So it is. Or was. Does “deliciate” count as a word when it was used only a handful of times in the 17th century, and never since? And which, if you were to try to use it, wouldn’t make sense to an interlocutor? That is, it does exist on some plane or other, but it is arguably not “in the language”. Indeed, even “ghost words” exist on “some plane or other” (ghost words are items that appear in dictionaries as a result of some kind of blunder. (See the Wikipedia on the point, an interesting article.)
AndrewSihler 10 months ago
So it is. Or was. Does “deliciate” count as a word when it was used only a handful of times in the 17th century, and never since? And which, if you were to try to use it, wouldn’t make sense to an interlocutor? That is, it does exist on some plane or other, but it is arguably not “in the language”. Indeed, even “ghost words” exist on “some plane or other” (ghost words are items that appear in dictionaries as a result of some kind of blunder. (See the Wikipedia on the point, an interesting article.)