OED pronunciation page for the word zhuzh, transcribed as /ʒʊʒ/
Definition and quotations for zhuzh in the OED. First quotation is from 1968. Meaning is "Style, glamour; a stylish or glamorous appearance or effect. Also: the action or an act of making something more stylish, attractive, or exciting. Cf. zhuzh v."
A sound so nice, the word zhuzh (dating from the late 1960s, originally in Polari slang) uses it twice!
The linguist Lawrence Horne introduced the term "crying Wolof" to refer disparagingly to proposed West African origins of African American English usages.
Attention digital humanists: The OED would like to hear from anyone currently using OED/dictionary data in their research, and who would be interested in accessing OED as a dataset. Please share your thoughts at tinyurl.com/mpn6kcuu!
The survey takes about 3 minutes to complete, and closes 3rd Apr.
Conan O'Brien wearing a crown and a regal robe stands confidently on stage, with several individuals in red and gold robes behind. In the foreground, a tapestry-style illustration depicts three medieval figures with the person in the middle wearing a crown and a regal robe.
Emma Stone wearing a simmering white dress standing in front of a medieval illustration of someone wearing a white dress while holding a sword.
Kathy Bates wearing a light blue, elegant gown, stands smiling in front of a medieval-style illustration. The illutration features a medieval illustration with a figure small hoop wearing a light blue gown surrounded by decorative floral elements.
Jessie Buckley wearing an elegant red and pink gown next to a medieveal illustration of someone wearing a gown echoing the fabric
Oscars looks 🤝 medieval manuscripts
Some of these outfits felt suspiciously familiar, so we went digging in the collections…
#MedievalMonday
Shelfmarks: MS. Bodl. 265 fols. 58r, 60r; MS. Douce 364, fol. 61v; MS. Douce 195, fol. 003r
OED entry for blood moon with meaning and use shown. The first quotation is from 1871, with subsequent examples from 1908, 1975, and 2014. The definition is "a full moon appearing with a noticeable red tinge, esp. In a lunar eclipse."
Here's a screenshot of the full entry
A portrait of a woman, Mary Somerville, dressed in 19th-century attire, featuring a dark gown with a fur trim and a lace ruffle at the neckline. The person has a composed expression and an elegant hairstyle. The background is dark, highlighting the figure.
A historical text page discussing a scientific study titled "On the Magnetizing Power of the More Refrangible Solar Rays" by Mrs. M. Somerville, communicated by W. Somerville, M.D. F.R.S., dated February 2, 1826.
#OnThisDay in 1826, the first paper to be written by a woman was read at a Royal Society meeting. The paper, by noted polymath Mary Somerville, was read at the meeting by her husband, as she wasn't permitted to attend. https://bit.ly/2A3Cj2N
I'll be talking about this on BBC Radio Sussex at 11.40am...www.thebookseller.com/news/oxford-childrens-wo...
Can confirm that at my children's UK secondary school "compère" (noun) is used to refer to the host/MC role at e.g. talent shows.
Submissions are now being accepted by Oxford University Press for the 2026 First Book Prize for early career researchers in the humanities and social sciences.
academic.oup.com/pages/early-...
A detail from the medieval fresco titled Courtiers Intent on a Snowball Fight, Month of January, part of the "Cycle of the Months" by the Bohemian painter Maestro Venceslao. The artwork depicts several figures, identified as nobles or courtiers, engaged in a playful snowball fight amidst a winter landscape. A woman on the left, wearing a green gown, is gathering snow in her skirt, using it like an arsenal for ammunition. A man in the center and another figure partially visible on the right are actively throwing snowballs.
Fresco of January at Castello Buonconsiglio, Trento, Italy, (detail), c. 1405-1410.
"Things we love still exist in Gaza." The Gaza bookshop that refuses to shut - www.ft.com/content/7572... via @FT
"Canadian Word of the Year" on a red banner. Beneath the banner reads "maplewashing" and "the deceptive practice of making things look more Canadian than they actually are"
And the results are in! After carefully reviewing the results of a national poll the Board of Directors of the Society for Canadian English (SCE) has determined that this year’s Canadian Word of the Year (CWOTY), the first of its kind, will be “maplewashing.”
