Date:  Fri, 19 May 1995 04:40:13 GMT

From:  "J. Pennelope Goforth" <Pennelope_Goforth%Labor[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]STATE.AK.US>

Subject: Re[2]: 1995 Candidates "Word of the Year"



   Hey, Jesse! That was different! I looked for it in three dictionaries

   here at the Publication Unit and couldn't' find the word. And I've

   never heard it used in either my government beauracratese or any other

   fiction I've read recently. It sounds like an Elizabeth Peters parody;

   ie.the word 'detectival'. Uhh, no, I wouldn't be interested in using

   the word. My new word for the year was 'encomium'! JP Goforth





______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________

Subject: Re: 1995 Candidates "Word of the Year"

Author: ADS-L[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uga.cc.uga.edu (American Dialect Society) at CC2MHS1

Date:  5/19/95 11:21 AM





>  How about integritous?(meaning:having great integrity)I used that in des-

> cribing the founder of the company I work for to my father on the phone last

> night and he said "What did you do- make that word up?"



That is extremely interesting. Does this honestly represent a real use?

We got a letter several months ago from a group of students who

had claimed to coin this word, and wanted to donate it to us for

the betterment of the English language. Nothing wrong with the word,

of course (except that it duplicates the obsolete _integritive_), but

I'd like to know if people are really using it or if it's just part

of an organized campaign to get this word out into the world.



Jesse Sheidlower

Random House Dictionaries

<jester[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]panix.com>