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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?"

3 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What? by Nick+Number · · Score: 5, Informative

    No "grok"?

    From the OED page:
    This list is not meant to be a glossary of SF terminology: it is only a list of those terms that the OED has a particular need to have researched. Certain terms have been excluded from this list because we know beyond doubt that we have the earliest possible example, the circumstances of the coinage being known. These include dalek, robot, and grok. There is no need to point out the absence of these words.

    --
    Promote proofreading. Don't mod up sloppy posts.
  2. Open source dictionary by T-Lex · · Score: 4, Informative

    Read the professor and the madman, it's a great read and will explain to you that this is the same process they used to collect all of the original words...

    It was a joint collaboration very much like open-source software!

  3. I call AI for John McCarthy by wdavies · · Score: 4, Informative

    Copy of a message I sent the editor :) I can't believe they couldn't predate 1971 for AI (see Sci Fi Word List)

    Hi Mike,

    Science predates Science Fiction :) Next time I see him [JM], I'll mention it :)
    Winton

    AI or Artificial Intelligence

    Coined by John McCarthy [in a SCIENCE setting, not SCI-FI!], 1956. Seems to be fairly unanimous.... concept goes way back.
    " He [JM] invited them to Vermont for "The Dartmouth summer research project on artificial intelligence." (reference)

    1956 John McCarthy coined the term "artificial intelligence" as the topic of the Dartmouth Conference, the first conference devoted to the subject. (reference)