Trout pout, misery memoir, and Nollywood: ODO quarterly update August 2011

Every quarter, we update the current English dictionary in Oxford Dictionaries Online with new words and meanings that have made it into common usage. For this update, we’ve added dozens of words, from aha moment to yuck factor. You might do a fist pump (on your own) or a more subtle fist bump (with someone else) when you hear that we’ve also added geekery and geekspeak to ODO – or, if you want to show your appreciation in a more restrained fashion, there’s always the golf clap.
But these words aren’t brand new …

The words we add to our dictionaries aren’t always newly coined. This is because a word has to gain a certain currency before we include it in our dictionaries: this handy infographic tells you more about the vetting process. New words are constantly being invented to describe new concepts, and not all of them stick around long enough to merit inclusion in a current English dictionary – who remembers ‘twobicle’ and ‘yettie’?

In addition to the quarterly updates of our current English dictionaries, we also add new words and meanings to the online Oxford English Dictionary (OED) – our comprehensive historical dictionary, which spans over 20 volumes in print. The OED charts the first recorded use of a word and details its development over time. In our March OED update, for example, we included ‘OMG’, and revealed that this initialism was first recorded in 1917! There is some overlap in the new words and meanings we include in our historical and current English dictionaries, but some words will appear in our current English dictionaries long before they are included in the OED. However, the underlying principle is the same – before a word goes in, we have to have evidence of its usage. For the OED, this will be independent published examples over a period of 10 years. For current English dictionaries (like the one on this site), the time period may be less stringent, but the need for independent examples is just the same.
Why do you include ‘undignified’ words such as kewl and trout pout in Oxford dictionaries?

The answer to this is quite simple: so that users of our dictionaries can find out from an authoritative source what these expressions mean.

Our lexicographers don’t make judgements about whether words are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ – they impartially take note when they are first used, and do meticulous research into how they are used, in order to write accurate definitions once the words have gained sufficient currency. If we stopped defining new words and including new meanings at an arbitrary cut-off point – say, after the death of Shakespeare (who was a great linguistic innovator himself, incidentally) – our dictionaries would quickly become unusable in today’s world.

If we only chose words that we felt were ‘dignified’ enough for an Oxford dictionary, who would be the arbiter of such a choice? And what would be the criteria? Deciding we don’t want to include manscaping might be an easy enough call, but what if one of our lexicographers developed a personal grudge against all computing terms, and started slashing thousands of useful words such as click fraud or bookmarklet? If you’re a digital immigrant rather than a digital native, there’s even more reason for you to be grateful that our lexicographers are keeping a faithful record of the English language – warts and all.
This quarter’s additions: from gado gado to goldendoodle

Whether you are indulging in a caprese, grilled meat with chimichurri, or gado gado, you’ll be pleased to hear that all of these food words have made it into this update. You can wash these delicious dishes down with a long black – unless a fat tax is introduced on any of these, which might make becoming a junketeer a more attractive option… Or if instead you want to become a social entrepreneur and solve problems such as water poverty, make sure you don’t make any fat finger mistakes when you are doing your e-banking, or you will find yourself doing a facepalm.

Oh, and we’ve also added goldendoodle – but that was mainly so we could use a cute picture of one to illustrate this post…

Which word is older?


Arnold Zwicky, a professor of linguistics at Stanford University, several years ago coined a term for the mistaken belief that a word is newer than it actually is – the recency illusion. This is an easy trap to fall into – many people feel that if a word is new to them that it must be new to the rest of the world as well.

Have a look at these five pairs of words and see if you can guess in each instance which of the two entered the English language first.

1) Aliterate and irregardless

2) Escalator and escalation

3) Refrigerator and deep freeze

4) Fartlek and cross-training

5) Computer and bean counter

Answers

1) It may come as some small comfort to people who hate the word irregardless that people have probably hated it for more than a century. According to Oxford Dictionaries Online, the word entered our language in the middle of the nineteenth century. Aliterate is considerably newer (the first recorded use is in the 1960s), and should not be confused with illiterate, which has been in use since the middle of the sixteenth century.

2) Escalator has been used to describe the moving staircase since the beginning of the twentieth century – it came into English as a trade name. Escalation, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, came into use in the late 1930s.

3) Although it is tempting to assume that prior to the modern use of electricity there was no such thing as the refrigerator, they have existed for a considerable length of time. The word for the device that is used to keep food items cool dates to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Deep freeze, like escalator, first came to English as a trade name (in 1941), and by the late 1950s had also come to be used as a verb.

