Key to symbols and other conventions
Before a word or sense
† | = obsolete |
‖ | = not naturalized, alien (not used in New Edition entries) |
¶ | = catachrestic and erroneous uses (not used in New Edition entries) |
After a label ‘Obs.’ or ‘rare’
—0 | indicates a word or sense for which no contextual examples from printed sources were available to the editors |
—1 |
indicates a word or sense for which only one contextual example from a printed source was available to the editors |
In a listing of variant spellings
Second Edition entries:
1 | = before 1100 |
2 | = 12th century (1100-1200) |
3 | = 13th century (1200-1300), etc. |
5-7 | = 15th to 17th century, etc. |
9- | = 19th century to present, etc. |
20 | = 20th century |
New Edition entries:
eOE | = early Old English |
OE | = Old English |
lOE | = late Old English |
eME | = early Middle English |
ME | = Middle English |
lME | = late Middle English |
14 | = 1400-99 |
15 | = 1500-99, etc. |
16-18 | = 1600-1899, etc. |
18- | = 1800-present, etc. |
-17 | = before 1700 (labelling Older Scottish forms) |
In an etymology
* | indicates a word or form not actually found, but of which the existence is inferred |
< | = from (in New Edition entries) |
> | = developed into or borrowed as (in New Edition entries) |
Within a forms section
α., β., and other letters of the Greek alphabet | indicate lists of forms that are in some way similar or related. For example, in the case of fantastic, adj. and n. the α. and β are used to separate the forms that begin with the letter f and those that begin with ph-. The letters will also appear in the quotations sections alongside the illustrative examples of the similar or related forms. |
Before a date
a | = ante |
c | = circa |
? | indicates an uncertain date |
Within a definition
= | means ‘the same as’ |
Within the quotations section
… | (within cited text) indicates an omitted part of a quotation |
[ ] | surrounds an editorial insertion |
~ | indicates a hyphen introduced in the printing of the First Edition of the OED, which may not have been present in the cited text |
Around an entire quotation
[ ] | indicates a quotation is relevant to the development of a sense but not directly illustrative of it |