Tag: OXFORD

Language is a living thing. As the world changes, new words are invented, and older ones fade away and go out of circulation. Some would say that's the nature of the Universe. But do all of these words really have to die? After all, it's fun to use a unique word every now and then – it keeps your text from becoming too vappous. Save The Words is a project that's related to Oxford ...

I know, I know, dictionaries are exciting. I'm sure you share my enthusiasm for the subject, right? Okay, so now that I've got you all riveted, I can tell you that Oxford press is launching an all new dictionary website, and it actually looks great. Lots of online services try to present a "modern dictionary" in a sort of cool mash-up way (Wordnik, I'm looking at you), but the result is usually ...

Like all other music-loving residents of North America, I spend half of every day foaming at the mouth with jealousy over Europe's access to the streaming music service Spotify. Well, now I have at least one university full of Europeans to be a little less jealous of: Oxford University has banned Spotify on campus. Was free, legal music undermining the historic school's educational mission? Nope, ...

This summer, Google was both blessed and cursed with becoming a verb in the Oxford and Merriam-Webster english dictionaries. When it happened, Google thumped the trademark drum pretty hard, reminding people that "Sure, I'll google that" is fine when in reference to using their search engine, while "Oh! I googled that on Yahoo! and couldn't believe what I found!" will land you on their naughty ...