Words from Popular Literature Not in OED

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Wed, Nov 08, 2006 at 04:38:53PM -0500, Wilson Gray wrote:
> Mark writes:
>
> "Some of the contributors to this thread seem to be
> unaware that the word existed before Frank Herbert."
>
> Exactly so, Mark. I didn't quite have the 'nads to state it so clearly
> and so concisely. :-)

I don't want to speak for any of the other contributors to the
thread, but I'd still be pretty sure that _everyone_ who has
contributed knows that _melange_ 'mixture' has been around for
many centuries before Frank Herbert. The issue Fred was
raising, it seems to me, is whether the specific _sense_ of
_melange_ found in _Dune_ ("the fictional spice-drug central
to the Dune series", as Wikipedia has it) belongs in OED.

Perhaps there is some confusion about using expressions like
"the word _melange_" or just "_melange_" to mean "the sense of
_melange_ found in _Dune_".

With regard to whether or not this _sense_ belongs in OED, the
issue of the age or history of the word _melange_ in its more
common senses seems to me to be totally irrelevant.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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