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Crosswordese.Com |
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ACRONYM WEEK
Word of the Day - Wednesday, January 12th |
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Word of the Day
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OED (Oxford English Dictionary) Common clue: UK lexicon According to the Oxford English Dictionary web site (http://www.oed.com/): “The Oxford English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past. It traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books. “The OED covers words from across the English-speaking world, from North America to South Africa, from Australia and New Zealand to the Caribbean. It also offers the best in etymological analysis and in listing of variant spellings, and it shows pronunciation using the International Phonetic Alphabet.” One can buy the complete 20 volume set of the OED, 2nd edition, from Amazon.com for $900.00. On the other hand, if one wants the latest up-dates (there are at least 1000 new and revised entries quarterly), an on-line subscription is available for an annual fee of $295. ***** In 1879, James Murray, editing what would become the Oxford English Dictionary, issued an appeal inviting English speakers around the world to submit literary quotations for inclusion, as examples of usage, in the burgeoning work. A certain Dr. W. C. Minor, identifying himself simply as an American physician living near London, was among the first to respond. Only after several years of correspondence did Murray discover that Minor - the source of some 10,000 quotations - was in fact an inmate at the Asylum for the Criminally Insane at Broadmoor, in Crowthorne, England! ***** The longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary? Floccinaucinihilipilification (29 letters): the act of estimating as worthless. [Sources: http://www.oed.com/, http://www.anecdotage.com/index.php?aid=1656 , http://www.anecdotage.com/index.php?aid=3454]
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