Re: meta-pedantry [Was: Re: Help to improve new package (djmount)]

[Justin B Rye <jbr@edlug.org.uk>]

Chris Bannister wrote:
> http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/open-search.xml:
> 
> jargonism
>              0.23 sec.
> 
> Word not found in the Dictionary and Encyclopedia. Did you mean:
> 
> Jargonium jargonist jargonise
> ---
> 
> but there is also http://technorati.com/tag/jargonism where it is being
> used as a tag.

Even words that have never been seen in print ever before (such as,
to the best of my knowledge, "re-butteredness", "self-spewingly", or
"to mis-orphan") can be undeniably valid English words the first
time they're used; dictionaries never try to cover all the possible 
applications of productive affixes.

Come to that, lexicographers are rather like Debian Policy
maintainers: if it isn't already in use with an accepted meaning
_before_ it's suggested for addition to the dictionary, they won't
consider it. 
-- 
JBR