Wiktionary:Names of organizations

Inclusion of names of organizations is an unresolved problem. It is governed by WT:NSE, which leaves the decision to editors, subjecting names of organizations to the arbitrary will of whoever turns up in the RFD discussion. The practice as shown in past RFD discussions and their outcomes has been inconsistent.

Encyclopedic content

Some argue names of organizations are generally encyclopedic content, unsuitable for a dictionary. Some disagree.

It was pointed out that definitions should be brief and unencyclopedic. This is in keeping with WT:CFI § Wiktionary is not an encyclopedia, "Care should be taken so that entries do not become encyclopedic in nature; if this happens, such content should be moved to Wikipedia, but the dictionary entry itself should be kept."

See also #The Nonlexical and the Encyclopedic.

Candidate criteria

Some candidate criteria for including organization names, most of which are not universally accepted:

• Name form
  • Initialism or acronym (rather uncontroversial)
  • A clipping rather than a full name
  • Single-word name
  • Single-word name that is not a capitalized non-name word
  • Single-word name distinct from another included name such as a surname
• Class of information
  • Has an interesting etymology
  • Has an interesting pronunciation
  • Has translations different from the native-language name
  • Has non-compositional translations, different from a word-for-word translation of the capitalized descriptive phrase
• Class of entity
  • A semi-state
  • A geographic region
  • An important organization
  • An international organization
• Other
  • Meets the requirements of WT:BRAND
  • Included in other dictionaries

Translations

Some argue name translations are valid lexicographical content, making names of organizations worth including in a dictionary. Some disagree.

Machine translation of multi-word proper names is a hard problem, especially between English and CJK languages.

Problems

• Careless editors are likely to copy translations from Wikipedia or Wikidata, populating Wiktionary with unattested protologisms. However, the same problem pertains to translations for non-name entries. Indeed, translation tables generally contain many redlinked entries, for which there is neither attestation of use nor tracing to reliable sources.
• Additional entries will consume the attention of the dictionary editors who want to make sure Wiktionary contains only verified content.
• Including proper names merely on the basis of translation or rendering in a different script could easily add a million of non-traditional entries, dominating the non-name content with what from a traditional standpoint is borderline lexicography. Wikidata:NBA is an example that has rendering into different scripts, suggesting even relatively less important organizations would be so supported.

Wikidata

Wikidata entries feature translations in many languages. Wikidata is extremely generous with including entities; it even includes descriptive phrases as topics. However, Wikidata has no attesting quotations. For translations, it does not have tracing to references either. Wikidata has many protologisms copied from Wikipedias and no sound mechanism for getting rid of them.

However, Wikidata can in fact trace "name" of an entity in various languages to sources via multiple URLs, so some form of substantiation and tracing is available. These would not be attesting quotations, but that would be one step toward eliminating protologisms from Wikidata. On the other hand, Wikidata has no requirement to avoid unattested names of entities: an unattested term in a language seems to be considered better than no term, to allow the language to select the entity.

Etymologies

Ku Klux Klan is an organization with an interesting etymology. It is included in Merriam–Webster, AHD, Collins and Cambridge.

Regarding etymologies as significant for inclusion seems unlikely to lead to inclusion of huge numbers of names of organizations.

Other dictionaries

Monolingual dictionaries AKA "lemmings" generally exclude names of organizations. They include some, though. One of the best included names is United Nations. Another one is European Union, arguably a semi-federation or a geographic name.

OED includes almost none. Merriam-Webster is more inclusive. As per Talk:Democratic Party, Oxford Learner's Dictionaries, AHD, Collins and Macmillan are even more inclusive. Collins is notable as including even National Aeronautics and Space Administration and so are Dictionary.com and TheFreeDictionary, non-traditional dictionaries. The monolingual dictionaries do not have the translation inclusion rationale.

See also WT:OED and WT:MWO for coverage of names of organizations.

Wiktionary is not paper

WT:NOTPAPER was pointed out. Traditional dictionaries suffer from paper limitation. They cannot afford to serve as a comprehensive name dictionary in one work with a non-name dictionary.

See also #The Nonlexical and the Encyclopedic.

Precedent

Names deleted include:

• Parties: Talk:Democratic Party, Talk:Republican Party, Talk:Japan Socialist Party.
• Armed forces and police: Talk:Canadian Armed Forces, Talk:Canadian Forces, Talk:Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Talk:South African Defence Force, Talk:South African National Defence Force, Talk:Soviet Armed Forces, Talk:United States Air Force, Talk:United States Army, Talk:United States Marine Corps, Talk:US Marine Corps, Talk:US Marines.
• Banks: Talk:Banca d'Italia, Talk:Bank of Canada, Talk:Bank of China, Talk:Bank of England
• Sports: Talk:Canadian Football League, Talk:Major League Baseball, Talk:National Basketball Association
• Other: Talk:Akademio de Esperanto, Talk:American Dialect Society, Talk:Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Talk:Central Intelligence Agency, Talk:Federal Reserve System, Talk:National Police Agency, Talk:North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Talk:Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, Talk:Real Academia Española.

