Technical Translations Look Inside The Concise Oxford English Dictionary 2011…

19-Aug-2011

As the Concise Oxford English Dictionary celebrates its centenary, (Woot!) Melandra Smith from Technical Translations ponders on some of the words that have made it into the latest edition.

"Jeggings", a cross between jeans and leggings, that’s a word I know and love, since I have some in my wardrobe. "Mankini" – no, we don’t do those in our household. And what does “Woot” mean exactly?

The answer to this and many similar questions lies within the pages of the most recent edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. A kind neighbour has just presented my baby son with one at his christening celebrations last week, and so, being a bit of an anorak when it comes to all things linguistic, I have been dipping into the book myself with mixed interest and curiosity.

Smaller and more contemporary than the Oxford English Dictionary, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary first appeared on the nation’s bookshelves in 1911. The hot new word in 1911 was “biplane”. The latest edition is the 12th. It contains 240,000 words, definitions and phrases and includes 400 completely new entries this time around.

Editor Angus Stevenson says that it is frequency of use that determines whether a new word will make it into the dictionary or not, rather than new entries being chosen by a panel.

"We have a database of 2bn words which has whole texts, whole websites. So we key the word into that and see how common it is. It's how the dictionary has always worked - we get as much evidence as we can so we know it's not just a small number of people using the word and it's not going to disappear," he stated in a recent interview.

Here are some of the words and phrases that made the grade this time around:
alternative vote: an electoral system whereby voters rank candidates in order of preference, candidates being eliminated and votes redistributed until one candidate achieves the required majority.
domestic goddess: (informal) a woman with exceptional domestic skills, especially cookery.
mankini: (pl. mankinis) a brief one-piece bathing garment for men, with a T-back.
retweet: (on the social networking service Twitter) repost or forward (a message posted by another user).
woot: (especially in electronic communication) used to express elation, enthusiasm, or triumph.

 

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