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On May 23, 9:33am, David Jones/KSBEISD wrote:
> Subject: Re: Functionality
> Forgive me (my OED is at home), but when was the last time the OED and its
> Supplement were updated? I find the OED great for the history of a word,
but
> not that useful when it comes to modern usage or recent words. I would
describe
> it not as "definitive" but as "exhaustive but dated."
and then
> To: TECHWR-L @ LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU
> From: bygravem @ INTUITIVE.CO.UK (Mike Bygrave) @ Internet @ DATAHUB
> Date: 05/23/96 09:31:26 AM
> Subject: Re: Functionality
> Sue proposed that:
> >> It *is* a word, and is listed in my Webster's under "functional."
> You may (or may not) be interested to find that 'functionality' is not
> mentioned in the Oxford English Dictionary. Does this mean that it is
> acceptable in American English but not in English? After all, you can't get
> much more definitive in terms of the English language than the OED.
Methought [and trust me, having had to live most of my life in two former
British colonies spelling words with "-our" and then having a *Britisher*, no
less, fly out thousands of miles to Pakistan to tell me (among other things)
that he wanted the new version of the manual to have American spellings and
terminology ("-or" all the way and Function Modelling instead of Process
Modelling and ... notice that I still forget the comma before the "and" at
times?), me has had to do a lot of thinking in this regard] I find it hard to
digest that there is still any doubt that The Queen's English and American
English do not have things not-in-common, so to speak. I thought Noah Webster
settled that -- or was it Miriam ...? After all, isn't that the original
raison d'etre of Webster's? I think the foreword or preface or something to
the original edition says something like "... to provide a record for ... how
the language is spoken ..." Does someone have the tome at hand?
Sabahat.
--
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