The world of words: how the OED records English from around the globe

When does a word from another language become English too? What would you call a fast clock in the Philippines? Is a single panini a problem? In this episode the resident Lexipoddery lexicographers Craig Leyland and Fiona McPherson talk to colleague Dr Danica Salazar about her work as head of the OED’s World English programme. Join us for another episode in two weeks (October 21st) as we look towards Halloween with a discussion of some suitably spooky words. www.oed.com [lexipoddery@oup.com](mailto:lexipoddery@oup.com) www.oed.com/discover/new-words-from-around-the-world-in-the-oed-september-2026-update Music by Matt Cutmore Glossary Antedating: an occurrence of a word, phrase, or sense, which predates the earliest use previously known or recorded. Collocation: the habitual juxtaposition or association of a particular word with other particular words; a group of words so associated. Compound: two or more words put together to make a new word or phrase (like hot sauce, nutcracker, or Greenwich Mean Time). Entry: a section of a dictionary devoted to a particular word, starting with the headword and including the etymology, pronunciation, senses, compounds, etc. Etymology: the origin and historical development of a word; the process of investigating this. Headword: the word you look up, at the start of the entry; the word that is being defined. Homonym: for OED purposes, homonyms are words that share the same spelling and part of speech, but have different etymological origins, and are therefore separate entries with their own homonym numbers (e.g. dog n.1 – the animal – and dog. n.2 – a euphemistic alteration of ‘god’). More broadly though, homonyms are words that have different meanings and origins but are either spelled the same (homographs) or sound the same (homophones). Isogloss: the boundary of an area of local concentration or dominance of a significant linguistic feature, e.g. pronunciation. Label: OED adds labels to words, when useful for readers, to give information on region (e.g. South African), subject (e.g. U.S. history), register (e.g. slang), usage (e.g. derogatory), and status (e.g. obsolete). Lexicography: the art/science/craft of writing dictionaries. A lexicographer is a writer of dictionaries. (“A harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words,” according to Samuel Johnson. Fair enough, he should know.) Obsolete: describing a word as no longer in use. (For OED’s purposes, that means we haven’t found any evidence of it after 1930.) Poddery: podcasting? We thought it sounded fun. It's not in OED...yet. Sense: any of the various distinct meanings of a particular word. Slip: a postcard-sized piece of paper containing an illustrative quotation or other useful bit of lexicographical information, written by an editor or volunteer reader. (The first edition alone generated over five million of them.) Small-type note: text (in small type!) that sits under the main definition, where we can add extra, useful information that doesn’t fit in the main definition itself. Update: a new version of OED, including new and revised entries, as published four times a year on oed.com. Also called a release.