"Quidditch" Not in OED

[Shapiro, Fred]

In the past I have used terms like "ewok" from Star Wars as examples of the type of term I am thinking of.  It occurs to me that another example is the specific Star Wars sense of the word "force," which I think should be in OED.

Fred Shapiro



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From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Jeff Prucher [000000b93183dc86-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2014 12:43 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "Quidditch" Not in OED

The Shorter OED, 5th ed. (which is editorially independent from the OED) includes an entry for "dilithium" in the Star Trek sense -- but not the chemical sense -- without noting any figurative usage. AFAIK, it's the only Oxford dictionary to include this term, however. I've always sort of wondered what it's doing in there; I don't know how extensive their coverage of words exclusive to popular texts is, but that would make an interesting study.

Jeff Prucher


On Sunday, July 20, 2014 9:08 AM, "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:


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>---------------------- 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: "Quidditch" Not in OED
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>I agree that "kryptonite" has a stronger claim to OED inclusion than "quidd=
>itch."  But my feeling is that any neologism that is important in the plot =
>of a very popular work of fiction or a literary classic should strongly be =
>considered for inclusion in the OED.  I am guessing that the OED's current =
>policy against what I am advocating is an over-reaction against the academi=
>c criticism they get for having, in the past, "privileged" literary vocabul=
>ary.=0A=
>=0A=
>Fred Shapiro=0A=
>=0A=
>=0A=
>=0A=
>________________________________________=0A=
>From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Jesse =
>Sheidlower [jester at PANIX.COM]=0A=
>Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2014 11:17 AM=0A=
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU=0A=
>Subject: Re: "Quidditch" Not in OED=0A=
>=0A=
>On Sun, Jul 20, 2014 at 03:03:35PM +0000, Shapiro, Fred wrote:=0A=
>> I have frequently questioned the OED's policy of including neologisms fro=
>m works of fiction only if they pass into broader or figurative usage.  It =
>seems to me that a word like "kryptonite," which may not have much usage be=
>yond references to Superman but has about 3.5 million Google hits, should b=
>e included.  Another example is "quidditch" from the Harry Potter books, wi=
>th over 2 million Google hits.=0A=
>>=0A=
>=0A=
>For what it's worth, _kryptonite_ is in Oxford Dictionaries Online:=0A=
>http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/kryptonite=
>=0A=
>=0A=
>There's an example sentence of the figurative use, "girls of her sort=0A=
>are kryptonite to the developing hearts of adolescent boys". It seems=0A=
>that this word, which is very widely used figuratively, has a much=0A=
>better claim for entry than _quidditch_, which pretty much only refers=0A=
>to the game in the HP books (or a non-magical game based on it, played=0A=
>by fans). Compare _Muggle_, which is found in extended senses, and which=0A=
>is included in OED.=0A=
>=0A=
>Jesse Sheidlower=0A=
>=0A=
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