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NWL2023 Final Report 20231026
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NWL2023 Final Report

Revised 2023-10-26

The NASPA Dictionary Committee (DC) has completed work on the final version of the NASPA Word List 2023 Edition (NWL2023), and recommends its adoption as presented below.

Timeline

Discussion

NWL2023 includes not only the latest words from OSPD7 and MW-OWL (through 2023-07-09) but also the completion of the COD2 dataset through 15 letters, some standardization of plurals, and a number of additions and corrections requested by members. Policies for word selection remain essentially unchanged from NWL2020, except for some relaxation as to slur status, with details described below.

As usual and in conjunction with the Publication Committee, the Dictionary Committee will update the NASPA Word Database to show which words have been reviewed in the current process, and how the Dictionary Committee reached its decisions about categorizing, including some candidates for potentially inferable inflections that were judged insufficient for inclusion as collegiate-level words (thus nonwords for NASPA purposes). The Zyzzyva Committee’s next version of NASPA Zyzzyva will include NWL2023.

We are thankful for reports from many interested correspondents, including Steven Alexander, Julia Bogle, Tim Bottorff, Donna Bullock, Matt Canik, John Dalton, Mark Danna, Harry Decker, Cesar del Solar, Don Erbe, Daniel Farina, Stefan Fatsis, Emma Ferrett, Don Gawryla, Ben Greenwood, Adam Henderson, Bennett Jacobstein, Carl Johnson, Mike Johnson, Rick Julian, Cheryl Kagan, Kirsten Klassen, Deborah Komatsu, James Krycka, Chris Lipe, Kenji Matsumoto, Leland Muhr, Paul Peyser, Wolfram Poh, Dan Pratt, Bryan Richgruber, Menachem Rosenberg, Craig Rowland, Daniel Shapiro, Joel Sherman, Daniel Stock, Christopher Sykes, Ian Weinstein, John Wilder, and Edward Zurav, which were considered during word list production..

As planned, the DC continued to consider the two slur standards it had previously suggested: a stronger criterion (at least often offensive and personally applicable in not just one but all senses) and a minimal criterion (at least sometimes offensive in at least one dictionary and personally applicable in at least one sense, but possibly not offensive and personally applicable in all senses). In consultation with the Executive Committee, the DC has agreed to recommend the stronger standard for definition of offensive slur. A stronger standard means that fewer words are categorized as offensive slurs, and some words that were removed in 2020 will therefore be returned as a result of this year’s review.

In keeping with the DC’s directive to consider brand reputation in light of the lexical climate, 105 “disputed slurs” are being reclaimed and included in NWL2023. This list is quite similar to the 104 words with asterisks that did not meet the stronger standard in 2020, with some adjustments for usage changes through 2023; these words are included because they have inoffensive usages in proper contexts (as “bogtrotter”, a traveler; or “coloreds”, laundry articles), or because their main usages are frequently inoffensive (as “nonhandicapped”, not directed for the use of disabled persons; or “redneck”, a white laborer). Some words that were initially planned for reclamation in an earlier draft of this list (“faggy”, “negrophil”, “squaw”) remain excluded as a result of further research motivated by helpful member feedback.

The rule of inheriting status from a root continued to be used during this process to keep related words together, and newer editions of source dictionaries were given priority in determining offensiveness. To the remaining list of 154 undisputed slurs, as thus determined, were added 5 terms from NWL2020 that have gained slur status in the interim due to lexicographical changes, and 23 new terms that qualify as offensive slurs from their inception, yielding 182 total terms. This list will be published to Member Services as a separate informative document.

NSWL2023 will, as usual, contain all words found in NWL2023 except those judged sufficiently offensive by any single authority. Because OSPD7 used a different criterion for inclusion and definition than OSPD6, the committee’s prior rules for school lists were reviewed, and were not changed significantly except for clarification of what constitutes error in OSPD or SWF and for harmonization with the tagging system briefly described below. OSPD7's deletion of "drabs" was judged to be an error given its MWO support, and SWF's inclusion of certain inflections or forms of deleted words was also judged to be an error. The Committee is continuing to evaluate NSWL and OSPD words, and will report further on this subject in two weeks' time.

