Fred Bauder wrote:
This problem plagued the Oxford English Dictionary (1st
edition), only the
most dedicated volunteers were willing to tackle the dull words like "put"
"see" "art" "the" etc, words like "transmogrify"
or "fandango" were much
easier.
That's an important and acute observatiuon. I think that the same could
be said of Wiktionary. The unusual words are easier because they are so
seldom used. If you need to look up a word you are more likely to get
it right than if you rely upon your memory.
Still, I would not use the adjective "dull" to refer to the common
words. It's their rainbow nature that makes them so difficult.
Ec