find the definition. For example, younker is used in Jane Austen’s Persuasion.

Frigorific deserves its place in the dictionary not only because it is a very used french word, but also because it can bring a lot of imagery put into context.

Words to be Removed in the Future

Liberty
Freedom
Rights

Sovereignty
Allodial
Jury

.

“Supererogate” and its cognates are still very much alive in philosophy (ethics, moral theory, political philosophy, philosophy of religion), and there are numerous journal articles, and some books as well, with “supererogation” in the title.

I am amazed that people don’t know aerodrome or charabanc. They seem absolutely part of my ordinary vocabulary. It makes one wonder how much of my daily speech is simply not understood! Anyway we need all the words possible to play “Call my Bluff”, “Scrabble” etc.

I remember finding “tantalus” in Sherlock Holmes and having no idea what it was. I checked the family American Heritage Dictionary…nothing. Then my father told me we had a ’60s edition, which still had the word (a type of decanter). We had no Internet at the time, so I might have forgotten the word entirely if not for the frustration of it not being in the relatively recent print dictionary.

I gave up reading all of the comments about a third of the way through, but seems to me that the vast majority are opposed to retiring words from the dictionary, and in my opinion the printing costs are the least significant reason to remove from print dictionaries. An average page in a Merriam-Webster’s I’m looking at now has 45 entries. Here we are discussing the removal of 9 (aerodrome not being used… really?) little-used words, an adjustment made what, every ten years? So 50 yrs to reduce the printing of one side of one page? Come on!

Although I am not an avid Scrabble player, how unfair to someone with an intellectual advantage to be shot down for using “brabble” over the triple marker by some dumb-ass that challenges? You see where I’m going with this…

never knew about deliciate before, but i like it!
that one shouldn’t be removed, it’s maybe just a word people somehow haven’t stumbled upon – going to start using it to spread the word! (pun intended ;D)

We should all use these words in our conversations!! Then people we talk to will be all “Wtf?!” and look the words up. They will realize how awesome they are and then start using them too!! Obsolete? I think not.

i really don’t think you should delete these words from the paperback dictionary. I might read my old books someday and look for those words.who knows???

Please do NOT remove ANY words from the dictionary. If they existed at one time then someone will need to find them again when we read older texts.

It’s all about economics (and global warming). They say it’s only the small prints that lose these words. The less words they print, the less paper they use and cheaper to make them (and less trees get the axe). Fine. If one can’t find a word in them, one can always check online or resort to large unabridged prints. Perhaps, a little more diligence will suffice.

We younkers brabble and supererogate over a frigorific topic. Lest we end up afflicted with alienism, why don’t we just take a charabanc to the aerodrome, have a bever, and deliciate every moment of it.

In the Philippines, when things get tough, 90 million Filipinos just say “chillax!” (chill and relax). How’s that for a new word, Collins?

How silly! why remove a word just because it isnt popular?

I have to agree with Phil. No words should be removed from the dictionary. You never know what you may come across in reading.

To remove any word is a sin against literacy. Deliciate, for example, is what those in the USA seem to spend most of their free time doing. To use in a sentence, “American’s live for their vacations, deliciating to the point of excess & lovin’ every moment of it.” I use a lot of words everyday which are not in the vocabulary of most people, but it seems to me the fault in upon them & not I if they do not understand. To not use them would be the same as not bothering to get an education, which should never stop. If not, then why progress the first grade. If I do not know a word then I either ask what it means or I look it up. Knowledge is the key to life. When I am accused of using archaic words I generally respond by saying “‘Tis your education which be lacking, mate. Methinks ye ought be improved much, if’in thine eyes leapt at will within ye olde, Funk & Wagnalls. Perhaps then the over use vulgar words would diminish greatly, for them who use them without due cause, serve only reveal their lack of breeding. To me, blurting out cuss words is not nearly as effective as a few well choose words that demonstrate intelligence & forethought. If we do less, we might as well allow ourselves to degenerate back to slavery.

I can’t believe they’re going to remove Bever. I know the environment is having a rough century, but I love those little furry guys. We have to fight for them!!

Removing words from the dictionary is like removing something from history. Our words show a history of our language and our culture. Words can change, and we tend to use different terms for things, but a word should NEVER be removed.
“Obsolete” cars and gadgets are still found at museums and people derive great pleasure from them. If a word is taken out of a dictionary, we lose our chance to learn about these old gems and enjoy them.

