The OED and its New Entries (Additions Series, Volume 3)

The announcement in June of the publication of the latest volume in the OED Additions series resulted in a flurry of press interest in the OED. Coverage in the UK included every major national newspaper, both broadsheet and tabloid, as well as regional newspapers and local radio stations around the nation. International interest came from France, Italy, Germany, Canada, and Japan; and the book was featured on nationwide US television. All of which resulted in a very busy (and exhausting) couple of weeks for those of us involved in the publicity.

The aim of the Additions series is to publish work in progress on the OED: to show our readers the type and range of modern terms that are currently being considered for inclusion in OED3.

That said, there are of course a number of particularly 'media-friendly' words which are guaranteed to catch the eye of journalists looking for a good headline, and Additions 3 proved to contain plenty of these. Particular favourites included squeegee kid, happy-clappy, and luvvy.

Many journalists - and not just those from the more conservative broadsheets - were surprised that the OED includes such slang terms and colloquialisms, and we were occasionally asked whether this is a 'controversial' practice, and contributes to the 'decline' of the English language. A reflection, no doubt, of the OED's perceived status (as the Guardian put it) as the '"Bible" of English usage', and we were happy to point out that our primary aim is one of description rather than prescription.

Another frequently recurring topic in media interviews was, naturally, the process by which a particular word is considered for inclusion. The extent of our primary research, covering hundreds of publications and electronic databases from around the world, astonished many, and the fact that the public are encouraged to send us evidence of new words was greeted with interest.

The numerous local newspapers and radio stations to which we gave interviews were keen to hear examples of their particular regional dialects that we had included, and their recognition of such words was a useful reinforcement of our research, especially when, as is often the case, written evidence of such terms is relatively scarce. The computing and multimedia vocabulary that we had included incited a great deal of interest, as did that relating to crime and other social issues.

Another interesting subject for discussion was the extent of the influence on British English by other varieties of English, particularly U.S. and Black English, and whether this reflected increasing 'globalization', particularly via the electronic media. 'And finally,' we were often asked, 'Which is your favourite word?' This is the question which I, for one, find the most difficult to answer.

It was gratifying to be reminded by the media interest in the publication of Additions 3 of people's fascination with language and dictionaries, and to be able to explain some of the processes involved in the creation of new entries for the OED.