Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A landmark book for the end of the century, presenting an overview of the development of English vocabulary from 1900 to the present day. There will be ten chapters, one for each decade, that will provide an introduction to the decade, with areas of particular importance and interest noted, and a presentaion of new words for that decade. The selected entries will be both new words, and words that have important new meanings. They will be listed alphabetically in a dictionary-style presentation, with the earliest recorded date of each word entered, and an exemplary quote also given. The source for the entries will be the OED2, and the Additions Series, as well as unpublished material from the New Words group in the OED Department. In addition to the main alphabetic sequence of entries, there will also be boxed panels covering specific aspects of a decade's vocabulary e.g. words arising directly from World War II for the 1940s. There will also be cross-chapter panels, for example 'insults of the century'. Examples of new words and their, perhaps surprising, earliest recorded dates: 'astronaut' - first coined in the 1920s when it was still an ambition. 'fruit machine' - 1930s; 'discotheque' - 1950s; 'pager' - 1960s

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Ayto, the author of The Longman Register of New Words and The Oxford Dictionary of Slang, presents "the most salient" new English (British and U.S.) words and word meanings from the 20th century. Based on The Oxford English Dictionary and its supplements, entries include the date of the word's earliest appearance in the OED, a definition, and examples of usage. Words are arranged by decade, which is fine in theory but problematic in practice: had Ayto traced linguistic developments thematically, this volume would have been much easier to navigate. As it is, readers will have to rely heavily on the index. More importantly, a thematic structure would have given readers a sense of the issues that have dominated linguistic developments throughout the century. The brief essays that introduce each decade, situating new words in their historical context, aren't enough. Indeed, it would appear that Ayto has a poor grip on the issues and themes that shaped 20th-century English. For example, in his introduction to the 1990s (a decade marked, among other things, by high visibility of gay and lesbian culture), he makes the following, puzzling statement: "The gay community, meanwhile, had to face the new threat of outing." Despite its flaws, this book encapsulates 20th-century developments and will appeal to scholars and readers. For larger public and academic libraries.ÄAnna Youssefi, Univ. of Houston Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

To compile this book, the Oxford World Reading Program explored thousands of databases and print and nonprint materials to identify new words, idioms, meanings, and connotations that reveal growth of the English language around the world during the 20th century, decade by decade. For each decade, an introduction explains major trends in the development of English, 1900 to date. The word stock in any language reflects historic, social, economic, political, and cultural events, development of existing areas of knowledge, and emergence of new fields. The domains that were significant in the growth of English over the century were automobiles (1900s), aviation (1900-10s), radio (1900s-20s), film (1900s-30s), psychology (1900-10s), war (1910s, 1930s-40s), clothes/dance/youth (1920s), transport (1920s-30s), buildup to war (1930s), nuclear power (1940s), postwar society/international affairs (1940s), computers (1940s-80s), space (1940s-60s), media (1950s-60s, 1980s-90s), youth culture (1950s-60s, 1980s), drugs (1960s), music (1960s, 1980s), media business (1970s), environment (1970s-80s), political correctness (1970s-80s), finance/money (1980s), politics (1990s), Internet (1990s). In each decade, words are arranged alphabetically, giving the year each word first appeared in print, a definition, and new meanings. One or two quotations illustrate usage of the word. The first entry is "accelerator"; toward the end of the century, words like "millennium bug," "millennium Dome," and "millennium Product" made their way into English. With 5,000 entries, this unique work belongs in any library, personal or institutional. H. G.B. Anghelescu; Wayne State University

Author notes provided by Syndetics

JohnAyto.