James Marriot reports for Oxford University’s Cherwell on a recent appeal from the OED:

The Oxford English Dictionary is asking the public to submit information online on the origins of words and phrases such as the ‘Bellini’ cocktail and the expression “running about like a blue arsed fly.”

Nicola Burton, a spokesperson for the publishers, commented, “the digital age has presented a host of new opportunities which are changing lexicography every day.”

She claimed that the initiative is “one more step in a process that began with the digitization of the OED in the 1980s.”

Linguist Raphael Torrance, a student at Lincoln, condemned the move as “gimmicky”, as it “undermines and devalues the respectability of this sacred institution. Stuff like this belongs on Urban Dictionary.”…

Full article here.