I'm reading Sara Maitland's
Gossip from the Forest. On page 106, she notes the following changes in the 2008 new edition of the
Oxford Junior Dictionary.
New words: database, export, curriculum, vandalism, negotiate, committee, compulsory, bullet point, voicemail, citizenship, dyslexic and celebrity.
Words removed: catkin, brook, acorn, buttercup, blackberry, conker, holly, ivy, mistletoe.
My reaction is visceral and furious. Who could possibly take 'acorn' out of a children's dictionary? Are conkers really no longer part of the necessary vocabulary of every British child? How will future generations get through the winters without the words for holly, ivy and mistletoe?
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