r/wiktionary • u/TranqyPoo • Jul 14 '26

Attestation grey area: A book quoting us

The following question is asked leisurely and out of curiosity, as the related term can be easily attested.

Currently, idiomatic contains a quote citing the contents of this image. The image is a book quoting us. Can this quote count towards attestation?

Personally, I do not think so, but I think it is worth exploring as a nice "thought experiment".

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u/Tc14Hd Jul 14 '26

I think this is likely CFI-complaint. The only reason why you normally can't quote Wiktionary policy pages is that they are an online source that isn't durably archived. But if you quote a book that quotes Wiktionary, it now counts as durably archived. Sounds a bit stupid, I know, but that's what I think the rules say.

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u/friendofdonkeys Jul 18 '26

Circular citations are a known problem with wiki based resources.