"Welfare deform"

[Barnhart]

-- mike salovesh   <salovesh at niu.edu>  writes:

>Question for lexicographers:  At what point does an editorial play on
>words enter the lists as a potential dictionary entry?

This is an impossible question to answer in the abstract.  In the case
of _deprovement_, I suspect the attention it has received here will
cause some lexicographers (this one included) to examine.  I will look
for frequency (raw numbers of quotations), range (number of titles),
duration (how long it's been around), and novelty (reasonableness of
form).  _Deprovement_ reminds me of _proactive_ and other relatively
recent formations of the formula involving prefix substitution.

Regards,
David

David K. Barnhart, Editor
The Barnhart Dictionary Companion [quarterly]
barnhart at highlands.com
www.highlands.com/Lexik

"Necessity obliges us to neologize."
Thomas Jefferson-August 16, 1813