Behold the slow dissipation of the once great people of England…

The mother of our tongue, the founder of our country, and the source of most of the ideas and principles that established Democracy has taken another step towards devolution, only this time what's being given up are ideas, not land.

To wit:

Oxford University Press has removed words like "aisle", "bishop",
"chapel", "empire" and "monarch" from its
Junior Dictionary and replaced them with words like "blog", "broadband"
and "celebrity". Dozens of words related to the countryside have
also been culled.

The publisher claims the changes have been made to reflect the fact that
Britain is a modern, multicultural, multifaith society…

Words taken out:

Carol, cracker, holly, ivy, mistletoe

Dwarf, elf, goblin

Abbey, aisle, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery,
monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, vicar

Coronation, duchess, duke, emperor, empire, monarch, decade

adder, ass, beaver, boar, budgerigar, bullock, cheetah, colt, corgi, cygnet,
doe, drake, ferret, gerbil, goldfish, guinea pig, hamster, heron, herring,
kingfisher, lark, leopard, lobster, magpie, minnow, mussel, newt, otter, ox,
oyster, panther, pelican, piglet, plaice, poodle, porcupine, porpoise,
raven, spaniel, starling, stoat, stork, terrapin, thrush, weasel, wren.

Acorn, allotment, almond, apricot, ash, bacon, beech, beetroot, blackberry,
blacksmith, bloom, bluebell, bramble, bran, bray, bridle, brook, buttercup,
canary, canter, carnation, catkin, cauliflower, chestnut, clover, conker,
county, cowslip, crocus, dandelion, diesel, fern, fungus, gooseberry, gorse,
hazel, hazelnut, heather, holly, horse chestnut, ivy, lavender, leek,
liquorice, manger, marzipan, melon, minnow, mint, nectar, nectarine, oats,
pansy, parsnip, pasture, poppy, porridge, poultry, primrose, prune, radish,
rhubarb, sheaf, spinach, sycamore, tulip, turnip, vine, violet, walnut,
willow

Words put in:

Blog, broadband, MP3 player, voicemail, attachment, database, export,
chatroom, bullet point, cut and paste, analogue

Celebrity, tolerant, vandalism, negotiate, interdependent, creep, citizenship,
childhood, conflict, common sense, debate, EU, drought, brainy, boisterous,
cautionary tale, bilingual, bungee jumping, committee, compulsory, cope,
democratic, allergic, biodegradable, emotion, dyslexic, donate, endangered,
Euro

Apparatus, food chain, incisor, square number, trapezium, alliteration,
colloquial, idiom, curriculum, classify, chronological, block graph

I guess that Oxford University Press no longer thinks that British dictionaries need to contain words that are fundamental to the British identity….like abbey, monarch, bishop,and chapel.

H/T Media Blog at the National Review

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