Check out the column header on page 524 of The Canadian Oxford Dictionary (first edition, 1998). You have to wonder what the editors were thinking. If they wanted to avoid such an eye-popping header all they had to do was add a few words on the previous page, or change the spacing slightly, and the entry that comes before this one (“fist fight”) would have bumped to the top of this column and thus become the header.
On the other hand, if the editors are juvenile miscreants like me, they might have spent time adjusting the previous page to ensure that this entry took the header position.
There’s no way they didn’t see it–a project like The Canadian Oxford Dictionary doesn’t get out the door without a high level of scrutiny.
My vote is is with the juvenile miscreants. Bookish people may seem dull, but they have a nasty underbelly. I can imagine the editors of this tome giggling like school girls at the thought of grumpy grannies and tight-assed grade-9 teachers getting their knickers in a knot every time they’re in the “F” section of the dictionary. Or even better… the high school principal! Bwaah haaa haa haa haaa!!!!