Tyler Cowen notes Amon Shea’s observation that many words that describe things that are commonly encountered are nonetheless obscure.
It seems that words are more of a “tipping point” thing than a “long tail.” Words either are used somewhat commnly or virtually never.
It seems that all it would take for a word to bust through would be for one prominent writer to consistently use it in the proper context. I’m obviously nowhere near prominent enough, but I wonder if someone like Cowen is… Where’s the threshold?
