User talk:Enginear/Incubator/Guidelines for use of citations and glosses to clarify definitions

This guide seeks to outline good practice for use of citations and glosses to clarify definitions in Wiktionary. It is not a formal policy, nor is it trying to become one. Please see WT:CFI, WT:ELE and their subsidiary policies, eg WT:QUOTE for the official policies governing what entries should be included and entry layout. If any items below are believed to be required practice, they should be moved (after a vote) to the relevant policies. This guide is a work in progress. Please allow me to develop it myself for a short while. When I feel I have a coherent base, I shall offer it to the Wiktionary community to improve.

Preamble: Purpose of Wiktionary

The English Wiktionary is a descriptive, not prescriptive dictionary. Our aim is, as far as possible, to describe in English the usage of all words in all languages, by means of a wiki.

Describe in English

Describe means more than just saying that a word has been used. We aim to record, as well as we can, when it has been used, and in what context, with what degree of formality and offensiveness. This is beneficial to Wictionary users, since it allows them to judge the likely reaction if they were to use the word, in the sense defined, in a particular context, for example, academic treatise, formal letter, user manual, speech, school essay, blog or personal letter. Indeed, although we record usage in a non-judgemental fashion, we are a resource which can help users to form their own judgements regarding usage they have read or heard.

Whatever language a word is, we describe it in English because we are a dictionary primarily for English speakers. People requiring a definition in another language can check in (or help create) that language's Wiktionary.

Usage

We do not define words unless they are used to convey meaning rather than merely mentioned. In this, we differ from many other dictionaries -- the first edition of OED is said to have aimed to include every word mentioned in Samuel Johnson's 1755 Dictionary of the English Language, even if they found no evidence that it had ever been used. Some online dictionaries appear to include any word which someone suggests might one day be useful, again without confirming actual use. We do not, at least not in the main dictionary area. (We do however include a list of protologisms where such words can be added.)

Wiktionary is currently indexed by spelling, and due not least to software availability, will remain so for the foreseeable future. As a result, we cannot include a word if we do not know its spelling, which rules out words which are only spoken.

Further, there is a consensus not to include nonce words, or even "twice" words, but only words which have been used in at least three independent publications, officially "spanning at least a year", but in practice "published in more than one calendar year".

Misspellings

For ease of checking, it is helpful if examples of use are available online where, to reduce maintenance of dead links, it is required that the usage must be durably archived. However, where relevant online usage is hard to find, hard copies are acceptable, if durably archived in legal deposit libraries, which can be assumed for books and most newspapers and magazines.

So, in practical terms, the WT:CFI requirement for works in most living languages is the ability to find at least three citations, in durably archived printed media, of the claimed usage. However, due to the assumed attrition of available material, one citation, in durably archived printed media, of the claimed usage, is allowed for dead languages.

Flexibility