Oxford dictionary relaunched on the Net
Source: Agencies |
December 1, 2010, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE Oxford English Dictionary's online version was relaunched yesterday a decade after it first appeared on the Internet.
The new version contains 600,000 words, 3 million quotations and covers more than 1,000 years of the English language, organizers said.
As well as providing words' meanings, the online dictionary allows readers to trace the evolution of the language with the help of the Historical Thesaurus of the OED, which is fully integrated into OED Online.
A search for "recession," for example, will show that it first appeared in 1606 when it was used to describe "a temporary suspension of work or activity."
In 1614 there are references to it meaning "a desertion of party principles," and more than 200 years later a second definition, "the action of ceding back; a territory that has been ceded back" appeared. But it was not until 1903 that a newspaper referred to a recession in an economic context.
OED Online also reveals that if Prince William had proposed to Kate Middleton 300 years ago, he might have asked her to "join giblets" with him, or suggested that they "buckle," a word used by poet John Dryden in 1693 meaning to unite oneself in wedlock.
Writers who influenced the language are listed, including George Orwell who not only coined phrases like "doublethink" and "Newspeak" but also "bureaucratize" and "soft center."
"Through intensive research in both past and present-day usage we are rewriting the story of our constantly changing language," said John Simpson, chief editor of the OED.
The new version contains 600,000 words, 3 million quotations and covers more than 1,000 years of the English language, organizers said.
As well as providing words' meanings, the online dictionary allows readers to trace the evolution of the language with the help of the Historical Thesaurus of the OED, which is fully integrated into OED Online.
A search for "recession," for example, will show that it first appeared in 1606 when it was used to describe "a temporary suspension of work or activity."
In 1614 there are references to it meaning "a desertion of party principles," and more than 200 years later a second definition, "the action of ceding back; a territory that has been ceded back" appeared. But it was not until 1903 that a newspaper referred to a recession in an economic context.
OED Online also reveals that if Prince William had proposed to Kate Middleton 300 years ago, he might have asked her to "join giblets" with him, or suggested that they "buckle," a word used by poet John Dryden in 1693 meaning to unite oneself in wedlock.
Writers who influenced the language are listed, including George Orwell who not only coined phrases like "doublethink" and "Newspeak" but also "bureaucratize" and "soft center."
"Through intensive research in both past and present-day usage we are rewriting the story of our constantly changing language," said John Simpson, chief editor of the OED.
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