I used it in an assignment only to have MS Word throw it out as misspelled. So I looked it up in my desk dictionary (Collins) and found it but with a definition that gives a narrow specialised sense relating the appropriacy of a given word. As I've always chosen this word over appropriateness I investigated further.
The OED, to my considerable surprise, doesn't have it at all. Not onlt that but the use of the word "appropriate" to mean "suitable" comes quite a long way down the list (5th in fact but is given much less space than other definitions that I'd consider far less common.)
So the questions are these. Do other people use "appropriacy" or just "appropriateness"? Why does it appear in a single volume Collins but not the complete OED? If it does it exist does it indeed have a narrow linguistic definition? Will my assignment fail because of it?
Opinions?
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
It is a word used by our ESOL teachers - English for speakers of other languages. One of them used it in a student's report, and I thought they had made it up, but it is the correct jargon to denote the use of the correct word or phrase.
Appropriacy has 42,800 citations in Google, and some of them mention inappropriacy as well. While some of them use the word as Graham says, others use it as I would use appropriateness, an example being "cultural appropriacy." Many of the appropriacy sites, though not all, are from the UK.
I haven't heard the word before. I would probably use appropriateness in that situation.This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,
