Oxford Dictionaries Online Adds New Words Including MOOC and Buzzworthy
Oxford University Press has added more than 40 new words to their online dictionary.
Here’s the complete list with links to the definitions.
A Selection of Words from the New Words List
Incorrect Reporting
It’s also worth pointing out that several media sources are incorrect when reporting the list of new words.
These words HAVE NOT been added (at least as of today) to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) but rather Oxford Dictionaries Online (ODO) , a completely different reference resource from the same publisher, Oxford University Press (OUP).
What’s are the Differences?
This page from OUP helps explain the differences and includes a helpful chart.
Here’s a bit of what you’ll read.
The dictionary content in ODO focuses on current English [that’s why so MANY new, tech related terms] 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.
Read the complete explanation.
All of this means that both dictionaries have difference criteria to determine new entries.
See Also: How do you decide whether a new word should be included in an Oxford dictionary?
See Also: How a new word enters an Oxford Dictionary
See Also: How does a word qualify for inclusion in the OED?
Note: The OED adds new words quarterly. Next update in September. Monitor this page for the next update.
Filed under: News, Publishing
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.