Coming up on Word Matters, words come and they go, including from dictionaries.
I'm Emily Brewster and Word Matters is produced by Merriam-Webster in collaboration with New England Public Media.
On each episode, Merriam-Webster editors Amon Shea,
Peter Sokolowski and I explore some aspect of the English language from the dictionary's vantage point.
While we tend to focus on the dictionary's ever-expanding breadth,
the lexicon does sometimes lose a few members and dictionaries sometimes shed a few words.
Today, we'll talk about what kinds of words get dropped from our dictionaries and why.
We have a letter from Joanna who writes, I enjoy your podcast.
I have a question for you.
You have covered how words are added to the dictionary.
How do you decide when to drop a word?
and no longer included in the dictionary.
Now there is a good question.
Isn't it bribes, usually?
Money?
Vacation houses?
We take most forms of currency.
It's just you got to know who to speak to.
That's right.
But that's a great question.