A Revolution in Words! Rise Up and Define Your World With Collins Word Exchange!

A Revolution in Words! Rise Up and Define Your World With Collins Word Exchange!

LONDON, December 16/PRNewswire/ --

- Break the shackles and chains that hold down your language!



Collins - one of the world's biggest dictionary publishers - is to break
free from the conventions that have always determined how dictionaries are
made and how language is formally recorded by launching Collins Word
Exchange, a radical new website which will open the doors of language to
allow anyone, anywhere at any time to contribute to the dictionary and to be
credited for it. The unparalleled new website will allow people to enter
words into an ever growing Living Dictionary by simply going online and
putting them forward for inclusion.



This new site will also directly capture the dramatic proliferation of
text message English with the simultaneous launch of an online Text
Dictionary to which texting enthusiasts can contribute their own words in the
same way. The full dictionary of texting abbreviations with definitions will
finally provide a fully up-to-date record of this increasingly confusing
language.



Jeremy Butterfield, Editor in Chief of Collins English Dictionaries
believes that the corridors of the dictionary publishing world have remained
closed and dusty for too long: "Collins Word Exchange will completely
transform the dictionary scene. It will give language enthusiasts unrivalled
access to the words people really use every day, and will allow them to keep
up-to-date with new words in a way never possible before."



The response from word enthusiasts for this as yet unlaunched site has
already been astounding. "We already have a huge list of new words suggested
during the last two weeks - amazing when you consider that the site has only
really been live for testing." Kay Celtel, Collins Word Exchange Project
Manager



Many of the words submitted have already become a part of impassioned
language debates as users have argued over their validity but the final say
will go to Jeremy Butterfield and his team, who have a fairly relaxed
approach, as Jeremy puts it: "As long as the majority of users on the Collins
Word Exchange agree on the definition of the word and there is some evidence
for its use on the internet or in the Collins Word Web(1) then it will go
into the Living Dictionary and will then be considered for the next edition
of the Collins English Dictionary."



Here are some of the most debated new words put forward for inclusion in
the Living Dictionary:



- cheese-eating surrender monkeys NOUN a phrase coined by the creators of
the Simpsons to describe the French, which became topical again during
the US election campaign. Submitted by adamb1

- boyzilian NOUN a Brazilian bikini wax for men. A trend caused by the
rise of a metrosexual class. Submitted by Wordtroll

- chavalanche - when an onslaught of Burberry- wearing Smirnoff Ice
drinkers descend on your local. Submitted by coleen

- Santa Stress ADJECTIVE stress caused by the festive season and its
attendant chores. Submitted by Justin_Crozier

(1) Collins Word Web, the largest database of English language held by
any publisher. It contains over 520 million words and their contexts.


Collins Word Exchange is the most fun FREE online dictionary around, with
definitions from the Collins English Dictionary and a facility that captures
new words the public suggest should be in the dictionary, a well as being
constantly updated by Collins Word Web(R).



www.collins.co.uk/wordexchange/



Source: HarperCollins Publishers

For an interview with the Editor in Chief of Collins English Dictionaries or a full press pack, supplied electronically or by post, please contact: Rufus Landricombe on +44-(0)20-8307-4438 or email: rufus.landricombe@harpercollins.co.uk or Sarah Corney on +44-(0)20-8307-4115 or email: sarah.corney@harpercollins.co.uk


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