Out with the Monarch - In with the EU !!!!!!!!

No, it's not my idea, or some left wing Trotskyite plot (I think) it's the Oxford University Press. Their latest edition of it's Children's dictionary has some rather surprising changes. It seems that "Monarch" is no longer a useful word, but EU is.

Here is a list of words - See if you can guess whether they've been taken out or added in to the new edition?

1. Diesel
2. spinach
3. commitee
4. apparatus
5. allergic
6. newt
7. export
8. fungus
9. negotiate
10. poppy

The answers are at the bottom. It seems that many words with Christian symbolism such as manger, alter and bishop have been removed. Many added words reflect modern trends in society such as Celebrity, tolerant, vandalism, interdependent, creep and citizenship.

Now clearly the English language is constantly changing and words such as database may well be more useful to youngsters than cowslip. To many "Euro" is more useful than "disciple". Having said all of that the inclusion of words such as "brainy" and "bungee jumping" at the expense of "sin" and "decade", certainly remind me of George Orwell's prediction of "Newspeak". a form of english which made it impossible to even think subversively. One wonders whether in 50 years time we'll actually understand English as spoken today. Does it bother me that a dictionary compiler doesn't think that it is worth having the word for the head of state, but does have the abbreviation for European Union? Actually it does. Not because I'm an old stick in the mud, but because I think that a good vocabulary is a gift. As a songwriter and a lover of good lyrics and poetry, I cannot possibly be happy to see such words as "newt" be disregarded. What would Ken Livingstone think of that? I noticed that Dandelion is another word to bite the dust. I really don't think that The Rolling Stones 1960's hit of that name would have been so poignant if it had been called "biodegradeable", even if it was played on your "MP3".

Some of the changes, I think are clearly of the time. I suspect "Lobster" will be around far longer than "Bullet point". For some other words, I was surprised they weren't in there in the first place. For example, and maybe it's because my dad was brought up in the Australian outback, but I was amazed that "drought" has only just been added.

The thing which does upset me is just how ugly many of the new words are.
So were you right? I've got to confess,

1. Diesel - out
2. spinach - out
3. commitee - in
4. apparatus - in
5. allergic - in
6. newt - out
7. export - in
8. fungus - out
9. negotiate -in
10. poppy - out

I wonder what words will be in and out of the next edition?

There's a good story on this in the Telegraph click HERE.