Micronational Dictionary
.png) Cover of the fourth edition, designed by Pio Lowe | |
| Author | Zabëlle Skye |
|---|---|
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Micronational jargon |
| Published | 18 October 2022 (first edition) 15 May 2023 (second edition) 11 August 2023 (third edition) 4 January 2024 (fourth edition) |
| Publisher | Institute of Micropatriological Research |
| Pages | 72 (fourth edition) |
| Text | Micronational Dictionary online |
The Micronational Dictionary is the principal English-language dictionary of micronational jargon, published by the Institute of Micropatriological Research (IMR) since 18 October 2022. A historical dictionary, all four editions have been written and edited by micropatriologist Zabëlle Skye; the most recent edition was published on 4 January 2024, and has 402 entries across a total of 72 pages.
Historically, there were a number of attempts at documenting the slang used by the micronational community; the earliest such work was a webpage entitled A glossary of micronational terms, created in January 2001 and last updated on 20 May 2003. Although the webpage contained 52 entries—including proper nouns—many were without any additional information beyond a listing, lacking a definition. On 30 November 2009, the Organisation of Active Micronations (OAM), an intermicronational organisation in the MicroWiki sector, launched The Micronational Dictionary. Initiated and maintained by Secretary-General Gordon Freeman, the online dictionary had 20 entries, with the last known addition being on 10 June 2011. The OAM dissolved on 29 December.
Skye first conceived the idea for a dictionary of micronational jargon in late March 2019, while working at his erstwhile micronational research company Statistic-Fire (now Statistic-Dime). After presenting his idea to the MicroWiki@Discord discussion venue in early April, the principal technical administrator of MicroWiki, Karl "Luxor" Friedrich, stated that he could host a micronational dictionary as a subdomain of MicroWiki instead, resulting in the creation of MicroWikiDictionary on 7 April. However, the project was unsuccessful, reaching only 43 entries by 10 May 2020—much less than Skye had anticipated. Skye founded the IMR on 21 June 2022, and in July, while researching websites relating to the early history of micronationalism on the Internet, Skye discovered A glossary of micronational terms and became motivated to resume work on a micronational dictionary.
After collecting and formatting several entries between 22–30 July, Skye launched the online Microtionary on wiki hosting service Miraheze on 6 September as a project of the IMR, which had over 110 lemmas—including proper nouns and acronyms—by 9 September. Finally, he conceived the idea for a PDF listing micronational phrases in early October, but eventually decided to turn the project into an ebook. He wrote the dictionary between 15–18 October. Consisting of 161 entries across 18 pages, Skye chose the name as it was the first physically-published dictionary of micronational jargon. Skye produced three copies in paperback format in London and released the work online via the Internet Archive. The second edition, with 211 entries, was published as an ebook on 15 May 2023, followed by the publication of the third edition—with 306 entries—on 11 August in a print-only format. It was unveiled at MicroCon 2023 in Ypres, Belgium.
Editions
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All editions have been written and edited by Zabëlle Skye, and published by the Institute of Micropatriological Research (IMR). The first three editions were published under different imprints; the first was ostensibly published by MicroLunarius Publications on behalf of the IMR, and the second and third under Sonder-Traverse Press.
| Edition | Published | Entries | Media type | Pages | Cover designer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | 18 October 2022 | 161 | eBook and print | 18 | Zabëlle Skye |
| Second | 15 May 2023 | 211 | eBook | 31 | |
| Third | 11 August 2023 | 306 | 54 | Karl "Luxor" Friedrich | |
| Fourth | 4 January 2024 | 402 | eBook and print | 72 | Pio Lowe |
| Upcoming | |||||
| Fifth | 5 January 2025 | ~470–490 (planned) | 90+ | ||
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Cover of the third edition
Background
Prior dictionaries
- See also: List of micronational dictionaries
The earliest dictionary of micronational parlance was a webpage entitled A glossary of micronational terms, created in January 2001 and last updated on 20 May 2003. It was likely written and maintained by—denoted on the website as "an informational document of"—the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Sovereign Principality of Corvinia, headed by Graham John Francis de Sales Wheeler (born 1979). Peter Ravn Rasmussen (born 1965), the Prince of Corvinia, may also have contributed several words to the glossary. Although the webpage contained 52 entries—including proper nouns—many were without any additional information beyond a listing, lacking a definition. Activity in Corvinia dwindled throughout 2004 and 2005, and the entire website went offline after 18 January 2007.
On 30 November 2009, the Organisation of Active Micronations (OAM), an intermicronational organisation in the MicroWiki sector, launched The Micronational Dictionary. Secretary-General of the OAM Gordon Freeman—also known as Philip Fish—initiated the project and would contribute all of its 20 entries, with the last known addition being on 10 June 2011. The most viewed entry in said dictionary as of 14 August 2011—according to the last available archive of the website on the Internet Archive—was micropatrology, with 209 views. The fate of The Micronational Dictionary is unknown, but the OAM dissolved on 29 December and the website is now offline.
