Oxford picked 'big society' as Word of 2010 over vuvuzela and Boris bike. The shortlist is a case study in how English coins, blends and borrows new words.
Posts with tag.: Lexicography
The University of Pune is compiling the first Pali-Sanskrit-Tibetan dictionary, closing a gap that has forced Buddhist scholars to work through two reference books at once.
Shanzhai and fangnu made it into the new Oxford Chinese-English dictionary. Two entries, 670,000 words, and a quiet record of what China has been worrying about.
The OED holds millions of coined words that never caught on, from furgle to wibble, and the reason they failed has nothing to do with quality.