aniline is common?

[TRex]

Really?

[birdy]

I'm very familiar with the term "aniline dyes" but that may be because I used to know weavers.

[TRex]

According to the NGram Viewer, it appears the word first appeared around 1800, reached its peak use in the first half of the 20th century, and has been declining since:


What use of aniline dyes would birds have? 

[birdy]

Weaver finches?   

http://www.birdingguide.com/bird_families/weaver_finches.htm

[Alan W]

Really?

No, not really. I'll change it.

[TRex]

Thank you, Alan.
You certainly have been busy with replies!

[TRex]

This still came up as common in the mainlined puzzle, but is not listed in the Word List Suggestions.

[Alan W]

Whoops! Looks like I've blundered. Or, as a politician might say, a mistake has been made. I have fixed it now. Sorry, TRex, and anyone else affected.

Even if I had made the word rare when I said I was going to, it wouldn't have appeared on the Word List Suggestions page, because that list shows changes of common/rare status only since the start of 2013. I hadn't kept such careful records of those changes as I had of new words being accepted, so I decided it would be more trouble than it was worth to try to put all the historical common/rare changes onto the page.

[TRex]

Whoops! Looks like I've blundered. Or, as a politician might say, a mistake has been made. I have fixed it now.

Thanks, Alan. My fave political manoeuvre to cover a blunder is the 'clarification' (which typically is a U-turn)!