Similar considerations and events happen for French language. The execution of unused words from mainstream dictionaries doesn't cause that many ripples probably because people are more focused on another issue : anglicisation. In the era of high-tech, where English is the obvious scientific and technical lingua franca, Academie Francaise is struggling to keep English neologisms out of the official language. It looks a bit like Dom Quichote and windmills to me. They create more French sounding words for technical terms : email becomes courriel, software becomes logiciel... But the multiplication of technical jargons could be compared to a Mongol horde submerging French defenses.

Languages evolve. They're like living being in my view. Sure one may get nostalgic of an older proper form. I value as much old vocabulary as I enjoy slang, and I shamelessly borrow forign words. Need a new word to fill a gap in the vocabulary ? Just borrow it ! French might not be rooted in as many languages as English, but it's a cultural sponge nonetheless. Let it live its life and shed old limbs and grow new sprouts...