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Subject:Re: Oxford English Dictionary Needs More Words From:Philomena Hoopes <PHILA -at- MAIL -dot- VIPS -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 4 Aug 1999 11:29:20 -0400
I can't help but wonder: how many words will the revised OED include, as
opposed to Encarta's celebrated 400,000?
And what will be their relative age and etymology?
Philomena Hoopes
Phila -at- vips -dot- com <mailto:Phila -at- vips -dot- com>
VIPS Healthcare Information Solutions, Inc.
(410) 832-8330 ext 845
-----Original Message-----
From: John Garison [mailto:jgarison -at- IDE -dot- COM]
Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 1999 11:20 AM
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject: OT: Oxford English Dictionary Needs More
Words
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
