Classroomtools.com Warm-up Activity - Is That A Fact?

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Is That A Fact?

"Dorky" made its first recorded English appearance in 1983.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, collegiate dictionaries began printing dates for the first recorded use of English words. The problem is, they don't always agree with each other or with the Oxford English Dictionary.

Take "dorky" for example. The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary shows a first recorded use in 1983. The Random House Webster's College Dictionary shows 1965-70. Which is right? I can't say. However, I can point you to an article that explains how dictionary makers go about answering such questions. It is titled Nachos, anyone?, and appeared in the July 1999 OED Newsletter. In it, an OED researcher recounts her successful effort to antedate "nachos" after her superiors found that Merriam-Webster had published a date several years earlier than what their records showed.

For more ideas on how to use words in warm-ups, look at Words in the Spotlight. The section Is That A Word? explores ideas related to what you see here.

If you're interested, here are a few more discrepancies I've found.

	*Random House Webster’s College Dictionary*	*Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth edition*	*Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition*
boonies	1965-70	1956	N/A
crackup	1850-55	1829 and 1926	1926
dud	1895-1900	1567 and 1903	1897
gimme	1880-85	1982	1883
humdinger	1885-90	1904	1905
infotainment	1985-90	1982	N/A
snowboard	1985-90	1981	N/A
spreadsheet	1960-65	1982	1982
ultralight	1970-75	1980	1974

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