Fictional Materials for OED

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:06 PM -0500 1/2/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>A quick look at GB reveals nearly 1,000 refs. to _kryptonite_.
>
>Good enough for me.
>
>JL

There's a hair salon about a half mile from my house whose name is
"Kryptonnite".  I have no idea why (or what's with the two n's), but
I haven't seen Superman around the neighborhood, so I guess it works.
There's also a car that parks a couple of blocks from here whose
licence plate is ICE9.

LH

>
>On Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 10:04 PM, Jonathan Lighter
><wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>>  Subject:      Re: Fictional Materials for OED
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  What, no _Homo floresiensis_ "hobbits"?
>>
>>  JL
>>
>>  On Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 9:57 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
>>  wrote:
>>
>>   > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  > -----------------------
>>  > 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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>>
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