Articles from Oxford authors and editors...
Date | Title | Author/Reference |
08/05/08 |
Nicholas Rollin takes a look at the new words and meanings appearing in the fourth edition of the Oxford Spanish Dictionary | Nicholas Rollin |
17/04/08 |
Some handy hints and tips for language learning, courtesy of Oxford's Take Off In... range. | Simon Christie | 20/03/08 |
Easter - the origins of the word | Simon Christie | 22/02/08 |
An excerpt on the opening of novels from How Novels Work | John Mullan | 24/01/2008 |
A quick look at the 'greening' of the English language. | Simon Christie | 19/12/2007 |
A longer extract on Italian Christmas foods - be warned, you will be salivating! | Gillian Riley | 03/10/07 |
Susie Dent introduces the words of the century so far. | Susie Dent | 22/11/07 |
Ben Zimmer explains how the OED shrunk to the Shorter | Ben Zimmer | 13/09/07 |
An insight into the latest edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary | Angus Stevenson | 20/08/007 |
This new thesaurus has been specially written for university and college students to help them express themselves confidently. | Sara Hawker | 10/08/07 |
A few choice entries from the new second edition. | P.H. Matthews | 17/07/2007 |
A short introduction to the new Modern Welsh Dictionary | Gareth King (editor) | 05/06/07 |
Find out some more of the new words of the 20th century in this extract from A Century of New Words | John Ayto | 01/05/2007 |
The online edition of the Oxford English Dictionary is updated 4 times a year with new words that have entered the language. | | 01/03/2007 |
Learn more about the fascinating history of rhyme in this extract from the Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. | | 12/10/2006 |
In the following extract, Susie Dent reveals her choice for the word of 2006. | Susie Dent | 03/07/2006 |
Timed for the start of the college year, this brand-new dictionary is specially tailored to meet the needs of today's students. | Catherine Soanes | 01/06/2006 |
The Oxford English Corpus is a collection of real twenty-first century English and its research findings are used to write and revise Oxford dictionaries, including the latest edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. | Catherine Soanes | 01/05/2006 |
Three senior OED editors have written a book about J. R. R. Tolkien's involvement with the Oxford English Dictionary. | Ben Harris | 01/01/2006 |
As adults, our passive vocabulary is usually a third larger than our active vocabulary. Find out what your active and passive levels are. | David Crystal | |
| Susie Dent | 01/10/2005 |
In the following extract from fanboys and overdogs, Susie Dent documents some of the changing trends in English usage... | Susie Dent | 01/09/2005 |
September 2005 sees the return of a famous name, when New Hart's Rules, the indispensable style guide for writers and editors, is published. | Angus Stevenson | 01/08/2005 |
The revised second edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English remains the most complete and accurate picture of the English language today. | | 01/07/2005 |
The new POLD is primarily designed for those who want to read or write Latin or even compose poetry in the language. But it goes far beyond that objective in its coverage. | James Morwood | 27/06/2005 |
We are saddened and shocked to hear of the sudden death of Richard Whiteley. | Judy Pearsall | 08/06/2005 |
In conjunction with a major forthcoming BBC2 series, the OED invites you to hunt for words and help rewrite 'the greatest book in the English language'. | Robert Faber | 20/03/2005 |
What sums up a nation or gives us an insight into the cultural differences between us and our neighbours? Where better to start than with language? | C.J.Moore | 01/02/2005 |
Slang is a colourful, alternative vocabulary. It bristles with humour, vituperation, prejudice, informality: the slang of English is English with its sleeves rolled up... | John Ayto and John Simpson | 01/11/2004 |
Susie Dent selects a single word to represent each of the last hundred years. | Susie Dent | 18/10/2004 |
Susie Dent, Countdown's dictionary expert, takes an entertaining look at our ever-changing language, and explores the latest trends in subjects as diverse as street slang, texting and chat-room language, sports talk, fashion-speak, taboo language, and political double speak. | Susie Dent | 01/10/2004 |
See how many of these new sayings from the latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Idioms you are familiar with. | Judith Siefring | 01/09/2004 |
Publication of ODQ6 is a cause for celebration; it is also an appropriate moment to look back at the inception of what has become an iconic reference book. | Elizabeth Knowles | 26/08/2004 |
The word thesaurus comes from the Greek word thesauros, meaning 'storehouse' or 'treasure'. This is an apt description, because a thesaurus is a kind of treasure trove of the language, allowing you to explore its richness and variety. | Judy Pearsall | 06/08/2004 |
Is your writing unexciting? Want to be smitten with what you've written? The Oxford Rhyming Dictionary will take your rhyming skills to a whole new level. | Rachel De Wachter, Editor, English Language Reference
| 05/07/2004 |
This new edition offers a description of the language that is as accurate, up to date, and objective as possible, using resources that the editors of the first edition could only dream of. | Angus Stevenson, co-editor, Concise Oxford English Dictionary 11th Edition | 01/06/2004 |
What we designate as "new words" are rarely in fact new in the strictest sense... | Orin Hargraves | 04/05/2004 |
It is sometimes said that the proverb is going out of fashion, or that it has degenerated into the cliché. | Jennifer Speake | 30/03/2004 |
Not many people know that Oscar Wilde was a full-time journalist, still fewer
that he was the editor of a ladies' magazine... | Matthew Parris | 02/03/2004 |
Thousands of words and expressions entered American English between 1900 and 1999. | Rosemarie Ostler | 29/01/2004 |
| Stephen Regan | 09/01/2004 |
In a much-publicized media and phone-based poll conducted by the BBC over the last few weeks and culminating in a grand finale on Saturday 13 December, J. R. R. Tolkien's epic The Lord of the Rings was voted Britain's favourite novel... | Edmund Weiner | 05/12/2003 |
The weird and wonderful words in More Weird and Wonderful Words are mostly for show – no one expects (or frankly, wants) you to bust out with words like absterge, 'to clean by wiping,' | Erin McKean | 31/10/2003 |
It is fascinating to look back at the words which were created for their time. By looking at the areas in which language is expanding fastest, we can arrive at a fairly accurate picture of the chief preoccupations of the moment. | Susie Dent | 01/10/2003 |
Read a sample from the prologue to The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary. | Simon Winchester | 05/09/2003 |
Ever wondered which member of the royal family was nicknamed Action Man? Or what pet name Marlene Dietrich gave to Ernest Hemingway? | | 07/07/2003 |
Just how different from each other are the world's two leading dialects of English? | | 05/06/2003 |
'Word games', says author Tony Augarde, 'exemplify our basic enthusiasm - and need - for play.' | Tony Augarde | 04/06/2003 |
The year 2003 marks the 75th anniversary of a great lexicographical milestone: in 1928 the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was completed. | Peter Gilliver, Associate Editor, OED
| 07/05/2003 |
The vagaries of English pronunciation have fascinated and appalled people for many years. | Tony Augarde | 22/04/2003 |
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, published this month, draws together a rich diversity of words, phrases, and names with cultural resonance in the English language. | Elizabeth Knowles | 10/02/2003 |
Finding a weird and wonderful word is just as pleasant as finding a beautiful shell along the beach (and words never stretch your pockets out of shape.) | Erin McKean, Senior Editor, OUP North American Dictionary Program | 01/11/2002 |
The present day English word silly is not especially ambiguous, and we are generally familiar with its use in the sense 'foolish, senseless or stupid'. | Margaret Scott | 31/10/2002 |
When linguists raced to Turkey to record Tevfik Esenc in 1992, he had already written the inscription he wanted on his gravestone: "This is the grave of Tevfik Esenc. He was the last person able to speak the language they called Ubykh." | Daniel Nettle is an anthropologist at the Open University who has conducted extensive fieldwork in Africa. Suzanne Romaine, a linguist, is Merton Professor of English Language at the University of Oxford, and has done fieldwork in the island Pacific. | 14/10/2002 |
Cartoons and animations have proved a fertile ground for producing memorable and evocative catchphrases. | The Oxford Dictionary of Catchphrases | 01/10/2002 |
Cockney Rhyming Slang isn't limited to sitcoms and soap-operas, its alive and well and breeding like monks' habits.
| John Ayto, author of the Oxford Dictionary of Rhyming Slang. | 05/09/2002 |
2002 is indeed an auspicious year. It is the first year that can celebrate a World Cup, a Royal Jubilee, and a new edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. | Angus Stevenson | 14/08/2002 |
Brummie Steve Thorne takes a look at our attitudes to accent and sets out to show that Brummie is beautiful. | Steve Thorne is a born and bred Brummie and a lecturer in the History of the English Language and Modern English Language at the University of Birmingham. | 14/07/2002 |
St John's wort, lungwort, and ragwort are well known plants. But a search for the word-ending '-wort' in the Oxford English Dictionary finds more than 400 other examples of plants ending in 'wort' - have you heard of clown's lungwort or garlic treaclewort? | | 01/07/2002 |
One Step Ahead: Spelling author, Robert Allen, looks back on how we ended up with such a crazy system of spelling | Robert Allen | 17/06/2002 |
With the publication of a new edition of the language classic, The Devil's Dictionary, we take a look at the life of the wickedest man in San Francisco - Ambrose Bierce. | | 17/05/2002 |
Are Canadians party animals? We certainly have our fair share of party-related words, as we discovered when we compiled the Canadian Oxford Dictionary.
| Katherine Barber, Editor-in-Chief of The Canadian Oxford Dictionary. | 15 /04/2002 |
Paula Radcliffe excelled in the London Marathon of 14 April 2002, performing record times as a debutante in the women's section of this famous race: she made history as does the word marathon itself. | Glynnis Chantrell | 11/03/2002 |
"You ain’t heard nothin’ yet, folks," is a famous quotation from Al Jolson, from the first talking film The Jazz Singer, released in July of 1927.
| Maggie Scott | 08/02/2002 |
Writer of the Oxford Guide to Style Robert Ritter celebrate the life of the author whose 'Rules' have advised people on all aspects of style for over 100 years. | Robert Ritter | 03/12/2002 |
Tony Augarde examines the relationship between English and Latin. | ©Tony Augarde | 06/12/2001 |
Spoonerisms and malapropisms are both examples of eponyms - that is, words that derive from people’s names. Spoonerisms are named after a real person - The Warden Spooner of Oxford - while malapropisms get their name from the fictitious Mrs Malaprop in Sheridan’s comedy The Rivals. | ©Tony Augarde | 06/11/2001 |
Tony Augarde looks at the bizarre art of lipograms and the authors who have given themselves the challenge of omitting letters from their literary efforts.
| ©Tony Augarde | 08/10/2001 |
During the Second World War, Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire was home to a group of people without whose efforts the war could have dragged on for many more years ... they were the codebreakers who deciphered the Nazis' machine-generated Enigma code ... | | 14/09/2001 |
Why can an be used before some H-words but not others? And which words are they? | | 09/08/2001 |
When you are next in your garden or backyard creating your own little flowery paradise, you may be using implements that were named in English more than a thousand years ago. | Juliet New | 25/06/2001 |
From time to time letters of inquiry, admiration, or amiable dispute still arrive at the University Press in
Oxford, addressed to Henry Watson Fowler, though it is now nearly seventy years since his death.
| | 04/06/2001 |
What do an adder, an apron, and an umpire have in common? ... if we look at the origins of these words we find that all three were formed by a process known as "wrong division". | Catherine Bailey | 01/05/2001 |
Lexicographers are always looking for new words or older words used in new
ways. Was 'to medal' a new use of the noun, I wondered, and where did the word
'medal' come from? | |