Evolution is a normal phenomenon of human being. Since new technology appears, and old instruments become history, old words should clean the path for new ones. They must go.

I personally believe some words should be added

They continued to brabble about how they were supererogate merely to deliciate.

@ Archon ,

Thank you for spotting my mistakes, and correcting me upon them.
And im a very young boy my english has yet to improve, but the words i learn in my day to day life i like to make use of and see wether they are appropriate for the situations i am in.

And making mistakes and being corrected on them is a big part of learning and what you have done is just that.
Thank you.

@ Archon .

p.s i was trying more to get my word out on the uniqe words being erased of the website rather than my spelling or grammer but thanks for the corrections .

I am personally up for removing none of these entries. These definitions give personality to text and should retain an official spot in the English language.

they should take more words out of the dictionary .. it would make the SAT easier

I think they should not be removed and consider them valuable. It would be tragic if they were rendered obsolete. Also, I consider aerodrome to be a very normal word and never could have imagined it to be pending removal from a dictionary.

I would just like to(((ECHO)))Phil Fasso’s words:

“No word should ever be removed from an online dictionary. No matter how esoteric or rarely used, if I come across one in my reading and need a definition, I would dread to come to dictionary.com and not find it here. Even print dictionaries should keep them, and if they don’t, then they should appropriately advertise as “abridged,” because that’s what they are. And think of words such as “dial,” which we still use to call the input of a phone number. Should we remove the original meaning, because it’s rarely relevant in a push button word? In a word, no.

Please do not remove any words, as they existed once with a purpose, and were used in the writings of the past. They may not be relevant now, but they were once, and we should keep them in our chronicles.”

THANK YOU

@shelby The word is not delicate, but deliciate.

NO!!!! I use Younker all the time.

If we got rid of all the words that were hardly used then we could stop buying dictionaries as we know what the common words mean already. That would save us some money which we could invest in developing a book which explains the meaning of words we don’t know, such as rare or obsolete words. Either that or we could also get rid of all the old books that use rare or obsolete words.
It’s an idea.

Duh! Nobody ever ever uses those dang words so they should be removed!!!!
:p

I’ve heard deliciate before but not much. But honestly I don’t believe any of these words should go. I agree with the first person, when can words like chillax be considered obsolete? People’s vocabulary has shrunk so much I think now a days that we need words like those to still be around. And I can say this as a teenager. I like learning about words that I don’t so shouldn’t these words still be kept so at least other people like me can learn about them and how they were used. Just because they’re used rarely doesn’t mean they should be thrown out.

so if they remove “younker” what will they rename the store “Younkers”? also, why aren’t they gonna remove “get”? it has no real meaning… its a dead word.

i agree no words should ever be removed

I can understand why younker and charabanc are getting the axe. they’re foreign terms and proof that although the British and Americans speak English, they don’t speak the same English.

super erogate should just be two words. Frigorific was a slang term to begin with, I’m really not sure how it made the cut beyond urban dictionary in the first place.

Dictionaries are made to allow readers to find the meanings of words that they don’t know. The more rare the word is, the more important it is to be in the dictionary. There can be multiple dictionaries that can be related to different subjects. If this article’s headline was “These words moved to the ‘Obsolete Word Dictionary’ because they aren’t common English” I probably wouldn’t have given it a second glance.

Obsolete are the printed dictionaries and not the words.

WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA back up a bit!!!!! Words can’t be demolished in such a peculiar yet terrible way!! Whoever has even thought of such a crime against humanity of words or wordmanity or whatever should go on dath row, or at least life in prison!! All words shall live forever! Boo Yah!!!!!!

I dont want any of the words from the dictionary

Yes, Rick and many others’ in there comments are spot on I will concur… Now there’s another word that isn’t used much anymore. Perhaps english speaking societies have become to lazy in there vocab!? Aerodrome is still commonly used in Aust. Younker ,I thought meant something different to a youngster but maybe what I thought wasn’t too far from it, considering teenage boys etc !? Who are these people & what makes them think they can just wipe out words when they feel?! i SURE HOPE THAT ALL THE ENGLISH WORDS IN THE PAST 200YRS WHICH HAVE BEEN OBSOLETED(now that’s a word for you)HAVE BEEN KEPT SOMEWHERE FOR THE HISTORY BOOKS.As long as all this txt type language doesn’t get included in the dictionaries like WTF & LOL etc. Maybe there should be a collection of different dictionaries for the variants used.English is one of the most difficult languages to fathom but it’s diverse,rich and, let’s not forget that it was and still is evolving from a multitude of different languages. CIAO !