Names kept via RFD include:

• Talk:Greenpeace and Talk:Ku Klux Klan
• Talk:Red Cross and Talk:Red Crescent
• Talk:Democratic Party (before it was deleted later), Talk:Transhumanist Party (before it was deleted later), Talk:UK Independence Party and parties listed at Talk:Progressive Conservative Party.
• Talk:European Central Bank, Talk:European Commission, Talk:European Company, Talk:European Cooperative Society, Talk:European Council, Talk:European Free Trade Association, Talk:European Stability Mechanism
• Talk:Grand Orient Freemasonry
• Talk:Royal Marines and Talk:Royal Navy

Initialisms and acronyms

Including organization names that are initialisms and acronyms seems uncontroversial, except perhaps such names of companies. Such names can be found in Category:en:Organizations, Category:en:Associations, Category:English initialisms and Category:English acronyms.

Comparison to place names

There are dictionaries of place names. It does not seem easy to find a dictionary of organizations. Place names are often single words and inhabitant names or relational adjectives are often derived from them: New Yorker is derived from New York and Londýňan and londýnský is derived from Londýn.

Opposition in a 2021 place name vote showed the adopted policy to be very generous, including Granite Peak, Granite Bay, Granite Lake, and Granite Basin Lake.

Political parties

Some political parties were deleted as failing WT:COMPANY: Democratic Party and Republican Party. However, WordNet does not recognize parties as companies, nor do parties seem to match a dictionary definition of a company. These two parties previously survived RFD. Another deleted party is Japan Socialist Party. Transhumanist Party survived a RFD and so did parties listed at Talk:Progressive Conservative Party.

Currently included political parties are listed as bluelinks in Thesaurus:political party.

Some names of parties are defined generically, as including multiple parties. Such is the case of Socialist Party.

Political parties were singled out for keeping in a vote about organizations, but this was a reason to oppose the vote for some.

Multiple names of political parties are included in Moby Thesaurus II.

Page views

Page views give us hints for what people are looking for. Some comparisons:

• International Monetary Fund is viewed as often or more as IMF[1]
• European Central Bank is view much less than ECB, but not as of lately[2]
• Federal Bureau of Investigation is viewed much less often than FBI[3]
• Federal Bureau of Investigation is viewed more often than nonadrenergic and noncholestatic (22x than this one)[4]

The above is not conclusive but does suggest what viewers find worthwhile.

The Nonlexical and the Encyclopedic

Philip B. Gove's The Nonlexical and the Encyclopedic was quoted in support of omission:

(x) Names of organizations, social, fraternal, religious, academic, etc., will be omitted (Phi Beta Kappa, Boy Scouts of America, Ku Klux Klan, Carnegie Foundation, Federal Farm Loan Board, Royal Academy)

However, the same list of omissions omits most name material that Wiktionary does include:

(a) The Gazetteer section will be omitted

...

(k) Prenames (given Christian proper names) will be omitted (Jonathan, Louisa)

...

(o) Names of characters in mythology will be omitted (Diana, Odin, Isis, Eumenides)

(p) Names of persons in the Bible will be omitted (Barabbas, Deborah)

(q) Names of saints will be omitted (Anthony, George, Cecilia)

(r) Names of cities, states, counties, etc. will be omitted (Boston, Florida, Yorkshire)

(s) Names of buildings, streets, urban districts, etc. will be omitted (Whitehall, Fleet Street, Latin Quarter)

(t) Names of battles, wars, treaties, etc. will be omitted (Blenheim, Boer War, Kellogg Pact)

...

(z) Names of stars and constellations, etc. will be omitted (Sirius, Ursa Minor, Andromeda)

...

(bb) Names of rivers and currents will be omitted (Nile, Father of Waters, Japan Current, Gulf Stream)

(cc) Mottoes, proverbs, famous sayings will be omitted (ich dien, ad astra per aspera, the proolof the pudding is in the eating, silence gives consent, all is grist that comes to his mill, when Greek meets Greek)

etc.

The work is available online as pdf.

The above reinforces the notion that organization names are as encyclopedic or non-encyclopedic as other names, including geographic names and astronomical names.

The work makes it clear paper limitations were what drove the exclusions from Webster's Third New International Dictionary: "When it became practically indisputable that the physical bulk of the Second Edition with its 3393 pages and its thickness of five inches could not expand enough to take in 50,000 new words and 50,000 new senses of old words, a number of relevant editorial decisions had to be made."

