The Word Watchers
Revising a Dictionary
Angus Stevenson, Project Editor, English Dictionaries and Thesauruses, describes
how Oxford dictionaries are kept up to date.
Why Revise?
Many people think that the bulk of the work done by lexicographers, or dictionary
makers, is that of collecting new words and defining them. Inclusion of the latest
words is indeed a major part of our work, but no less important is the revising
and updating of the entries for words that are already in our dictionaries.
We revise and update all our dictionaries, from the smallest (the Oxford
English Minidictionary), to the largest, the Oxford English Dictionary
(OED) itself. It is an enormous task, but also a very worthwhile one. The English
language is a fluid, ever-changing thing. Take a word such as 'nice', for example:
800 years ago it meant 'silly'; it has also meant 'lecherous', 'strange', and
'lazy'. Closer to our own time, can you think how 'computer' and 'skyscraper'
would have been described in the late 19th and early 20th century when the OED
was first published?
During revision every aspect of a dictionary entry is examined and if necessary
changed.
The Appearance of the Pages
Take a look at these pages from the first and the latest editions of the Concise
Oxford Dictionary (COD). The first edition came out in 1911, and the latest
version, COD10, appeared in 1999.
There's certainly a lot of difference! You'll see that the pages of the first
edition are much more densely covered with print. There are also far more abbreviations
and symbols: in those days the aim was to fit in as many words and as much information
as possible, rather than to be user-friendly. Today we try as hard as we can
to make our dictionaries clear and easy for everyone to understand.
The Selection of Words
The selection of words included is one of the most important parts of our work.
We do have to make a selection: only the full Oxford English Dictionary
tries to include all the words in English!
This task is made easier by the electronic resources that we can call on.
Formerly lexicographers relied on their own knowledge, other dictionaries, and
contributions provided by readers, who noted down examples of words that caught
their eye. Until the arrival of the computer age these word citations, copied
on to cards and filed alphabetically, were our main source of information. Now,
however, dictionaries are written and revised with the help of searchable databases
containing millions of words of English, the Oxford English Corpus and the Oxford
Reading Programme. We analyse these databases to get a true picture of how
the English language is really used today.
As words for new things, or new ways of referring to old things, come into
the language, we spot them and consider whether they should be entered in one
of our dictionaries. In COD1 there was no entry for 'computer', 'radio', or 'television'!
By the same token, we sometimes have to take words out to make room for new
ones. These are generally words that have become obsolete or little-used, or
which proved ephemeral. The first edition of COD had entries for words that
few people will know today, such as 'hedgehoggy', 'impaludism', 'impanate',
and 'imparadise'. More recently, in COD10 we took out entries for 'cowabunga'
[an exclamation expressing delight], 'cassingle' [an audio cassette with a single
piece of music on each side], and 'Chunnel' [informal term for the Channel Tunnel].
Although it originated in the 1960s, 'cowabunga' was popularized by the children's
characters the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, enthusiasm for whom has now waned.
'Cassingles' enjoyed some popularity in the 1980s and 1990s but have now generally
been superseded by CD singles. 'Chunnel' (which dates from 1928!) is still occasionally
encountered, but is used less now that the Tunnel is a reality.
No entries are ever taken out of the OED, however.
Changes in Meaning
Many words change in meaning or gain new senses: for example, 'sex' in 1911
meant only 'being male or female or hermaphrodite'. Gay meant 'full of or disposed
to or indicating mirth; light-hearted, sportive'; 'Lesbian' was simply 'of Lesbos'
[a Greek island].
The Style of Definitions
The way in which we define words has changed considerably over the last last century. For example, COD1 defined
'macaroni' as 'wheaten paste formed into long tubes, used as food', while COD10
calls it 'a variety of pasta formed in narrow tubes'. (COD1 didn't have the
word 'pasta'). 'Neon' is described as 'lately discovered atmospheric gas', rather
than 'the chemical element of atomic number 10, an inert gaseous element of
the noble gas group'.
The 'headword' (the word being defined) itself is sometimes changed. For example,
we may remove accents from words that have entered English fairly recently from
French, because a search of our evidence reveals that the unaccented form is
now commoner. Examples of words that have lost their accents are 'elan', 'matinee',
and 'melee'. Another area of change is that of hyphenation: we now give 'pig
iron' rather than 'pig-iron', and 'overemotional' instead of 'over-emotional'.
Historical dictionaries like the OED and Shorter Oxford English
Dictionary attempt to antedate (i.e. find earlier examples of use) words
and senses: for example, during revision of the OED a citation of the
word 'open' in the sense 'available for business' has been found from the fifteenth
century; previously the first recorded use was 1824.
Research into etymology (word origins) is particularly important for historical
dictionaries. Exciting discoveries are sometimes made, as in the case of the
word 'nachos'. Until 1988 the earliest recorded use of the word was 1969. A
US OED researcher was asked if she could find an earlier use, and also
whether she could discover the word's origin. A young member of staff in the
library where she was doing her research told her that the word was used as
a diminutive for a little boy who had been baptized Ignacio: his family and
friends called him Nacho! Armed with this clue, she contacted the food editor
of the San Antonio Express, who told her that she herself had written
an article about nachos, in which she credited a Mexican chef called Ignacio
Anaya with their invention in the 1940s. A further library search revealed a
1949 mention of the dish and confirmed the existence of the chef Ignacio Anaya.
The mystery was solved!
Even the pronunciation of words changes, and we have to record this in our
books. In the early 20th century some people pronounced the words 'lost' and
'cross' with an r sound (lorst and crorss). This pronunciation
is no longer given in our dictionaries.
We don't refuse to include words that are rude, derogatory, or offensive,
but we use labels or 'usage notes' to warn readers where this is the case.
Attitudes to language in the sensitive fields of ethnicity, gender, and disability
are constantly changing, and we have to take care to reflect current thinking.
Until relatively recently the word 'handicapped' was the standard British term
for someone with mental or physical disabilities, but it is now seen by many
as rather dated and even offensive, and has been superseded by 'disabled' and
other terms. No mention of any problem is made in the COD 9th edition,
but a note was added to the New Oxford Dictionary of English and to the
COD 10th edition.
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