Save the Words!

I'm not sure this is really worth the effort, but Oxford University Press and the Oxford Dictionary/Oxford FAJAR have created a new "humanitarian" effort to



They explain their motivation:

Each year hundreds of words are dropped from the English language.

Old words, wise words, hard-working words. Words that once led meaningful lives but now lie abandoned and forgotten.

You can do your part. Help save the words!

If not for yourself, then for generations yet to come.

Now, you may ask, "What have future generations done for us lately?"

Well, not much.

But one day they'll be grateful. You never know, they may even have a word or two to say about you.

Help spread the word.

spread the word

If you love words as much as we do, find room for them again in conversation and written communication. Each time you use an abandoned word you'll increase its chances of survival.

Here are a few suggestions on how to get your adopted word back into society. . . .

--And then they expand on the concept of how to save the words by means of strategic use of meetings, name changes, pet names, Scrabble, graffiti, signboards, sky writing, SMS/text-messaging, tattoos, and more to revive otherwise moribund words.

Maybe.

Check it out!

If you turn up your sound, you will hear the words cry out to you in plaintive voices: "Pick me!" "No, no! Me!" "Over here!" "Choose me!" . . . Oh! It could make you cry. (Not.)

But it is very cute.