September 2009 update

On 10 September 2009 the New Edition was updated with new materials which fall into three main categories: (a) alphabetical series of revised entries based around significant words from across the alphabet; (b) the sequence of revised entries from red to refulgent; (c) a series of new entries and senses from across the alphabet. For further details see the Chief Editor’s commentary on the latest revision. Below this are listed all the new words in the ranges, and a list of out-of-sequence new entries.

Revisions

Down to the ‘wire’: the latest OED updates

This quarter’s release of new and updated words for the OED addresses ten key words (clone, drug, face, global, image, Indian, skin, think, thought, and wire), along with the many other words which sit around them in the dictionary. In addition, another short run of R words is published (red – refulgent).

Wireless communication

When the original entry for wireless was published in the OED in 1926 it occupied five short paragraphs. The revised entry has over eighty. There are several reasons for this large increase. One is that the present revision of the dictionary is likely to find more space for important compounds (such as wireless mast, wireless network, and wireless operator) than did the first edition. Another is that by 1926 the OED editors were doubtless aware of the need to bring their work (eventually spanning the years 1884 until 1928) to a close, and so they sometimes conflated material which might otherwise have been treated more expansively. But the key factor lies in the history of the word itself.

In 1926 (according to the material then available to the editors) there was no such thing as ‘a wireless’ (= a radio receiving set). Wireless was a term that had been known for some thirty years, and especially through wireless telegraphy and wireless telephony. These were the years in which international news entered the public consciousness through newspaper reports based on cables and wireless telegrams; or, on a local scale, a young man would send his young lady a wireless telegram from the railway station to tell her to expect him later that evening. The wireless telegram was the mobile phone of its day. And yet the technology was allowed only three inches of type in the first edition of the OED.

‘Wireless’ technology remained important throughout the first half of the twentieth century. But from a linguist’s perspective it confronted some opposition from the slick appeal of ‘radio’ words. ‘Radio’ compounds date from the very end of the nineteenth century, and by the 1920s they were threatening the predominance of ‘wireless’. ‘Radio’ and ‘wireless’ jostled for position: the radio receiving set was called either ‘a wireless’ or ‘a radio’ in the 1920s. Fifty years later, ‘wireless’ was running out of steam, and ‘radio’ was dominant.

We counted down the demise of wireless, but we were mistaken. The term has been rescued by the mobile phone and the laptop computer, as the revised definitions show. Furthermore, the new wireless entry documents the many compounds attesting to its current vitality in the language: wireless access point, wireless LAN, wireless network, wireless technology, etc. The ups and downs of wireless are illustrated in detail in the new revised entry.

Contributions to the OED

Each week the OED receives proposed amendments, or suggestions for new entries, from a wide range of people. Most of these arrive online (oed.uk@oup.com) via the OED‘s web site. Here is a selection of some of the more memorable additions for the OED this quarter:

madrigal: an addition to the definition covering reference to early continental meanings of the word, for a type of song for one or more voices, and as a 14th-cent. Italian pastoral song typically of two or three stanzas with a long ritornello.
Pennsylvania Dutch adjective: “of, relating to, or designating the descendants of the 17th and 18th-cent. German and Swiss Protestant settlers of Pennsylvania”. The revised OED previously offered 1824 as the date for the first known evidence of this adjective. New findings show that the term dates back into the 18th century, and we now have an example (from the papers of the early American revolutionary politician and financier Robert Morris, at the Huntington Library) dated 1792.
Pluto (the name of the planet): the addition of the date of Venetia Burney’s death in 2009. Venetia was the ‘eleven-year-old English schoolgirl’ who in March 1930 suggested the name for the newly discovered planet.
prickshot: definition amended to “the distance over which an archer shoots an arrow at a fixed target or butt (in quot. perh. with imprecise reference)”, in the light of new evidence.
pupillometer: “a device or instrument for measuring the size of the pupil of the eye”. This had previously been dated in English from the Lancet of 1885. New information takes it back in 1864 in the British Medical Journal.

A new guide to etymology

This is perhaps a good place to mention the publication of the Oxford Guide to Etymology (written by the OED‘s Chief Etymologist, Dr Philip Durkin) on 23 July 2009. In the book, Dr Durkin investigates the principles of etymology with specific (but not exclusive) reference to English, illustrating his points with examples taken from his work on the current revision of the OED. Further details at: http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199236510.do.

