According to legend, the inventor of Chinese characters was named Cangjie (c. 2650 BC), but this may be only a myth. Another tradition ascribes the invention to the legendary first Emperor, Fu Hsi. The oldest Chinese inscriptions that are clearly writing are the poorly understood Oracle Script (甲骨文 jiǎgǔwén, lit. "shell-bone-script") of the late Shang Dynasty (or Yin (殷) Dynasty), attested from about 1200 BC. Only about 1,400 of the 2,500 known Oracle Script glyphs can be identified with later Chinese ...

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The earliest Chinese characters are the so called Oracle Script of the late Shang Dynasty, followed by the Bronzeware Script (金文 jīnwén) during the Zhou Dynasty. These scripts are no longer in any use, and are purely of academic interest. The first script that is still in (albeit restricted) use today is the 篆書, 篆书 zhuànshū ("seal script"). It is the result of the efforts of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, to standardise the Chinese script. The seal script, as the name suggests, is now only use ...

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Chinese character, Chinese character - Origin, Chinese character - Styles, Chinese character - Radicals, Chinese character - Classification, Chinese character - By etymology, Chinese character - Radical system, Chinese character - Orthography, Chinese character - Reforms, Chinese character - Southeast Asian Chinese communities, Chinese character - Japanese Kanji, Chinese character - Dictionaries, Chinese character - Derivatives of Han characters, Chinese character - Number of Chinese characters, Chinese character - Chinese, Chinese character - Japanese, Chinese character - Korean, Chinese character - Vietnamese, Chinese character - Rare and complex characters

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Any historical linguistic analysis, including the etymology of the word Arab, out of necessity has to be based on - learned or political - speculation, due to the fact that there is no etymological dictionary of Arabic, nor is there one of the Semitic languages as whole. In addition to this fundamental lack of knowledge or indeed curiosity, no comprehensive historical comparitive grammar of the Semitic languages has ever appeared - in spite of the fact that Semitic is the oldest and best attested language group in the history of manki ...

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Etymology of the word Arab, Etymology of the word Arab - Semitic etymology, Etymology of the word Arab - In Arabic, Etymology of the word Arab - In Assyrian, Etymology of the word Arab - In Hebrew

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The etymology of fuck has given rise to a great deal of speculation, which should be regarded skeptically. The authoritative Oxford English Dictionary is quite cautious in providing an etymology for this word. In the quotation below, the dictionary's usual abbreviations are spelled out for clarity: Early modern English fuck, fuk, answering to a Middle English type *fuken (weak verb) [which is] not found; ulterior etymology unknown. Synonymous German ficken ...

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Fuck, Fuck - Etymology, Fuck - False etymologies, Fuck - Usage history, Fuck - Early usage, Fuck - Rise of modern usage, Fuck - Freedom of expression, Fuck - Popular usage, Fuck - Variations, Fuck - Further reference

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The etymology of fuck has given rise to a great deal of speculation, which should be regarded skeptically. The authoritative Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is cautious in providing an etymology for this word. In the quotation below, the dictionary's usual abbreviations are spelled out for clarity: Early modern English fuck, fuk, answering to a Middle English type *fuken (weak verb) [which is] not found; ulterior etymology unknown. Synonymous German ficken can be shown to be related as well as Dutch fokkenSee also:

Fuck, Fuck - Etymology, Fuck - False etymologies, Fuck - Usage history, Fuck - Early usage, Fuck - Rise of modern usage, Fuck - Freedom of expression, Fuck - Popular usage, Fuck - Further reference

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There are a number of possible etymologies of the name "leprechaun". One of the most widely accepted theories is that the name comes from the Irish Gaelic word leipreachán, defined by Dinneen as "a pigmy, a sprite, a leprechaun; for luchorpán"; the latter word Dinneen defines as "a pigmy, a leprechaun; 'a kind of aqueous sprite'";[2] this word has also been identified as meaning "half-bodied", or "small-bodied". This is the etymology given in the Collins English Dictionary.^{See also:}

Leprechaun, Leprechaun - Etymology, Leprechaun - Mythology, Leprechaun - Appearance, Leprechaun - Related creatures, Leprechaun - In politics, Leprechaun - Popular culture, Leprechaun - Films / TV:, Leprechaun - Literature:, Leprechaun - General:

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According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word "coward" comes from an Old French word coart, a combination of the word for "tail" and an agent noun suffix. It would therefore have meant "one with a tail" — perhaps one in the habit of turning it. The English surname Coward, however, has the same origin and meaning as the word "cowherd". ...

