Word of the Day at DW

[underused]

How many English words are there? As the Oxford Dictionary drily observes "there is no... sensible answer to this question." But they have offered an estimate:

There are, at the very least, a quarter of a million distinct English words, excluding inflections, and words from technical and regional vocabulary not covered by the OED, or words not yet added to the published dictionary... If distinct senses were counted, the total would probably approach three quarters of a million.

Basically, we've got work to do, so there is now an offshoot of the Word of the Day community here. Posting is open to all members.

Perhaps we can start by discussing the fact talky is a word in the dictionary. Am I the only one surprised by this?

Comments

[mandralyne]

I'm somehow less surprised that talky is in the dictionary, than the fact that double-double the Tim Hortons coffee order in the Canadian OED.

[underused]

Yep, that's weird--although I guess we use it enough. At least they didn't mention TH in the entry. haha.

[zorkist]

Hooray for WORD OF THE DAY!!!

[underused]

haha, yay!

[yourlibrarian]

My assumption was that it still meant a motion picture with an audio track...

[underused]

Until I stumbled across it, I would have thought so, too. It seems "talky" is an adjective Oxford defines as "(of a film, play, novel, etc.) containing a great deal of talk or dialogue" or "(of a person) inclined to talk at length; talkative." The noun to describe a film is "talkie." Who knew?

[yourlibrarian]

What was odd to me about that link is that they don't mention the antiquated/out of use form of the word, which they really should (and dictionaries generally do). If you're reading a period story and that word gets used, you could probably figure it out but in context but not from that definition. Usually similar terms also get connected.

[balganwall]

"D'oh" made it into the dictionary, believe it or not.

[underused]

I thought you were messing with me so I had to go check and there. it. was. I'm stunned. You stunned me.

[balganwall]

I was stunned myself when I heard it on the news. The Simpsons has really had an impact on the world.