On 16/06/2012 11:19 PM, Carles Pina i Estany wrote: > Hi, > > On Jun/16/2012, Carles Pina i Estany wrote: > >>> How about: >>> ems -> emu -> emo -> ego -> ago .... >>> >>> Got to admit that it took the online OED to come up with emo but it is >>> in there. > I also have to admin: I saw this mail in the mobile and during the > afternoon I was thinking... did I have a bug or some of the words wasn't > in the dict? :-)) > I don't think that there is a single dictionary that has all the valid words in - the OED, (Oxford English Dictionary), is generally considered the most authoritative but even that, back in the days of paper dictionaries, used to issue a concise, (most of the words in common use), complete, (13 volumes), and compact, (2 volumes printed very small), editions. The best section of the last two was the Spurious Words section detailing words that had been introduced by mistakes in other dictionaries including which first gave the word and which copied it first.
If you need a complete, always up to date, dictionary then you need to work in a dead language like Latin - no new words introduced for over a thousand years AFAIK or an artificial one, e.g. Esperanto where a committee or other authority specifies which words are valid. English is growing and changing every day as old words are brought back into use or redefined by individuals and new words introduced by individuals, organisations and mistakes - all it takes is for something to start being used by enough people - even brand names and abbreviations picked to be unique enter the language as they are generalised, e.g. hoover, LED. Gadget/Steve _______________________________________________ python-uk mailing list python-uk@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-uk