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Cowardice, Cowardice - US Military Definition of Cowardice, Cowardice - Etymology

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The dictionary had no university connection originally; it was conceived in London as a project of the Philological Society, when Richard Chenevix Trench, Herbert Coleridge, and Frederick Furnivall had become dissatisfied with the available dictionaries of English. In June 1857 they formed an "Unregistered Words Committee" with the goal of finding words not listed and defined in existing dictionaries. But the report that Trench presented that November was not a simple list of unregistered words; it was a study On Some Deficiencies ...

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Trench played a key role in the first months of the project, but his ecclesiastical career meant that he could not give the dictionary the continued attention that it needed over a period that, it was realized, might easily be as long as ten years. So Trench withdrew, and it was Herbert Coleridge who became the dictionary's first editor. On May 12, 1860, Coleridge's plan for the work was published, and the research was set in motion. His home became the first editorial office; he ordered a grid of 54 pigeon-holes in which could eventu ...

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At the same time the Society had become concerned about the publication of what it was now clear would have to be an immensely large book. Various publishers had been approached over the years, either to produce sample pages or for the possible publication of the whole, but no agreements had been reached. These had included both the Cambridge and the Oxford University Press (OUP). Finally in 1879, after two years of negotiations involving Sweet and Furnivall as well as Murray, the Oxford University Press agreed not only to publish the ...

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By early 1894 a total of 11 fascicles had been published, or about one per year: four for A-B, five for C, and two for E. Of these, eight were 352 pages long, while the last one in each group was shorter to end at the letter break (which would eventually become a volume break). At this point it was decided to publish the work in smaller and more frequent instalments: once every three months, beginning in 1895, there would now be a fascicle of 64 pages, priced at 2s.6d. (12.5p) or $1 US. If enough material was ready, 128 ...

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It had been planned to publish the New English Dictionary in 10 volumes, respectively starting with A, C, D, F, H, L, O, Q, Si, and Ti; but as the project proceeded, the later volumes became larger and larger, and while the full 1928 edition officially retained the intended numbering, Volumes IX and X were actually published as two "half-volumes" each, split at Su and V respectively. The entire edition was also available as a set of 20 half-volumes, with two choices of binding. ...

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Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford English Dictionary - Origins, Oxford English Dictionary - The first editors, Oxford English Dictionary - The Oxford editors, Oxford English Dictionary - The fascicles, Oxford English Dictionary - The First Edition and the first Supplement, Oxford English Dictionary - The second Supplement and the Second Edition, Oxford English Dictionary - The Compact Editions, Oxford English Dictionary - The electronic versions, Oxford English Dictionary - The Third Edition, Oxford English Dictionary - Spelling, Oxford English Dictionary - Miscellanea

In 1933 Oxford University had finally put the great dictionary to rest; all work ended, and the quotation slips went into storage. But of course the English language continued to change, and by the time 20 years had passed, the outdatedness of the dictionary began to be bothersome. There were three possible ways to update it. The cheapest would be to leave the existing work alone and simply compile a new supplement, of perhaps one or two volumes; but then anyone looking for a word or sense and unsure of its age would have to look in t ...

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Meanwhile, in 1971, the full content of the 13-volume OED1 from 1933 was reprinted as a Compact Edition of just two volumes. This was achieved by photographically reducing each page to 1/2 its original linear dimensions, so that four original pages were shown on each page ("4-up" format). The two volumes started at A and P, with the Supplement included at the end of the second volume. The Compact Edition was sold in a case that also included, in a small drawer, a magnifying glass to help users read the reduced type. Many copies were sold through book c ...

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Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford English Dictionary - Origins, Oxford English Dictionary - The first editors, Oxford English Dictionary - The Oxford editors, Oxford English Dictionary - The fascicles, Oxford English Dictionary - The First Edition and the first Supplement, Oxford English Dictionary - The second Supplement and the Second Edition, Oxford English Dictionary - The Compact Editions, Oxford English Dictionary - The electronic versions, Oxford English Dictionary - The Third Edition, Oxford English Dictionary - Spelling, Oxford English Dictionary - Miscellanea

Now that the text of the dictionary was digitized and online, it could also be published on CD-ROM. There have been three versions so far. Version 1 (1992) was identical in content to the printed Second Edition, and the CD itself was not copy-protected. Version 2 (1999) had some additions to the corpus, and updated software with improved searching features, but had clumsy copy-protection that made it difficult to use and would even cause the program to deny use to OUP staff in the middle of demonstrations of the product. Version 3 (2002) has additional words and software improvements, though its co ...