I really do not think these words should be removed. In fact I don’t think any words ought to be removed, just due to some mere usage statistics. We’ll never know, but if some person must look up a certain word and it isn’t there, a huge scandal would be made out of dictionaries and people might just throw them away altogether. And that would be bad right? So I think we should only delete words if the language they exist in is completely obsolete.

Don’t take off any words! Even if barely anyone searches them, it’s still good to know the words!

@ Bob Lyle (minister)

As I read your post, I remembered that, sometimes, with the best of intentions, police officers endanger important cases, and sometimes even go to jail, by breaking the law to obtain evidence.

While I appreciate your position, it’s obvious that you don’t let little things like truth or facts get in the way of an emotionalistic rant. I just checked three of my print dictionaries and two on-line dictionaries. Guess what! Aborticide is still in them all. It’s pretty much impossible to remove a word from a book that is already printed. Aborticide is as serious a word as homicide or genocide. So what? Did you wish that only adults are killed?

Why did you assign the difference in word construction between male and female? Is the value of a girl different from that of a boy in God’s plan, as interpreted by you? You make girl babies look like Greek cheese.

I can’t seem to find your little reactionary neologism, abortisadists, in any dictionary. You imply that doctors who provide the service draw pleasure from inflicting pain. Nothing could be further from the truth. A case might be made, that, a vanishingly small number of them are sociopaths, but that word just doesn’t have the judgemental, sinful ring of “Sadist”, does it?

I have always been leery of any absolutist argument, prefering to keep my options open. My son had an abortion! I don’t mean my son’s wife or girlfriend. I mean my son. Before he was one year old, doctors removed a growth from his temple, outside his right eye, which had enlarged to the size of a marble. We were told that if it was not removed, it could cause blindness, insanity or death. Biopsy showed that it contained blood and bone. It was his twin, which his fetus had engulfed during development. I actually had a priest tell me that we should have done nothing, to see if God allowed both of them to live. This was not a test of faith, this was a test of intelligence.

So I guess understanding Shakespeare in his original English will no longer be possible. Oh, well.

Unless of course we can find an obsolete dictionary!

NO WORDS SHOULD EVER BE REMOVED FROM A DICTIONARY. People use these words and future generations are going to be like what is that and its not in the dictionary.

NO WORDS SHOULD EVER BE REMOVED FROM A DICTIONARY. People use these words and future generations are going to be like what is that and its not in the dictionary. So protect our history

Don’t be idiots, people. The word is “Delic-I-ate” not “Delicate”. Stop freaking out.

never take out words fom any dicionary they sometime be used or researched

never take out words from a dictionary they will sometime be used or researched

HELLOOOO! Spelling counts. Deliciate and delicate are actually different words. They are not differnate words, nor are they diffrent words. Go figure. All words are necessary in a world with over a half million words in the English language. Unfortunately, most of the undereducated dunderheads in the United States use only about 500 words regularly, and have a total working vocabulary of only about 5,000. Uh, ya know, like, whatever, and such stuttering place-holders should be part of the count and they are, and even such as these offensive idiot-markers do count. What a shame it is that American English is so horribly flawed.

I grew up in a household that had a 12-inch-thick dictionary. On a rainy day, it was fun to look through this dictionary because it had so many words I didn’t know. I can understand how the Collins Dictionary people might want to trim down their smaller print dictionaries; fewer pages = lower overhead. Like so many other people have said on this page, we *do* need dictionaries with archaic and obsolete words in them. I like the idea of a dictionary of archaic and obsolete words. I like better a dictionary with current in-use words AND their archaic and obsolete forebearers.

As a writer of historical fiction, I’d hate to see any word that’s not so popular today go. As for this list–I love the word, “brabble.” What a great word to describe birds or a crowd. I can’t imagine why it fell into disuse.

hey everyone i think they are really dumb cause some people need to know these words and nerds need to get nerdier.

to anyone who cares about this:

I LOVE DUMBLEDORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

delicate i use that word every day its even on shipping boxes

This dude said it all

Binker on August 30, 2011 at 12:26 pm

I think this gentleman said it all…..

