« What is it? | Home | My big fat organized sock drawer »
January 6, 2007
Oxford English Dictionary + 'Balderdash & Piffle' = Word Up
From London, England and the Washington Post's Kevin Sullivan came the news on January 4, 2007 that the origin of words in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) — all 600,000 of them — is now actively in play.
Long story short: The OED last year asked viewers of the BBC lexicology TV program "Balderdash & Piffle" to send in what might be the origin of words or phrases mentioned on the show as part of its "Wordhunt" collaboration with the Oxford University Press, the OED's publisher.
The BBC said 7,000 emails came in about the 47 words on last year's shows.
As a result, 35 entries in the dictionary were changed to incorporate the newly received information.
Here's the Post article.
- Oxford Editors Are No Wazzocks, Putting Public to Work on Words
According to the august Oxford English Dictionary, going bananas was simply not done before 1968, nobody went bonkers before 1957 and no one went to the loo before 1940.
But the publishers of the 600,000-word reference book, billed as "the definitive record of the English language," are willing to be proved wrong. So they are asking language-loving British television viewers to help them trace the murky etymological roots of 40 common English-language expressions, from "wolf whistle" to "regime change" to "sick puppy."
Oxford University Press, the publisher, is teaming up with "Balderdash & Piffle," a BBC television lexicology program, to run down the origins of such acutely British expressions as "wally" (a fool), "wazzock" (an idiot) and "whoopsie" (excrement). As far as the dictionary's 400-plus researchers have been able to make out, crazy people became "daft as a brush" in 1945 and "one sandwich short of a picnic" in 1993.
Before 1976, "marital aids" were known by less genteel names, and using them, along with other more sexually adventurous behavior, became "kinky" in 1959. Some terms on the list are too naughty to be printed here. But the Oxford editors are as interested in their X-rated beginnings as they are in "identity theft," "spiv" (a sharply dressed hustler), "mucky pup" (a messy child) and "prat" (a fool or a jerk).
"Words do have a real fascination," said Peter Gilliver, associate editor of the dictionary. "It's all knowledge, and it is worth tracking down."
The English have a special relationship with the language named for their land. From Chaucer to Shakespeare to Dickens, this country has given the world some of its most memorable literature. The spoken word is also revered here, and English debaters articulate even the most mundane ideas with remarkable music and vocabulary. Americans puzzle over Britons keeping their spare "tyre" in the "boot" of their car, but most admit that they sound clever doing it.
So it came as little surprise early last year when nearly 2 million people tuned in for each episode of the first "Balderdash & Piffle" "Wordhunt" collaboration with Oxford University Press. BBC officials said viewers sent in about 7,000 e-mails about the 47 words on last year's list. Gilliver said viewers turned up uses of common phrases in old letters, magazines, unpublished papers and other sources not available to the dictionary's researchers. As a result, he said, 35 entries in the dictionary were changed.
"Bog standard," which means the basic, no-frills model of something, had been listed as a term arising from the world of computers in the 1980s. But Gilliver said a British man found a 1968 automotive magazine in his garage that mentioned the term in relation to a model of a car. A "nit nurse" refers to a British nurse who traveled from school to school checking students for head lice. Gilliver said the term was thought to date from the mid-1980s, but a viewer last year dredged up a reference from 1942.
"It's a very democratic process," he added, noting that the dictionary's editors have solicited public input since they started compiling the first volume in 1879.
The dictionary is in the middle of its first cover-to-cover revision, a process that Gilliver said started in the early 1990s and might take another 20 years. In the meantime, he said, the English language continues to evolve, and editors are constantly updating.
Every three months, they publish revisions to an alphabetical slice of the dictionary — the one released last month covered entries from "pomander" ("a ball or perforated container of mixed aromatic substances used to perfume a room or cupboard") to "Prajnaparamita" (a Buddhist deity). Editors also include any new words from other parts of the alphabet that come to their attention.
Some of the most recent new additions — such as "Talibanization," "La Niña," "webcast" and "in-line skating" — reflect changing times. "Bake sale," "pork-belly futures," "pom-pom" and "Porta Potti" seem to plug obvious gaps. "Mr. (and Mrs.) Potato Head" was long overdue, and what dictionary is complete without "pond scum"? Some additions acknowledge ever-changing colloquial usage: "Power" alone had at least 70 variations added, including "power shopping," "power walking," "power breakfast," "power lunch," "power shower" and "power nap."
Gilliver chuckled when asked about two new discoveries by the world's most sophisticated etymologists: "poopy" and "booger."
"Every kind of language is worth investigating," he said.
Much of the best of bookofjoe derives from my wonderful readers around the world.
Girl [and guy] — you know it's true.
January 6, 2007 at 04:01 PM | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c5dea53ef00d835714f0c69e2
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Oxford English Dictionary + 'Balderdash & Piffle' = Word Up:
Comments
The comments to this entry are closed.