Percentage point--missed word in dictionaries

[Thomas Paikeday]

I think this makes a very worthwhile point.

Thanks.

TMP (full-time lexicographer since 1964)

Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Tom Gally [mailto:tomgally at pa2.so-net.ne.jp]
> > To: honyaku at yahoogroups.com
>
> > Have you noticed that whenever a new dictionary is
> > published, the publicity
> > material and news reports always focus on the trendy
> > words that have been
> > added to it? One reason is that those are the easiest
> > words to gather. The
> > hard part is spotting new or unrecorded meanings of
> > conventional words,
> > especially words that already have many meanings. Mark
> > Spahn pointed out
> > that apparently no English dictionaries explain the
> > important difference
> > between "percentage" and "percentage point"; that may be
> > partly due to the
> > Genesis Lexicographer's oversight, but another factor is
> > probably that
> > "point" has so many other meanings already. If the word
> > for "percentage
> > point" were instead "perpoint" or "centification" or
> > "cybertick," it would
> > have been caught and added to dictionaries years ago.