oed

[flashpig]

Does it list tv as origins to words?

I cannot get oedonline, as I finishd uni and I could only get it on campus.

I ave a fw words, an I was going to wait until I at a book published before I blabbed thm, but if I olnly hav to be on telly...

i am desperate to hav myself in th OED. It seems the only plac for the cool to appear.

[Emily Ball]

You obviously finished university before you barely started judging by this barely comprehenible question.

[Emily Ball]

Sorry, the word should be 'comprehensible'.

[jno]

yes, you do seem to have invented quite a few words for this question. I'm sure oedonline or thm or hav will soon appear in the dictionary, with their origin given as <flashpig, AB, Sat 20/08/05 03:05>

[flashpig]

I am sorry, I am using my parents computer. I don't know why, but some of the keys are mega-stiff.

Plus it was 3 in the morning, I was drunk, and assumed that I had typed it correctly without bothering to read it through.

Anyway, getting a word and, importantly, my name in the OED is my ambition. If I speak my word on the telly would I get my name in the book, or would it just be the tv program, or does it just count as the first written usage?

[flashpig]

PS. you seem to have made the same error as me, Emily Ball. Was this a joke, or was your first comment a bit cruel?

[mycatis]

No you stupid boy, a word has to have "entered common usage" to go into a dictionary not just have 1 person say it once

[jno]

dictionaries these days love to promote themselves by publicising the number of trendy new words they include. Even so, a single usage probably won't be enough. Best way is probably to get the word into some very cool magazine or book (magazines are more likely to be read by more people) and hope enough readers like it who will repeat it to all their cool friends. Telly might do as well, but viewers sometimes miss new words - they just think they've misheard - and anyway dictionaries prefer written sources. Anyway, once there is evidence of several uses of the word, it's got a decent chance of making it into dictionaries.

(The real problem is getting on to telly or into magazines in the first place.)

[flashpig]

But, my stupid mycatis, words have to have an origin. It doesn't just say in dictionaries "Oh, EVERYONE was using this word from about 1960" They have the first recorded usage. What I was wondering was, would somebody saying it on telly count as a usage, or is the oed strict on the first WRITTEN usage.

[mycatis]

Oh sorry pig I thought that was what you liked to do to. You know, just come on to other peoples posts and say nothing that's really pertinant and be abusive, no? Cause that's what you did to me.

[quibblingmed]

one word "pr*t"!!

[nfn]

no two words quibblingmed, pretentious pr*t

[jno]

if all you people are going to be hurling insults around, kindly make it clear who you're hurling them at. I can't be bothered calling for everyone's record of previous offences to work it out for myself. As far as I'm concerned this is a reasonable question (imaginatively spelt) and merits a straight answer - which is, I think: No, dictionaries usually require written evidence, but in their eagerness to keep up with slang they may be relaxing their standards.

[flashpig]

ta jno.

I guess I'll have to wait until I'm published. These words are amazing. Mega-catchy. They will be the 'britpop' or 'metrosexual' of tomorrow!

[pixi]

quibblingmed and nfn well said, couldnt have put it better myself except I would have used more *******