Caught a new BBC TV series on etymology last night.
Very entertaining (at least for a verbally-oriented dweeb like myself). They even have the courage to transmit it at prime time.
But it’s called Balderdash and Piffle, which makes me wonder if a couple of C&F interns shouldn’t be tasked with clarifying intellectual property issues.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/wordhunt/
OED companion website:
http://www.oed.com/bbcwords/about.html
That sounds like a neat show. I’d better find some words to look up in the OED since you can use it free with the letter of the week! Some time ago I read The Professor and the Madman (I hope I got the title right) which focused on one particular volunteer who contributed to the OED. It was such an interesting idea to me that regular people could contribute to the dictionary. It makes sense considering all the literature that a word could have been mentioned in—it would take huge numbers of people reading in all areas to get all the meanings and dates of the usage.
If anyone knows of any other books written about the making of the OED I would be glad to hear about them.
I would love to watch this program!!! I’ve got more old..ancient dictionaries of Angle-Saxon and English words, than I have sheet music.
MarkB
The first episode last week, they were trying to fix a starting date (or earlier date than they currently have) for the words (or phrases) Ploughman’s Lunch, Pear-Shaped, and I forget the other words.
They only succeeded with Ploughman’s Lunch, which was identified as a marketing idea invented to sell more cheese in the late 50s and first introduced to the pubblic in the 60s.
Ironically now, a ploughman’s lunch may not contain cheese, as it can be replaced with sliced ham or pate, to name just two options.
What a cool site. I just spent way too much time going through the history of English. I’ll try some of the other interactive toys later.