Reply from Oxford.

April 15th 2005, 3 PM, to Oxford English Dictionary:

Dear Sirs,
The English language uses my surname, West, to describe a direction on the compass. To avoid misunderstandings I would like you to change this word in the Oxford English Dictionary. For example, I cannot possibly make hip-hop culture change their use of the term ”west side” unless the OED changes first.

My proposition is: change the word west to wast. Wast is but a slight modification of the word west, resembling the word vast which the wastern landscape and the wastern culture is well described with. It derives from the french word vaste which Gaston Bachelard points out as an especially poetic word in his book La poétique de l´espace chapter 8, pages 169-190 (Paris, 1958). The word vaste is to him a great spring of reverie. How appropriate! Make use of the seemingly endless landscapes and daydreams connected to the word vast and change the word west to wast!

If wast isn´t a good choice in your opinion, any word will do. Of course, it´s up to you!
Please give my proposition serious consideration and reply as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely, Rasmus West

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At 5.35 PM the same day, I received the following reply from OED:

Dear Mr West,

Thank you very much for your e-mail to the Oxford English Dictionary.

I am afraid that the OED is a descriptive dictionary and we are not able to change the meanings of words retrospectively. 'West' has been used to mean a direction since Old English times and continues to be used in this sense today. Our job is to reflect how people use the English language, rather than to dictate what a particular word means or should mean.

You may be interested to know that 'wast' is actually an old variant spelling of 'west', from the Middle Ages.

Thank you once again for writing.

Yours sincerely,

Fiona McPherson
Senior Editor OED.