No matter how clever, revolutionary, or poignant, the passage of time can render anything obsolete – even words.
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.
The following are among the words that the Collins lexicographers have identified. How many of these have you heard before, and do any of them deserve a second chance?
- Aerodrome
- Alienism
- Bever
- Brabble
- Charabanc
- Deliciate
- Frigorific
- Supererogate
- Younker
An online dictionary obviously doesn’t face the same space dilemmas as its paper cousin, 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. Are there any words that you think should be removed from the dictionary? Let us know what you think!
