Oxford English Dictionary Videos

OED Youtube Channel Summary

OED Appeal for "cooties"
This video is about the term that is usually used by North American children, "cooties", a made up word that has made it into the dictionary. The definition that the video gives is a term that a young person would tend to use to describe imaginary germs and that is usually talking about the opposite sex. This video is to appeal to ask the audience if they know anything about the history of the word and it's usage.

Are there any words that rhyme with "orange"?
During this video, the woman talks about how it is very uncommon to have words that perfectly rhymes with the word, "orange". She tells us that the only rhyming word is "sporange", which is a part of a plant; of which isn't commonly used nowadays in modern English language. However there are some half rhymes that the dictionary suggests, such as lozenge, that could be possibly used as an alternative. This video also explores how the word "silver" does not have many rhyming words either, and the only word that the dictionary offers is "chilver", (a female lamb), however, yet again, an unpopular/unused word. The video then goes on to explain the difference between a half rhyme and a full rhyme; a full rhyme being where the vowels are the same and pronounced the same (at the end of a word), whereas a half rhyme is a similar use of vowels that sound similar but are not used in the same way, so it doesn't give the exact same sound.

An OED Appeal for "in your dreams"
This video is an appeal to ask the members of the audience if they know any history or information about sayings such as the phrase, "in your dreams", usually used in a sarcastic tone. The research that has been found out about the phrase so far is the use of the phrase in a Usenet news group posting in 1986, however they think that it was probably used further back in history.

An OED Appeal for "disco"
This video is another appeal for the audience to try and get involved with the research to the history of the use of language of certain words. The research that has been carried out on the word "disco" has resulted to the finding that it used to be used to describe a long, sleeveless dress, and then later on they found examples of the word being used to describe disco dancing. Further research revealed the new usage of the word to describe an event where the disco dancing takes place.