Features
We look at how the internet has affected the O.E.D, how new words make it in, our fascination with word games, and we have words with an editor.
New Words
People frequently write to the dictionary saying things like, "I have invented the word ‘pridehole’, to describe the kind of difficulty my friend Will has got himself into and then is too stubborn to get out of. Can you include it in the O.E.D.?" These people misunderstand the nature of the O.E.D. – it is not a list of newly coined words or expressions, but a historical record of the language as it is used.
Internet
Edmund Weiner, deputy chief editor of the O.E.D., takes pleasure in describing how online publishing has improved his venerable institution.
Words and Word Games
The English have a passion for playing with words - everything from Scrabble to crosswords. The first acknowledged crossword, published on December 21, 1913, was created by Englishman Arthur Wynne for the "New York Sunday World".
Meet an Editor
Peter Gilliver is a lexicographer working on the O.E.D. So what does that mean, exactly?
