Hindi lang pala mga hayop ang nagiging endangered

From the latest issue of Time Magazine: Collins English Dictionary is contemplating on striking off words from their next edition which are either rarely used or archaic. In other words (pun very much intended), there will be some dictionary terms on the chopping block. Will be put down. Will be sent to grandma's farm. (This would be the time to put your preferred euphemism for, you know, keeek!)

As a person of letters, an issue like this would presumably be of grave concern to me, but I surprise myself when the only reaction I gave after reading the 'endangered words list' is: "I have never heard of these words before."

Which is precisely the same feeling I had when I was reviewing the word vocabulary glossary of the GRE reviewer I used. I barely use half of the words there and if ever there were some I do recognize, I cannot tell them from Adam.

The more difficult words for me were adverbs, not exactly my most favorite words. (I prefer nouns. Verbs are second. No third.) So, as like a shorthand to reviewing (like Jane's acronyms), I work with degrees of emotion and gut feel. I sort words as either 'bad' or 'good'. I know, I know, not exactly a very scientific method, but it works, some other time.

Back to the Time article, here are a sample of the endangered words. Some of them, as with other words, sound like what they mean:

fubsy adj. - short and stout
olid adj. - foul-smelling
malison adj. - a curse

I have warm and fuzzy feelings for fubsy. Putting down a word like fubsy is, I think, equal to the hacking to death of cute white seals in the North Pole.

As for olid, the word may come into handy for books like the Harry Potter series. Except of course, Rowling already wrote what should be the final installment.

Malison, now there's an adjective that could be used as a name. Let's all sing along: "Malison, I know this world is killing you. Malison, my aim is true."

Other endangered words:
compossible adj. - possible in coexistence
mansuetude n. - gentleness or mildness
apodeictic adj. - unquestionably true by virtue of demonstration
caducity n. - perishableness
embrangle vb. - to confuse or entangle
niddering adj. - cowardly
oppugnant adj. - combative antagonistic or contrary

There is a ray of hope. According to Collins, if by February 2009 any of the 24 endangered words show up in at least "six 'high-quality' citations," they'll be saved. In response to that footnote, prominent British dudes have started to serve as advocates for certain words. For example, British poet laureate Andrew Motion is campaigning for skirr (or the "rattling, scratchy noise that a bird's wings make during flight"). Or take the example of Labour MP Stephen Pound who has come to the defense of caliginosity ("dimness, darkness").

My final take on the matter: while I am drawn to the quaintness (read: Britishness) of this call to arms to save words, the whole campaign will all boil down to two words - vested interest. Motion is going for skirr because he's a bird watcher. The actor Stephen Fry has apparently gone for the word fubsy. (If you've seen Stephen Fry, you will understand why.)

My final two selections - fubsy (I think this is rather obvious at this point), because of the 'white baby seal' factor and muliebrity ("the condition of being a woman"), if only because I want to laugh at the idea that being a woman is a condition, something congenital and something that can be dealt with through therapy. It sounds tentative, yet hopeful. It's both bright and dark. It cannot be pinned down to 'a certain feeling.'

Let the saving begin.