I found a great website, sponsored by Oxford University Press, where language lovers can adopt an endangered English word and pledge to keep it in use. It’s fun, silly, and entertaining. I am now the sponsor of interfation (noun): the act of cutting off another person while speaking.
Clearly I have my work cut out for me: interfation is obsolete and doesn’t appear in Merriam Webster. New words are coined every day, so it’s not surprising that old words fade away, particularly if there are current words, such as interruption, that provide the same meaning. Interfation, though, is specific to speaking while interruption can occur in all sorts of activities.
Browsing the site is a locupletative activity for a succisive hour. My hope is that interfation will not suffer the scaevity to fall from circuland. These examples serve as a reminder to writers and editors that a desktop dictionary is not the full extent of English vocabulary.
Adopt your own endangered word at: Save the Words