European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 15, 1962, Darmstadt, Hesse Feature Section Sandal by George w. Cornell a staff writer that big. Remodeler word Book. Web Ster s third new International dictionary of the English is still stirring up a storm of words a say some critics. Debased verbal ," says the Book s editors. The language that is any Case Ever since the new 2,662 Page linguistic Tome came out fast fall it tits provided a steady tumult of reaction pro and Ems to have produced the main outcry is that the dictionary does t classify a Slang or colloquial usage a lot of terms that formerly were put in that Cate instance on the Lam St cup. Con soft soap corny. All these were downgraded in the old dictionary not in the new. Many Terras not included at Alt in the old dictionary such As hot Rod Goon Price a ise. Jalopy yeah gobbledygook. Hip Ster Are elevated to fully respectable eng Lish in the new. So is the beat set disparaging term Square which is de fined As a person who is an outsider or Adver sary because of the conventionality conservatism or respectability of his taste be Havior or Way of life one who is not in the know and this characterization just about sums up the publisher s View of the critics. Gordon j. Gallan. President of g. & c. Merriam co., which has put out Webster s dictionaries for More than a Century says of the complaints superficial comments of a Tew journalists who Are reluctant to admit that our language has changed rapidly in the last few decades the objections have come heatedly from a variety of sources however ranging from writers and refer ence Book specialists to teachers and a Law journal. Webster Iii has thrust upon us a Dis Maying assortment of the questionable the perverse the unworthy and the Down right outrageous says author Wilson Fol Lett writing in the Atlantic monthly. It has gone Over bodily to the school that construes traditions As enslaving the rudimentary principles of syntax As Crip pling and taste As irrelevant the dictionary the first completely re Vised unabridged Webster s in a Quarte Century includes 450.000 entries. Among them the editors say. Are 100,000 new words or new meanings. The new York times in an indignant bit of editorial irony offered this com ment a passel of double domes at the g. And c. Men Lam co. Joint in Springfield mass., Nave been conf Abbing and yakking for 37 years. And have now finalized new edition of that swell and esteemed a the foregoing words were listed in the new dictionary without being Classi fied As Slang and with no suggestion that they were anything but Standard the times noted. It said that Webster s for generations had been it Peerless authority on sound usage but that the new edition was bound to cause dismay to teachers editors and others interested in Good taste in English. Or. Philip b. Cove editor in chief of the new dictionary said the words ridiculed by the times appear in serious writing he said the dictionary s aim was to report the language As it to. Not to prescribe what belongs in it. Similarly. In the preface to the new edition he writes accuracy 11 addition to requiring free Dom from error and conformity to Trust requires a dictionary to state meanings in which words Are in fact user not to give editorial opinion on what their meaning should it is just this policy that aroused Man of the objections. The great mass of dictionary users want arid need a dictionary to prescribe for says b. Hunter Smeaton. Of los Angeles state College writing in the Library journal which to widely circulate among libraries. He said a dictionary does t need to proscribe in an authoritarian sense so As to ban perpetual changes a language. By it should Point up the current most widely acceptable usages among teachers an editors its no snobbery to ask a yardstick to measure by he said. As the critics see it. The old edition did a Fuller Job in noting questionable items in contemporary usage. For instance the new edition drops altogether the Collo Quial Label but still lists some words a Slang for example Cornball. Heist. These did Teven Mike the previous edition. Protests also have been made to the first inclusion of some four letter vulgar words. Other common obscenities however Stillar out. In the preface to the new dictionary corp says that definitions and status of words were drawn mainly from examples of usage collected in the last 25 years but that material of unsubstantial or evanescent Quality was discarded and terms added Only if they have found � place in the the new dictionary he said. Is offered with Confidence that it will Supply in full measure that information on the general language which is required for accurate Clear and comprehensive undemanding of the vocabulary of today s society a meanwhile the company s 100-Odd read ers and editors were starting oat All Over again to listen read and record to Way people speak write and use words to to Day s setting and As a result at the Ondr tags. The fourth edition Wilt a coming up some 25 years hence with Doab is new twists and transformations in our native Tongue. 15/196$ the stars an stripes log u
