OED100: Revising Function Words in the OED
Function words are the words that enable language to operate, rather like the gears in a machine. Typically they don’t have a referential meaning of their own but connect together…
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OED100: Repainting the dictionary
Painting the Forth Bridge is a saying that often comes to mind when discussing the task of updating the OED. The phrase refers to the massive railway bridge across the…
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Webinar: Semantic transfer and the OED
Semantic transfer and the OED: investigating metonymization Thu, 26/05/2022 · 4:00 PM London (GMT 1:00) Lauren Simon, holder of an MSt in Linguistics, Philology, and Phonetics, will describe the methodology and…
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Flattery and incongruous mixtures in the Historical Thesaurus of the OED
One of the words added to the OED this update is plámás, used in Irish English to mean ‘flattery; insincere or exaggerated praise, esp. when used to cajole or persuade’…
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Content warning: may contain notes on the OED March 2022 update
This update contains nearly 700 words, senses, and phrases which have been researched, defined, and included in OED for the first time, from absolute threshold to ydraw. Absolute threshold, the…
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Release notes: Irish English
Most of the OED’s quarterly updates in recent years have featured the results of our ongoing work on broadening the dictionary’s coverage of world varieties of English and tracing the…
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OED March revision update: just what the doctor ordered
This quarter’s OED update includes a revised entry for doctor. The word today immediately brings to mind white coats and stethoscopes, but the early history of the word had more…
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Hidden Sci-Fi Women of the OED
As a science fiction reader and space fan myself since the mid-80s, this is a topic of great interest to me. Whilst searching for quotations to add to OED entries,…
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OED100: The OED in 2022
2028 will mark the centenary of completion of OED’s First Edition. In the run-up to that milestone, the OED team is undertaking a series of projects (collectively named OED100) designed…
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