Among them are "gi" (a judo costume) and "zo" (a kind of hybrid domestic cattle found in parts of the Himalayas), though I'm betting the latter is made up. Recognising that, for ardent Scrabblers and quiz addicts, a lexicon is a competitive tool, Chambers includes an entertaining "word lovers' miscellany", with a thrilling list of more than 100 two-letter words for word games. This volume is more than an exuberant dictionary. Instead, Chambers nominates "pneumono-ultramicroscopicsilcovulcano-coniosis". Could this be "antidisestablishment– arianism"? Certainly not. This edition claims to preserve "the longest English word in any dictionary". Its editors report that nearly a quarter of all the new words in this 620,000-word volume are derived from internet culture and technology.Ĭhambers was always radical, innovative and different. This 12th edition also reveals an imprint, scorched by the digital revolution, now embracing the language of nerds and geeks: "miniblog", "captcha", "webisode", "blook", "tweet", "paywall" and "defriend". It also recognises "neet", "flipping" (of MPs' expenses) and "bromance" (a close, but not sexual, relationship between two men). Threatened with annihilation, it has come back fighting in the best Scottish tradition.Ĭhambers redux is a cornucopia of fire-new words, reflecting the extraordinary economic, social and cultural upheavals of our time words such as "up-cycle", "double-dip", "globesity" (the global obesity epidemic) and "locavore" (someone who only eats locally produced food). The 12th edition of Chambers has just been published. In the end, Chambers survived, by the skin of its teeth, some of the "old duffers" moved south, and the dictionary became part of Hodder Education.Ī fine Augustan mansion swallowed up in the faceless concrete of modernity: this, you might think, would be the end of the story. One Scottish newspaper described the 27 Chambers staff members threatened with redundancy as "white-haired, cardiganed, index-carded old duffers". ![]() ![]() ![]() Inevitably, being Scotland, there was sarcasm. The Scots protested about "cultural vandalism" and a vigorous rearguard action was launched, led by a ragtag army of MSPs and Margo MacDonald. In 2009, after failing to adapt to the digital revolution, and having been sold to Hachette UK, Chambers was faced with closure by its French corporate owner. Like many totems of British book publishing, Chambers has been through a 21st-century crisis that nearly closed it down for ever and eventually saw its forced evacuation from Edinburgh.
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