-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
Ian,
Ian D. Bollinger wrote: | What are the criteria for a word being in one of OO's dictionaries?
Once again I can only speak for the en_GB dictionary.
This is a very hard question to answer. To a great extent it comes down to the views of the editors. From our perspective the objective is to have the fewest possible words in it consistent with a perceived high rate of valid word recognition. The reason is simple: the more words one has the greater the risk that a misspelling will slip through by virtue of being a similar valid but very rare word, and the larger the number of corrections offered and the lower the chance that the intended correct spelling will be near the top of this list. So a list with too many words can also be perceived as bad.
In trying to assess whether a word in included or not it is necessary to consider the frequency of its use and also the frequency of use of similar words that could be mistaken for it.
| Cutpurse, ichor, imperator, nescience, pontifex, spearman, thaumaturgy, | and viscounty are all in my copy of the Concise Oxford Dictionary | (fourth edition).
Because a word in in the OED does not mean it should be in the OOo spelling dictionary. There are in fact many hundreds (perhaps thousands) of words in the concise OED that are not in the OOo spelling dictionary. And I think this is correct.
| Also, marquisate is the preferred spelling of marquessate, and rapt | the preferred spelling of wrapt, according to my dictionary.
Dealing with alternatives is also tricky. In general for en_GB we do not include alternatives except where there is evidence that the OED is "out of tune" with common usage. The most well known example of this is many words ending in "-ise/-ize" such as "organise". In common usage the "-ise" suffix dominates in en_GB, but "-ize" is preferred by the OED. So we have included both.
| Finally, doppelgänger appears to be the preferred spelling of | doppelganger in the current OED, although my dictionary insists it | is spelled "doppel-gänger" as the tome is half a century old.
"doppelgänger" is in the en_GB dictionary.
Cheers David. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (GNU/Linux)
iD8DBQFCP95VgH46HTEjeiURAucAAJ9wNWhUCScvzpAd6XHaAOPnnPU2MgCfQR3g rAgiT73HfknTuCLmhSM64nI= =ouDC -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
--------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
