Appeals

Words or phrases which appear on the Appeals List are those currently being drafted or revised for the OED for which the documentary evidence is incomplete. Often these are slang or colloquial items which cannot be researched in specialist texts and are most likely to be found by a general reader in non-specialized or popular literature.

Usually the appeal is for an earlier example than our current earliest (e.g. ‘antedate 1970’ for a word for which our earliest example comes from 1970), but sometimes the appeal is for an interdating where there is a large gap in the OED's quotation evidence (e.g. ‘interdate 1589-1910’). Occasionally we ask for a postdating (e.g. ‘postdate 1875’), if an editor feels that an item being revised is still current but has failed to find any recent examples through the usual avenues of research.

Please note: it is generally safe to assume that examples found by searching the Web, using search engines such as Google, will have already been considered by OED editors.

opsit (v.: (S. Afr.) to court)

postdate 1955

opsitting (n.: (S. Afr.) courting)

postdate 1969

to go down the pan (v.: to go to waste, go disastrously wrong)

antedate 1974

Paul-Pry (v.: to pry)

postdate 1924

pause (v.: to suspend a device using the pause button, as in ‘I paused the tape’)

antedate 1981

Peakish (a.: relating to the Peak District of England)

interdate 1681-1991

pick and mix (also pick 'n' mix) (n.: varied range of sweets etc.)

antedate 1961

pick-and-mix (also pick-'n'-mix) (a.: made up of diverse elements or items)

antedate 1961

to play away (from home) (v.: to be unfaithful, commit adultery)

antedate 1988

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