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Use a Dictionary
I Do you know what the words “e-cigarette”, “voluntourism” and “fo’shizzle” mean? If you don’t, there is
little point in looking them up in the dictionary you have been using for years because these words are
recent additions to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).
II
The idea of compiling a comprehensive dictionary was raised in 1857 by members of the Philological
Society of London. However, it was too much work, and in 1879 the work was taken over by Oxford
University. It was thought that it would only take ten years to complete, but the first volume was only
finished in 1884. The tenth and final volume came out in 1928. The dictionary had taken much longer
to complete than people thought it would because the English language never stops evolving.
III Over the course of the 20th century, the OED continued to grow until it was published as a 20-volume
work in 1989. Unlike libraries, most people could not afford or find the space on their bookshelves for
the entire set, but technology came to the rescue a few years later when the whole of the OED was
IV released as a CD-ROM in 1992. Today, the whole dictionary can be found online.
A living language is constantly developing, so a dictionary needs to reflect this. Technological
developments are the reason for many of the new words. Thirty years ago, no one would have known
what a “smartphone” or a “selfie” was, for instance. Furthermore, existing words can take on new
meanings. In the past, a mouse was only a small animal that people tried to keep out of their houses.
Today, most of us have one on our desk. An “e-cigarette” is the name that has been given to the
electronic device that is used by smokers as a way of getting the effect of smoking without using real
cigarettes. New words are often invented by combining two existing words, such as “voluntourism”,
which is when tourists spend time doing voluntary work. And of course, there is slang, which is
constantly changing. So for the record, “fo’shizzle” in hip-hop slang simply means “for sure”.
2 When the new version of the OED came out in 1989, libraries could not afford it.
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2 What are the three ways in which a person today can use the Oxford English Dictionary?
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