Oxford Dictionary
THE work of a lexicographer is never done. For tho last four years Dr. Onions and his assistants, working in the Old Ashmolean Museum, have been waylaying every new word that drifts into the language and incorporating it, with a neat definition attached, in a supplement to the monumental Oxford Dictionary. This supplement now numbers 1000 pages, and it. is be-' ing issued to those who possess Hie previous volumes. These already consist of 15,188 pages, 21,000,000 words, half a million definitions and nearly two million quotations. An unduly large proportion of tho new words in general use—apart from technical terms —have been minted in America, e.g., hike, hooch, highbrow, and ballyhoo. Two others arc wuinpli, meaning a heavy fall, and hornswoggle, a verb meaning to hoodwink, humbug or bamboozle. The word hornswoggle is a popular term with a leading American delegate at Geneva. It apparently fits in usefully to tho language of diplomacy.
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Bibliographic details
Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18273, 16 December 1933, Page 13
Word Count
156Oxford Dictionary Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18273, 16 December 1933, Page 13
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