It is possible if you define “English word” for me. It is not possible if you do not.
Well, you just have to define “in use” a little better.
OK, I’ll change it to “I am certain those are not English words.” Problem solved!
That definition is what I am trying to get at.
Respectfully, the onus is on the ones who assert “in use” as a benchmark. Any of the definitions in this thread will do.
To clarify : I meant “you” in the indefinite sense. I am looking for a *method *that anyone can apply to determine whether a word is an English word, not an attestation.
Do you mean you want to find an “official” definition from a recognized authority, or you want us here at the board to arrive at a consensus on what the definition should be?
If the latter, I will propose this as a starting point:
words in the English language are the set of words contained in the OED or Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. The set of words changes with each new edition of either of those dictionaries.
If your next question is “what method will the OED or the Webster’s unabridged use to change the set of words?”, this link may be of interest:
New Words: How do they get into the Oxford English Dictionary? (askoxford.com)
Thanks.
Here’s an interesting (to me, at least) tidbit. In a Games Magazine article concerning Scrabble, it was revealed that the game really isn’t about language but is more about Math and strategy. I guess that’s because one’s dealing with sets of elements and numerical values for placement of those elements.
touché, touché.
That’s exactly why, when people learn that I like crossword puzzles, they often assume that I must like Scrabble too, and I really don’t. I consider them very different cognitive processes, in that Scrabble takes hardly any language skills at all, aside from the bare ability to recognize a word.
Ed
Interestingly, the word was the last one spelled by Finola Hackett in winning last year’s Canadian national bee, yet it doesn’t appear in the Canadian Oxford dictionary. However, it did appear in the dictionary Finola studied, as well as the one used in the CanWest CanSpell competition.
Because the British Empire included so many lands, words from those lands’ languages (including Maltese) were readily adapted into English. See the bottom of this page for Sir Robert Baden-Powell’s take on the spelling of “dghaisa”, as well as his description of receiving a model of this craft.