The Wax Conspiracy

Shifty Apostrophes and the demise of the Hyphen

From the stately finger amputating printers of Oxford University Press, the new second edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English has started the run and word is out that times are looking grim for the once favoured younger neighbour of the underscore. The hyphen.

As a commentator of sorts on the way English speakers use language, it's been noted that there has been a move from standard compounds into verb phrases in the overall usage. Research shows that while its use is only half of that ten years ago, it's still twice as common in language today.

Dictionaries are far from the simple snapshot of the vernacular of the times. It's a hard fought effort for a word to make it into the well regarded tome. Those that qualify have been deemed suitable and more than just a passing fad.

The new edition of the dictionary sees the addition of 3000 new words such as brazilian, foo fighters, hacktivists and terminator genes.

If the Socceroos fail to gain entry into the World Cup of 2006, thus failing the Australians that care, they can find solace in the fact that they made it into the new list of words.

For the full list of words included in this year's edition, download the monster 69-page PDF from Ask Oxford.

Ethan Switch

Written on Friday, 22 August 2003

The Wax Conspiracy

Recently by Ethan Switch