Notes on OED's September 2008 release of new words

big v.²

The second edition of the OED listed only one entry for big as a verb, a regional word meaning broadly ‘to dwell in, to build’, derived from an early Scandinavian word. It is joined, in the third edition, by this second entry, which is derived, perhaps more predictably, from the familiar English adjective big. Although the original motivating factor in assembling this entry was to ensure that to big up, ‘to praise, promote’ had a place in OED Online, in the course of our research we uncovered two other, earlier (if somewhat rare) senses of the word; an English regional use meaning simply ‘to make larger’, and a Caribbean colloquialism (also used with up) meaning ‘to swell up’; specifically, ‘to become pregnant’. However the bigging up of people to whom one wishes to show one's respect or gratitude still dominates the entry, and spills over into the related entry big-up n. and int.

big whoop int. and n.

This quarterly release of material is one of the largest yet published on OED Online, so it seems only fitting to focus on another big word. A colourful and ironic expression of dismissiveness in the face of the unimpressive or ordinary, this North American colloquialism reverses the expectations one might have on first meeting the term, of unnecessary hyperbole and excessive celebration.

hot swap n.

Using hot to convey excitement and danger has a long tradition in English, as the revised entry shows in its many extended and figurative senses, and here it joins the relatively mundane noun swap, to refer to the replacement of a component of an electrical device without turning off the power. However, while this sounds, and in most cases is, a hugely inadvisable activity, the quotation evidence shows that this term is largely used in the context of computers which have a feature enabling this to be done safely.

jasm n.

A great deal of research and thought went into reassessing and rewriting the etymology for jazz n., surveying and weighing up the many theories about its origin which have arisen since the word's first appearance as a description of a type of music, in 1915. This entry, meaning ‘vigour, energy, pep’, dating back to 1860, and new to the third edition, emerges as one of the front runners, as a close examination of the sources now sees a parallel sense of jazz as the first recorded use of that word.