INTERVIEW. “The new dictionary of the French Academy is already partly obsolete”

INTERVIEW. “The new dictionary of the French Academy is already partly obsolete”
INTERVIEW. “The new dictionary of the French Academy is already partly obsolete”

This Thursday, November 14, 2024, the French Academy presented Emmanuel Macron, President of the Republic and protector of the institution, with the 9e sound editing Dictionary. The fruit of long-term work, started decades ago: while the first volume was released in 1992, the fourth and last, going from the letter R to the interjection Zzz!, is not , available only since this Wednesday.

This beautiful baby, the French Academy presents it as the “mirror of an era which runs from 1950 to the present day”. She highlights the “new words” that entered it, such as laughing, recyclable, or even soda… Terms that have been in our use for a long time.

Barely published, the Dictionary of the French Academy is it already obsolete? In any case, this is the opinion of the Collective of Dismayed Linguists. Christophe Benzitoun, one of its members, lecturer in French linguistics at the University of Lorraine and member of the CNRS Atilf laboratory, explains to us why.

This 9e edition was launched in 1986, under the leadership of Maurice Druon, then permanent secretary and is only completed today. Why did the post take so long?…

Belgium

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