http://blog.nwf.org/2009/03/50-nature-words-taken-out-of-dictionary/ The National Wildlife Federation's blog Sun, 19 May 2013 16:42:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://blog.nwf.org/2009/03/50-nature-words-taken-out-of-dictionary/comment-page-1/#comment-2210 Sharon Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:55:00 +0000 http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise/2009/03/05/50-nature-words-taken-out-of-dictionary/#comment-2210 A product name has no business (ooh, bad pun) being in a dictionary, especially one for children who are already drowning in marketese. The fact that Blackberry the product took over blackberry the fruit makes me want to take to my bed.

]]> http://blog.nwf.org/2009/03/50-nature-words-taken-out-of-dictionary/comment-page-1/#comment-4548 Sharon Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:55:00 +0000 http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise/2009/03/05/50-nature-words-taken-out-of-dictionary/#comment-4548 A product name has no business (ooh, bad pun) being in a dictionary, especially one for children who are already drowning in marketese. The fact that Blackberry the product took over blackberry the fruit makes me want to take to my bed.

]]> http://blog.nwf.org/2009/03/50-nature-words-taken-out-of-dictionary/comment-page-1/#comment-2209 Julie Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:25:15 +0000 http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise/2009/03/05/50-nature-words-taken-out-of-dictionary/#comment-2209 This is so sad. Most people I know under 30 (I’m 22) seem to have a real lack of appreciation for nature. Changing the words in a dictionary is a rather salient example of this phenomenon. Exchanging nature terms for terms like “broadband” reminds me of the pink floyd lyric- “trading hot ashes for trees, hot air for a cool breeze”.
The conspiracy theorist in me wants to say it was probably part of some lobbying effort by technology companies. Either way, nature needs more lobbyists!!

]]> http://blog.nwf.org/2009/03/50-nature-words-taken-out-of-dictionary/comment-page-1/#comment-4547 Julie Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:25:00 +0000 http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise/2009/03/05/50-nature-words-taken-out-of-dictionary/#comment-4547 This is so sad. Most people I know under 30 (I’m 22) seem to have a real lack of appreciation for nature. Changing the words in a dictionary is a rather salient example of this phenomenon. Exchanging nature terms for terms like “broadband” reminds me of the pink floyd lyric- “trading hot ashes for trees, hot air for a cool breeze”.
The conspiracy theorist in me wants to say it was probably part of some lobbying effort by technology companies. Either way, nature needs more lobbyists!!

]]> http://blog.nwf.org/2009/03/50-nature-words-taken-out-of-dictionary/comment-page-1/#comment-2208 Darryl Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:09:51 +0000 http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise/2009/03/05/50-nature-words-taken-out-of-dictionary/#comment-2208 While I agree that it’s a bit ridiculous to remove these words from a children’s dictionary, they are not gone for good. Most of the normal dictionaries you find in stores are abridged versions. I doubt you’ll find simple terms like ‘dandelion’ and ‘moss’ in a college dictionary, either, due to it being assumed that a college student should know these already.
When all else fails, go for the unabridged dictionary, no editing there.

]]> http://blog.nwf.org/2009/03/50-nature-words-taken-out-of-dictionary/comment-page-1/#comment-4546 Darryl Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:09:00 +0000 http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise/2009/03/05/50-nature-words-taken-out-of-dictionary/#comment-4546 While I agree that it’s a bit ridiculous to remove these words from a children’s dictionary, they are not gone for good. Most of the normal dictionaries you find in stores are abridged versions. I doubt you’ll find simple terms like ‘dandelion’ and ‘moss’ in a college dictionary, either, due to it being assumed that a college student should know these already.
When all else fails, go for the unabridged dictionary, no editing there.

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