The Oxford English Dictionary has launched OED Appeals, a dedicated community space on the OED website where OED editors solicit help in unearthing new information about the history and usage of English.
The website will enable the public to post evidence in direct response to editors, fostering a collective effort to record the English language and find the true roots of our vocabulary.
In the release, the OED said: “When researching and revising entries, OED editors use our famous citation files, gathered over more than a century, as well as electronic databases and corpora.”
“Nonetheless, we sometimes find ourselves stumped when tracking down the very early uses of a word. Sometimes the trail runs cold earlier than we expect; in other cases, the ultimate origin of a word is shrouded in mystery.OED Appeals continues our long tradition of asking the English-speaking public for help in recording the origins of our vast, ever-changing lexicon. After all, when it comes to the words we read, write, speak, and hear each day, every one of us is an expert.
OED Appeals uses the reach of the web and social media to connect lexicographers with those who may hold hidden clues to word history without even realising it.
“The first example of baked Alaska might be hiding in a forgotten cookbook on your bookshelf; your high school year book might hold the first evidence of the phrase in your dreams. Our goal is to leave no stone unturned in our search for the earliest evidence of each word included in the dictionary. Can you help us?” the company said.
The company has listed three words they are researching right now:
Disco (earlier than September 1964)
Bellini (earlier than 1965)
FAQ (earlier than 1989)
http://public.oed.com/appeals/
