Oxford English Dictionary
288
MENTIONS
204
EPISODES
188
PODCASTS
Search complete. 288 mentions across 204 episodes found for "Oxford English Dictionary".
Nov 12, 2026
Jeremy ButterfieldGUEST
You know, if you're trying to organize a group of people or an organization, it's like herding cats.
Jeremy ButterfieldGUEST
Well, that is first recorded in the OED from 1986.
Jeremy ButterfieldGUEST
So, you know, it's relatively recent.
Mignon FogartyHOST
Oh, that is so much newer than I would have thought.
14 MINS LATER
Jeremy ButterfieldGUEST
Like you could talk about somebody behaving like a rabid dog.
Jeremy ButterfieldGUEST
I mean, there's just so many different ideas that you can express with dogs.
Jeremy ButterfieldGUEST
And that's not surprising, as you say, partly because, you know, we love dogs on the whole, but also because in the OED, the word dog itself has 270 different meanings, would you believe? I mean, not all of them are related to how we use the word dog to apply to us, but it is an incredibly complex word in its own right.
Mignon FogartyHOST
Does that include a lot of metaphors or idioms?
Dwane Richardson Sr.HOST
That image stuck.
Dwane Richardson Sr.HOST
The Oxford English Dictionary traces our modern meaning back to that piece.
Dwane Richardson Sr.HOST
But here's the twist.
Dwane Richardson Sr.HOST
Most researchers believe that Cobbett made the boyhood story up.
Dwane Richardson Sr.HOST
That image stuck.
Dwane Richardson Sr.HOST
The Oxford English Dictionary traces our modern meaning back to that piece.
Dwane Richardson Sr.HOST
But here's the twist.
Dwane Richardson Sr.HOST
Most researchers believe that Cobbett made the boyhood story up.
Steve LehtoHOST
Okay, I will admit, it's a word I'm not sure I've ever heard before.
Steve LehtoHOST
So we'll go to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Steve LehtoHOST
I've not done this in a while.
Steve LehtoHOST
Panopticon.
Ben SchottGUEST
But that's not a problem.
Ben SchottGUEST
But that's why the Oxford English Dictionary is the best book ever written, or compiled, maybe, is because it's a descriptive, not a prescriptive dictionary.
Ben SchottGUEST
So, you know, every American kid's essay, according to Merriam-Webster, the word X means...
Ben SchottGUEST
And it's just like, no.
Leanne TrittonHOST
So I thought that sort of sums up the relationship with London.
Jerry WhiteGUEST
and I think this is a terribly interesting moment, isn't it now, with Manchesterism, which I see as a new word that's coming to the Oxford English Dictionary this year, that the whole sort of place of London in the nation is coming up for debate, I think, in a way that we've not seen, you know, for some time.
Jerry WhiteGUEST
I mean, it's been in the background a lot, but I think it's going to come to a very interesting place period, over the next couple of years.
Dave HillHOST
Oh, goodness me, that sounds ominous.
Darren SimpsonHOST
Yes.
Darren SimpsonHOST
I don't know if they ever added that to the Oxford Dictionary, like they add mogging and skibbity and riz and stuff.
Sibs MatiyelaHOST
Probably in our side of the dictionary.
Sibs MatiyelaHOST
Rameez, Rameez.
KeithHOST
So then how did, how did you compress that just to even define stretching?
Yoby EtiennieGUEST
Yeah, so first what I did, I took the original definition of stretch, or the word stretching, and explained what it is from the Oxford Dictionary standpoint.
Yoby EtiennieGUEST
I added a little bit of concept from material science in it to show what are the property of what stretching means to any material.
Yoby EtiennieGUEST
Break the idea down that if something can come back, the stretching capability is different.
Patricia MessengerHOST
It's the animal rights charity PETA.
Patricia MessengerHOST
They've actually written... to the Oxford English Dictionary bosses demanding that they scrap
Patricia MessengerHOST
the wording.
Patricia MessengerHOST
Because if you go on to the Oxford English Dictionary and under chicken, you know, they will describe it as a bird, but they also describe it as someone who is a coward.
Patricia MessengerHOST
You'll hear people be referred to as a chicken.
Patricia MessengerHOST
Peter claim that the description is unfair and it's inaccurate.
Patricia MessengerHOST
And they point out that hens will put themselves in danger just to protect their young.
Patricia MessengerHOST
PETA also argue that portraying chickens as cowards reinforces the idea that the birds are undeserving of respect.
Will FaulknerHOST
A campaign is trying to change how you describe somebody who has lost their nerve.
Will FaulknerHOST
So PETA, which is an animal rights group, is asking the Oxford English Dictionary to reconsider the use of chicken as a term meaning coward.
Will FaulknerHOST
And they argue that chickens are actually remarkably brave and the expression unfairly damages the reputation of chickens everywhere.
Will FaulknerHOST
Now, obviously, the Oxford Dictionary has rather a lot of words to deal with before it can get around to defending the honour of chickens.
194 more episodes mention Oxford English Dictionary.
Create an account to see the whole feed, search across every transcript, and follow the entities you care about.