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THE ENABLE2K SIGNATURE WORDS
As with the first edition of ENABLE, the ENABLE2K word list contains
a collection of "signature words", words which one of the compilers
feels to be a word of particular interest, usefulness or value, yet which
is not presently recognized as valid by OSPD (r) or MW10. (See the file
SIGWORDS.DOC for more discussion of the "signature word" concept.) The
original ENABLE had 500 signature words. For ENABLE2K, we have increased
the number to 1024. The original signature words were all (with one
exception) long words, ineligible for inclusion in OSPD due to their
length. Many of the new ENABLE2K signature words, on the other hand, are
short, and suitable for inclusion in OSPD whenever it is next expanded.
A significant number of the new signature words were taken from the
ENABLE2K "plural reform" project, which was an attempt to remove invalid
plurals (such as "trichinosises") from the list, and to identify omitted
valid plurals (such as "oxymorons"). The plural reform project is
described in absurd detail in the file PLURALS.DOC in the ENABLE2K
supplement. All the new plurals identified by the reform project that
were explicitly shown by two major American dictionaries were added as
signature words, as were plurals of short words listed by a single such
dictionary. A number of other plurals with less clearcut evidence, but
which one or both of us feel is certainly valid, have also been added.
See PLURALS.DOC for information about specific plurals.
ENABLE2K retains almost all the signature words from the original ENABLE.
The following words were dropped because they are now in the base
ENABLE2K list:
discontinuation
discontinuations
multibillions
premarketing
premarketings
salpiglossises
The following words were dropped because they were included in the
ENABLE2K "additional MW10 words" list, which contains MW10 words added
after the preparation of the first version of ENABLE, as well as MW10
words erroneously omitted from OSPD (see MW10ADD.DOC).
bafflegab
bafflegabs
hypermedia
plasmodesms
tsimmeses
tzimmeses
viewdatas
violoncellos
Some of these words are plurals implied by MW10, but not explicitly
listed.
The following words were removed from the signature list because after
the completion of the "plural reform" project, I was no longer confident
of their correctness:
panmixises
spermathecas
(The list continues to contain some plurals in which I have little
confidence, but since these words were chosen by Mendel, I didn't feel it
was up to me to remove them.)
One of the points of the original signature word list was to suggest
words which ought to be more widely recognized. The appearance of some
of these words, such as "hypermedia", in the latest edition of MW10 can be
seen as a vindication of the concept. The ENABLE2K list contains more
trendy and thoroughly modern words, such as "intranet", "piercings",
"rainforest" and "abductee". Mendel and I will be quite surprised if many
of these words are not adopted by revisions of MW10 and OSPD as time
passes.
---
Scrabble is a trademark of the Milton Bradley Co., Inc.
The OSPD is a trademark of the Milton Bradley Co., Inc.
--Alan Beale
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