The Book of Lost Words

RHYS BOWEN: I was doing an event at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale during the holiday season when owner Barbara Peters showed me a book. "You have to see this," she said. I did and bought it instantly.

It's called THE LOST WORDS. And it conveys a worrying and serious message. The latest edition of the Oxford Junior  Dictionary has removed  around 40 words it no longer considers relevant for young people so that it has room for words more important for our latest technology. Blog, broadband, voice-mail etc. I could understand this if the words were like "forsooth" or "perambulation".

But they are not: they are words from nature, words I consider highly relevant and important to everyone. And so did the writer and illustrator of this book: Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris.
And so they created this gorgeous work of art. Robert MacFarlane describes himself as a collector of words and is a professor at Cambridge. Jackie is a distinguished artist and illustrator of many books. For each of the words they have chosen Robert has written an acrostic. The whole book is such a treat for the senses, a perfect coffee table book, but it carries such a powerful message....

you'll understand when I tell you the words that have been removed from the Junior OED

Acorn

Adder
Bluebell
Bramble
Conker
Dandelion

Fern
Heather
Heron
Ivy
Kingfisher
Lark
Magpie
Newt
Otter
Raven

Starling
Weasel
Willow

Are these not absolutely essential words in the vocabulary of any young person?

The acrostics are powerful poetry in themselves.

Here is the one for Acorn:

As flake is to blizzard, as
Curve is to sphere, as knot is to net, as
One is to many, as coin is to money, as bird is to flock, as
Rock is to mountain, as drop is to fountain, as
   spring is to river, as glint is to glitter, as
Near is to far, as wind is to weather, as
    feather is to flight, as light is to star, as
    kindness is to good, so acorn is to wood.

Aren't these brilliant? And page after page of museum-worthy illustrations too. Thank you, Barbara for thrusting this at me.

So what do you think? Should our dictionaries be revised to keep up with the times? Should we lose words of our childhood? Should a child grow up not knowing what an acorn or a bluebell or a kingfisher are?

The Book is The Lost Words, Published by Anansi Books, (www.houseofanansi.com)