DICTIONARY ADDITIONS

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29912, 28 August 1962, Page 23

DICTIONARY ADDITIONS

’ad, Positron And Slurb -Reuterj London. IVhat is a slurb, a pad, a si n on, or a mpster? I'nese >rds are some ot the 20.0U0 west additions to the glish language queuing tor icial recognition in tne Jord Engiisn Dictionary, n a small house in a unbeing crescent in Oxford, English language expert, : Robert Burco.neld poors, sifts and records tne anges in tne language for s world’s biggest (450,000>rd> English dictionary. 3efore they reach him the w words have been thered by about 100 mostlypaid volunteers from books, wspapers, conversations, ■gon and slang. They otted, for instance, urb,” a word recently rn in California —meaning "slopping, sleazy, slipshod ni-city.” rhe word "go” acquired a ecial meaning which could t fail to catch on when the ironaut. Colonel John enn, told the world "I am rhe newcomers are mainly rided into scientific terms ch as "positron”—a posie electron—or new slick a-age expressions wnich ve filtered through from nerica, such as "hepcat,” ipster,” "beatnik,” or >ad,” the beatnik’s home. But such words have a jh mortality rate—“hept.” already dead in nerica, is becoming “old t” in Britain. Deaths have to be regis■ed as well as births, iggly-wiggly.” born in !8 to describe a self-service >re, has long since been cceeded by the American ipermarket.” Mot all new words have me from America. Since e war. prominent Britons ve been busy doing their are of word-coining. Sir inston Churchill, former itish Prime Minister, gave e world the “iron curtain,” e writer J. B. Priestley, innted “admass”—people en as mass-advertising tar•ts. The humorist, Stephen Potr, invented “one-upman-ip”—(the art of making hers feel inferior) and amesmanship”—the art ot inning without actually eating.