“Sikander Javed on August 24, 2011 at 4:06 pm

Words are never, never obsolete. There is no need to remove them from dictionary whether on paper or online. It’s the words that makes the language.”

Nope, nada, no way; a word is a word is a word. And every word deserves a definition, the only way a word shouldn’t be in the dictionary (paper or not) is if it is not added yet.
If they really need space THAT badly then I say put them in a high-security vault in Washington… but seriously, how about a dictionary JUST for removed words?

I don’t think words should ever be removed from the dictionary. Why get rid of them?!?! I like the word Delicate. And i agree with Sikander Javed (Sikander Javed on August 24, 2011 at 4:06 pm)

I am a Town Planner and I have aerodrome policies to implement – aerodrome is here to stay.

I agree with those who maintain that ALL words should be retained in dictionaries (except obviously for abridged desk dictionaries, paperbacks, etc.). If, for example, “supererogate” were omitted, we would probably also have to lose “superererogatory,” a perfectly good word that is in common written (if not spoken) usage.

I think this gentleman said it all…..

“Sikander Javed on August 24, 2011 at 4:06 pm

Words are never, never obsolete. There is no need to remove them from dictionary whether on paper or online. It’s the words that makes the language.”

I have absalutely no clue what any of these words mean. So keep them in the dictionary!

why remove delicate its on a lot of boxes

delicate should not be removed it is commonly used

>:( None of them should be removed! I mean it! XC

since when did they remove “gullible”????

Anyways, remove only one word which is…

D-E-L-I-C-A-T-E! Idiots, what the hell made you think of writing DELICIATE instead of the word DELICATE? Is there something WRONG with you?

It seems to me that the two that should stick around are:

Brabble – because that’s the sound Rabble makes.
and
Charabanc – because it’s still useful – I never knew what those things were called.
Ever been to Disney Land? Ever ridden one of those long articulated cars with the bench seats and open sides that take you to and from different parts of the parking lot? You rode a Charabanc (pron: SHARE-a-bon).

hi SO MANY COMMENTS

Delicate. Anyways, that’s the right spelling. NOT deliciate!

It’s a bit rich calling a rough landing strip and a tin clad sheleter an ‘airport.’ Aerodrome is the correct term.

YOU SHOULD LEAVE THEM ALL BECAUSE ALL OF THE WORDS ARE AWESOME

PLEASE LEAVE ALL THE WORDS

This is for the goofball who thought they wanted to get rid of the word “delicate”. NOOOOOOO It was not “delicate”; it was “deliciate” and to the lady they (whomever that is) were being racial, that is just because they are ignorant idiots. And by the way sur dev, you sure like to hear your own voice. Or should I say see your own words. CHILL. Also to the MORON who still wants to argue about “deliciate not being delicate. Get a frickin clue. The word IS DELICIATE! tHINK ABOUT IT. WHY WOULD THEY TAKE “DELICATE OUT OF THE DICTIONARY. “duh” It does not take rocket science for anyone to figure that out. That would be like they were going to take the words “dumb, idiot, stupid, and ignorant” out. They most definately will not do that.

umm does anyone know what antidisestablishmentarianism means? yes it is a real word the longest word in the english dictionary hehe i will go see what it means

signed- pikachu

hi there is so many comments here…
did anyone even see my comment?

find the number 0

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0OOOOOOOOOO0OOOOOOOO0OOOOO0
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

how many zeros were there?
bye bye

I vote that the words remain and the Collins lexicographers be removed.

I tend to use a dictionary to look up words I don’t know, i.e. uncommon words.

I don’t need to look up words that I already know, i.e words in common use.

Leave the words in, for the sake of those of us who might read a book not on the current best seller list!

What I find funny is that they think taking 9 words out of a dictionary is going to actually save room…

They probably spent more money trying to find the words that are obsolete than they would have spent just continuing to print the “old” editions.

Can’t you just add some words?

they should get rid of the words: I, a, we & is!

In my country aerodrome is still in common use for secondary airports that are used by private planes and aeroclubs. They are uncontrolled and grassed or have small sections of tarmac. I live within 20 minutes of our local aerodrome

Leave ALL words alone! As a writer, I’m always on a safari to find =just= the right word. Here are several reasons to keep rare / outdated words:

There are seldom any words which are, taken to their basic meanings or not, =truly= redundant. In other words, each word gives its own nuance, & is therefore valuable in its own right!