Sarah Silverman and the OED

Earlier in the year reports started reaching us of a spoof OED ‘Word Induction Ceremony’ on America’s ‘Sarah Silverman Program’. See the Language Log for clips and commentary: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=885.

Nice try, but you haven’t worked out how we do it yet!

John Simpson

Chief Editor, Oxford English Dictionary

List of new words

red-banded, adj.
red chip, n.
red cole, n.¹
rede, n.⁴
redecree, v.
redefend, v.
redeliberate, v.
red-flag, v.
red-flagged, adj.
red-flagging, n.
red fog, n.¹
redial, adj.
reding, n.
red locust, n.
redly, adj.¹
red-ochred | red-ochered, adj.
Red Queen, n.
redrafting, n.
red ragger, n.
red-skinned, adj.
red state, n. and adj.
red-tipped, adj.
redub, v.²
redubbing, n.²
reductory, n.
reductory, adj.
ree, n.⁵
ree, v.²
re-edifice, v.
reedily, adv.
re-edit, n.
reed spear, n.¹
reed spear, n.²
reef, n.³
reefal, adj.
reef hook, n.
reefy, adj.²
reeled, adj.
re-embodying, n.
re-embolden, v.
re-emplacement, n.
re-enforced, adj.
re-engraving, n.
re-entrap, v.
re-envelop, v.
re-envelope, v.
reesing, n.
reeve, n.⁴
referend, v.
refi, n.
refile, v.¹
refile, v.²
refiling, n.¹
refiling, n.²
refinish, n.
refinish, v.
refinisher, n.
refire, v.
reflag, v.¹
reflectogram, n.
reflectograph, n.
reflectographic, adj.
reflectography, n.
reflectorial, adj.
reflexivity, n.
Reforger, n.²
re-form, n.¹
Reformatsky, n.
refoulement, n.
refractious, adj.²
refringence, n.
refueller | refueler, n.
refugeed, adj.

In addition to these new entries, a number of new subordinate entries were added to existing entries. These included:

