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To: Monkey Face; Tax-chick; NicknamedBob
Victims not so much of Webster, but of Merriam, and — more specifically — editor Philip Gove.
Prior to Webster's Third the Unabridged had been expanded with each new edition, with minimal deletion. To make room for 100,000 new words, Gove now made sweeping deletions, dropping 250,000 entries. He eliminated the "nonlexical matter" that more properly belongs to an encyclopedia, including all names of people and places (which had filled two appendices). There were no more mythological, biblical, and fictional names, nor the names of buildings, historical events, or art works. Thirty picture plates were dropped. The rationale was that, while useful, these are not strictly about language.
[Ref. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webster%27s_Dictionary#Deletions ]

Here's to The Original:
http://www.1828-dictionary.com/

532 posted on 09/18/2012 5:50:38 PM PDT by HKMk23 (GOPe 2012: MITT HAPPENS)
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To: HKMk23; Monkey Face; Tax-chick; Silentgypsy; stephenjohnbanker

Not to worry. My place in the dictionary is secure, even if it isn’t dignified.


533 posted on 09/18/2012 6:22:25 PM PDT by NicknamedBob (Obama's economic agenda failed, not because it was stopped, but because it was passed. - Paul Ryan)
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