In the current Q & A on pronunciations, Bob Hale notes Collins Dictionary allows the word BALK to be pronounced with or without an audible 'l'. My reference to the OED plainly omits the l-sound in both the verb and the noun BALK, and in the past participle BALKED. But in the different word BALKAN, the l- is pronounced.
On another tack, I tried to find the word “sphallolalia – flirtatious talk that does not lead to amorous action” that appears in Wordcraft Dictionary. It's not in the OED, Webster etc and appears only in the Grandiloquent Dictionary.
The merit of the many dictionaries is very much a matter of opinion, though I think few would question the authority and academic accuracy of OED.
Any ideas about the reliability of Grandiloquent Dictionary?
Does it reflect words in common if pretentious, grandiloquent usage but, not yet fulfilling more searching criteria for inclusion in other widely used works?
sphallolalia

pearce, I took the liberty of shifting your question to this forum, where it might draw the attention of the fair number of members who rarely participate in wordplay.

You raise an interesting general question about the reliability of various dictionaries and wordlists. To start I'll note, as to this particular one, that the Grandiloquent Dictionary on the web is completely unrelated to the excellent book The Grandiloquent Dictionay by Russell Rocke (1972).

quote:

Originally posted by wordcrafter:
You raise an interesting general question about the reliability of various dictionaries and wordlists. To start I'll note, as to this particular one, that the Grandiloquent Dictionary on the web is completely unrelated to the excellent book The Grandiloquent Dictionay by Russell Rocke (1972).

Thank you. I remain puzzled that the word 'sphallolalia' in the wordcraft dictionary can be found ( after a detailed search) only on the web version of Grandiloquent Dictionary. I tried the word on a friend, who accused me of making it up. Can I be sure that Grandiloquent Dictionary is authoritative?

In re sphallolalia, it seems a strange word. Greek sphallo means 'to make to fall, overthrow, trip, throw; to baffle, balk, frustrate'. Also, Greek sphallos means a 'leaden or wooden disk, plate'. In compound with lalia 'talk, chat, speech'. A word? Or not a word? Probably the latter.

quote:

Originally posted by zmjezhd:
In re sphallolalia, i… A word? Or not a word? Probably the latter.

As hinted, I have had my suspicions. I wonder whether it is a misspelling of phallo-lalia i.e talking about phallic objects or symbols. Is this an example of a Wordcrafter's LUDIC word?

Sphallolalia can be found in There's a Word for It! / A Grandiloquent Guide to Life by Charles Harrington Elster.

That said, there remains the question of whether Elster is pulling our collective legs, making up words (or perhaps quoting someone who did so). Most of the words in Elster's book are legit.

But sphallolalia comes in a section where almost all the entries are suspicious at best. Here's a list of the 60-some supposed words Elster defines in this section, titled All About Desire. [I put * on the few I'm pretty sure are legit, and ^ on those where Elster admits that it's a coinage or the like ("I heard this once on the radio").]

What do you think of this list? Don't they sound like words a giggling puerile schoolboy would make up if he knew his roots, prefixes and suffixes?

---

ablutoskepsis agnuopia altocalciphilia anililagnia antaphrodesiac* apodyopsis
basorexia belgard* bemascopia brachycraspedonia brassiroregia
cacocallia callicacia cheiloproclitic horotripsis cingulomania cleopatralagnia copkinophilia coxinutant cyesolagnia
dishabilloerigesis ecdemolagnia
gerontolagnia gerontophilia gomphipothic^ grapholagnia gymonocryptosis gymnogynomania gymnophoria gynonudomania gynotikolobomassophilia
haptepronia hirsutophilia hymenorexis hypernotomachia
imparibidinous korophilia krukolibidinous
lavacultophilia libidopause lygerastia
matronolagnia matutolagnia melolagnia
nonophilia neanilagnia (lolitalagnia lolitaphrenia)
philemalagnia prenuptiophrenia
self-agglandize^ sphallolalia sthenolagnia
threterophilia tibialoconcupiscent trichoerethism tripsolagnophilia
vernorexia vernalagnia vesthibitionism viricapnity viripause^
ximelolagnia

EDITED for typos and to eliminate duplication.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wordnerd,

Sphallolagina, sphaloglagnia, or sphallolalia: which is it?

What do you think of this list? Don't they sound like words a giggling puerile schoolboy would make up if he knew his roots, prefixes and suffixes?

But sphallolalia doesn't make any sense. So, I'd say Mr Elster got some of his roots mixed up with his elbows.

quote:

Any ideas about the reliability of Grandiloquent Dictionary?

I'd say the online Grandiloquent Dictionary is fun, but not all that reliable.

Along these lines, we have had a good discussion here about the word "abaculo." While the conclusion here was that since the 1936 Webster's International Dictonary cites it, we should assume it to be a word. I now have doubts about that. Who says a dictionary can't make a mistake? Since it's an international dictionary, I think they mistakenly cited the Spanish version, which is a baculo, as the English word abaculo. Since literally no other dictionary cites it, I just can't agree that it's a word.

I do think you make a good point, though, Pearce. It is difficult to know if the specialty dictionaries are correct or not. For example, most here say that "epicaricacy" isn't a word; yet it is surely cited in a whole lot more dictionaries than "abaculo" is.

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ablutoskepsis agnuopia altocalciphilia anililagnia ... apodyopsis
basorexia ... bemascopia brachycraspedonia brassiroregia

Just for fun, I ran these ten putative words, from Elster, through a couple fo books on my shelf.

One (anililagnia) was in Mrs. Bryne's, and that one plus another (apodyopsis) was in Novabatsky and Shea's biggest collection. Those were the only "hits" for what Elster claims to be words.

Anyone care to do some further checking?

I think dictionaries are so interesting. In the reference to abaculo above, Carol on OEDILF found it in her 1936 Webster's International Dictionary. Today I found the second edition of that dictionary in Powell's Book Store in Portland. Curiously, it was not in the 1944 second edition, where it went from "abaction" to "abaculus" to "abacus." However, it was in the 1993 third edition, and in that edition there was no "abaction!" Go figure.

I am a dictionary freak; I admit it. I spent much time today just in Powell's looking at dictionaries.

Anyway, we saw the 1770 edition of Bailey's (in person!) and the entry of "epicaricacy." I had only seen the online entry before. It may be the last legitimate citation of the word, but how fun seeing that dictionary in person! Then, I checked both the 1770 Bailey's and the 1795 Samuel Johnson's Dictionary for "abaculo," but it wasn't there.

I am definitely a geek. I admit it!

quote:

I am definitely a geek. I admit it!

Kalleh, would you care to tell everybody where Sunflower and I went IMMEDIATELY after getting married? And please note that Bailey spelled your pet word with two Ks, not two Cs, staying closer to the Greek roots, as someone earlier mentioned.

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