atheist

[Jonathan Lighter]

Jesus Christ, are there no agnostics any more?

JL
On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 8:08 AM, Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
> Subject:      Re: atheist
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>
> On Sat, Dec 19, 2009 at 09:08:32PM -0500, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> > Has the entry for "atheist" been revised to note such a more
> > specialized usage?  I've gone through the revisions I could find on
> > the OED Online site and could find no reference to "atheist."
>
> The OED entry has not been revised yet. It is a difficult
> concept, of course, and probably not one that can be settled
> by recourse to a dictionary definition--there have been enough
> interpretations of the term over the years that one can't just
> say that one of them is the "right" one.
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
> OED
>
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