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Oxford Dictionary Does Science Fiction

Posted by timothy on from the narfle-the-garthag dept.

Embedded Geek writes: "The News Log for Locus has an item about the Oxford English Dictionary's attempt to capture unique words and phrases used in various fields. It has begun with a pilot site for science fiction. Specifically, they are looking for published uses of specific words in Science Fiction, SF Criticism, and SF Fandom. The goal is not to create a glossary of terms but rather find the earliest (antedating), latest (postdating), and intermediate (interdating) uses of these words already in the dictionary in books, magazines, etc. They are soliciting help from the public in this effort. Presumably, if this effort is a success, they will begin working on other fields: other literature, programming, open source... who knows?"

5 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. How timely by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 3, Funny

    Does this has anything to do with the current /. poll ? If so, should we expected to find CowboyNeal in the Oxford dictionary anytime soon ?

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  2. Re:grok by CmdrSanity · · Score: 2, Funny

    MIT has a class called 6.002 (circuits and electronics). During the first lecture I attended, the speaker is talking about the high and low voltage for a transistor. He's standing under a projected image of a transitor and spreads his arms wide. He says "I want you to grok this! It has got to meld with the essense of your being." Half the class groaned, the other half just looked utterly confused. Not a bad response, surpised me at any rate.

  3. Oh no .... by reaper20 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I see cyberpunk made the list ...... great.

    No if you don't mind, I think I'll continue webifying my infostructure, in order to monetize your desktop.

  4. Stanislaw Lem by S.+E.+James · · Score: 4, Funny

    I bet this turns out like The Futurological Congress.
    "Onefoot, twofoot. Threefooter, fourfooted. Footing, footingly, footling. Footage, befootery. Footment. And footloose gets you footless, unfooted, defeeted. Ah, defeetism. Feetish, feetus. . .feetback? Infoot and outfoot! I think we're getting somewhere. Feetality, twofootalitarianism."
    "But these words have no meaning!"
    "At the moment, no, but they will. . ."

  5. Oxford dictionary definition: The Slashdot Effect by Nathdot · · Score: 4, Funny

    Let's just hope their none too vindictive

    The Slashdot Effect: (phrase, colloq.) The process by which a server is brought down causing hardworking Oxford dictionary staff to lose many, many invaluable hours of work and research. (see: assholes)

    :)