The Land of Forgotten Words

We spend a lot of time talking about words in school, and not just in Language Arts class, we study vocabulary words in Science, in Social Studies, in Spanish, even in Math. Congruent anyone? We understand the world around us through words and use them to express ourselves to others. But how many of you like words? How far would go to save a word from being kicked out of a dictionary?

Believe it or not dictionaries take out words each year. Don't ask me how they do this, maybe there are word detectives running around counting every time they hear someone say a word, but people at dictionaries figure out what words people are no longer using and replace them with new words that have just come into being. Now I like words and my sister REALLY likes words, she reads books all about words and where they came from (and you thought I was a nerd) and I think it is great how fluid language is. Language and words are not just something we learn in school, but is something we create by how we use it. Back when I was in elementary school you could search all day and never find the word Internet in the dictionary. It had not been invented yet. Now words like frenemy and bling are being added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). For those of you who don't know the OED is the bible of words, it is no dictionary.com.

Now, back to those old words no one is using any more. Some people are upset about these words being taken out of the dictionary. They feel that they add variety and color to the way we talk. Some of them have created this web site Save The Word
to bring back some of these words into our every day vocabulary. I am sure few of you will believe me but this site is fun! Check it out, come on it just takes a second to click on the link ; ) and you will see. One of the things you can do on the site is to adopt the word and try to get other people using it again. As we established earlier today the end of the quarter is coming up soon and the bowling party is going to cost 50 Bobcat Bucks. I know a lot of you would like opportunities to earn more Bobcat Bucks so every time I hear one of you use one of these lost words in everyday speech I will give you a one.

So go ahead adopt a word and give it a good home in your vocabulary. Who knows, you might just pick what will become the new hit word.

PS

I know some of you were having a hard time find the WordSmyth site. Click on the link it will take you there, remember you need to register but it is free and much better the other dictionaries.

Ms D