Appeals

Words or phrases which appear on the Appeals List are those currently being drafted or revised for the OED for which the documentary evidence is incomplete. Often these are slang or colloquial items which cannot be researched in specialist texts and are most likely to be found by a general reader in non-specialized or popular literature.

Usually the appeal is for an earlier example than our current earliest (e.g. 'antedate 1970' for a word for which our earliest example comes from 1970), but sometimes the appeal is for an interdating where there is a large gap in the OED's quotation evidence (e.g. 'interdate 1589-1910'). Occasionally we ask for a postdating (e.g. 'postdate 1875'), if an editor feels that an item being revised is still current but has failed to find any recent examples through the usual avenues of research.

Please note: it is generally safe to assume that examples found by searching the Web, using search engines such as Google, will have already been considered by OED editors.

brief (n.: barrister, lawyer):

antedate 1970

constipatedly (adv.):

antedate 1961

oudstryder (n.: (in South African English) war veteran):

antedate 1942

outriding (n.: land suitable for riding excursions):

antedate 1989

pad (n.: kind of thick ribbon):

postdate 1895

pass the parcel (n.: children's game):

antedate 1968

pull-quote (n.: attention-grabbing quotation):

antedate 1986

spar (n.: (in Caribbean English) friend, buddy):

antedate 1977

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