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Subject:OT: Oxford English Dictionary Needs More Words From:John Garison <jgarison -at- IDE -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 4 Aug 1999 11:20:13 -0400
>From Reuters via News.excite.com
Dictionary Seeks Words As It Goes Online
Updated 10:38 AM ET August 4, 1999
By Jill Serjeant LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The distinguished Oxford
English Dictionary needs you. The dictionary, widely regarded as the
ultimate authority on the English language, has launched a worldwide
appeal for words as it prepares to go online to mark the new millennium
with the most comprehensive lexicon ever.
Overwhelmed by a flood of new words, phrases and technical terms coined
in the last 50 years, the OED is asking anyone who speaks or reads
English to submit new words and documentation for them to lexicographers
working on the first complete revision in the work's 120-year history.
"The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has a reputation for being kind of
stodgy, yet this is an incredibly democratic dictionary in which anyone
can participate," said Michelle McKenna, spokeswoman for the
dictionary's U.S. office. "Anyone in the world can help us. As far as I
know, this exercise is unique," McKenna said Tuesday.
The appeal for words is no mere marketing gimmick. Published evidence
must accompany the words or phrases submitted to the OED, so
contributors will have to do research. The appeal echoes one issued by
the OED's first editor, James Murray, who in 1879 asked for assistance
in charting the language. Nearly 400 men and women obliged with more
than 80,000 snippets of information.
Today's editors are looking for new words, slang or regional phrases
that have entered written English recently, as well as "new old words"
dating from earlier centuries. Were there any "authority figures"
before 1954? Or could you have "been there, done that" before 1983? The
OED wants to know. Have you met any "fashionistas" ("critics of the
latest fashion trends") or "sheddies" ("people who pursue their hobbies
in sheds") or gone to a party that was complete "pants" ("rubbish")?
The revision of the OED is scheduled to be completed by 2010, but the
latest edition -- 20 volumes, published in 1996 -- will be available
online next March and is expected to be updated every six months with
incoming contributions. And because the dictionary will be online, it
will have no limits. "It can grow as big as the language. The idea is
just mind-boggling when you think of getting the whole language down so
that it is all there as a reflection of who we are," McKenna said.
Entries can be submitted at the OED's Web site (<http://www.oed.com>) or
by mail or fax to OED offices in the United States, Britain, Australia,
Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.
John Garison
Principal Technical Writer
Integrated Development Enterprise, Inc.
150 Baker Avenue Extension
Concord MA 01742-2174
