If reading were a sin, the average person today would be a saint.

And this dictionary in progress would be blasphemy.

Just look at the facts. People are addicted to TV. Right? Like super addicted. What else can you say when the average person sits in front of the television for over three hours each and every day? The average person sinks 6.6 weeks into the tube every year. Do it in one sitting and you'd be glued to the set 24 hours a day for 46.6 days. Quite a nice little national obsession we've got going, eh? Or is it? If the whole nation is investing huge chunks of time into TV, that's what normal is. By that standard, it's also normal to read a paltry 0.4 hours per day. That's just six days per year of reading.

Are you one of these saints? Me? Not on your life.

Mea maxima culpa!

The written word has been a life long obsession, or more generously, a passion. And it's a passion shared by many. But how many? They say 10% of the drinkers drink 90% of the booze. I wonder if something like that is true for readers? It could be. We, the word obsessed, can find the well written word just about everywhere. Novels. Novellas. Short stories. Flash fiction. Nonfiction. Newspapers. Magazines. Journals. White papers. Poetry. Plays. Screenplays. Lyrics. Blogs. I've even read a few well written emails.

If reading is your passion, then you may already subscribe to the belief that the English language is the greatest achievement of mankind to date. If reading is your passion, you're probably a sinner too. Not that that implies any kind of moral point between word readers and screen watchers.

The purpose of this dictionary is to collect and spotlight words and phrases and author quotations which deserve more ice-time, more face-time. The words and phrases you will find here are on the verge of extinction. These words are a credit to their language—they have the power to entertain, elucidate, and educate. These words, phrases and author quotations deserve, perhaps, our attention more than yet another evening's slate of television.

This dictionary is an eclectic sampling of the English language's history and genius. Ultimately, The Death of Fissiparous and Other Words is dictionary for people who love words.

A new endangered word is highlighted every day, weekends included! Enjoy.

— CJ Cooney

Do your part: Help keep the words alive and smash illiteracy in one fell swoop! Email a word to a verbally challenged friend or three! Drop the big-word bomb in conversation! Fearlessly throw endangered words into your next txt msg!

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