Shorter oxford english dictionary bit
The book sells for $150 in the United States, roughly equivalent to the 95-pound price in Britain. "America is the biggest and most productive influence on the language now," Stevenson explained. "Shakespeare used them all the time," he noted.Ī majority of references once came from Britain, but no longer.
"Terms of abuse are a particularly productive area," Stevenson said, but he quickly pointed out that their frequent use was hardly new. That word is still listed as an American slang term from the early 20th century for marijuana cigarette. Rowling's "muggles" - to delineate the nonwizards in the world of Harry Potter - is too recent to slip in. New social concerns account for the inclusion of "economic migrant," "gateway drug" and "asylum seeker." The last edition faithfully recorded "Thatcherism" and "Thatcherite." The new one introduces "Blairism" and "Blairite."Įxpressions coined for "Bridget Jones' Diary," by its author, Helen Fielding, like "singletons" and "smug marrieds" make it, but under the five- year rule, J.K. Since the previous edition of the dictionary in 1993, other new words include carjacking, control freak, DVD, line dancing, lap dancing, pashmina, road rage, shock jock and supermodel. The dictionary has also attempted to catch up with the language of the streets by including such terms as "bling-bling" and "bad ass." The former is "the wearing of expensive designer clothing and flashy jewellery" the latter, a tough, aggressive or uncooperative person a troublemaker. "Klingons," "Jedi knights" and the "Force" have fought their way into the book along with other "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" references like "dilithium," "warp drive, "dark side, "mind-meld" and "Luke Skywalker." " Falun Gong" and the " Taliban" enter for the first time, along with "asymmetrical warfare" for the standoff between great powers and less-equipped ones. There are "wannabe," "aerobicist," "body-piercing," "comb-over," "lipectomy," "body mass index," "orthorexia," "Botox," "Viagra" and "Prozac." Many of the new additions shed light on the decade's obsessions. The new words come from fast-talking areas like global marketing, science fiction, popular literature, films, business and politics. "By tradition a word has to be used five times, in five different places, over five years, but something like 'text messaging' got in sooner because it became so widely used so quickly," said Claire Turner, a spokeswoman for the trade and reference department. The velocity of change has made the dictionary's customary method of certifying new words or usages positively quaint. "With technology and the speed of communication, new words and usages become established much more quickly," said Angus Stevenson, 42, the new edition's co-author. The lexicographers scrolling through their 70 million-word database inside the Oxford University Press' columned campus headquarters have had a breathless decade.
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But it is beach reading compared with the full 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford has been around for a long time, so shorter is a relative concept - the two-volume dictionary is 3,792 pages.