4) Even though fartlek has the look and feel of a good old-fashioned Anglo-Saxon coinage, it is the more recent addition of the two (it comes from the Swedish words for ‘speed’ and ‘play’). Cross-training dates to the beginning of the twentieth century, although people had doubtless been cross-training their fartleks for many years prior.

5) Computer has been in use for hundreds of years. It came into English about 400 years ago to describe a person who makes calculations, and in the 1860s began being used to describe a machine that performed such a task. The more recent sense of computer (as an electronic device) dates from 1945. Bean counter didn’t enter the language until the 1970s.

Usage

Irregardless means the same as regardless, but the negative prefix ir- merely duplicates the suffix -less, and is unnecessary. The word dates back to the 19th century, but is regarded as incorrect in standard English

What are the main differences between the OED and ODO?

There are many different types of English dictionary, which have different types of content and coverage and are designed to serve different needs and users. The OED and the dictionaries in ODO are themselves very different. While ODO focuses on the current language and practical usage, the OED shows how words and meanings have changed over time.

The dictionary content in ODO focuses on current English and includes modern meanings and uses of words. Where words have more than one meaning, the most important and common meanings in modern English are given first, and less common and more specialist or technical uses are listed below. The OED, on the other hand, is a historical dictionary and it forms a record of all the core words and meanings in English over more than 1,000 years, from Old English to the present day, and including many obsolete and historical terms. Meanings are ordered chronologically in the OED, according to when they were first recorded in English, so that senses with the earliest evidence of usage appear first and more recent senses appear further down the entry – like a ‘family tree’ for each word.

Both the OED and ODO contain a wealth of evidence from real English to show how words are used in context. In the OED each word meaning is illustrated by a set of quotations, spanning perhaps many centuries, from the earliest recorded appearance to the most recent recorded usages. In ODO, the evidence is derived from the 2.3 billion word Oxford English Corpus, a huge databank of 21st century English, and each word sense in the dictionary is linked to a set of sentences so you can see how people are using the language today.

If you are looking for practical help or advice on how to use English in writing and speaking today, then ODO will provide you with the information you need. If you’re also interested in how our language has developed over time or want to dig deeper into its origins or variations around the world, then the OED is the definitive resource.

If you would like to find out more about the OED, including its history and how it’s compiled, then please visit the OED website.

mitofag:

Won tage won ni awon se English

Shio

isale_gan2:


P.S.  Maybe I misunderstood. . . 

isale_gan2:

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-519155.1984.html#msg9104687



My entry reads nothing like Shakespeare.  More like Mills & Boon, Barbara Cartland. . . lol  

"My beloved; he promised me the world.  I thought he was the one for whom I have waited all this long while.  But, he came and broke my heart.  I was nothing to him.  Fare thee well, I will love you always."

I don't speakit the "Ebonics."  Prob had a few "ibon" moments in my secondary schools days though.

isale_gan2:

"Your English is 100 percent Shakespearean.
    You ARE William Shakespeare!"

LOL. I made up some cheesy corny line about "my beloved."      That site must be looking to sell something.  I would love to take a similar test about my Yo'oba.

BTW, shush, I was never here.

woetooam4j:

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/wikileaks-andy-uba-emeka-offor-etsu-nupe-tried-bribe-former-chief-justice-kutigi-2007-elec




Anyone else ashamed of our leaders as I am?

femmy2010:

Help with this - Translate to/into English Language.

AjanleKoko:

ola,
you'd be surprised to find that isale has a hubby and 6 kids, or something equally dramatic

alj_harem:

what truth,.,., to go to war with us or seperate the country  

Why do u people have have to go to war to solve a problem are there no alternative route to it than going for a war where innocent people would pay for there lives

OAM4J:

You need to get me 7 white goats, 3 red sheep, 10 kegs of yellow palmwine and 50 pieces of Blue kolanuts, then I will graduate you. 

OAM4J:



Isale, na so?

alj_harem:

and yet u are meant to represent jonathan on this forum

guy u are a BIG BIGOT that hates the north. rubbish trash

OAM4J:

Iya Eko, kini mo se o? Abeg o, no use your powers on me o.


@ Ola

I see your hand o, continue. but thread carefully o, Isale is connected to awon agba with powers o. but you are OK sha. 

BTW, I saw your hand on another thread already trying to coach another person. . . You dey try sha but I never graduate you yet o

isale_gan2:

::lightbulb smiley::  LOL.

Just realized where you were going with the line of questioning.

I'll save you time.  I am not named Dosunmu or Kosoko either. 

isale_gan2:

I am not named Oyekan.  Someone (K1) else asked me that before. 

LOL.  No, not at all.  I'm just making him feel at home by tormenting him.  He moderates the Politics Section.  I'm sure he's used to it.

I prefer no sticky no homepage; So, no worries.