MicroWikiDictionary
Zabëlle Skye, author of the Micronational Dictionary, entered micronationalism on 31 December 2017 upon his creation of the Republic of New Finland—later succeeded by the Kingdom of New Finland then the now-erstwhile Principality of New Eiffel on 11 August 2018. Skye joined MicroWiki on 27 September 2018 and became a prolific editor in the succeeding three months. Skye first took an interest in intermicronational affairs by late January 2019, and gradually became interested in MicroWiki community history later that year. While working for his erstwhile micronational research company Statistic-Fire (now Statistic-Dime), he conceived the idea for a dictionary of micronational jargon in late March 2019.[a]
After presenting his idea to the MicroWiki@Discord discussion venue in early April, the principal technical administrator of MicroWiki, Karl "Luxor" Friedrich, stated that he could host a micronational dictionary as a subdomain of MicroWiki. Similar to MicroWiki, it would run on MediaWiki and operate with a wiki-based editing system. Skye opted to abandon their dictionary in favour of this project instead, believing that it would be more easily accessible on an already established website. On 7 April, MicroWikiDictionary was created. However, additions of new entries were slow; by 17 May, only ten articles had been created. By 10 May 2020, that number had risen to only 43 entries, at which point MicroWikiDictionary was largely considered by MicroWiki editors to be a failed project.
Publication history
Microtionary and the creation of the Micronational Dictionary
On 21 June 2022, Skye founded the Institute of Micropatriological Research (IMR) dedicated to micropatriology and micronational history. In July, while researching websites relating to the early history of micronationalism on the Internet, Skye discovered A glossary of micronational terms and became fascinated by the entry for YAMO. The entry, dating YAMO to "at least 1998", surprised Skye who had assumed that the term was coined in the early 2010s in the MicroWiki community. Realising that other micronationalists would also not be aware of the origins of many micronational terms like YAMO, Skye was motivated to restart work on a micronational dictionary, and began collecting and formatting entries between 22–30 July. On 6 September, Skye launched Microtionary on wiki hosting service Miraheze as a project of the IMR. By 9 September, it had over 110 lemmas—including proper nouns and acronyms.
In early October, Skye conceived the idea for a PDF listing micronational phrases, but eventually decided to turn the project into an ebook. He began writing the dictionary on 15 October, taking and copyediting the entries he had collected for Microtionary, which was finished and published three days later on 18 October as the Micronational Dictionary. Consisting of 161 entries across 18 pages, Skye chose the name as it is the first physically-published dictionary on micronational jargon. Skye produced three copies in paperback format in London and released the work online on the Internet Archive, advertising it via the IMR's Twitter (now X) account. It was received positively, with many micronationalists expressing astonishment that there were enough unique terms in micronationalism to warrant an entire dictionary.
Second edition
On 20 October, the IMR was incorporated as an Agency under the Department of Education of the Empire of Lehmark. Emperor William Lehman, fond of the institute and the dictionary, sought to support the projects of the IMR, including the planned second edition of the Micronational Dictionary by Skye. On 14 November, Lehman exchanged research papers with micropatriologist and legal academic Harry Hobbs, who himself was very fond of the dictionary. Skye would regularly collect entries throughout the ensuing months, posting them on the national Discord server for Lehmark when seeking feedback. On 20 April 2023, however, Lehmark unexpectedly dissolved, returning the IMR to Skye's full ownership.
After having collected several entries, work on the second edition officially commenced on 9 May, with Skye writing pages and copyediting entries for an average of five hours per day until 14 May, at which point the number of entries had risen to its final count of 211. 32 pages in length, the second edition also included a preface and special chapter detailing the origin and spread of the word micropatriology. Originally intended for publication on 1 June, a technical issue with Skye's online publishers lead to the second edition being instead published early on 15 May. No physical copies were produced.
Third edition (print-only)
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Following the publication of the second edition, Skye immediately began collecting entries for a third edition of the dictionary which was originally planned for a wide release on 4 January 2024. On 17 July 2023, Luxor, now a co-owner of MicroWiki, approached Skye with the idea of producing physical copies of the third edition of the dictionary in order for it to be presented at the upcoming MicroCon 2023 summit in Ypres, Belgium, which Luxor would be attending alongside MicroWiki administrator Andrew. They were representing MicroWiki at the summit. Skye accepted, and "work[ed] overtime" (according to the preface of the fourth edition) to complete it. Luxor designed the cover for the dictionary, basing it upon the International Typographic Style.
When finished, 95 new entries had been added for a total of 306 terms across 54 pages, including the addition of an introduction, chapter on the etymology of micronation—revealing the word's origin for the first time ever—a dedication to micropatriologist Fabrice O'Driscoll (1949–2008) and an acknowledgement for individuals who had helped with the creation of any edition of the dictionary. On 4 August, Luxor printed 12 copies of the dictionary in the Czech Republic; it was then unveiled at MicroCon 2023 in Belgium between 11–13 August. There was a sizeable interest for it, with many micronationalists fond of its unique concept. Photographs of micronationalists holding the dictionary such as Kevin Baugh, President of Molossia, and Randy Williams, Sultan of Slowjamastan, were posted online, resulting in increased online exposure.
