Oxford Dictionary Does Science Fiction

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?"

Comments

Proper credit?

[thebigbadme]

To me this seems to be a good case of an attempt to give credit where credit is due. Nothing like having the satisfaction that thousands, if not millions (or i guess billions) of people will now understand the origins of some of our vernacular.

This could come in handy for future generations as well...
An interesting insight to add to analyze within the context of the "Whorfian Hypothesis"
Having to do with studying how a language evolves, and becomes structured, even words that were 'made-up' have a bit of relevance to them. When a new word is formed it must have a base (to allow for proper edict realizations) or more specifically a history. That's sort-of how the Klingon Language got it's gears going; taking the words that were used (in context - disecting sentences) and applying the rules to form the rest of what has become Klingon. English (even bastardized American English [the sort I use]) follows the same sort of process.

I would guess that this new attempt of Oxford's will be even more revolutionary than many percieve at this time.

Re:or you can be a cheapskate

[junkgrep]

You do get what you pay for though: M-W has a lot of non-standard definitions, some of which are holdovers from the time when it was fashionable to smuggle connotations into definitions that had more to do with the compiler's political and religious beliefs than had to do with the words. Oxford has for the most part purged itself of such things, as well as being MUCH more extensive about documenting all sorts of different meangins and even their origins, which is why it is the preferred source. However, regular users (like me) aren't apt to encounter the differences.

A good idea.

[Apuleius]

The one area where science fiction has influence on Anglophone society at large (i.e. not just geeks) is the constant introduction of idioms into general usage. People who make their living tracking the evolution of the English language do need to keep an eye on science fiction.