It seems that the Oxford Junior Dictionary
has dropped several words from the dictionary. I am not going to attempt to repeat the entire article I read, the writer at the Christian Post did a great job of summarizing the story (go figure, a professional writer). Instead, I will give you a taste, and then point you in the direction of the full article.
Some of the words that were dropped:
"bishop," "chapel," "disciple," "minister," "sin," and "devil"Some of the words that were added:
"blog," "biodegradable," "MP3 player," "democratic," and "celebrity"
As much as I like to blog, should it really replace "disciple"?!?
Here is another little clip from the article:
The decision by OUP to discontinue particular words is a form of "verbal engineering," Erin Manning recently wrote on Beliefnet’s conservative Crunchy Con blog.Here is the full article, in case you were wanting to read the rest. I do feel a little nervous about talking about it. I wonder if big brother is watching. I make a promise to all of my readers (all two of you) that I will refuse to adopt the newspeak on this blog as long as I can hold out!
Manning cited Catholic moral theologian William Smith as saying, "All social engineering is preceded by verbal engineering."
"Deciding to drop a word that has already fallen out of use, become obsolete, from a dictionary is not a political act," said Manning on Monday, "but removing words still in everyday use just because you've decided they ought not be important in the vocabulary of a modern child most decidedly is."
