History of the Predictive Text Swearing Commission
The history of the Predictive Text Swearing Commission.
“Our job, Gilbert, is to offer people not the words that they do use, but the words they should use… Which is why when someone types in 2625 we offer them coal, or ambl, but we do not offer them cock.”
“Or anal!”
This, of course, is exactly how it works in the OED office. Or at least, how it used to:
Julian Barnes told readers of Harpers & Queen that..he had ‘once tried to get blow-job into the OED Supplement and presented my admittedly thin evidence to the editor. He considered my application but declined it. “I’m afraid there isn’t as much of this about as you imagine,” he commented sympathetically, and so in 1972 the term was deemed not to exist.’
Swearing or ‘vulgar’ terms have no problem getting recognition now, however: the recently-revised entry for fuck gives the word the full treatment it deserves.
[Quotation from Treasure-house of the Language by Charlotte Brewer, p. 225.]
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