(Under red-backed, adj.)
- red-backed salamander
(Under red-banded, adj.)
- red-banded leafroller
(Under red-bellied, adj.)
- red-bellied black snake
- red-bellied snake
- red-bellied woodpecker
(Under red, adj., n., (and adv.))
- red-dye bark
- red-beaked
- red-beaked hornbill
- red-beamed
- red-belted clearwing
- red-chested
- red-chested cuckoo
- red-cockaded woodpecker
- red-collared
- red-collared lorikeet
- red-horned owl
- red-kneed dotterel
- red-kneed tarantula
- red-knobbed
- red-knobbed coot
- red-naped
- red-naped sapsucker
- red-shafted flicker
- red-shafted woodpecker
- red-sided
- red-sided garter snake
- red-staled
- red admirable
- red meerkat
- red rat
- red rhebok
- red rock rabbit
- red whelk
- red wiggler
- red marlin
- red hind
- red salmon
- red sea bream
- red alpine catchfly
- redbush
- red delicious
- red fescue
- red handed orchis
- red handed satyrion
- red louro
- red Magdalen
- red maidweed
- red mombin
- red quebracho
- red twig
- redtwig dogwood
- redtwig Leucothoe
- red and blue macaw
- red ale
- Red Arrow
- red bag
- Red Beret
- red choler
- red curry
- red curry paste
- Red Data Book
- red envelope
- red friar
- red gravy
- red Jew
- Red Knife
- red list
- red mange
- red muscle
- red nigger
- red packet
- red-pencil
- Red Power
- Red Power movement
- red room
- red sauce
- red squad
- red staff
- red sugar
- red tab
- red vinegar
- red-blond
- red-chequered
- red-fisted
- red-sored
- red-stemmed
(Under red-billed, adj.)
- red-billed gull
- red-billed hornbill
- red-billed quelea
- red-billed weaver
- red-billed weaver bird
(Under red-blooded, adj.)
- red-bloodedness
(Under red-breasted, adj.)
- red-breasted flycatcher
- red-breasted nuthatch
(Under red brick, n. and adj.)
- red-bricked
(Under red-capped, adj.)
- red-capped lark
(Under red-crested, adj.)
- red-crested pochard
(Under reddish, adj. (and n.))
- reddish egret
(Under red-eared, adj.²)
- red-eared slider
- red-eared slider turtle
- red-eared sunfish
- red-eared terrapin
- red-eared turtle
(Under rede, v.²)
- reded
(Under redecorate, v.)
- redecorating
(Under redemption, n.)
- redemption centre
(Under redemptive, adj.)
- redemptively
(Under red-eyed, adj.)
- red-eyed flycatcher
- red-eyed vireo
(Under red fish, n.)
- red fisher
- red fishing
(Under red-footed, adj.)
- red-footed booby
(Under red-handed, adj.)
- red-handed howler
- red-handed howler monkey
- red-handed tamarin
(Under red-headed, adj.)
- red-headed finch
- red-headed weaver finch
- red-headed honeyeater
- red-headed stepchild
(Under redifferentiate, v.)
- redifferentiated
(Under redirect, v.)
- redirected
(Under red-legged, adj.)
- red-legged frog
- red-legged gannet
- red-legged grasshopper
- red-legged locust
- red-legged pademelon
(Under red-lipped, adj.)
- red-lipped snake
(Under redneck, n. and adj.)
- red-neck moth
(Under red-necked, adj.)
- red-necked spurfowl
- red-necked stint
(Under red nose, adj. and n.)
- Red Nose Day
(Under redolent, adj.)
- redolently
(Under redox, adj. and n.)
- redox potential
- redox reaction
- redox state
(Under redpoll, n.¹)
- redpoll finch
- redpoll linnet
- redpoll warbler
- yellow redpoll warbler
(Under red-rumped, adj.)
- red-rumped parakeet
- red-rumped parrot
- red-rumped swallow
(Under red state, n. and adj.)
- red stater
(Under red-tipped, adj.)
- red-tipped clearwing
- red-tipped pardalote
(Under reduced, adj.)
- reduced-calorie
- reduced-fat
(Under reducing, adj.)
- reducing agent
- reducing sugar
- reducing tee
- reducing diet
(Under redundancy, n.)
- redundancy money
(Under reduplicative, n. and adj.)
- reduplicative paramnesia
(Under red wine, n.)
- red wine vinegar
(Under red-winged, adj.)
- red-winged lory
- red-winged parrot
(Under reed, n.¹)
- reed brake
- reed case
- reed dent
- reed leopard
- reed piper
- reed player
- reeds player
- reed straw
- reed switch
- reed-fen
- reed flute
- reed hut
- reed mat
- reed rope
- reed-thatched
- reed-thin
- reedholm
(Under re-education, n.)
- re-education camp
(Under reef, n.²)
- reef fish
- reef platform
- reef shark
- reef-like
(Under reef, n.¹)
- reef rope
(Under reefer, n.⁴)
- reefer madness
(Under reek, n.¹)
- reek house
(Under reeking, n.¹)
- reeking penny
(Under reel, n.¹)
- reel mower
(Under re-elect, v.)
- re-electing
(Under reeled, adj.)
- reeled silk
(Under re-embolden, v.)
- re-emboldened
(Under re-energize, v.)
- re-energized
- re-energizing
(Under re-enforced, adj.)
- re-enforced concrete
(Under re-establish, v.)
- re-established
(Under re-exalt, v.)
- re-exaltation
(Under re-export, v.)
- re-exporter
(Under referee, n.)
- refereeship
(Under reference, n.)
- reference card
- reference number
- reference price
- reference source
- reference tube
- reference work
(Under referential, adj.)
- referential integrity
(Under refire, v.)
- refiring
(Under reflected, adj.)
- reflected glory
(Under reflecting, adj.)
- reflecting circle
(Under reflector, n.)
- reflector antenna
- reflector telescope
(Under reflexive, adj. and n.)
- reflexive selection
(Under reflower, v.)
- reflowering
(Under reflux, n.)
- reflux apparatus
(Under reflux, v.)
- refluxed
(Under refocus, v.)
- refocused
- refocusing
(Under refold, v.)
- refolded
(Under reforest, v.)
- reforested
- reforesting
(Under reforge, v.)
- reforging
(Under reformatory, adj. and n.)
- reformatory school
(Under reform, n.² and adj.)
- reform bishop
- reform-minded
(Under reformed, adj.¹ and n.)
- reformed spelling
(Under refound, v.¹)
- refounding
(Under refractive, adj.)
- refractive error
(Under refresh, n.)
- refresh rate
(Under refrigerator, n.)
- refrigerator mother
(Under refugium, n.)
- refugial

