Wordorigins.org

The online OED has just published another quarterly update, revising the entries from quittal to ramvert. New words added to the dictionary include subprime, adj.; wantaway, adj.; cookie cutter, n. & adj.; and radiophysics, n.¹; this last referring to branch of physics dealing with ionizing radiation; the original entry, which is now radiophysics, n.², refers to the physics of radio waves.

Editor John Simpson comments on the changes here.

Grant Barrett, over at The Lexicographer’s Rules has an article on what criteria to use when buying a dictionary.

His comment on etymology makes me a bit uncomfortable. Although he’s right that etymology is not an absolute requirement for most everyday uses. If you’re going to invest $30+ for a good dictionary that will last you several years, you should get one with etymologies. Chances are, you will want to look up a word’s origins at some point.

And note that his criteria apply equally well to evaluating online dictionaries.

The Oxford English Dictionary has released its quarterly update for this Spring and it’s different than past updates. To date, the updates for the new, third edition have proceeded alphabetically starting with the letter M. By that schedule, this update should have covered from quits to somewhere in the letter R. But instead, this time around the editors chose to update selected words from throughout the alphabet, plus the words that surround these selections. These selections include American, and, climate, compute, fuck, gay, genetics, and love. The words were selected because they have undergone significant change since they were last revised, with additional meanings and forms, or because they have complex semantic, syntactic, or etymological issues that need new explication.

Next quarter will pick up with quits and each subsequent quarter will alternate between an alphabetical range and an updating of select words. This will allow the editors more flexibility in updating those words that are seeing rapid change in modern English and will make the OED a more useful reference.

Editor John Simpson’s complete explanation of the update can be found here.

The American Dialect Society has selected subprime as its Word of the Year for 2007. You can see the whole list here.

It seems that every dictionary, linguistic web site, and philological organization must have a word of the year. Why should Wordorigins.org be any different?

Later this week the American Dialect Society will select its word of the year, so until then here are my suggestions for 2007 words of the year. These are words that are characteristic of broad trends or significant events of the year. The choice is subjective and many other words and phrases are undoubtedly equally deserving. I have not tried to pick a single word as the word of the year; instead, I present a list of representative words in alphabetical order.