spoiler 10-letter puzzle Sunday 12th Nov

[chaoticshodan]

Croft (noun) allowed, but it is also a verb - to croft is to farm land as a croft (farmer known as a crofter), and so has a past tensed crofted (the land was crofted at one time) but this wasn't allowed

[mkenuk]

I also tried 'crofted'.

I think I'm right in saying that crofter is allowed?

[Alan W]

Yes, crofter is allowed. And so is crofting.

It might seem anomalous to accept those two words and not crofted. But this is consistent with quite a few dictionaries that do not list croft as a verb, but have entries for crofter and crofting. For example, the online Collins English Dictionary defines crofting as "the system or occupation of working land in crofts", and a crofter as "an owner or tenant of a small farm, esp in Scotland or northern England". But croft is defined only as a noun.

Croft is listed as a verb in some of the Oxford dictionaries, including the online one. Strangely, it is not so listed in the two biggest Oxford dictionaries, the OED and the Shorter Oxford. The smaller dictionaries are revised more frequently I suppose. The latest edition of the Shorter Oxford came out 10 years ago, and the OED entry for croft as a noun has not been revised since at least the 1989 2nd edition. (The OED does have another meaning for croft as a verb: "To expose (linen, etc.) on the grass to sun and air, as part of the process of bleaching.")

So, maybe someone at Oxford has recently noticed that croft is sometimes used as a verb. But is it? Well, occasionally, but not very often as far as I can see. Some examples:

The estate, 40 miles north of Inverness, includes around 1,645 acres of crofted land and common grazings and views across the Kyle of Sutherland.
[from the Mirror, 2016]

What did the folk do?
Well they crofted in small way I suppose, and went the fishing...
[from an oral history interview in the Orkney Sound Archive]

The twenty-five arable acres of Craigdhu land beside the river was crofted by Bella.
[from Song Of The Rolling Earth: A Highland Odyssey, by John Lister-Kaye]

Based on the small number of usage examples I could find, I'd be inclined to say crofted is too obscure to be accepted, even as a rare word. But its acceptance by several of the single-volume Oxford dictionaries tips the balance, so I'll allow it.

[Les303]

Alan , please excuse my ignorance but when dictionaries revise their editions , lets use the shorter oxford as an example , what criteria do they use to include new words & how often does this occur. ( I am beginning to think that it might be time to update my 1974 edition of the Oxford School Dictionary.

[Alan W]

Les, the Shorter Oxford is probably not a very good example. For one thing, despite its name, it's quite big.



It consists of two hefty volumes. The picture was taken several years ago, and I'm looking at volume 1 of the 1993 edition. Two more editions came out after that, the latest being in 2007. I don't know quite how big and heavy the latest one is, because I use a digital version. (An Android app from a company called MobiSystems.) One blurb for the latest edition says:

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary contains an incredible one-third of the coverage of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary and includes all words in current English from 1700 to the present day, plus the vocabulary of Shakespeare, the Bible and other major works in English from before 1700.

One reason why I often refer to the Shorter Oxford is that it seems to be about as inclusive as our word list. Any obscure rare word accepted in Chihuahua is likely to be defined in the Shorter Oxford - and any word in that dictionary is likely to be in our word list. Of course there are many exceptions. And the Shorter Oxford is not much use for evaluating recent words, since it hasn't been revised for 10 years. And there has been no announcement of any plans for a new edition.

So that's the other main reason why this dictionary is not typical in relation to the release of new editions. It looks likely that there are not going to be any further editions. In this respect it is different to the biggest of the Oxford dictionaries, the OED, because the OED is being continually revised and the updated material is available online by subscription. So, although there will certainly never be another print edition, the publishers are trying to bring the content up to date.

On your question about what criteria are used to include new words, I believe most dictionary compilers aim to reflect the way English is used, so new words will mostly result from new usage evidence. Occasionally it might be like the case of croft as a verb where the usage has been happening for a long time but hadn't been noticed by dictionaries. More often it would be a case of usage changing, as in the use of text as a verb that resulted from text messaging on mobile phones. One of the major changes in the 2007 edition of the Shorter Oxford was dropping thousands of hyphens. Ice-cream became ice cream and bumble-bee became bumblebee. This seemed to be intended to reflect a trend for writers to use fewer hyphens, but also perhaps to support and encourage that trend.

Should you update your dictionary? If you're happy to start looking things up online, there are plenty of good dictionaries available via the OneLook website. Other dictionaries are available online via subscription, but if you're a member of a public library you may be able to use them from your home computer free of charge. If you want to keep using a printed dictionary, well 43 years is a long time in lexicography, so it might be time to think of an upgrade. I don't know how old mkenuk's beloved COD is. I suspect it's not the latest, 2011 edition, but probably a bit more recent than 1974.