Unusual terms lend color & vigor to otherwise flatfooted prose & poetry.

On-line dictionaries, especially, have a duty, given their capacity for space AND swiftness of addition, to warehouse “elderly” words. Just as we make room for old folks, rather than kill them just because their relatives rarely–if ever–visit, we should also cherish each word for its intrinsic worth!

Words are also time machines which allow us to visit the past, understand it, & know ourselves better.

These, among many other reasons are justification enough to keep all the words we can find!

To underline this thought, consider what Mark Twain said, “The difference between the almost-right word & the right word is really a large matter; it’s the difference between the lightning-bug & the lightning.”

Anxiously yours,
Connie Crouch
Texan & word maven

I am Australian, and aerodrome is commonly used here, airport being regarded as an American shortened version/.

I think if nothing else, somebody can come up with a slang meaning to “frigorific” so as to give the word new life.

A major blow to Scrabble players everywhere!

A view from Portugal: direct translations of 3 of those words are VERY commonly used in Portuguese and, I believe, Spanish:
- aerodrome (same meaning as in English);
- deliciate (same meaning as in English);
- frigorific (meaning “fridge”; but as an adjective, it’s very rare).

I can’t imagine why at least the first two should be removed! They have a very specific and useful meaning. You can’t seriously call “airport” to a short lane which one small planes use; “aerodrome” is the correct word. And “deliciate” has a rich, almost poetic sound and conotation, and it’s so linked with “delicious” that I can’t even understand why / whether it is actually little used!

I think that they should “accidentaly” drop all the words into the dump

yey less words

Well now we’re all gonna go look them up, and they won’t be obsolete any more!

@rob espey: RE: “Nigger” comes from the Latin word “niger”, which means “black”. So that’s the original meaning of the word.

No they should absolutely not be removed !

Aerodrome should be left in the dictionary. I doubt the British would consider this word rarely used, as I have heard it before from a few different people.

And for those of you who are having difficulty reading, the word they included in the list is deliciate, not delicate. They are two very distinct words with completely different meanings. I would suggest leaving this word in the dictionary as well, if only to help the confused uneducated masses.

I use dictionary.com every day and I am flabbergasted by this article of removing words! I am a historical fiction writer and the use of “obsolete” words is appropriate because they were words used in that time period. I would hate to think our vocabulary would diminish based on the the changing of times. I’m sorry but there are a lot of words put in the dictionary these days I will never catch myself saying, regardless of how popular they are at the time.
DO NOT DESTROY WORDS! It’s hard enough as it is trying to find documentation of how people conversed over a hundred years ago without having the dictionary destroy them as well. And if I am to reiterate the correct language of a specific time frame, I would like to know my readers could have somewhere liable to go if they wanted to learn the word over again. You never know when a word may live again!

One of the reasons i love this website is because there are words from all ages on it. I came across a letter from the 1700s about John Adams that used the word “nefarious”. When i looked it up in the paper dictionary, i couldn’t find it. But i could find it on this website.
Even though the word is no longer used, it is still important for history-lovers such as myself to have a place where we can find the definitions of old-English words. Not every student has access to a 200-year-old dictionary, if they were even in existence then. But the words were still used…
Never Delete. Love this website.

No words should ever be removed from an online dictionary. Taking out words when it’s not absolutely necessary reeks of 1984.

“I and my younker alienismologist friend stepped out of the charabanc, within view of the aerodrome. I felt frigorifically deliciated to leave the office before they started to brabble about my supererogating work habits. It was time for my favorite bever, and then back to my work, which is the study of alienism, the old “science” of mental health.”

All words were placed in the dictionary for a reason, including these words. Just because we do not hear these words often does not mean we will not hear them at least once in our lives. It does not mean we will not need to look them up at some time.
A dictionary’s purpose is to provide us with new words and their definitions so that we may broaden our knowledge and be able to express ourselves with more precision and accuracy.
If we start removing words from the dictionary just because they are uncommonly used then our level of American education will only begin to deteriorate.

if you remove words then the meaning of the word will be erased from our memories eventually. generations to come wont know the meaning of these words and if they come up in an important time, who knows what could happen.

just makes me think, how many times have words been erased from out language that we don’t even know about?

words make up a language. why delete them. they may not be used often but are still used. in fact, you should not be deleting words, but adding words, to expand vocabulart, not decrease it.

