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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Fantoosh sitooteries and more: new Scottish entries in the March 2019 update
Submissions to 2017’s Free the Word appeal continue to be a great source of regional words and senses for the OED. The March release includes a number of newly-added Scottish…
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Caucus: a cant word of the Americans in the March 2019 update
There are perhaps few political terms more idiosyncratically American than caucus. In 1818, the English writer Sydney Smith referred to it as ‘the cant word of the Americans for the…
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Appeals update: March 2019
Appeals to you: #wordswhereyouare and #hobbywords Last year saw the ninetieth anniversary of the completion of the first edition of the OED, and as part of the celebration we’ve been…
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New Words in the OED: March 2019
Welcome to the March update to the OED, which contains no fewer than 650 new words, phrases, and senses. Each new and revised entry has been painstakingly researched, and at no…
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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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Words from the 1970s
The decade that time forgot? Can any of the new vocabulary of the 1970s help to pinpoint the sources of disenchantment?
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