Oxford English Dictionary to sport new ST words...

[Tabitha]

From www.scifi.com/scifiwire:

OED Adopts Trek Words

The Star Trek words "Klingon" and "warp drive" are among 3,500 new entries formally accepted as part of the English language in the new edition of the authoritative Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, which appeared Sept. 26, the Reuters news service reported. The words join the Star Wars term "Jedi" in a science-fiction-inspired lexicon that has become so common it could not be ignored, Reuters reported.

"Generally, a word has to be used five times in five different places over five years, although something like 'text messaging' got in quicker, because it became so widely used so quickly," dictionary spokeswoman Claire Turner told the news service.


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Hehe - I wonder how the definitions are handled - for 'Warp Drive' anyway - does the dictionary describe what a warp drive is, or simply say that it is a fictional engine?

 

[Dave]

This must be part of the OED SF word project that I posted about here:

http://www.ascifi.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=15238

They are looking for the earliest possible examples, and the most recent citations of SF words. Some very common SF words are missed out because the circumstances of the coinage are well known. These include dalek, robot, and grok. I expect that most 'Star Trek' words would also come under that category too. There is more here:

http://www.jessesword.com/SF/sf_citations.shtml