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Major Update For OED Science Fiction Project

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the actually-done-in-2319-via-time-machine dept.

ColdChrist writes "The Oxford English Dictionary Science Fiction project was last reported on here back in March 2004. The site has been redesigned and relaunched; the biggest change is that the OED's database of citations of SF words is now made (mostly) available via the website. The OED (a nonprofit organization) does not usually make its work available in this way, but OED has agreed to publicly open up this part of its database to acknowledge the great contribution volunteers have made to this project. That means that if you contribute a cite, it's viewable by everyone; see here for more details. Also, quite a few more words are being added from an internal pending list."

18 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Update on Science Fiction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    It still wont get you laid.

  2. hoo boy by aendeuryu · · Score: 5, Funny

    I grok the pain his webserver is going to feel.

  3. I hope that embiggens someones heart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    enough to write some cromulent sci-fi.

  4. I think its time for... by dj245 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Google Dictionary. Coming soon from a Google Labs near you. With all the dictionaries out there, Urbandictionary, Technical dictionaries, Oxford English, Acronym dictionaries, and now this SF dictionary, its time for a good way to search them.

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    Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
    1. Re:I think its time for... by ajna · · Score: 3, Informative

      This is already here in some sense: search on the query "define [term]" (or "d [term]" on Google SMS, all without the brackets and quotes of course) and you'll get a definition as the first hit assuming you spelled the word correctly.

  5. Lexicate Me by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2

    Hey, OED: my Nemory entry is available for reprint in your dictionary, provided your "earliest citation" credits its Wikipedia entry.

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    make install -not war

    1. Re:Lexicate Me by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Interesting

      In linguistics, a neologism refers to a recently created (or coined) word, phrase or usage which can sometimes be attributed to a specific individual, publication, period or event. The term was itself coined around 1800.

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      make install -not war

  6. Damn by Yeshua · · Score: 5, Funny

    How are we going to maintain our separation from society (or should I say elitism) if anyone can just look up what the hell we mean??

  7. Re:OED is not ready for /. by jephthah · · Score: 5, Funny

    and to top it off, they neglected to include Vulcan, Klingon, Romulan, or even Elvish in their multi-lingual Page Not Found notices...

  8. Wiktionary by PxM · · Score: 4, Informative

    If Google continues to support Wikipedia or even acquire it, then they might increase the support for Wiktionary. However, the answers.com thing they have set up is pretty nice since it brings a bunch of dictionary and similar references together.

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    Wired article as proof

  9. Pity the rest of the OED isn't online by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 3, Funny

    Because then the person who contributed this story could see that 'cite' is a verb, not a noun. "Contribute a cite"! Ugh!

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    1. Re:Pity the rest of the OED isn't online by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 2, Funny

      Because then the person who contributed this story could see that 'cite' is a verb, not a noun. "Contribute a cite"! Ugh!

      D00d, the person who contributed this story is probably hard at work right now "architecting a Website" with another "knowledge-worker." Cut him some slack...

  10. science? or sci-fi? by pedantic+bore · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I always thought that words like "galactic", "airlock" and "core" were actual words, not science fiction...

    And terms like "megayear", "kiloday"; well it's hard to see why they need defining at all. Even though I'm a pedantic bore, it still seems overgeekly.

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    Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
    1. Re:science? or sci-fi? by cogitolv · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Of course galactic, airlock and core are standard english words. Perhaps, their meanings in a SF context, are what's recorded in a SF dictionary.

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      Well, sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you.
  11. Re:Oxford? by jd · · Score: 4, Informative
    Oxford English Dictionary is printed, IIRC, by the Oxford University Press. British Universities have to walk a very careful line, when it comes to money, as they are considered in the same bracket as "charitable organizations" and "non-profit".


    Typically a University publishing house will charge for time, materials and other assorted costs, but not significantly more. Now, when you consider that these places don't have the kind of turnover of, say, Harper-Collins, O'Reilley, Haigue & Hochland, etc, but will need paper and printing systems of comparable or superior quality, it's clear that those costs are going to add up fast.


    There's also the matter that nobody cares that much if there's a whole load of typos in a college textbook - students are supposed to know what's meant, but a LOT more people are going to kick up a fuss if there's any typos anywhere in the Complete OED. That means you've got to get a small army of proofreaders. That probably adds to the costs, somewhat.

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  12. The OED is great, but ... by RealAlaskan · · Score: 2, Insightful
    The OED is great: it's the authoritative source for the meaning of an English word in some era.

    The OED was put together by a large army of volunteers, who laboriously found and copied out examples of the use of words over the years, researched the etymology, and mailed the information to the editor. The editors (the project took 71 years (or less than 50, or more than 100, depending on how you choose to count), and several editors died of old age along the way) would assemble the scraps of information into a coherent entry for every word which was ever used in written English.

    But, I think they're charging a lot for their dictionary, and I wouldn't donate any material to them.

    Oxford and Clarendon Press only paid for a small staff, and the vast majority of the gruntwork was done by the army of English and American volunteer philologists. The 12 volume reissue was done in 1933, and the main body of the work hasn't changed since then, though they do issue supplements. In short, they've long since recovered their costs, and any income from it is pure profit.

    It seems to me that the OED is something of a profit center for them. I would be happy to make contributions to a project which was making my free contribution freely available to all. If Oxford wants me to contribute to their cash cow, they can send me some of the cash.

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    See what I've been reading.
    1. Re:The OED is great, but ... by CaptainAvatar · · Score: 2, Informative
      The 12 volume reissue was done in 1933, and the main body of the work hasn't changed since then, though they do issue supplements. In short, they've long since recovered their costs, and any income from it is pure profit.

      What ARE you talking about? The 2nd Edition was completed in 1989, at a cost of 13 million pounds, and they have been revising it constantly since then. See for yourself.

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      The real Captain Avatar is a fictional character, so I suppose he doesn't mind if I impersonate him.
  13. Re:Oxford? by Flendon · · Score: 3, Informative

    I don't see any links to this Jesse character on the OED site. Is this April 1st? Non-profit? OED? The company that sells dictionaries? Curiouser and curiouser.

    The homepage of Jesseword has his full name along with a link to the OED staff page http://oed.com/about/staff.html to verify the sites authenticity. Doesn't look like any kind of joke. Conspiracy theories should be better thought out and researched.

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    chown -R us ./base