What’s A Language Without Snollygoster?

The new Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary is out, and it includes 10,000 new words. But there were many words that had to be taken out to make room. “Among these ghost words, the most unjustly cashiered may well be “snollygoster.” A snollygoster is . . . a snollygoster is . . . actually, without a previous edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary handy, there’s no telling anymore what a snollygoster is. Luckily — and here’s a phrase that must give every last lexicographer at Merriam-Webster the fantods – – that’s what Google’s for.”