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  • Buzzfeed asks Sue about internet slang

    May 22, 2015 | 0 Comments

    We Tested The Editor Of The Dictionary To See How Well She Knows The Internet’s Favourite Words

    Meet Susan Butler, Australia’s official “Word Queen”! Susan is the editor of Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary and is widely regarded as one of the world’s best lexicographers. She is literally called on whenever there’s a dispute about words and their wonderful meanings.

    We decided to test Susan’s skills on the sidelines of the TedX Sydney conference. We asked her to guess the definitions of what passes for words on the internet. Here… we… go…

    We Tested The Editor Of The Dictionary To See How Well She Knows The Internet’s Favourite Words | Buzzfeed | 21 May 2015


  • To stand she-oak

    May 15, 2015 | 0 Comments

    A query came to the dictionary about the phrase ‘stand she-oak’ with a citation from the Hobart Town Mercury of 1857. Read more...


  • A ‘murder of crows’ and other collectives

    May 06, 2015 | 2 Comments

    A collective noun is a name for a group of people or animals that we see as a unit. A single bee is one named entity. A swarm of bees, though composed of many individuals... Read more...