Showing 11-20 of 54 entries
“People & the OED”

An ode to the OED
‘I carted the 20 volumes home with such elation that I stopped at the fishmonger’s to buy some turbot for a celebratory dinner.’ Assistant editor of the Daily Telegraph Christopher Howse on the OED:
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An antedating for gay, and other treasures from the Burgess Papers
OED Associate Editor, Peter Gilliver, discusses some of the recent research involved in updating the entry for ‘gay’.
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The art of reading for the OED: Chuck Deodene
Previously in this series on the art of reading for the OED, we have heard from Ruth Mateer, Joy Winnington, John Healey, and Vivienne Painting on their work with the dictionary’s Reading Programmes. Here, Chuck Deodene talks us…
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The art of reading for the OED: Vivienne Painting
‘A favourite aspect of both programmes is the joy experienced when finding a ‘good’ quotation or an antedating. The feeling is virtually euphoric!’
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The art of reading for the OED: John Healey
‘There’s nothing like the thrill of finding a word that isn’t in the dictionary yet. It gives me a real buzz. I think it must be similar to the thrill that scientists feel when they discover a new species or a new sub-atomic particle.’
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The art of reading for the OED: Joy Winnington
In this next post of the series, Joy Winnington, a reader for the Science Reading Programme (SciRP), shares her experience of the work and the titles that have especially inspired her:
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Reading Programmes: the art of reading for the OED
‘If we count it worth while to have all words, we can only have them by reading all books…drawing as with a sweep-net over the whole extent of English Literature…’…
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How are words added to the OED?
Words come into the English language in all manner of ways. The OED’s mission is to record all of these word stories, capturing their development as they continue to unfold.
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Gender and genre: students, researchers, and the OED
Professor Susan Watkins reflects on using the OED as an important way of reflecting on the history of gender and sexuality in relation to women’s writing.
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An Oxford lexicographer of the 1960s: Penny Silva
On this blog, we have explored the lives and careers of lexicographers who have contributed to the Oxford English Dictionary and others of Oxford’s dictionary ‘family’ from the 1920s to…
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