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As the editor of a slang dictionary that accepts user submissions, I've seen many terms submitted to my dictionary that have become accidental esquivaliences.
by WalterGR 14y ago
As the editor of a slang dictionary that accepts user submissions, I've seen many terms submitted to my dictionary that have become accidental esquivaliences.
One great example is "poonj," meaning to have sexual intercourse. The submitter included some etymological claims, in part that the term originated in the language of the Ojibwe native Americans. I find that pretty suspect, though it did appear on the site for some time before I removed it. The definition and the etymology were printed in the second edition of Cassell's Dictionary of Slang. To their credit, they did include "allegedly".
http://books.google.com/books?id=5GpLcC4a5fAC&pg=PA1120&dq=poonj+ojibwe http://books.google.com/books?id=5GpLcC4a5fAC&pg=PA1120&...
I'm not too concerned about the copyright aspect, though. And actually, I'm still unclear on the extent to which dictionary definitions are copyrightable.
- pc86 14y agoI don't think dictionary definitions are. However, if I make up a word, that is copyrightable as it is my creation, or IP, or whatever term you wish to use. Similar to putting a fake street on a map, I would think.
- gcr 14y agoActually, a fake street is not copyrightable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_street#Legal_issues http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_street#Legal_issues A United States federal court found that copyright traps are not themselves protectable by copyright. There, the court stated: "[t]o treat 'false' facts interspersed among actual facts and represented as actual facts as fiction would mean that no one could ever reproduce or copy actual facts without risk of reproducing a false fact and thereby violating a copyright . . . . If such were the law, information could never be reproduced or widely disseminated." (Id. at 733)