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Where did the phrase
bad hair day originate? How did
the movie,
A Clockwork Orange influence the
English language?
If you have an interest in words,
you'll probably want to have some fun
exploring the
Oxford English Dictionary.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), with
23 volumes, looks more like a set of
encyclopedias than a dictionary of words.
There is no other English-language source
with as much information about how words
are pronounced and used, how they have
influenced language, and where they
originated.
Through a UW-System subscription, the
entire 23 volumes are available via the
web. |
Because the dictionary includes so much
varied information about words, and
because the online version offers many
ways to search, you can use the
dictionary for more than just finding
word definitions and pronunciations.
The best searching seems to be in the
Advanced Search area, where, for
example, a search for “Mick Jagger”
leads to 18 entries, including words
such as “popocrat,” “washboard, ”and
“sashay.”
The OED also allows you to enter
words or phrases and find historical
quotations of when they were first used.
As long as you are on the UW-L
campus, you will be able to get in
without a password whether you go
through the library web page or if you
just go to the
dictionary’s commercial site
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People without this kind of
institutional subscription pay $295
per year for individual subscriptions.
To get to the OED from off campus,
enter through the library website and
give your UW-L email username and
password.
The online Oxford English Dictionary
is temporarily featured on the
library home page, and can always
be found in the library’s list
of all databases. In addition, the
library has the printed 2nd edition in
the reference area. Material from the
upcoming 3rd edition is available in
the continuously updated online
version, especially important because
the print 3rd edition is not scheduled
for completion until 2010.by
Stefan Smith, Outreach Librarian |
For those people who prefer paper, a simple,
Michael Current joined the Murphy Library staff in late summer as Government
Information Public Services Librarian. Michael manages the
library's Government Depository Program and participates in many
varied public services activities such as instruction and
reference.
Galadriel Chilton began her
new position as Electronic Resources
Librarian on October 27, 2003. Galadriel's
duties include managing the library's
databases, providing information and
analysis on product use, providing database
training to the campus, and more.
August
Moon by Michael Blaser