Out-of-sequence new entries

The following new entries from across the alphabet were also published:

anyhoo, conj.
Aquitanian, adj. and n.
barotrauma, n.
batshit, n. and adj.
bell end, n.
Bok globule, n.
c’est la vie, phr.
clonable, adj.
clonality, n.
cloner, n.
clonidine, n.
dot-org, n.
down-talk, v.
facilitatory, adj.
First Nation, n.
globalist, n. and adj.
globalizing, adj.
globaloney, n.
globetrotting, adj.
globigerinid, n. and adj.
globularetin, n.
globularia, n.
globularin, n.
globulicidal, adj.
globulicide, adj. and n.
globulose, n.
Hiberno-Latin, adj. and n.
Indianaite, n.
Indian plum, n.
Indian rhubarb, n.
Kelvin–Helmholtz, n.
probationally, adv.
router, n.⁶
skinder, n.
skinder, v.
snowboard cross, n.
soundclash, n.
thought-controlled, adj.
thought-through, adj.
three-way, n.
toasted cheese, n.
twitterpated, adj.
unmixed blessing, n.
warm-down, n.
waterboarding, n.
wire-frame, adj. and n.
wire speed, n.
wire transfer, n.
wire-transfer, v.
wire wrap, n.
wire-wrap, v.
wire-wrapped, adj.
wire wrapping, n.

In addition to these new main entries, the following subordinate entries were added:

(Under affair, n.)
- affair of the heart
(Under ape, n.)
- apeshit
- to go ape-shit
(Under beer, n.¹)
- beer goggles
(Under cheese, n.¹)
- cheese on toast
- cheese toast
(Under clonal, adj.)
- clonal selection theory
(Under clone, n.)
- clonemate
(Under cloning, n.)
- cloning vector
- cloning vehicle
(Under come, v.)
- to come down
(Under commercial, adj. and n.)
- commercial bank
- commercial banker
- commercial banking
(Under cyclone, n.)
- cyclone fence
- cyclone fencing
(Under day, n.)
- Days of Awe
(Under drug, n.¹)
- drug cartel
- drug company
- drug dependency
- drug industry
- drug room
- drug use
- drug user
- drug vender
- drug vendor
- drug using
- drug-using
- drug-crazed
- drug dealing
- drug disease
- drug enforcement
- drug enforcer
- drug eruption
- drug fight
- drug lord
- drug maker
- drug man
- drug manufacturer
- drug money
- drug mule
- drug rash
- drug ring
- drug run
- drug runner
- drug running
- drug-sensitive
- drug sensitivity
- drug trafficker
- drug trafficking
- drug tsar
- drug war
- drug warrior
- drugs bust
- drugs money
- drugs ring
- drugs test
- drugs testing
- drugs tsar
(Under drugstore, n.)
- drugstore beetle
(Under electoral, adj. and n.)
- electoral register
- electoral roll
(Under empty, adj. and n.)
- empty calories
(Under face, n.)
- in your face
- face-framing
- face-first
- face cord
- face dyke
- face fly
- face mask
- face-painted
- face plant
- to do a face plant
- face-plant
- face print
- face reading
- face recognition
- face-threatening
- face validity
(Under facial, adj. and n.)
- facial nerve
- facial recognition
(Under facilitated, adj.)
- facilitated diffusion
(Under fire, n.)
- fire appliance
(Under global, adj.)
- global English
(Under globalize, v.)
- globalizer
(Under globe, n.)
- globe lantern
- globe light
- globemallow
- globe tulip
(Under hand, n.¹)
- hand relief
(Under high, adj. and n.²)
- high holiday
- high holy day
(Under image, n.)
- image-forming
- image acquisition
- image capture
- imagesetter
- image stabilizer
(Under India, n.)
- India cabinet
(Under Indian, adj. and n.)
- Indian cabinet
- Indian subcontinent
- Indian cobra
- Indian laburnum
- Indian laurel
- Indian rhinoceros
- Indian runner
- Indian runner duck
- Indian agency
- Indian ball
- Indian barn
- Indian bed
- Indian claim
- Indian country
- Indian fort
- Indian liquor
- Indian money
- Indian nation
- Indian orchard
- Indian ring
- Indian style
- Indian sugar
- Indian title
- Indian trade
- Indian trader
- Indian trail
- Indian peach
- Indian pipeshank
- Indian strawberry
- Indian warrior
- Indian-born
- Indian fighter
(Under Indian rubber, n.)
- Indian rubber tree
(Under investment, n.)
- investment bank
- investment banker
- investment banking
(Under Italian, adj. and n.)
- Italian ice
(Under Jane | jane, n.²)
- Jane Roe
(Under Kelvin, n. and adj.)
- Kelvin wave
(Under sandwich, n.²)
- sandwich maker
(Under secret, adj. and n.)
- Secret Santa
(Under shout, n.²)
- shout line
(Under skin, n.)
- skin bracer
- skin cancer
- skin conduction
- skin current
- skin frictional
- skin-heart
- skin lady
- skin lodge
- skin mag
- skin mark
- skin mesh
- skin moth
- skin pack
- skin patch
- skin preserver
- skin pricker
- skin protection factor
- skin reaction
- skins game
- skin show
- skinsman
- skinsuit
- skin tag
- skinwalker
(Under strike, v.)
- to strike out
(Under thinking, n.)
- thinking mug
(Under thought, n.)
- thought balloon
- thought bubble
- thought disorder
- thought field
- thought field therapy
- thought leader
- thought leadership
(Under wholesale, n., adj., and adv.)
- wholesale bank
- wholesale banking
(Under wire, n.¹)
- wire bow
- wire handle
- wire bond
- wire bonding
- wire communication
- wire fox terrier
- wire fraud
- wire-heeled
- wire nut
- wire report
- wiresmith
- wire stripper
- wire window
(Under wire, n.²)
- wire hat
(Under wireless, adj. and n.)
- wireless LAN
- wireless system
- wireless technology
- wireless access point
- wireless communication
- wireless device
- wireless Internet
- wireless network
- wireless router
- wireless service
(Under wireless, v.)
- wirelessed
(Under wiring, n.)
- wiring harness
- wiring loom