[Les303]

Thanks for that most informative response Alan.
I do realise that all this stuff is available on line but I still prefer the feel of a book in my hand so I think that I will probably opt for the 2011 edition of the COD.

[Alan W]

Another option is the Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary of which the 6th edition just came out a few weeks ago. It's a one-volume work, similar to the COD but with a wider range of Australian words and meanings. The other Australian dictionary, the Macquarie, has also been re-issued this year.

But have a look around a bookstore and see what's available. There should be plenty to choose from.

[Les303]

Thanks Alan ,
I'll check it out & let you know what I end up with.

Just in case you were wondering why this bloke has nothing better to do than to play chi on his birthday ...
I was rostered to work this morning ( double time shift ) so I was not going to take a " sickie " just because it was my birthday ( just another day & no big deal when your turning 58).
In addition to that , my older brother ( who only lives 30 mins away ) had already advised that he would not be able to come over on Sunday but would be over about 5.00pm on Friday afternoon to take me down to the local for a couple of birthday beers albeit a couple of days early.
At about 4.00pm on the Friday , I get a knock on the door & it is big brother with his wife & they are both over dressed for the local pub.
" come on , get your arse into gear , we are taking you out for a birthday dinner "
Quick shower , shave & change of clothes & we are on our way , although they refused to tell me where we were going.
As we walked into the venue ( Gambaro's , bit of a posh restaurant in Brisbane ) I was greeted by basically a surprise party , not only the rest of my family who had come from all over the state but also my best mates were there..
This was obviously all down to the big sister who had been in cahoots with the brother to arrange what was an absolutely fabulous surprise 58th birthday party.

So now it is Sunday ( my actual birthday ) all the celebrations have been done & dusted & I have finished my shift  at work & as I do on so many other work days , I wind down & relax by playing chi & maybe having a couple of beers (only because Ozzyjack suggested it ).

Thanks once again Alan , your game brings me so much pleasure.

[mkenuk]

. I don't know how old mkenuk's beloved COD is. I suspect it's not the latest, 2011 edition, but probably a bit more recent than 1974.

As far as dictionaries go, I was always a 'Chambers' fan and still am.

The first version of COD I had was the ninth edition which I got in the form of a CD-Rom attached as a freebie to the front of a computer magazine a few years ago. I can't remember how many years ago, but it was 'for use with Windows 3.1 and above'.

I now have the 11th edition (2009 revision) on both of my computers.
Please don't ask where I got it or how much it cost.
Let's just say that it is not unusual to find 'bargain copies' of software on the stalls of certain Bangkok street markets.

The 2011 edition, by the way, is the twelfth.

[mkenuk]

I am beginning to think that it might be time to update my 1974 edition of the Oxford School Dictionary.

I told this little anecdote on this forum a few years ago, but Les may not have heard it. It's quite true.
When I was a student of English many years ago, a tutor gave us this piece of advice: 'Before you buy a dictionary, check to see if it contains the word 'merkin'. If it doesn't, look for one that does.'
What he meant, of course, was that any dictionary that contained such an unlikely word as 'merkin' would almost certainly contain every other word we were likely to encounter on our course.
He didn't tell us at the time the meaning of 'merkin'. We had to find out for ourselves.

Hint; it is almost certainly NOT in the 'Oxford School Dictionary' !

[birdy]

Hint; it is almost certainly NOT in the 'Oxford School Dictionary' ![/quote]

Though I learned the word a few years ago, I still haven't found a way to drop it into casual conversation.

[Les303]

I am beginning to think that it might be time to update my 1974 edition of the Oxford School Dictionary.

I told this little anecdote on this forum a few years ago, but Les may not have heard it. It's quite true.
When I was a student of English many years ago, a tutor gave us this piece of advice: 'Before you buy a dictionary, check to see if it contains the word 'merkin'. If it doesn't, look for one that does.'
What he meant, of course, was that any dictionary that contained such an unlikely word as 'merkin' would almost certainly contain every other word we were likely to encounter on our course.
He didn't tell us at the time the meaning of 'merkin'. We had to find out for ourselves.

Hint; it is almost certainly NOT in the 'Oxford School Dictionary' !

mk , that must have been a very interesting course that you were enrolled in.

[mkenuk]

mk , that must have been a very interesting course that you were enrolled in.

Not really. It was a basic language / linguistics course. Some parts were more interesting than others.
The lectures on 'slang and taboo words' were standing room only!

However, I'd challenge Hans Christian Andersen at his story-telling best to make interesting lectures out of Grimm's Law and Werner's Law - the evolution of English vowels from their Germanic ancestors!! 

It did help too that our lecturers - for the most part - were blessed with a sense of humour.

[ridethetalk]

Though I learned the word a few years ago, I still haven't found a way to drop it into casual conversation.

I've just encountered this thread and googled 'merkin' (as you do) and think it would be quite an unusual conversation indeed if this was casually dropped in...