The OED is putting the “dick” in dictionary

by Nina Renata Aron

The Oxford English Dictionary is preparing to check itself before it wrecks itself.

Oxford Dictionaries said it will review example phrases in its pages after an anthropologist — and then the Twitterverse — put the OED on notice for rampant sexism. Wait, what’s sexist about a “nagging wife,” a “rabid feminist,” a “wild, promiscuous, good-time girl” or the “rising shrill of women’s voices?” Yup, those are real examples.

Maybe we should give the OED a break. After all, it’s hardly an up-to-the-minute source for colloquialisms. (God invented Urban Dictionary for that.) The massive project to compile all English words began in 1857 and continued through the 19th century under the name A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles; Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by The Philological Society, which zzzzzzzzzzzz …

Oops, sorry, we’re back. The OED may not be your go-to for the argot of the mean streets, but it does have a mandate to stay modern. Its Reading Programme, which consists of lots of scholars scouring the linguistic landscape for new words, has been an active component of the dictionary’s production since the very beginning. And, as you may remember from the much-publicized addition of the term selfie (the OED’s Word of the Year in 2013), Oxford adds new words every year. Lots of them. Check out the dizzying list for 2015 here.

But adding new words is only one way to stave off obsolescence — or doorstoppery (new word suggestion for 2017). And really, OED, if you’ve got time for bukkake, fapping, koozies, jeggings, twerking, vaping, meh, and, ahem, manspreading, you could surely find a way to take a red pen to the overt sexism your readers are currently forced to absorb.

Then again, that’s just one shrill, nagging, rabid good-time girl’s take.

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