Posts by Oxford Dictionaries
Who cares about English? Part 2
We at the Oxford English Dictionary recently partnered with the British Council to host a panel discussion entitled ‘Who cares about English?’ The panel was chaired by John Knagg, Head of English Research at the British Council, and consisted of: John Simpson, Chief Editor of the OED Romesh Gunesekera, Booker prize shortlisted novelist Henry Hitchings, [...]
David Crystal’s favourite words
David Crystal is one of the world’s greatest authorities on the English language and has written many books on the subject. The forthcoming book Wordsmiths and Warriors by David and Hilary Crystal explores the heritage of English through the places in Britain that shaped it [...]
Early Grey: The results of the OED Appeal on Earl Grey tea
Charles, the 2nd Earl Grey (1764–1845), was born on 13 March. He served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the early 1830s, but is most famous today for his association with Earl Grey tea, a type of China tea flavoured with the citrus extract bergamot. But did Earl Grey ever actually drink Earl [...]
What do you call a librarian on Tumblr?
There is nothing, it seems, that the Internet loves so much as . . . well, cats falling off draining boards, but second to that, it’s abbreviations. As technology and social media expand, and communities continue to grow across the Internet, so language and language use develop and adapt to cater to new situations. From [...]
Baby Names Generator: from Amelia to Zebedee
Spring is fast approaching, and with this comes new life (in the animal and plant world anyway), so what better season than spring to launch our fantastic new Baby Name Generator! Our generator has been specially designed to help you choose the perfect name for your future baby, boy or girl, hypothetical or about to [...]
Braggadocious? Never. Just excited about the Oxford Dictionaries February 2013 update!
“Having a mare of a week? With hump day over, the weekend is in sight and it’s time to start thinking about getting blootered on appletinis! Or do you prefer to put on your schlumpy clothes and curl up with a tray bake? My tortie has a more tweetable Friday night than that. But you [...]
A comic quotation quiz
Moliere wrote in La critique de l’école des femmes (1663) that ‘it’s an odd job, making decent people laugh.’ In the hopes that 2013 will be filled with delightful oddity and humor, we present this quiz, drawn from the Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations. Edited by the late Ned Sherrin, the dictionary compiles words of [...]
An underground railway by any other name: seven subway monikers explained
This week marks the 150th anniversary of the opening of the world’s very first underground railway, in London. As this revolutionary mode of transport caught on across the globe, locals dubbed their underground railways with unique titles.From the Tube in London, to the clockwork orange in Glasgow, find out more about the reasons behind these [...]
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