The Oxford English Dictionary is asking the public to submit information online on the origins of words and phrases such as the ‘Bellini’ cocktail and the expression “running about like a blue arsed fly.”
Nicola Burton, a spokesperson for the publishers, commented, “the digital age has presented a host of new opportunities which are changing lexicography every day.”
She claimed that the initiative is “one more step in a process that began with the digitization of the OED in the 1980s.”
Linguist Raphael Torrance, a student at Lincoln, condemned the move as “gimmicky”, as it “undermines and devalues the respectability of this sacred institution. Stuff like this belongs on Urban Dictionary.”
Burton disagreed, explaining, “James Murray’s [the dictionary’s first editor] original appeals went out in print and were answered by mail and any information received after the relevant part of the alphabet had been printed couldn’t be incorporated into the dictionary until the next print edition.”
Paul Nash, the Honorary Vice-President of the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles welcomed the “intriguing” move.
He argued that “readers of the OED are likely to be (as a group) very widely read and will probably come up with good citations, which are earlier, or clearer, than those already noted by the editors.”
However, he expressed a note of caution as “a glance over some of the comments on the website suggests that many people are reporting only vague recollections and hearsay.”
“I fear the OED editors will have to wade through a lot of that sort of stuff to find the useful references.”
Cherwell readers with information about the origins of words can contribute to the project at www.oed.com/appeals
