[Ads-l] Wokeness

[Dennis During]

I'm guessing that at OED, as at most dictionaries, there is one person with
primary responsibility for adding words with some characteristics, eg,
beginning with 'wok'. If, at a critical time, that person is fired, is
promoted, is in a bad mood, doesn't like the kind of people who use
'wokeness', etc., there could be major delay in OED filling a gap in their
coverage. I wouldn't be surprised to see the gap filled once someone from
OED notes this thread. On an entity like Wiktionary, there is no shortage
of contributors to add trendy terms and to add derivatives of trendy terms
if they missed the chance to add the core term.

On Sun, Jan 15, 2023 at 1:37 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:

> I don't think the OED has any reluctance to include self-explanatory words
> with the suffix -ness.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Amy
> West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2023 10:41 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Wokeness
>
> On 1/15/23 00:00, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
> > Date:    Sat, 14 Jan 2023 22:10:52 +0000
> > From:    "Shapiro, Fred"<fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject: Wokeness
> >
> > I have a lexicographical question that is puzzling me.  The vogue use of
> "woke" is now well recognized.  But I don't see "wokeness," which surely
> has become an important word in its own right, in OED or Merriam-Webster.
> It has over 3 million Google hits, and over 10,000 hits on Nexis.
> "Wokeness" is in the Urban Dictionary, Wiktionary, and Cambridge English
> Dictionary.  According to Nexis, the word has appeared as early as Feb. 5,
> 2014 (in University Wire).  Why haven't the two major dictionaries picked
> it up yet ?
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
>
> The editors/lexicographers/definers may consider it self-explanatory and
> may at best enter it as an undefined run-on at "woke".
>
> ---Amy West
>
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-- 
Dennis C. During

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org