The OED and "perma-gush"

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Wed Jan 22 22:12:41 UTC 2014


An article in the NYTimes today by Tom Rachman about the "third
edition" of the OED and its new chief editor, Michael Proffitt, which
also uses a word amidst the updated P's that is not in
OED3.  http://tinyurl.com/mqte8sd or
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/books/oeds-new-chief-editor-speaks-of-its-future.html?_r=0

In the on-line article there are some interesting examples of early
dates -- OMG from 1917, "literally" misused in 1876 by Samuel
Clemens, "like" as interjection from Fanny Burney, "unfriend" from 1659.

And Rachman writes "In our own impatient age, the Oxford English
Dictionary is touch-typing toward a third edition, with 619,000 words
defined so far, online updates every three months and a perma-gush of
digital data to sort through."

Presumably the antonym of "perma-frost".  Arriving no doubt due to
global warming.

"36" Ghits, actually more like 12.  I see some GWeb examples dated
2010, but only the NYTimes in GBooks and GNews.

Joel

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