Damn those meddling kids

LONDON - Do chuggers bother you when you want to rock up to a restaurant with your cockapoo to hoover a supersized ruby murray? Confused? Then you need to refer to the new Oxford Dictionary of English to understand a host of new words that appear for the first time in its latest edition. Many of the new words are simply formed by mixing two others together, such as charity and mugger making "chugger" (someone who approaches passers-by in the street asking for donations for a charity) and "labradoodle" (a cross between a Labrador retriever and a poodle). (Reuters)

Dr. WC Minor (June 1834 – March 26, 1920)


I read a book on the making of the Oxford dictionary where helpers, like Dr. W.C. Minor, provided thousands of word entries to the editors of Oxford English Dictionary .The editors of the OED had put out a call for "men of letters" for help , hundreds of responses came forth. But Minor, a Civil War veteran, was actually a certified lunatic, who turned in his dictionary entries from a criminal lunatic ward.Minor's condition was so bad that in 1902 he cut off his own male appendage. So I quess little ,if anything is new at the OED.



-amshinover lives in amshinov plus or minus a week