Criteria for New Words

New words were found by the following methods:

Special focus was directed at many entries requiring inflection inferences (plurals and some comparisons). A general statement agreeing with the extensive history of inclusivism toward plurals by the committee and its predecessors appears in Merriam-Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (1976): “Regularity is so dominant that in theory all English nouns may be said to be capable of an analogical plural in the letters -s or -es, and in practice little hesitation in so forming a new or unknown plural should be felt.” Every OSPD preface, in speaking of exhaustive inflection, has recognized the word researcher’s tendency to infer plurals freely when the matter is left to implication. Yet this inclusion is not universal; for instance, WNW2 (1980), listing its principles at the entry for the word “plural”, lists “Nouns ending in -ics” among “forms singular or plural only,” relieving one of the burden of inquiry for uninflected “-ics” nouns where a thoughtless application of the standard “-es” plural (“-icses”) would override common sense. The committee developed an initial ruleset, described herein, for more consistently navigating uninflected entries in the future, and resolved many of the most ambiguous omitted inflections by explicit acceptance, or deprecation, of invited inferences.

Though comparatives and superlatives of adjectives were added freely to words in the classes surveyed, the committee agreed that a general review of addible comparatives and superlatives should await a later update as a new agendum. We also agreed that a later update should reflect a more thorough reasonableness test of all plurality relationships in the word list to uncover remaining errors or omissions. Because of NASPA’s commitments to publish definitions for projects like Zyzzyva, this inflection project may extend to supplying usage labels for some of our definitions indicating different levels of usage.

The final list of additions appears as a separate Member Services document. Comments received between 2023-09-28 and 2023-10-12 were considered during finalization, resulting in 51 additions to the beta draft and 18 withdrawals from addition (4787 additions and 38 deletions, total words 196601). Aside from those words judged slurs above, 11 inferred plurals were removed from consideration as disputably inferred, and we added a number of member recommendations and scope-related new words, when found in primary sources (excluding OCD2, which will yield a great many new words and is scheduled to be reviewed separately).

Plurals Research (“Leftmost”)

(Asterisks indicate lowercase forms not recommended for NWL2023.)

For some time the committee’s agenda have formally included consideration of the deletion of “leftmosts”*, a task description standing in for a broad review of inferred inflections for deletions and additions. Several classes of words were prioritized for consistency review: words with conflicting data cross-references (which included “leftmosts”*), identity plurals, words ending with vowel plus “-s” (with focus on “-itis”), words ending with “-wear”, TWL2014 additions not adopted by SWF, and words with a history of divided opinion. For the vast majority, the entries were validated as is, with many new database notes being drafted; a few deletions were recommended, reported below; and a number of new inflections were proposed, discussed, and recommended. To judge among potential inferences, the committee drafted a ruleset encompassing inference principles that reflect its history of decision-making for nouns without explicit plurals, including the following:

These principles guided selection of additions and deletions for the plural review project. The NASPA word database will be updated to reflect judgments made about individual words and about forms not accepted as collegiate-level words, including a number of cases where the committee upheld status quo but remains open to making a later judgment based on further historical research arising. Comments and citations are particularly solicited from the membership on the subject of inconsistencies in inferred inflections, and are welcome at any time.

Deletions

We recommend 38 deletions as slurs or errors.

Authorities

For this project, the committee referred primarily to the original source lexica used to construct NWL2020 and its predecessors, and secondarily to available later editions and online versions. Primary authorities determine whether or not a root word is valid; secondary authorities may overrule primary authorities in determining additional information about the word, such as inflections and usage. Authorities were consistent with those used for NWL2020, with minor adjustment, such as admission of OSPD for limited purposes of reflection upon MW-OWL.

Abbreviations