Fourth edition
After the publication of the third edition in a physical-only format on 11 August, the fourth edition—which would be published in both print and online—assumed the publication date of 4 January 2024. The fourth edition was dedicated to both O'Driscoll and Nicholas Randouler (2004–2020), a friend of Skye. With 402 entries, it also introduced a special 7-page long chapter dedicated entirely to the etymology of micronation, an author page, and stylised table of contents. The cover was designed by Pio Lowe. The collection of entries for the fourth edition concluded on 8 December 2023, with regular copyedits made up until its publication. Upon its release, Skye advertised the dictionary on several micronational venues, including Facebook, the MicroWiki Community Discord server, r/micronations on Reddit and on micronationalist Twitter.
In late January 2024, A copy of the third edition was presented at the 2024 TMA Winter Summit in Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan, held by the Taiwanese Micronational Alliance (TMA). The dictionary was presented by Lowe of the New Rubix Republic, who was in attendance at the summit.
Fifth edition
Work on the fifth edition has already began. It is planned for publication on 5 January 2025 and will have an estimated 470–490 entries.
Content
This section covers the content of the fourth edition. The Micronational Dictionary contains 402 entries across 72 pages; it has an acknowledgement, preface and introduction. The fourth edition is dedicated to O'Driscoll and Randouler. The table of contents contains a quotation by Bruno Cava and the dictionary's logo, which is a yellow μ (the prefix symbol for "micro-") inside of a book.
Outside of the alphabetical list of entries, there are two exceptional chapters dedicated entirely to the etymologies of micronation (pages 51–57) and micropatriology (58–60), respectively. In the back matter of the dictionary, the 61st page is a bibliography of micronational dictionaries, and page 62 has a note written by the author thanking the reader for accessing the work. The final two pages, unnumbered, consist of the author page and a page regarding the statistics of the book—the number of words, characters, pages and entries.
After the introduction, pages 3–4 cover the inclusion criteria for entries; pages 5–6 explain the formatting of the dictionary; and pages seven and eight contain the glossary of terms used and the pronunciation guide, respectively. The dictionary uses syllabic hyphenation to indicate how each entry is pronounced. A historical dictionary, every entry contains an etymology, represented by the date the term was coined or first attested, the coiner or user first attested, and the place of coinage, as well as any additional notes regarding the word's formation or ultimate origin.
According to the book itself, the eBook version of the fourth edition—which is the most readily available—is 25,786 words long, with 148,765 characters (excluding spaces) or 172,569 characters when spaces are included. The principal font used for the work is Bitstream Charter, while Mukta Mahee is used to denote the nature of entries. The fourth edition has over 290 nouns, 70 proper nouns, 30 adjectives, 5 verbs, 4 symbols (pictograms), 3 prefixes, 2 interjections, 2 adverbs and a single suffix—@Discord—and phrase—this ain't no cyberwar, Logan.
Criteria for inclusion
The dictionary is intended to contain all terms that originate within micronational parlance. However, it does not include the names of micronations or intermicronational organisations, micronational demonyms, constructed languages, monetary units, time zones, memes, geographic or linguistic sectors. Certain proper nouns are included, such as micronational events which are considered to be noteworthy by the author, non-geographic sectors, generational designations and "exceptionally popular or historically-significant websites".
In order for a word to be included, it has to have been in "common usage" within a given sector for a minimum of six months, or be a lexeme of a word already in the dictionary that has appeared in at least a single academic work. Neologisms and protologisms are eligible for inclusion if they were proposed by a micropatriologist or micronational institute for a previously unnamed concept or phenomenon within micronationalism. This is because the author believes that the inclusion of these terms will avoid the accidental coinage of synonymous terms for already-named concepts.
Obsolete terms that never satisfied the above criteria are eligible if they are "historically significant or noteworthy". The fourth edition of the dictionary gave two examples: "The earliest name for a concept or predecessor to a later commonly-used term." Exceptions to the criteria—for both excluding or including terms—may be made on a case-by-case basis for, according to the fourth edition, "certain, particularly exceptional entries."
Reception
Editions of the Micronational Dictionary have consistently received positive feedback. Upon the publication of the first edition, many micronationalists expressed astonishment that there were even enough unique terms within micronational jargon to warrant an entire dictionary. The fourth edition was also praised for its length of 72 pages. The concept, choice of entries, scope of the dictionary, its professionalism and the etymological notes of entries have received praise, while the choice to use syllabic hyphenation instead of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to identify the pronunciation of entries has been criticised by some. The reception for the entry for micronation—which has been at least slightly altered in every edition—has also consistently received a polarised response. Many micronationalists have noted the dictionary's usefulness for new micronationalists who are unfamiliar with the community's jargon. Skye's decision to release all editions under a free Creative Commons license has also been lauded.
Footnotes
- ↑ Skye first created an article on MicroWiki entitled "list of micronational terms" on 21 February 2019.
External links
- Micronational Dictionary at WikiData (Q114771644)
Fourth edition: