Join the OED-BBC Wordhunt

Your language needs you!

Did you eat a balti before 1984 or have a mullet before 1994? And do you know how they got their names?

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'.

250 years after Dr Johnson wrote his celebrated dictionary with the aid of just six helpers, the BBC and the Oxford English Dictionary have teamed up to appeal to the nation to help solve some of the most intriguing recent word mysteries in the language.

The OED seeks to find the earliest verifiable usage of every single word in the English language - currently 600,000 in the OED and counting - and of every separate meaning of every word. Quite a task!

The fifty words on the OED's BBC Wordhunt appeal list all have a date next to them - corresponding to the earliest evidence the dictionary currently has for that word or phrase. Can you trump that? If so the BBC wants to hear from you.

Words in the list include: balti, Beeb, boffin, codswallop, full monty, mushy peas, pear-shaped, and pop one's clogs.

For more information, visit the OED website:
www.oed.com

Printer friendly version