They should span the alphabet, and illustrate different parts of speech, so adverbs and adjectives get a chance to shine alongside nouns and verbs.
Variety is important words should be modern and ancient, from near and far. Nevertheless, we call it our word of the day because lexical unit of the day sounds a little dry. Though usually a single word, this still means it can be two words or more, a compound or a phrase, or perhaps an acronym or abbreviation. The word of the day is always a main entry. Where did it come from? When was it first used? What was its original meaning? How has it changed over the last six hundred years? These are questions the OED can answer, and this is what makes our word of the day particularly exciting for people who love the English language.Īway from this overarching aim, there are a number of practicalities to deal with when choosing the words. Looking at a word across its whole history brings it alive. Readers are encouraged to explore its etymology, to read the story contained in the quotation paragraphs compiled to illustrate usage. can be just as interesting, and possibly even more so. What we hope to show, though, is that even a seemingly commonplace word such as idea n. Opportunities to call a foolish person a nodgecomb may be few and far between, but it’s still fun to learn that such a word existed in the 16 th century, and still exists in the pages of the OED. Sometimes, of course, we will just choose a strange word, because we like them as much as anyone. Or maybe a term that seems more suited to a sixth-form physics class is actually something rather different Sturgeon’s Law has nothing to do with the expansion of gases, but one man’s belief that most of everything is worthless. Perhaps a seemingly modern word has a much longer history than we would have thought we might have assumed that earthling would date from our relatively modern interest in science fiction and space exploration, but in fact it goes back to 1593, at which time it referred to an inhabitant of the earth as opposed to one of heaven. Has a word’s meaning taken a strange turn over the years, or is there a particular sense of the word that is unexpected? The obsolete original sense of field bishop, ‘a hanged man’, certainly comes as a surprise. This effort to balance the obviously surprising with the surprisingly interesting means that words can be chosen for a variety of reasons, and we encourage readers to explore the word of the day with this in mind.ĭoes it have an interesting etymology? OK for example, is one of the most commonly used words in English, but its origins have been debated for many years. The OED’s unique resources can bring these words to light, and show that even everyday words can have amazing histories. Very often the most interesting words are those which seem all too familiar and which we may take for granted words with long lives, whose meanings have changed over the years, have the power to surprise. Indeed, quite often such words have little beyond their immediate novelty to recommend them their very obscurity can limit their power to do more than simply divert or amuse. Our word of the day will regularly reveal something you never knew before.īut it is the OED’s aim to do more than simply provide novelty in the form of obscure offerings since, as a historical dictionary, the OED has so much more to offer than just weird words. One day the highlighted entry could be an old Cornish word for a coastal cave ( zawn), and the next a modern cricketing term taken from Hindi ( doosra). With hundreds of thousands of entries available on OED Online and many more being added every three months, there is the most diverse range to choose from. The OED is singularly well-suited to this.
Of all the reasons to subscribe to a word of the day service, the most obvious is, perhaps, a desire to learn new words, particularly unusual or amusing ones that could add spice to a vocabulary. The hope is that readers will learn something from each one: even apparently prosaic words can be revealed to have hidden depths. It can also work as an introduction to the OED for those who have not had the opportunity to learn about it before, or can be a daily reminder of its worth for those who have already learned to love it.Įach word is carefully selected for a particular reason, whether it has an interesting etymology, a long and fascinating history, or sometimes simply the quality of being novel and amusing. The OED displays the richness of the English language in a way no other dictionary can, which makes the word of the day a wonderful opportunity for anyone who is interested in English to discover some of its hidden treasures.
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