Show Notes
Should a Scot be worried if her jacket is on a shoogly peg? Why is a Yorkshireman still influenced by the Vikings? How do we figure out how to pronounce obscure words? Join lexicographers Craig Leyland and Fiona McPherson to find out more about regional English in the Oxford English Dictionary, with specific reference to Scotland and Yorkshire, and hear Dr Catherine Sangster talk about her work as head of the OED’s pronunciations team. Come back for another episode in two weeks (May 27th), when we’ll be looking at song lyrics in the OED, and the importance of bibliography.
www.oed.com [email protected]
Music by Matt Cutmore
Glossary Antedating: an occurrence of a word, phrase, or sense, which predates the earliest use previously known or recorded. Collocation: the habitual juxtaposition or association of a particular word with other particular words; a group of words so associated. Compound: two or more words put together to make a new word or phrase (like hot sauce, nutcracker, or Greenwich Mean Time). Entry: a section of a dictionary devoted to a particular word, starting with the headword and including the etymology, pronunciation, senses, compounds, etc. Etymology: the origin and historical development of a word; the process of investigating this. Headword: the word you look up, at the start of the entry; the word that is being defined. Homonym: for OED's purposes, homonyms are words that share the same spelling and part of speech, but have different etymological origins, and are therefore separate entries with their own homonym numbers (e.g. dog n.1 – the animal – and dog. n.2 – a euphemistic alteration of ‘god’). More broadly though, homonyms are words that have different meanings and origins but are either spelled the same (homographs) or sound the same (homophones). Isogloss: the boundary of an area of local concentration or dominance of a significant linguistic feature, e.g. pronunciation. Label: OED adds labels to words, when useful for readers, to give information on region (e.g. South African), subject (e.g. U.S. history), register (e.g. slang), usage (e.g. derogatory), and status (e.g. obsolete). Lexicography: the art/science/craft of writing dictionaries. A lexicographer is a writer of dictionaries. (“A harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words,” according to Samuel Johnson. Fair enough, he should know.) Obsolete: describing a word as no longer in use. (For OED’s purposes, that means we haven’t found any evidence of it after 1930.) Poddery: podcasting? We thought it sounded fun. It's not in OED...yet. Sense: any of the various distinct meanings of a particular word. Small-type note: text (in small type!) that sits under the main definition, where we can add extra, useful information that doesn’t fit in the main definition itself. Update: a new version of OED, including new and revised entries, as published four times a year on oed.com. Also called a release.
More from Lexipoddery: the OED podcast
Are you acquainted with an energy vampire? Where might you see witches’ knickers? What type of mummy could cure your ills? In this episode editors Fiona McPherson and Craig Leyland examine the spooks and monsters of the OED in preparation for the scariest night of the year. This is the last episode of Lexipoddery’s second season; we’re taking a break to do some dictionary writing and will return with a Christmas special and more, so we hope you’ll join us then. If you subscribe or follow on your podcast platform you’ll be sure to know when we’re back. P.S. The entry witch n. is freely available to all at oed.com for three months from the date of publication of this episode.
When does a word from another language become English too? What would you call a fast clock in the Philippines? Is a single panini a problem? In this episode the resident Lexipoddery lexicographers Craig Leyland and Fiona McPherson talk to colleague Dr Danica Salazar about her work as head of the OED’s World English programme. Join us for another episode in two weeks (October 21st) as we look towards Halloween with a discussion of some suitably spooky words.
Why do we love the mountweazel (and what is it)? Who was the original twerp? How did timeline constitute a two-for-one bargain? Join editors Fiona McPherson and Craig Leyland as they dive into some of the new additions to the OED this September, and hear from fellow editor Jonathan Dent about some of the newly revised entries. Join us for another episode in two weeks (October 7th) when we’ll be talking to the OED’s World English editor Dr Danica Salazar about her work focusing on the language as it’s used around the globe.
When was a toilet worn on the head? Is gong farming a valid career opportunity? Where might you pay a visit to the cludgie? In this episode lexicographers Craig Leyland and Fiona McPherson display the OED’s historical scope by getting to the bottom of the language of loos. Join us for another episode in two weeks (September 23rd) when we’ll be looking at new words in the OED’s September 2026 update including mountweazel, and talking to our colleague Jonathan Dent about some recently revised entries. P.S. The entries toilet n. and loo n.4 are freely available to all at oed.com for three months from the date of publication of this episode.
How would we describe Tolkien’s handwriting? What did Thomas Hardy want to tell us? Why did we get a Snoopy letter? Lexicographers Fiona McPherson and Craig Leyland are joined by the OED’s archivist Beverley McCulloch to discuss the preservation of our historical record, and some of the notable correspondence within it. Join us for another episode in two weeks (September 9th), when we’ll look at how the OED can trace a subject through the centuries; in this case, the history of the toilet. It’ll be interesting, honest!