Oxford University Press has removed words like "aisle", "bishop", "chapel", "empire" and "monarch" from its Junior Dictionary and replaced them with words like "blog", "broadband" and "celebrity". Dozens of words related to the countryside have also been culled.
The publisher claims the changes have been made to reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multifaith society.
But academics and head teachers said that the changes to the 10,000 word Junior Dictionary could mean that children lose touch with Britain's heritage.
"We have a certain Christian narrative which has given meaning to us over the last 2,000 years. To say it is all relative and replaceable is questionable," said Professor Alan Smithers, the director of the centre for education and employment at Buckingham University. "The word selections are a very interesting reflection of the way childhood is going, moving away from our spiritual background and the natural world and towards the world that information technology creates for us."
An analysis of the word choices made by the dictionary lexicographers has revealed that entries from "abbey" to "willow" have been axed. Instead, words such as "MP3 player", "voicemail" and "attachment" have taken their place.
And, I'm guessing, the definition of the word "attatchment" has little to do with relationship, but instead means the porn video you add to the email you send out to your "crew."
From Up Pompeii:
Words taken out:
Carol, cracker, holly, ivy, mistletoe
Dwarf, elf, goblin
Abbey, aisle, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, vicar
Coronation, duchess, duke, emperor, empire, monarch, decade
adder, ass, beaver, boar, budgerigar, bullock, cheetah, colt, corgi, cygnet, doe, drake, ferret, gerbil, goldfish, guinea pig, hamster, heron, herring, kingfisher, lark, leopard, lobster, magpie, minnow, mussel, newt, otter, ox, oyster, panther, pelican, piglet, plaice, poodle, porcupine, porpoise, raven, spaniel, starling, stoat, stork, terrapin, thrush, weasel, wren.
Acorn, allotment, almond, apricot, ash, bacon, beech, beetroot, blackberry, blacksmith, bloom, bluebell, bramble, bran, bray, bridle, brook, buttercup, canary, canter, carnation, catkin, cauliflower, chestnut, clover, conker, county, cowslip, crocus, dandelion, diesel, fern, fungus, gooseberry, gorse, hazel, hazelnut, heather, holly, horse chestnut, ivy, lavender, leek, liquorice, manger, marzipan, melon, minnow, mint, nectar, nectarine, oats, pansy, parsnip, pasture, poppy, porridge, poultry, primrose, prune, radish, rhubarb, sheaf, spinach, sycamore, tulip, turnip, vine, violet, walnut, willow
Words put in:
Blog, broadband, MP3 player, voicemail, attachment, database, export, chatroom, bullet point, cut and paste, analogue
Celebrity, tolerant, vandalism, negotiate, interdependent, creep, citizenship, childhood, conflict, common sense, debate, EU, drought, brainy, boisterous, cautionary tale, bilingual, bungee jumping, committee, compulsory, cope, democratic, allergic, biodegradable, emotion, dyslexic, donate, endangered, Euro
Apparatus, food chain, incisor, square number, trapezium, alliteration, colloquial, idiom, curriculum, classify, chronological, block graph
6 comments:
Note that among the words taken out is to be found "bacon" - a pork product deemed offensive by a certain easily enraged segment of the multicultural community.
Note the culling of Christmas words: "carol", "cracker", "holly", "ivy", "mistletoe". Of course, Christmas, which is anachronistic and at odds with the very idea of multiculturalism, as well as being deeply offensive to certain minorities, is ultimately to be eradicated - phased out initially using substitutes void of any Christian meaning (e.g. "Winterval") before being replaced by, say, Eid.
Note also the omission of "sin" and "devil". As Baudelaire said, the devil's greatest ruse was convincing the world that he does not exist.
Many of the words put in are indicative of the sinister brave new world now in its birth throes: interdependent, committee, EU, compulsory, biodegradable, classify... I assume the lists in the article are partial and selective, and that the dictionary itself will now include essential items of vocabulary for moulding young minds such as "global warming", "carbon credit", "discrimination" (obviously not in the sense of recognising the difference between things, but in the sense of white oppression of the rest of humanity), "gender", "homosexual", "single parent", "pro-choice", "hate speech" etc.
Dhimmitude paired with stupidity.
Is choice an evil word now? Or is that just when applied to women?
You brought it up, I didn't.
"Choice" is an evil word when it used specifically as a euphemism for infanticide.
Pochy, I believe you are new here so I'm going to hand you my usual challenge for those who think abortion is "infanticide":
There are several million women in America who have had abortions. If you really believe they are all murderers, I challenge you to drop everything else you are doing and focus on organizing a movement to rescind Roe v. Wade, then have abortion legally defined as murder. Then you are to oversee the confiscation of medical records of every hospital and women's clinic in the country, obtain the names of every woman who had had an abortion, going back decades, send the police to track them down and arrest them. You will have to build and/or activate quite a few prison camps to accommodate the millions. Then you are to bring each and every one to trial for murder, obtain convictions, and seek life imprisonment or the death penalty, whichever applies in a given state.
In the course of this action you will have broken down the doors of millions of homes in this country and drageed millions of American women -- none of whom you believe to be equivalent in worth to a fertilized egg -- away from their homes, parents, lovers, husbands, children, siblings, friends, and everyone else who cares about them. As a result of this I can guarantee that you will receive a lesson from those loved ones that you will be lucky to survive and unlikely to forget. You would be wise to learn that lesson well.
If you are not willing to carry out this action -- or at least support those who would -- they you do not really believe abortion to be murder, however distasteful you may find it personally. In that case, you are entitled to your opinion. However, you have no right to interfere in the lives of others until you can prove an actual crime has been committed. Your feelings are not proof.
They are all around you, Pochy, these "infanticiders". Look around your workplace, how many of the women there are "murderers"? Are there "murderers" teaching your children? Are any of your friends' wives "murderers"? Your daughter's college friends? The nurses who took care of you or a family member last time a hospital stay was necessary? Waitresses in restaurants? Clerks in stores? Why don't you ask them all, Pochy? You have to start "bringing all the murderers to justice" somehow, don't you?
As you may have noted, Pastorius has pointed out that we are all individuals here and have differing opinions on certain issues, and sometimes we quarrel about them. You stated your opinion on this issue. I've now stated mine. I really have no further interest in discussing the issue.
The editor, one Veveeta Gupta, something like that, obviously one of those original British who arrived with William the conqueror.
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