so why isn't "crepant" a word too?

Years ago, I sent my boss an email about two reports that didn't tie. I referred to the numbers that should have matched (but didn't) as "the discrepant figures."

"Discrepant?" my boss chuckled, questioning my choice of words.

"They don't match. There's a discrepancy." I clarified.

He questioned whether it was a real word, and I suggested he check dictionary.com.

Of course it was there, and my boss conceded the point. These years later I can admit that I wasn't sure it would be in the site -- I wasn't really sure it was a legitimate word.

A couple weeks ago I was reading an article about freedom of religion and came upon a quote by the 17th-century Puritan, Nathaniel Ward*, in which he used the word:

He that is willing to tolerate any religion or discrepant way of religion, besides his own, unless it be in matters merely indifferent, either doubts of his own, or is not sincere in it.

Despite it being more than a decade after we had had the exchange, I emailed my former boss the quote, noting that I am not the first person to use the word.**

My former boss simply noted that coming up with a quote from the 1600's doesn't really prove that a word is in general use today.

*No, I hadn't heard of him either.
** I also noted that I don't agree with or endorse the sentiment.