Release date 17/01/2002
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Oxford English Dictionary |
Girl Power enters the
Oxford English Dictionary
But Spice Girls were not the first to use it.
The Oxford English Dictionary Online has been updated and amongst the new entries is Girl Power. Defined as "power exercised by girls; spec. a self-reliant attitude among girls and young women manifested in ambition, assertiveness, and individualism", the term is one of several hundred that have just been added to the OED Online, the most up-to-date version of the world famous authority on the English language. The Spice Girls are credited with using the term in the late 1990s; however, riot girls (also a new entrant to the dictionary) adopted Girl Power in the early 90s, in the United States. A riot girl, also known as a grrrl, (another new entry) a young woman perceived as strong or aggressive, esp. in her attitude to men or in her expression of feminine independence and sexuality, is defined in general terms as a member of a movement expressing feminist resistance to male domination in society and esp. to the abuse and harassment of women.
The new words added to the OED Online come from all areas of the English language. Home cinema, homeshopping, and homeshopper have been added, as have Ayurveda, and related terms dosha, kapha, vata, and pitta. High street as an adjective meaning "popular, mainstream" has also made it into the OED Online. Feeding frenzy, decaf, Dolcelatte, herbal medicine, Haircare, frizzy, and vital force are all included in the latest update. Comper, a person who habitually enters competitions in order to win as many prizes as possible and comping, the practice of entering numerous competitions in order to win as many prizes as possible, are two other new entries.
Computing terms added include Ethernet, FTP, telnet, Usenet, and hot-link, which can mean a link between documents or applications which enables data from one source to be incorporated into another, as well as a spicy sausage. Business related terms include dress-down, power dressing and power dresser, dump bin, internal audit, and also from Japan the term karoshi meaning death brought on by overwork or job-related exhaustion. Further highlighting the range of entries, other new terms include false memory, ecofeminism, ecotourism, gimp, kecks, detangler, and high-top fade.
These entries are part of the 7th quarterly update of the OED Online site. Since March 2000 over 10,000 new entries have been added to the site. The latest batch covers Met to micturition. Amongst these entries are a wide range of scientific and technical terms beginning with meta- and micro-. Included in this range are microbrew and microbrewery - a brewery which produces limited quantities of beer, often for consumption locally or on its own premise.
NEW – Advanced Search Features
The OED Online is also unveiling a suite of new features, which enable more powerful and flexible searching of the Dictionary:
*Combine searches with Boolean logic e.g. how many words are illustrated by a citation from Jane Austen AND come from French?
*Search for all the words of Japanese origin which entered the language in the sixteenth century
*Search for all the instances of the words jabberwock or jabberwocky not by Lewis Carroll
* Perform case-sensitive searches
* Search for accented and other special characters
* Find with a single search references to a language name in different forms (e.g. 'Sanskrit', 'Skr.', 'Skt.', 'Sk.')
* Restrict a search to entries with a particular part of speech
* Restrict a search to the results of a previous search
These features are presented on a new Advanced Search page, allowing the current facilities to retain the clear design with which readers have become familiar. Readers can therefore choose at which level they wish to search, meaning that the Dictionary retains its accessibility to general users while supporting serious scholarly research. With over ten thousand revised and new entries now on the site, in addition to the full second edition, the OED is an increasingly valuable resource for all researchers and lovers of the language.
NEW - OED on CD-ROM version 3.0
The new version of the OED on CD-ROM retains the interface and functionality of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) version 2.0, but includes the powerful Advanced search to allow users to construct more powerful searches across the OED text.
New content includes: OED Additions Series Volumes 1-3, Bibliography to the Second Edition, Guide to OED entries, Key to pronunciations, and Key to symbols and other conventions. The CD-ROM can now also be installed on a hard drive for more flexibility.
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