This is such an insidious stricture, it’s almost diabolical. If you would erase words, you would restrict free speech, and, even more despicable, free thought. There’s no excuse for this kind of activity in the Information Age. Stop it!

i like the word Deliciate.

I think it’s important to keep dictionary.com as a source book of esoteric words. That way, if I’m working with an older text, I can come here to find the definition even if my paper dictionary doesn’t have the word I need.

i heard they are removing the word gullible from the dictionary?!!

Too much of a comment now,can we get to the next topic please…!!!(Lol)

are u crazy no word should ever be removed from the dictionary these words are importent just like how i just misspelled importent college people may have to look up the right spelling

never delete words from the dictionary only add them

Let us deliciate in the cornucopia of language and not brabble about trifles such as unused words. And what shall the retired folks ride if all the charabancs are destroyed? Let’s not make the world more frigorific, lets let our language supererogate our ability to communicate by keeping these words around.

I use all these words on a regular basis, and yet many more rare one’s. Besides I don’t any word should ever be taken out of the dictionary. Though it still wouldn’t make that great of an effect on me, because I already know every word in the dictionary, and always use fluent, proper, grammar.
Thank you,
and good bye.

How about placing an icon next to the declared ‘obsolete word’ that it is such? I would go for ‘once a word, always a word’.

As a related issue, words should never be allowed to be used as ideologic tool such as the word ‘gay’. It had a healthy meaning, until it was abused as an instrument of so-called ‘politically correct’ machination [how can something be politically correct when conscience tells you that it will ruin future civilizations?]. Rather, such should be described as ‘PCLtSC’: politically convenient leading to societal suicide.

i like all those words and u shuld not remove them and also add sweetnesstastic its better than sweet and way better than fantastic there for sweetnesstastic!simple as that!

removeing gullible!?!? no way!!!!!! i love that word and shuld NEVER be removed!

well i didn’t even know these freakin’ words existed ..:) lol

I think alienism should stay because it is used more often than the others like deliciate….. Also I know that I have used some form of alienism many times before for scholarly writing and essays and even for speechs so I think it should stay

I use the word delicate all the time.

@Shelby: it’s not delicate! it’s deliciate.. get your glasses!!!

I like the word brabble. It has a nice ring to it. Or something. I don’t know! I just like the word!!

I don’t think we should remove them because people all over the world might need to use it sometimes. Some kids might want to learn all the words of english but if you remove them they might not get to.

I don’t care if people delete them. I am OK and FINE with it.
But I like the word bananas because it sounds weird

Hi

alalala i dont care

even if we comment is it gonna change anything?
its not like those people r gonna listen 2 us

ENOUGH ALREADY TIME FOR A NEW TOPIC PLEASE!! 821 COMMENTS IS WAY TOO MANY!!

these words are brabble

in my humble oppioion, i agree with deleting unecessary words from paper dictionaries, but i think any words we know of, any at all, should be kept online, if for no other purpose than to archive, maybe im ignorant as im only 16, but, if we decided to ever delete a bunch of words, and then something happened to most of the human race with only a small number surviving, when they went to go read the “ancient text” of their preceders (us), couldnt it be possible that they would have a hard time decrypting it, possibly not learning everything there is to know about our cultures, its just, everytime i hear about scientist who discover some ancient artifact but cant decrypt what it says, i think, wow, if only they had found a dictionary of their language, sometimes its only a few missing words that can be the difference between a vague message that means nothing and a specific message that is very significant

i think that even if a word isn’t used much, u shouldn’t take it out of the dictionary. that’s stupid. plus, isn’t the idea of a dictionary is for it to have all the words in the English language or something? if they took out words, they wouldn’t really be living up 2 that.

please dont do any thing that stupid as to remove a word sometimes i enjoy coming on hear and looking for obscure words like those helps distract me from making flash cards and i’ve heard aerodrome my whole life what nit wit came up with that one

man my grammar sucks

Delicate shouldn’t be removed…that is a word that is commonly used! You need that word! The rest of those words I’ve never heard before, but they still shouldn’t take them out because someone might need to know them.

Aww.. I love the word alienism. I actually us