DEDICATED TO THE WRITTEN WORD.

When does a word become a word? For the staff of the English Oxford Dictionary (OED) it is not a philosophical question, but a practical one.

A university researcher recently described his fascination at discovering vaults full of millions of 'non-words' that had failed to make the grade. They included 'wurfing', the act of surfing the Internet at work; 'polkadodge', the awkward dance performed by pedestrians trying to pass each other on the street; and 'nonversion'*, a pointless chat.

"What you have to remember,'" says OED's senior editor of new words "is that once a word has gone into he dictionary, it never comes out. So words have to pass a few basic tests before they can be deemed to have entered the language. They have to have been around a reasonable amount of time and be in common use." - Max Davidson, the Daily Telegraph. (Click HERE for full article.)

*Just as well this one didn't make it or I might have found myself being called 'nonversion' instead of Petty Witter.

And now for ....... some of the words that did make it.

Football fans will perhaps be unsurprised to learn that the VUVUZELA, has blared it's way into the OED as has:-

• Carbon capture and storage - the process of trapping and storing carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels.
• Geo-engineering - the manipulation of environmental processes to counteract the effects of global warming.
• Cheeseball - Refers to someone or something lacking taste, style or originality.

- Sam Jones, the Guardian.

(To view the other words added click HERE)

But sad to say publishers of the OED have confirmed that the third edition may never appear in print. Nigel Portwood, chief executive of Oxford University Press said "The print dictionary market is just disappearing. It is falling away by tens of percent a year." Asked if he thought the third edition would appear in printed format, he said "I don't think so." - the Guardian.

Annoyed by TEXT-SPEAK? Well, It turns out that it's nothing new. No really! the British Library claims text-speak is sooo 19th century.

If you are annoyed by the vocabulary of the text generation, then a new exhibition at the British Library should calm you down. It turns out they were doing it in the 19th century - only then they called it emblematic poetry, and it was considered very clever.

Devoted to the English language and demonstrating how quickly language can change, the exhibition which opens this winter will explore 1,500 years of history from Anglo-Saxon runes and early dictionaries to not dropping your H's and rap. - Mark Brown, The Guardian. (READ MORE)

I dumbed down claims Ian Rankin, the Scottish author of the Rebus detective novels. The author said he sees himself as an entertainer rather than a wordsmith. "Writers like me are part of the entertainment industry," he said.

"We're not winning Nobel Prizes for books that are difficult to read or written in an ornate language." - Laura Roberts, the Daily Telegraph. (FULL ARTICLE)

And finally .......

Women who write intellectual books are seen as strange and unnatural.

Women who write smart, demanding novels are perceived by critics as strange and unnatural, "like a dog standing on it's hind legs" the novelist AS Byatt told the Edinburgh international book festival.

Byatt, who won the Booker prize in 1990 and was shortlisted for last year's award, said it was very hard for women to be accepted if they wrote intellectually challenging fiction.

The British novelist has (also) been vocal in her criticism of sexism in the literary world and hit out at the Orange prize which is limited to only women novelists. "The Orange prize is a sexist prize," she said. "You couldn't found a prize for male writers." - Charlotte Higgins and Caroline Davies, the Guardian. (Click HERE for full article)

Just one more thing (promise):

England's Durham University is to offer a Harry Potter course as part of its education degree.