Showing 11-20 of 28 entries tagged
“OED ambassadors”
Nick Sharratt’s favourite word
Illustrator and author Nick Sharratt is known worldwide for his much-loved work creating and illustrating books for children (and their parents!). Having loved drawing for as long as he can…
Words from the 1950s
Guest blogger John Ayto on the language of the 1950s – the decade the culture of youth came of age:
Words from the 1940s
It was a decade of war and peace: the first half monopolized by worldwide conflict, the second tentatively reaching out towards ways of avoiding a repetition of the first. Together…
An interview with Daisy Johnson, author of Everything Under
Author and OED ambassador Daisy Johnson recently visited our Oxford HQ to talk to us about her debut novel Everything Under, an eerie retelling of the Oedipus myth set on…
Talking and listening on a quiet street in Barnsley
Poet, playwright, author, and broadcaster Ian McMillan muses on the localisms of his South Yorkshire hometown Barnsley in this blog post for our Words Where You Are public appeal for regionalisms,…
Professor Jim Al-Khalili’s five favourite words
Theoretical physicist Professor Jim Al-Khalili is known worldwide for his work on nuclear reaction theory as well as his broadcasting and publication credits, which include the BBC Radio Four programme…
Words from the 1930s
The history of cool as a general term of approval is a patchy affair. It emerged in African American English by the early 1930s, perhaps as a development of an…
‘There remains something extraordinary’: David Whitley on the OED
Tony Harrison begins his major poem ‘V’ with a quote from the 1980s leader of the Miners’ Union, Arthur Scargill. Scargill says that his father “still reads the dictionary every…
Words from the 1920s
In the decade following the war to end war (a coinage first recorded in 1914) there was frivolity in the air, but also a residue of tension, of anxiety, that…
Baking the OED: Kate Young’s ‘formerly’ and ‘subsequently’ cheesecakes
Cheesecake, n. 1.Formerly: †a tart or pie containing a mixture originally including cheese, later usually curds or cream, eggs, sugar, butter, and various flavourings (obsolete). Subsequently: a dessert or sweet…
