Website of the Week

The Oxford Dictionary Blog

If you are a logophile -- someone who likes words, words’ origins, crossword puzzles, playing with words, interesting tidbits about words, people, places or objects -- then you will be delighted to read the Oxford Dictionary Blog.

There are several blog categories, such as, “competitions and quizzes,” which entice you to win an iPod Touch or iPod Nano, or “grammar and writing help,” where I learned of correct English use, or “word origins” which was always very interesting for me, to mention a few.

After enjoying several entries, I discovered that the symbol, commercial at, or @ that we use so frequently nowadays, is actually more than 500 years old. It was used as an abbreviation for the measurement of weight, arroba. 

I also enjoyed reading about English in other countries, Welsh English , Australian English, Irish and Scottish English, or Rastafari. I even learned that the word “twerk” was just recently added to the dictionary.

                                                        

The Southwestern Library has a subscription to the Oxford English Dictionary that you’ll find among the databases listed on the Articles and Databases page.

Review by Erika Prange, SWC Librarian