The work makes it clear pronunciation of names is subject of coverage in a dictionary: An Explanatory and Pronouncing Dictionary of the Noted Names of Fiction; Including Also Familiar Pseudonyms, Surnames Bestowed on Eminent Men, and Analogous Popular Appellations Often Referred to in Literature and Conversation.

Multi-word snapshot

What is controversial are multi-word names, not initialisms and acronyms. What follows is a snapshot of included names, as of 15 Oct 2022. There is not necessarily consensus to include these.

610 Office, Action démocratique du Québec, Adidas, Aeroflot, African Union, Ahnenerbe, Akazu, Albanian Orthodox Church, Alcoholics Anonymous, Alexandrian Orthodox Church, Alitalia, Amtrak, Ancient Church of the East, Anglican Church, Anglican Communion, Antiochian Orthodox Church, Apple, Arab League, Armenian Apostolic Church, Army of the Republic of Viet Nam, Army of the Republic of Viet-Nam, Army of the Republic of Vietnam, Assyrian Church of the East, Auntie, Auntie Beeb, Baraca, Beehive, Black Army, Black International, Bloc Québécois, Borussia, Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Camorra, Catholic Church, Chaldean Catholic Church, Cheka, Chelsea, Chinese Communist Party, Church of Cyprus, Church of England, Church of Greece, Church of Ireland, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church of Rome, Church of Satan, Church of Scientology, Church of Scotland, Church of the East, Clinton News Network, Comecon, Comintern, Commonwealth of Independent States, Communications Security Establishment, Communications Security Establishment Canada, Communist News Network, Communist Party of China, Conservative Party, Constantinopolitan Orthodox Church, Cosa Nostra, Council of Europe, Criminal News Network, Crow Agency, Dad's Army, Defra, Dignitas, Dong Zong, Eastern Orthodox Church, European Central Bank, European Company, European Economic Area, European Free Trade Association, European Parliament, European Union, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Fannie Mae, Fatah, Faux News, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Intelligence Service, Federal Reserve, Financial Intelligence Unit, Finnair, Foreign Office, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Franciscans, Freddie Mac, Freemasonry, French Academy, Friars Minor, Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Georgian Orthodox Church, Gestapo, Ginnie Mae, Girl Scouts, Grand Orient Freemasonry, Great Church, Greek Orthodox Church, Green Party, Greenpeace, Haganah, Hamas, Hanseatic League, Hezbollah, Highways Agency, Hitler Youth, Holy Church, Home Office, House of Representatives, Interahamwe, Internal Revenue Service, International Court of Justice, International Cricket Council, International Maritime Organization, International Monetary Fund, International Telecommunication Union, Interpol, Irish Republican Army, Ivy League, Jerusalemite Orthodox Church, Jobcentre, Katipunan, Kawasaki, Kochtopus, Komsomol, Ku Klux Klan, Kuomintang, Labor Party, Labour Party, Latin Church, LDS Church, League of Nations, Liberal Democrats, Liberal Party, Life Guards, Little League, Mafia, Makhnovshchina, Marine Corps, Maronite Church, McDonald's, Mensa, Microsoft, Minorites, Mormon Church, Nation of Islam, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Auto Sport Association, National Bureau of Investigation, National Diet, National Party, National Party South Africa, National Socialist German Workers' Party, Natural Governing Party, New Democratic Party, New National Party, Nintendo, No Such Agency, NORAID, North Atlantic Terrorist Organization, Official Monster Raving Loony Party, Opus Dei, Orange Order, Order of Friars Minor, Ordnance Survey, Oriental Orthodox Church, Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, Oxfam, Parti Quebecois, Peace Corps, People's Army of Vietnam, People's Liberation Army, People's Liberation Army Navy, Peugeot, Philathea, Polish Orthodox Church, Politburo, Porsche, Progressive Conservative Party, Qantas, Red Army, Red Army Faction, Red Crescent, Red Cross, Reformed Episcopal Church, Roman Catholic Church, Romanian Orthodox Church, Royal Navy, Russian Orthodox Church, Sally Ann, Sally Army, Salvation Army, Sande, Serbian Orthodox Church, Seventh-day Adventist Church, Shomrim, Socialist Party, Stasi, Syriac Orthodox Church, Syrian Arab Army, Tamil Tigers, Tammany, TCDSB, Territorial Army, Three-I League, Transhumanist Party, Tupamaros, Tupamaros West-Berlin, UK Independence Party, Uniate Church, United Nations, United Nations Organization, Universal Postal Union, Vietcong, Vietnam People's Army, Warsaw Pact, Weatherman, World Bank, World Court, World Health Organization, World Trade Organization, Yugoslav People's Army, Zapas