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December 2006 Newsletter
Project newsEtymology newsSeveral OED staff members contributed to the new Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd edition), ed. Keith Brown (14 vols., Elsevier: Oxford, 2006). Philip Durkin contributed the article on Etymology, and was section editor (jointly with Kathryn Allan of Salford University) for the glossary of linguistic terms. Anthony Esposito contributed the article on Albanian, jointly with Bardhyl Demiraj of the University of Munich (and also OED's Albanian consultant). Former staff member Sarah Ogilvie was section editor for languages of the world, and contributed the article on Morrobalama. OED TriviaThe word zyxt is probably familiar to many of us who nevertheless have no idea what it means, as it is the final entry in the second edition of the OED, and thus features on the spine of the last volume of the printed version, which is labelled ‘Wave-Zyxt’. However, as the word is an early Kentish form of the second person singular of the present indicative of the verb ‘to see’ it no longer has a place as a headword in the revised version of the text, now simply and searchably appearing in its rightful place in the entry for the verb. With three other obsolete variant forms in zy- also returning to their home entries, the word currently in the last alphabetical place in the database is Zyrian, though zythum is a strong candidate to take over the honours when we finally revise ‘Z’. Interesting antedatingsRevision of the entries in the December 2006 OED Online update has revealed an earlier origin than previously known for many words, including:
AppealsWords 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 post-dating (e.g. ‘post-date 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.
Please send submissions to oed3@oup.com Quotable QuotesThought-provoking snippets from the OED quotation files: No accounting for tastes 1991 Berkshire Apr. -May 48/1 Also, for solo viola da gamba, Marvin M−'s programmatic depiction of a gall-bladder operation; Alice R−, soloist. Generalize− moi? 1866 F. P. COBBE Stud. Old & New Ethical & Social Subj. 403 The southern races are outward-bent, sensuous, and, even when highly intellectual, by no means given to self-analysis and self-consciousness.... Dancing classes 1913 J. STEPHENS Here are Ladies 287 Children will dance upon the slightest provocation, so also do lambs and goats; but policemen, and puckauns, and advertisement agents, and fish do not dance at all, and this is because they have hard hearts. No pressure 1897 Cyclists' Touring Club Gaz. Sept. 398 The tyre when pumped remained rideable for two or three hours. |
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