A reader writes to complain about “quote” being used as a noun to mean quotation; the reader says that it’s a “made up” word.
Well, if it’s made up, that’s only in the sense that all words were made up. My Oxford English Dictionary lists quote as a synonym for quotation, dating back to the late 1800s. My Random House (2nd ed. 1987) does the same. So does Merriam-Webster Online (see entry 2). One may, if one chooses, conclude that it’s inelegant, though I can’t see why, since it’s clear and short. But it’s a perfectly correct word.
A broader point: Lots of words that people claim “just aren’t words” most definitely are words, under any reasonable test of “wordness.” They are in all the leading dictionaries, and are not listed as nonstandard. Again, this doesn’t mean that one should use them; there may be good reasons to avoid them. But don’t say that they aren’t words, or that they are “made up.”
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