Oxford University Press's
Academic Insights for the Thinking World
Jesse Sheidlower is Editor at Large of the Oxford English Dictionary and author of The F-Word. Recognized as one of the foremost authorities on obscenity in English, he has written about language for a great many publications, including a recent article on Slate. Here, Jesse discusses the criteria for including certain words or obscenities in […]
Mark Peters looks at the various uses of “hench” as a prefix.
Anatoly Liberman tours the history of the word tram.
Author Elliott J. Gorn looks at John Dillinger films.
An excerpt from Design in the USA by Jeffrey L. Meikle.
The riddle answer!
A look at two very personal cover images.
Ammon Shea reports on the Dictionary Society of North America Conference.
Gordon Thompson’s first riddle clue.
Jeff Prucher looks at words coined by science fiction and fantasy fans.
Many lessons can be gleaned from watching reruns of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’: Indirect sunlight is not an unlife-ender for vampires. Some small-town mayors may yearn to become giant unholy snake things (no surprise there). As Cordelia Chase said, “People, you’ve got to leave your tombs earthed.” (Whoops, that was on the Buffy spinoff Angel—but whatever).
How would you communicate with an alien? A look at how Science Fiction authors tackled the problem.
Benjamin Carp looks at tea parties in historical perspective.
Stephen Specter looks at the contrast between Bush and Obama’s views on Israel and Islamic extremists.
We were pretty excited when ‘Brave New Words’ won the Hugo Award. Now that ‘Brave New Words’ is available in paperback we asked Jeff Prucher, freelance lexicographer and editor for the Oxford English Dictionary’s science fiction project, to revisit the blog. Below are Prucher’s picks of words.
Ammon Shea shares his love of obituaries.