On 3/24/07, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I don't
think "notability" has anything to do with it. Is "argue" a
non-notable word? What about "of" or "notable" or "many"
or
"describe"?
The point is, encyclopedias are supposed to be about concepts.
Dictionaries are supposed to be about words.
It's the notability of the word as a concept that is the issue.
Generally a word is only important because of the concept it
represents. Occasionally, it is important in its own right. I think
"thou" is a good example of a notable word, I'm not entirely sure,
though - I fear its notability stems (partially) from the fact that it
is no longer used, which isn't really a good measure of notability,
it's more a measure of interest. Should we be writing articles about
words simply because they are interesting? Maybe, maybe not...
I'm not sure how to respond to this other than to say that I disagree.
I could point out that none of the other encyclopedias that I checked
have "thou" in them, but you'd just point out (rightfully so) that
Wikipedia is broader than those other encyclopedias.
But, on the other hand, I checked an awful lot of cases, and I
couldn't find any Britannica articles on words. Try looking up
adjectives or verbs in a mainstream encyclopedia some time. You'll
almost surely not find any. Probably won't find any pronouns either
(like "thou").
A dictionary defines words, and sometimes gives their
etymologies. It
doesn't usually discuss the significance of the word in the culture of
the people using it, for example. That is more suited to an
encyclopedia.
I'm certain I've seen dictionaries that have gone into the
significance of a word in culture. On the other hand, I don't think
I've ever seen an encyclopedia other than Wikipedia which does this.
For example, the fact that a group of people use the
same word to refer to two seemingly distinct concepts is something
that would simply result in two sections to the definition in a
dictionary, it could spawn several paragraphs of discussion in an
encyclopedia.
Can you point me to any printed encyclopedias that do this? I have
seen usage sections in dictionaries which do.
Anthony