Fictional Materials for OED

[Jonathan Lighter]

What, no _Homo floresiensis_ "hobbits"?

JL

On Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 9:57 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Fictional Materials for OED
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Just to show that there are some instances where the OED includes words
> whose usage relates to a single book, even without figurative extension, the
> word "hobbit" is included in the OED.  All of the citations are Tolkienian
> references.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Dave
> Wilton [dave at WILTON.NET]
> Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2010 9:44 PM
>  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Fictional Materials for OED
>
> I'm not sure that fictional names merit inclusion in a dictionary unless
> they obtain wider use than in reference to the fictional works in which
> they
> originally appear. Otherwise the dictionary would be inundated with such
> entries. Tolkien alone could probably supply a few hundred, "mithril,"
> "silmarillion," "Rohirrim" to name a few off the top of my head. (I include
> "Rohirrim" because why stop at fictional materials? Why not fictional
> creatures, races, places, etc.?) (I just looked it up, and "mithril" has an
> OED entry as of 2002. All but one of the citations is either by Tolkien or
> a
> reference to LOTR. I'm not sure about the last.) Capturing pop culture
> terms
> like this is a really good function for Wikipedia; I'm not sure other
> reference works should try to compete.
>
> "Kryptonite" probably deserves a dictionary entry because it has
> metaphorical uses beyond the Superman genre, and "unobtainium" has been in
> widespread use as a jocular name for a supposed element for decades. I
> don't
> think the others qualify.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of
> Shapiro, Fred
> Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2010 3:24 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Fictional Materials for OED
>
> I have previously suggested that OED should have entries for "kryptonite"
> (Superman), the spice "melange" (Dune) and "ice-nine" (Cat's Cradle).  No
> one seemed particularly to agree with me, as I remember.
>
> I am inspired to return to this topic by noticing that Wikipedia has an
> article, "List of Fictional Elements, Materials, Isotopes and Atomic
> Particles."  This list supplies me with some additional candidates:
>
> adamantium (Wolverine)
> carbonite (The Empire Strikes Back)
> dilithium (Star Trek)
>
> After its use in the film Avatar, "unobtanium" may also merit OED
> inclusion.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
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