The kanji of the year has been announced as “kuma” (熊), meaning “bear” - owing to the increase in bear attacks in Northern Japan this year.
news.livedoor.com/article/deta...
Offered seasonally with book selections by guest curators, this new collection highlights renowned and modern artists practicing within ... themes of poetry, visual art, critical thought, design and ... more. Works can be borrowed by readers for 45-days, free of costs to our U.S. based community.
An image of a fishhook with the text "I voted for..rage bait noun"
I'm team ragebait. (I prefer the closed form, no matter what the corpus says!)
It's that time of year again! Vote for your favorite of OUP's three #WOTY25 finalists.
corp.oup.com/word-of-the-...
'A high-resolution digital map allows people to plan their routes along the ancient roads of the Roman Empire. Combining historical records with modern mapping techniques, researchers mapped hundreds of thousands of kilometres of roads. The findings nearly double the known length of Roman roads.'
1750– A woman who is regarded with respect or affection similar to that often accorded to an aunt (sense 1a) despite not being linked by this specific kinship; esp. a close family friend or (chiefly regional, as a term of respect or affection) an elderly woman. Also as a form of address or as a title preceding a first name. Cf. auntie n. 1b, uncle n. 1b. Frequently as a title. Cf. sense 1a.ii.
The OED on _aunt_ n. sense 1.b.
The Life of a ‘Showgirl,’ #etymology edition.
Adapted from OED. Show + girl.
- 1750, young girl regarded as object of display, especially one who dresses/behaviors ostentatiously.
- 1816, young woman employed to model clothes.
- 1836–37, female performer in musicals, et al. (chorus girl)
My photo shows a Roman-era wooden toy sword made from oak. It is dark brown in colour, displayed against a cream and pale green background. It is carved to look like an adult sword, with a semi-circular handle, a blade with pointed tip, and a semi-circular guard embellished with a centrally-set oval polished stone. The wood is remarkably well-preserved except for a break across the hilt. Excavated in 2017 from the cavalry barracks at Vindolanda, a fort on the Roman Empire’s northern frontier. Dated c. AD 120.
At almost 2,000 years old, this child’s wooden toy sword is a remarkable survival from Roman times!
Found in the living quarters of the cavalry barracks at Vindolanda fort in 2017. Dated c.120 AD. Chesterholm Museum 📷 by me
#RomanFortThursday
#Archaeology
Lots of intriguing patterns in this survey about the disciplines in which Americans think humanity has already discovered all there is to know.
Our medieval curator Alison Ray introduces Rawlinson Bodleian Library MS. Rawl. D. 252...a 15th Century necromancer's journal.
This manuscript contains spells written in Latin and Middle English, and would have served as a reference for a professional sorcerer.
#MedievalMonday
Neologisms have always been memes in the original Richard Dawkins sense; now they can also become memes in the specific social media sense. But the dynamics of (un)natural selection driving propagation are different in the algorithmically driven latter than in the purely human-mediated former.
"An organic trend can take longer to percolate into general usage but an algorithmic trend like the “clanker” joke may be deliberately reproduced by influencers who are actively aware of memes and how platforms reward them" on.ft.com/45PYTuY via @FT
Participants needed for research on innovative grammar in Australian English.
It will involve an anonymous online questionnaire that will take approximately 5-15 minutes to complete.
Over time, ironic and self-aware use of Trumpisms gives way to established speech patterns that are unmoored from their origin. Many such cases. (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/o...
bsky.app/profile/liev...
"in the multimodal predictive construction that is a Scumbag Steve meme, the subject argument suppression forms part of the ways in which the text has adjusted to the presence of the image."
A fun analysis of meme grammar.
A bad day at the printing press, London 1660.
lib-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Record/fbfb3...
Christian Kay, the second director of the Historical Thesaurus, hands over a padded envelope to Tommy Cameron, University of Glasgow janitor, in the entranceway of 12 University Gardens, where we all worked
17 years ago today we sent off the 1st ed of the Historical Thesaurus to OUP for publication in 2009! Scary to think that someone born as we typed in the final word might now be an undergraduate starting this year… (Pictured is Christian Kay handing over the envelope to Tommy Cameron, our janitor.)
