Madness in Their Method .

The large new Merriam-Webster has all the modern virtues. It is big, expensive and ugly. It should be a great success. It has 450,000 entries, including “to pearl harbor,” verb, transitive, meaning “to attack suddenly without warning.” There is only a single authority listed for this word, but that one is of the highest magnitude. It is Time magazine.

Of course, it is not difficult to come up with 450,000 entries when one considers such new “words,” as the following (all found on a single page) : RB, RBC, RBH, RBI, RC, RCG, RCL, RCM, RCT, RD, RDA, RDC, RDF, RDX, RDY, and RE. And these weird intruders are not only words, but—most of them—several words. RC, for instance, means recruiting center, rehabilitation center, reinforced concrete, relief claim, release clause, remote control, reply coupon, resistance-capacity, and right center. RCM means both radar countermeasure and regimental court-martial. RD means reaction of degeneration, refer to drawer, regional director, right defense, rix-dollar, running days, rural dean, rural delivery and rural district. RE means . . . well, nine other things.

GW

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Garry Wills

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The large new Merriam-Webster has all the modern virtues. It is big, expensive and ugly. It should be a great success. It has 450,000 entries, including “to pearl harbor,” verb, transitive, meaning “to attack suddenly without warning.” There is only a single authority listed for this word, but that one is of the highest magnitude. It is Time magazine.

Of course, it is not difficult to come up with 450,000 entries when one considers such new “words,” as the following (all found on a single page) : RB, RBC, RBH, RBI, RC, RCG, RCL, RCM, RCT, RD, RDA, RDC, RDF, RDX, RDY, and RE. And these weird intruders are not only words, but—most of them—several words. RC, for instance, means recruiting center, rehabilitation center, reinforced concrete, relief claim, release clause, remote control, reply coupon, resistance-capacity, and right center. RCM means both radar countermeasure and regimental court-martial. RD means reaction of degeneration, refer to drawer, regional director, right defense, rix-dollar, running days, rural dean, rural delivery and rural district. RE means . . . well, nine other things.