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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Nincompoop

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Fartherred (talk | contribs) at 20:46, 22 October 2009 (Nincompoop). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Nincompoop (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log)
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Although this is a charming word, the Wikipedia isn't not a dictionary. This article is on the subject of Idiot (person) which the Wikipedia already has an article on. The article cannot reasonably be changed to give an encyclopedic entry, since the topic is a word, extending it would only result in the addition of things like the usage of the word in history and so forth and its etymology etc. The Wikipedia is not about the usage of words either, except in the most general sense (the Wikipedia covers topics like prefix, but tries to cover it for a whole class of words, and does so for all languages, whereas nincompoop is simply and only an English word that is already covered in Wiktionary).

The lexical companion already has the information on this word, and any more information should be placed there, in the more appropriate place. The Wikipedia is not a dictionary and is not about the meaning or usage of words. Given that the synonymous article exists, the article should be deleted. Given the scope of the article, this article cannot be saved.- (User) Wolfkeeper (Talk) 15:24, 17 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

However this debate turns out, I never intended to suggest that the contributors intended abuse. Some articles just do not belong in Wikipedia regardless of how helpful the intentions of the contributors were.--Fartherred (talk) 20:46, 22 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • No one's suggesting a soft redirect for every word. But words that are valid Wikipedia titles (primarily, nouns) that do not have a reasonable on-wiki redirect target are certainly reasonable candidates for soft redirects. (That is, someone might genuinely be looking for information on nincompoops in general; the reason we don't have an article on them is that there's really nothing concrete to say. Rather than tell the reader "we don't know what you're talking about," we say "we don't have anything encyclopedic to say about nincompoops, but you can check out wiktionary for information on where the word came from." Powers T 14:01, 20 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]
If people seeking a "Nincompoop" article should be directed anywhere, they should be directed to the article Idiot (person). It they are not interested in the concept but interested in the word, any book or online dictionary will do. Wikipedia does not need to apologize for not having an article on nill or nip. Both words are contained in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition. Those seeking "Nip" in Wikipedia are redirected to two articles using the word and abbreviations for notable Encyclopedia articles. Neither will Wikipedia need to apologize for not having "Nincompoop."--Fartherred (talk) 20:46, 22 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]