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‘Everything obscene comes from France,’ wrote James Dixon, an eye surgeon retired to Dorking, in 1888. He was provoked by learning of an item called a condom, and explained to his correspondent, James Murray, that this was ‘a contrivance used by fornicators, to save themselves from a well-deserved clap’. Surely the word had no place
The OED is the definitive record of the English language, featuring 600,000 words, 3 million quotations, and over 1,000 years of English.
The Oxford Etymologist answers readers' questions on the origin of the word "race", variants of "in one's stockinged feet", the folkloric creature Lady Hoonderlarly, and "bonfire."
Every so often the literary world is rocked by the discovery of a work that was thought to be lost forever—but there are many books that remain lost to this day, much to the sadness of readers everywhere.
The OED’s task – to define in full the world’s most spoken language – is as ambitious and endless as it was when it began 150 years ago.