Paperback writer
As the publication date approached for the paperback version of my history of the Oxford English Dictionary – now available from all good booksellers! – I found myself, perhaps inevitably…
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Eminem-inspired ‘stan’ added to the Oxford English Dictionary
It’s official: as of June 2018, the Oxford English Dictionary now includes a definition of stan, ‘an overzealous or obsessive fan, esp. of a particular celebrity.’ The dictionary’s entry page…
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Oxford lexicographers of the 1930s: J. L. N. O’Loughlin and Herbert Le Mesurier
As the 1930s began, after many years of being the centre of operations for the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary, the ‘Dictionary Room’ in the Old Ashmolean, in the…
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Resistance is fertile: the language born of the feminist movement
Ninety years ago today, while Charles Onions and his team were raising a glass to the completion of a project that had been fifty years in the offing, women across…
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The Meaning of Everything: a new preface
The following is an abridged version of the preface to the new edition of Simon Winchester’s highly-acclaimed The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary Lexicography is…
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Professor Eric Stanley (1923-2018)
His many friends at the Oxford English Dictionary were saddened to hear of the death of Professor Eric Stanley of Pembroke College, Oxford, and until his retirement (in 1991) Rawlinson…
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Release notes: The many faces of energy
Energy is everywhere. It powers our homes and businesses, our trains and automobiles; a whole industry has built up around it. We count it in calories, yet we often wish…
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Spoiler alert! New words notes for June 2018
The June 2018 update of the OED adds more than 900 new words and senses, including the selection of items described in greater detail below. The full list of entries can be…
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Release notes: Manx English pronunciation
Two years ago, OED began to expand coverage of pronunciations to include more varieties of English used around the world. Entries labelled as Australian, Canadian, Caribbean, Hong Kong, Irish, New…
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Release notes: Regional English words new to the OED
Last year the OED collaborated with the BBC and the Forward Arts Foundation on a project for National Poetry Day. Twelve poets from different English regions were commissioned to each…
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