Eurozone

[pat]

The collection of countries in the EU whose currency is the euro. I've rarely, if ever, seen it spelt with a capital letter so I think it's a word suitable for inclusion (rejected by the unfrozen game).

[mkenuk]

According to the COD, euro has a small letter, but Eurozone is capitalized.

[pat]

According to the COD, euro has a small letter, but Eurozone is capitalized.

Interesting. If you simply type eurozone into Google, hardly any of the results spell the word with a capital E.

[Alan W]

The Oxford dictionary crowd seem to be in two minds about this. The OED lists eurozone uncapitalized, but with the note "also with capital initial". The Shorter Oxford and the online version both show it in all lower case. Some other dictionaries also show it with no capital letter.

And as pat notes, it's often written without a capital, so I've no doubt it's eligible to be a Chi word. But I wonder, should it actually be made a common word? I feel the word is pretty well known everywhere, although it's used a lot more frequently in the UK and Ireland than in other English-speaking countries. Any thoughts?

[les303]

My thought is to echo Pat's thoughts ... copied from the afield thread:

" My view is that the word should be common but I also think that if a word is on the cusp, so to speak, it's probably safer to leave it as rare. Most people's overall objective in playing the game is to get a rosette and every word changed from rare to common means one more word to find, in any puzzle in which the word can be played, in order to achieve that goal."

You seem to be on the cusp, Alan.

[ridethetalk]

I tried this as well and agree with you Alan that it should be known by most well-read people and so should qualify as common...

[Jacki]

Never heard of it

[2dognight]

i have heard of eurozone but I would not call it common

[TRex]

i have heard of eurozone but I would not call it common

Ditto. Is its frequency of use regional?

[pat]

I think it should probably be rare. Although nearly everyone would know the word they might not be sure if it's allowable due to it being spelt both with and without a capital E. It could result in people not getting a rosette because they're worried about their hit rate. 

[Alan W]

I'll add eurozone as a rare word.

[pat]

Thanks, Alan.