whom in OED inaccuracy

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 7:34 PM, Randy Alexander
<strangeguitars at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> I don't know if there is a newer online version of the OED that I
> cannot access, but the one that I can access, just under the headword
> "whom", says:

[..]

> This is inaccurate.  Perhaps the entry could be modified to say that
> in natural colloquial speech it is no longer current unless preceded
> by a preposition.

As I've said at various times, the OED entries that are not
revised are, in fact, not revised. They do not (necessarily)
represent our current knowledge, they do not represent the
current state of the language, etc. The entry for _whom_ has
been untouched since 1924. Yes, we know that there problems
with the entry, and these will be addressed eventually.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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