Saturday, November 13, 2010

Save the Words!

In an attempt to keep English words from going extinct, Oxford Dictionaries is sponsoring a website where you can adopt an endangered English word; by adopting a word, you are promising to use the word in your speech and writing.

Screenshot from Save the Words website
I am having fun exploring the website--not just because it is really well made and fun to look at, but also because it is full of fabulous words. On the website, you can find words as diverse as starrify, radicarian, and antipelargy, none of which are recognized by spellcheck.

I hope you have fun exploring the website--let me know in the comments if you adopt a word (and which one you chose to adopt). I am now the proud adoptive parent of nepheliad, which is a cloud-nymph. So when I start lecturing about nepheliads next week in class, you'll know why.