User talk:Pagoda123
Good catch with deniability, congratulations. I'm surprised that we hadn't an entry for that already. For more information about Wiktionary please read some of the links below, or drop by my talk page. Yours Conrad.Irwin 18:55, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
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Enjoy your stay at Wiktionary! Conrad.Irwin 18:55, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
Greetings,
The etymology of 'deniability' appears to be ≈1970-75 and is a compound of 'deniable' + 'ity'.
A common definition also appears to be something along the lines: "the ability to deny something, such as an accusation, as by claiming to have no knowledge of the event(s) or action(s) involved." I have also seen common uses that rely more heavily on the illegality of the topic, such as "the ability to deny something, such as an accusation, as by claiming to have no knowledge or connection with an illegal activity". However, the current definition that was changed upon entry does not appear to stay in line with the origin of this word. I believe that this word first came into its own as part of the phrase "plausible denial" or "plausibly deniable" during the 1974-75 Church Committee's investigation of alleged assassination attempts by the CIA. Today the word is commonly used in the phrase "plausible deniability".
These facts perhaps lend themselves to an altered definition and also to examples that might help illustrate the use of the word.
In summary: should the illegality of the denial be something that is pointed out in this definition and thus in examples of the use of this word?
Pagoda123 19:23, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
- I'm not sure about your date, see Google books, but the suffix idea is plausible. In general example sentences in Wiktionary entries are a good thing, but even better would be to provide some Citations (see the exemplar page) this would allow us to show exactly how the word is actually used. I'm not sure myself what the word means, I'd need to go and scan through some cites and work it out, however if you feel that the word is (or was) used in a certain way, feel free to add to the entry. If someone disagrees with you again they can put an
{{rfv}}on it and cites will be found. Again in general terms, a lot of words that were used to mean one thing change their meanings over time, Wiktionary aims to be more descriptive than prescriptive, and so we will always include definitions of how words are actually used as opposed to what they should mean in theory. I'm not sure this is the clearest explanation I've ever given, so to sum up: Change the entry to improve it, provide cites if someone challenges you. Conrad.Irwin 19:42, 9 May 2008 (UTC)