New Word?

[Fred Shapiro]

On Wed, 10 Oct 2001, Paul Ivsin wrote:

> >From "-ize, -ise in verbs" in The New Fowler's Modern English Usage
> ...   ...
> Objections to the word finalize, and to such words as permanentize (first
> recorded in 1961 and judged by myself in Oxford English Dictionary
> Supplement, 1982, to be 'a word of little value and rarely found in serious
> writing') and prioritize (first recorded in 1973 and described by me in 1982
> as 'a word that at present sits uneasily in the language') are to be set
> against the long history and distinctive usefulness of such formations in
> English.

Merriam-Webster's citations for "prioritize" go back to 1964.  When Joanne
Despres' and my book is published, such antedatings from M-W's files will
become more accessible to scholars and the public.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Public Services     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  and Lecturer in Legal Research            Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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