Questions of English

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The Oxford Word and Language Service (OWLS for short) was launched by the Oxford University Press on the Ides of March, 1983. The first enquiries began to arrive almost before the ink was dry on the press release, and since then the lexicographers have answered a truly enormous number of queries about the origin, meaning, and use of English words. The questions come from university lecturers, school-children, word-game enthusiasts, foreign students, secretaries, translators, monks, historians, pensioners, lawyers, and many others of extraordinary variety. Queries arrive on anything from picture postcards to impressively crested notepaper, and from backs of envelopes to faxes. Based on real letters to the Oxford Word and Language Service, Questions of EngIish answers hundreds of queries, from the practical ('When is it correct to use a hyphen in a word?') to the idly curious ('Is French leave really French?'), and from the general ('What is the difference between British and American English?') to the specific ('Is there a word for someone who collects beermats?').