Editors of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) have issued an appeal for references to terms that were coined during the First World War.

To mark the start of the Great War, the OED is revising war-era coinages. “Part of the revision process involves searching for earlier or additional evidence, ” the editors wrote. “Our first quotations are often from newspapers and magazines, and we know that there may well be earlier evidence in less-easily-accessible sources such as letters, diaries, and government records, many of which are now being made available in digital form for the first time.”

Two medical terms are among those for which the OED is hoping to find earlier references: shellshock and trench foot/mouth. Continue reading →