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“Quarterly updates”
Release notes: East African English
Recent OED updates have included a significant number of new entries from South Africa and Nigeria. In this quarterly update, the OED continues to broaden its coverage of words from…
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From Pythagoreans to soysages: words relating to vegetarianism and veganism in the Historical Thesaurus of the OED
As we were updating the entries soy and soya this quarter, we took the opportunity to review our coverage of words for vegetarian and vegan foods and diets in the…
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Release notes: IGN-
A verdict of ignoramus The word ignoramus is today most familiar to us as a way to describe a stupid or ignorant person; however, the word has its origins in…
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Stress busting and smoking hot: the OED June 2022 update
The latest update to the OED includes over 700 new entries and senses. These range alphabetically from the East African ahoi (a person or body of people given the right…
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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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From the humble chip to the finest flour: an update on etymology
Among the words in this latest quarterly release there are quite a few etymologies of common words with long histories in English. Among those that date back to the earliest…
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Unmentionables, trousers coughs, and words for the riotously drunk: the December 2021 update to the HTOED
Pants, kecks, rammies, trews, unmentionables… These are just a few of the words in the Historical Thesaurus of the OED (HTOED) category trousers, which usefully complements the newly revised OED…
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