Dictionary's Vault of Rejected Words Uncovered

Millions of words that just didn't make the cut according to the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary lie unused in a little-publicized vault owned by the Oxford University Press. The vault—whose existence was uncovered by a research student compiling a "Dictionary of Non-Words"—contains untold numbers of small cards, each bearing a word that was submitted but never approved, some of them centuries old. Newer failed words are digitized.

A senior editor denies that the words are rejects and says they still have a chance of making it into the dictionary—if people start using them. The Telegraph lists dozens of the never-made-it words the dictionary released to the researcher. They include "dringle," meaning the watermark a glass of liquid leaves on wood, "quackmire," meaning the muddy edges of a duck pond, and "wurfing", meaning surfing the Internet while at work.
(More Oxford English Dictionary stories.)