another faux-WOTY

[Barnhart]

Steve K. wrote:

>On Mon, 3 Jul 2000, Barnhart wrote:

>> qubit, n., is in DC 10.1 (Summer 1997).  The earliest date for a
>> citation that I have is 1995.  This would in my judgment seem beyond
>> the pale for WOTY, although I'm always open to hearing the other side.

>IMHO there's plenty of terminology that would be more appropriate; Wired
>Magazine's jargon watch column usually reports terms that are as
>bleeding
>edge as the Scottish Lady's hands.

While this term is in my judgment to old for WOTY in any category (e.q.
= 1995), it does have some significant frequency.  Nexis has over 100
hits (even excluding its use as a proper noun).  Furthermore, many of
these are found in mainstream publications, such as: New Scientist,
NYT, Publishers Weekly, Financial Times, USA Today, Boston Globe,
Science (publication of AAAS), and San Francisco Weekly, etc.  So I
would not exclude it from a discussion of new words (such as the
Dictionary Companion or ANW or an "unabridged" dictionary) or readily
relegate it to the will of the washer woman.

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