Oxford English Dictionary Kills "Cassette Tapes"

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the cassette tape is now dead. The OED has cut the term from their new edition, making way for new additions "sexting," "retweet" and "mankini." Unsurprisingly, the move is not settling well with everyone.

Eight Track Museum owner Bucks Burnett says that because of the move he is banning the OED from his establishment, saying, "Mankini? That settles it! I'm going to ban the Oxford Dictionary from the museum. I have a copy and I'm going to recycle it! This decision to remove the word was made inside a Starbucks by 20-something editors on their lunch break. See if they still have the moon listed in the dictionary. I bet they do. Nobody uses the damn moon anymore, not even NASA."

Time notes that "people definitely still reference cassettes since they're not only still being sold, but also still being made." And what about the mixtape? Certainly there are some nostalgic romantics still making those.

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By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on October 5, 2011 3:02 PM

Comments [rss]

ANGRYGOD11

Various MP3 players I have can record, but an old handheld cassette recorder is still the easiest way to record something NOW. The buttons are right there to push and record whereas MP3 recorders work differently.

nicemarmot

Whenever I remember my collection of tapes and my Walkman...I feel really really old.

KevinJWalsh

I still play mine, and will continue to play them.

SFNY

Everyone, please remain calm: this piece isn't wholly accurate.

"Cassette player" is being cut from the *Concise* Oxford English Dictionary, the one that is made of paper and only has 66,500 words. "S-VHS," "Millenium bug" and "video jockey" also got dropped from the concise version.

The gigantic unabridged OED will keep expanding forever, so mankini and cassette player will coexist in the 20 volume edition, and on the beach in Croatia.

All the dropped words still live on in the Oxford Dictionaries Online website.

cyncity.org

That's great and all, but in the grand scheme of things "makini" is fucking disgusting and should not outrank "cassette tape" in an abridged version of the dictionary especially since "cassette tape" can be audio or video and many people either use or see a tape of that nature at least once a day (Goodwill? 99 cent store?side of the road?). Petty whims and social fads should not push words out of a dictionary that is supposed to have some class and standing. In 10 years, I will STILL be using my damn VCR and what become of mankini? Maybe I'll hear of it once and a while on reruns of the Soup.

http://oxforddictionaries.com/...

Spirit of 76

There's no justification for this. Once upon a time, but no more. When dictionaries were composed of paper pages and space was limited, abridging made sense. Now, everything's online, where there's unlimited space for unlimited entries. On the other hand, with plenty of competition including free sources like Wiktionary and Urbandictionary, the OED is no longer the final word, so to speak.

petey2

I'd hardly use urban dictionary to reference for definitions.

Stevennnn

Why not get rid of VCR too? Dumb.

theflaminlamaeo

I worked at a university affiliated radio station for a while and was amazed- the new students from the incoming classes (2015 and 2014) could not use cassette tapes at all, but all the 2011-2012 students knew. Amazing what a few years can do.

Professor Von Nostren

When we no longer have books, will 'dictionary' be removed as well?

petey2

Type your comment here.http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=s...

199,191 matches of music and format cassette.

ANGRYGOD11

If the Oxford English Dictionary is only going to explain what one already knows, why bother?
And by this logic dinosaurs and dodos shouldn't be included either.