Monday, May 23, 2011

Tantuple - Save a Word

The English language is remarkably flexible and innovative with new words entering the lexicon all time. At the same time, words fall out of favour and use. Oxford Dictionaries have set up a website to try and save those words that are dropping out of use - Save the Words. It encourages you to adopt a word and to try and keep it alive by using it in writing and speech. Having had a look at the site I've decided to adopt the word tantuple, which means a number multiplied by itself. So one hundred is a tantuple of ten. An example of use - With the present government policy sovereign debt is likely to tantuple by 2014. Okay, a slight exaggeration, but you get the idea. I wanted to pick a word that I actually might use and tantuple seems a likely candidate.

1 comment:

Dorte H said...

I agree that ´tantuple´ deserves to be saved. As I absolutely love words - especially English ones - I might go and try to pick one I can save too.

NB: sometimes I feel like saving word verification ´words´ also - some of them sound absolutely fascinating. Today´s ´velyz´ may be more suited for Polish, though.