Butchering the mother tongue

From loyal reader Andrew, another sad example of England's slide into the abyss:

Britain's Oxford University Press has endeavored to update its Junior Dictionary. Words no longer deemed relevant enough to be defined in that work, among others:

"Carol, cracker, holly, ivy, mistletoe

Dwarf, elf, goblin

Abbey, aisle, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, vicar

Coronation, duchess, duke, emperor, empire, monarch, decade"

Along with a myriad of animal and plant terms.

Words considered important enough to be added include:

"Blog, broadband, MP3 player, voicemail, attachment, database, export, chatroom, bullet point, cut and paste, analogue

Celebrity, tolerant, vandalism, negotiate, interdependent, creep, citizenship, childhood, conflict, common sense, debate, EU, drought, brainy, boisterous, cautionary tale, bilingual, bungee jumping, committee, compulsory, cope, democratic, allergic, biodegradable, emotion, dyslexic, donate, endangered, Euro"

Because today's children doubtless fail to understand what "MP3 player" or "celebrity" mean.

"The publisher claims the changes have been made to reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multifaith society."

In other "words", certain Christian, holiday or royalty terms might possibly offend someone someday, regardless of the importance they play in understanding British history. Therefore, we'd better sanitize our dictionary of them before anyone complains. We can't have anyone feel bad, you know.