A whole new vocabulary

This morning, I accidentally came across an article while i was searching for online dictionaries. Honestly, I have a very limited vocabulary and with each passing day, i have forgotten how to spell some of the simple words. Words as easy as 'scissors' and 'humongous' make me lost my confidence for the language which i once thought i excelled. (shameful to even think i was good at it) :-Þ

Anyway, the article was dated 2 days ago. The search engine gave me few full pages of links to ONE single piece of news. That's the Oxford English Dictionary public appeal for wordhunters. It's quite interesting, at least to me.

Have a look at the article.

Yahoo News >> Wanted: Wordhunters for the Oxford English Dictionary
The Washington Post
London Lite
The Scotman
Guardian Unlimited


I read all the article links on the first page. Apparently, the researchers are trying to find earliest proof of first time usage for some of the words in the our daily usage, to document the history of those words. This year they have chosen 40 words for the wordhunt. These processes have been ongoing for ages. Every year, they update/ammend information of words/phrases that have new proof of findings.

While reading, i came across words/terms that i read before but never bothered to understand what they mean. One good example: Full monty. Or maybe 'Wally'.

Even term like 'bananas' is new to me. Then, the word 'dog' introduce me to a whole new vocabulary. Forgive me for my lack of knowledge in this language, but i never would have thought dog can be so creative.

In the chinese traditions, dogs are just animals. The chinese will not lower their status to the same level as an animal. A man is always above the animal. As for the westerners, dogs are men's best friends, so it's just understandable that their daily language includes dogs and sometimes, uses dog to replace themselves. It's kinda funny when i think about it.

Every dog has its day
Put on the dog
Give a dog a bad name
Dog-eat-dog
Top dog
Tail wagging the dog
See a man about a dog
Shaggy dog story

Those are just some of my new learnings.

So when i'm pissed, everyone is just a wazzock. i'm as daft as a brush if i go and buy myself a f@cial toning device worth of 6k plus when i don't even know how to operate it. What a wally i would be then. :-Þ