The Dictionary.... is it legal?

[Laner]

Silly argument in work this afternoon but�.. as the dictionary contains derogatory words / phrases relating to race, sex and religion is it not illegal?

(I appreciate the answer must surely be "No, it's not illegal" but it has certainly got us talking here!)

[mslovely]

yes tis

[pjm007]

No definately not. Regardless of how PC the modern world has become these days, people still need to know meanings and origins of words (not forgetting spelling) whether they are racist, sexist or explicit or otherwise.

If it is a sign of the times for people to be thinking in that way, then the PC world (not the shop) we live in has definately gone a step too far, in my opinion.

[pjm007]

No definitely not *ILLEGAL*

[jno]

there aren't any words that are illegal, as far as I know; it's how you use them, and to whom. A dictionary is just a neutral record.

[Grunty]

This question reminds me of the London boroughs which banned the term 'black coffee' and made children sing 'baa baa green sheep'.

[Didwot]

To be illegal it would have to be obscene.
To be obscene it would have to deprave and corrupt the reader.
If you could get a jury to find that knowing the definition of a word or phrase will deprave and corrupt the reader then you would have established that the dictionary is "illlegal", but against the littany of failed obscenity trials, Lady Chatterly, Tropic of Capricorn, Last Exit From Brooklyn, Lollita etc, I think the decision is already made.

[Didwot]

In response to Grunty the best ever piece of PC came from a letterr to the Guardian many years ago. It went
Sir, I was very distrubed to find that a paper of your standing found it necessary to comment on the racial origin of the assaiant in your report of an assault by a "black" cab driver.
Yours etc
Editors reply.
Black referred to tthe colour of the cab.

[Xollob]

I've heard that christian fundamentalists in the USA have tried to ban school dictionaries that contain the word 'bed' as a transitive verb.

[EssJay1]

Didwot - should black-cab have been hyphenated to avoid confusion?!

[Didwot]

Can't be definite about that. Does Lynne Truss use this site?

[Xollob]

Didwot, no doubt you would have enjoyed a Wanted poster I saw in Germany some years ago. In the English translation, the miscreant was last seen carrying a black man's handbag.

[neurosurgon*]

no, it is mearly an informitive book