The Term "Cassette Tape" Is No Longer in the Oxford English Dictionary
Alright, for those of you who didn't take the hint when the automakers dropped all cassette players from every car sold in this country, here's the final nail in the dead-tape coffin: "cassette tape" is no longer included in the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.
What are these called again?
However, "cyberbullying" and "retweet," as USA Today so cheerfully points out, are now in the dictionary.
So why did the cassette get dropped? It was "so past its prime that it was not worth keeping it in," dictionary editor-at-large Jesse Sheidlower told the paper.
Apparently the OED folks didn't catch that there's something of a tape renassiance going on in the indie world. This writer has received at least five cassette promo tapes in the last year (which, if you ask us, is five too many). Tape sales, though miniscule, are even up from last year.
So even given our longstanding hatred for the cassette tape, this strikes us as a rather hasty move. The phrase will still appear in the unabriged OED -- the edition that nobody owns. But how can we warn a future generation against the horrors of metallic sound, unspooled ribbons of tape, and the crushed hopes that result when tapes wear out if we can't even show them what it was?
Also: CDs, you're officially on notice. Enjoy your time in car dashboards and major dictionaries while you still have it.
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