Finally, new meanings were added to the following entries:

barbed wire, n.
bell, n.¹
blind, adj. (and adv.)
blow, v.¹
blue chip, n.
boo-boo, n.
bud, n.¹
chop, n.²
clonally, adv.
clone, n.
clone, v.
cloned, adj.
cloning, n.
come-down, n.
count, n.¹
drug, n.¹
drugged, adj.
dumb, v.
dynasty, n.
face, n.
face, v.
faced, adj.¹
face-off, n.
faceplate, n.
facial, adj. and n.
facies, n.
facile, adj. and adv.
facilitatory, adj.
facility, n.
global, adj.
globally, adv.
globe, n.
globule, n.
globulism, n.
globulist, n.
gory, adj.
hard, adv.
image, n.
image, v.
imaged, adj.
imagery, n.
imaginary, adj. and n.
imagine, v.
imaging, n.
India, n.
Indian, adj. and n.
Indian almond, n.
Indian club, n.
Indian file, n. and adv.
Indian grass, n.
Indianist, n. and adj.
Indian nut, n.
Indian rubber, n.
India paper, n.
Indic, adj.¹ and n.
innit, int.
juice, v.
juiced, adj.
league, n.²
let, v.¹
lip-service, n.
skin, n.
skin, v.
skinch, v. and int.
skin coat, n.
skin game, n.
skin house, n.
skink, n.²
skink, n.⁵
skinned, adj.
skinner, n.¹
skinnery, n.
skinny-malinky, adj. and n.
skintight, n., adv., and adj.
straight, adj., n., and adv.
text, n.¹
think, v.¹
thinking, adj.
three-way, adj.
warm, v.
water-board, n.
wire, v.
wired, adj.
wire-edged, adj.
wire-frame, adj. and n.
wire hair, n. and adj.
wiring, n.
yo, int. (and n.¹)