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The planned Third Edition, or OED3, is intended as a nearly complete overhaul of the work. Currently (as of 2005) John Simpson is the Chief Editor. Since the first work by each editor tends to require somewhat more revision than his later, more polished work, it was decided to balance out this effect by performing the early, and perhaps itself less polished, work of this revision pass at a letter other than A. Accordingly, the main work of the OED3 has been proceeding in sequence from the letter M. When the OED Online wa ...

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Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford English Dictionary - Origins, Oxford English Dictionary - The first editors, Oxford English Dictionary - The Oxford editors, Oxford English Dictionary - The fascicles, Oxford English Dictionary - The First Edition and the first Supplement, Oxford English Dictionary - The second Supplement and the Second Edition, Oxford English Dictionary - The Compact Editions, Oxford English Dictionary - The electronic versions, Oxford English Dictionary - The Third Edition, Oxford English Dictionary - Spelling, Oxford English Dictionary - Miscellanea

The OED lists British spellings for headwords first (for example, labour and centre), followed by other variants (labor, center, etc.). OUP policy also dictates that -ize suffixes be used (instead of -ise) for many words more commonly ending in -ise, even if the root is Latin rather than Greek. Their rationale for this policy -- contrary to popular belief that -ize is an Americanism -- can be found here. The sentence "The group analysed labour statistics published by the organization" is an example of OUP p ...

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Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford English Dictionary - Origins, Oxford English Dictionary - The first editors, Oxford English Dictionary - The Oxford editors, Oxford English Dictionary - The fascicles, Oxford English Dictionary - The First Edition and the first Supplement, Oxford English Dictionary - The second Supplement and the Second Edition, Oxford English Dictionary - The Compact Editions, Oxford English Dictionary - The electronic versions, Oxford English Dictionary - The Third Edition, Oxford English Dictionary - Spelling, Oxford English Dictionary - Miscellanea

There is some controversy about the derivation of the phrase. It is popularly thought to come from deduced reckoning and is sometimes given in modern sources as ded reckoning. However, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the phrase dead reckoning dates from Elizabethan times (1605-1615). The popular etymology from deduced is not documented in the Oxford English Dictionary or any other historical dictionary. Dead reckoning is navigation without stellar observation. With stellar observation, you are "live", working with the stars and the movement of the planet. With logs, compasses, ...

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Dead reckoning, Dead reckoning - Etymology, Dead reckoning - Computer games and simulations

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According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first mention of the word in English was in 1951, with references to Balkan, Greek, and especially Arab cuisine in the next two decades. The American Heritage Dictionary traces the word's origin to modern Greek for "pie," "cake," or "bread;" Webster's Unabridged Dictionary attributes it to the Hebrew pat, for "loaf" or "morsel." An alternative etymology traces the word to a cognate for pine pitch, which form flat layers that may resemble pita bread, and may thereby share an origin with piz ...

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Pita, Pita - Etymology, Pita - Eating habits, Pita - Pita in Bulgarian cuisine

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Many dictionaries and dictionaries of word origins list these words as synonyms. Thus, today, regardless of any differentiation they may have had when originally coined, they are often taken to mean the same thing (except when used by specialists). The root terms histor and -math have similar meanings in their etymological antecedents (to learn, learned, knowledge), though with some initial and ancillarily added differing qualities. Innate in historíā (Greek and Latin) is that the learning takes place via ...

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Polymath, Polymath - Etymological differentiation between Polymath and Polyhistor

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There are many hypotheses about the etymology of the term "Melungeon". Kennedy (1994) speculates that it derives from the Turkish melun can (from Arabic "mal`un jinn" ملعون جنّ) which means "damned soul". Another theory traces the word to malungu, a Luso-African root from Angola meaning "shipmate". One theory, long favored by linguists and many researchers on the topic and found in several dictionaries, is that it derives from the French mélange, or mixture. An underlying assumption in many suggested etymologies ...

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Melungeon, Melungeon - Origins, Melungeon - Legends, Melungeon - Etymology, Melungeon - Modern identity, Melungeon - DNA testing, Melungeon - Potentially related groups

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Older Romanian etymological dictionaries tended to assume a borrowing in many cases, usually from a Slavic language or from Hungarian, but etymological analysis may show that, in many cases, the sense of borrowing was from Romanian to the neighboring languages. The current Dicţionar explicativ (the DEX) published by the Romanian Academy continues to list many words as borrowings, though the work of other linguists (Sorin Olteanu, Sorin Paliga, Ivan Duridanov, et. al.) may indicate that a number of these are in fact indi ...

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Eastern Romance substratum, Eastern Romance substratum - Lexical items, Eastern Romance substratum - Other languages

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