Are you a tanorexic partial to a bit of flashpacking, but hate your cankles? If you're not lost for words already then you are either ahead of the linguistic curve or privy to the secrets of a little-known vault at the Oxford University Press. There, filed away and stored alphabetically on small white cards are the words submitted to but deemed unsuitable for inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). The thousands of words denied a place in the dictionary, which describes itself as the definitive record of the English language, are consigned to the vault because they are either too odd or have not gained enough currency in common usage. “Tanorexia”, an obsession with getting a tan, “flashpacking”, glamorous backpacking, and “cankles”, thick ankles are just three of the quirky words on record in the non-word vault. A new word is not included in the OED unless it has “caught on”. To make the cut, there must be several independent examples of the word in writing over a “reasonable” length of time. Once a word has earned its place in the dictionary, it is not removed, even if it drops out of use. The following are a sample of unused words from the vault: Faboosh: fabulous Flashpacking: luxurious backpacking Tanorexia: an obsession with getting a tan Twetiquette: Twitter etiquette
