Should unused words be removed from new editions of English dictionaries?
I for one am proud of my English roots, and I am intensely proud of my language and its etymology. Many of the words which make up this rich language of ours come to us courtesy of our invaders and conquerors, such as the Romans and the Vikings. Lose the unused words from the dictionary and you lose the opportunity to research into our distant past. Okay, most people don’t look up a word in a dictionary and then go off and research the Viking invasion, but the opportunity is there if you want to. Our rich heritage of language helped Shakespeare to become the greatest writer of all time. If we deleted all the unused words, how could we expect students of Shakespeare to understand the full meaning of his words, and why he used them as he did? There seems a trend to simplify Shakespeare’s language today – I think that should count as murder of a masterpiece, but I won’t get started on that one here. Students and lovers of Shakespeare are entitled to read his works as they are written, and
