
Time Traveler by Merriam-Webster: Search Words by First Known Use Date - Tomte
https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler
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acafourek
Uncovering the first printed use of a word is known as “antedating” and has
been central to dictionary efforts since the first edition of the OED. If
you’re intrigued by the topic or just appreciate historical esoterica, I
highly recommend the book The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester-
it’s a great quick read.

~~~
andrewl
The Online Etymology Dictionary is good for word histories as well:

[https://www.etymonline.com/](https://www.etymonline.com/)

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johnhenry
Flipping through random years is more fun than I would have thought. 1629 was
the year "April fool" was first used.

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unknownkadath
Oliver Cromwell swore revenge on everyone that fateful day.

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jackfoxy
Ludwig von Mises uses _autistic_ in an unusual manner in the section heading
_Autistic Exchange and Interpersonal Exchange_ of his book _Human Action_ ,
published in 1949. It would be interesting to see the context of the first
known reference of the adjective _autistic_ from 1942 to better understand von
Mises' choice of the word in his context, but I can't seem to find more
information other than the first use year.

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jackfoxy
I had the opportunity recently to look up _autistic_ in an old dictionary
(early 20th century), and it was not present.

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drewg123
I think these are organized by the first time they appeared in the Merriam-
Webster dictionary, not when they were first used. A word is typically in use
for years before entering the dictionary.

It used to be a "thing" on some news shows to comment on what words had
entered the new edition of the dictionary for that year, and I recall thinking
"wow, I've been using that for years" many times.

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tsomctl
> When was a word first used in print? You may be surprised! Enter a date
> below to see the words first recorded on that year.

Webster was born in 1758, and George Merriam was born in 1803, yet many of the
entries are from before they were born.

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amelius
MW still doesn't have the computing definition of "semaphore", but it lists
only the railway one. Shouldn't we be using Wikipedia altogether?

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SlowRobotAhead
I suppose there is a little irony that semaphore doesn’t have multiple
definitions to MW.

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gravelc
Wasn't 'burner phone' used throughout The Wire, so must have been in print
before 2008 (the show's last season).

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isostatic
First urban dictionary entry was 2006

[https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Burner%20pho...](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Burner%20phone)

In November 2006 a class action suit
([http://www.lbtaxrefund.com/](http://www.lbtaxrefund.com/)) referred to a
"prepay or burner phone service" in the court filing.

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eecks
The example for selfie references a pornographic subbreddit. Did not expect to
see that on a dictionary website.

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avinassh
Is there any API for this data? I couldn't find it any, sadly.

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jtdewitt
The same data is offered on DictionaryAPI.com as the Collegiate Doctionary
[https://www.dictionaryapi.com/products/api-collegiate-
dictio...](https://www.dictionaryapi.com/products/api-collegiate-dictionary)

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russfink
Go to 1913, click "blackout," click more information... says first use was
1824. Click "black light," not invented until 1935. Maybe I'm missing
something?

~~~
Tomte
Noun in 1913, verb in 1824.

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krispbyte
So when was "Time Traveler" used for the first time?

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jhbadger
1894\. The main character of H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine" was simply
referred to as "The Time Traveller".

(Source
[http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/292042](http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/292042)
\-- may be pay walled)

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CaliforniaKarl
Ha! For my first guess, I randomly picked year 1762, and that year was the
first known use of 'entrepreneur': [https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/entrepreneur](https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/entrepreneur)

So I looked up "venture capitalist", which redirected me to "venture capital",
which has a first known use in 1943.

"digital" doesn't have a specific year, M-W just says "15th century", but the
first known use wasn't for 'fingers', it did originally have to do with
calculation: [https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/digital](https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/digital)

"computer" is 1613, in the form of "one who computes": [https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/computer](https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/computer)

And, just as important, "coffee" is 1598: [https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/coffee](https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/coffee)

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hayksaakian
Unfortunately doesn't work if you search "Time Traveler"

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booleandilemma
It’s cool but why don’t they let you search for a word?

~~~
Insanity
yeah that's actually what I hoped this was. It's cool nontheless, but I'd like
to be able to search for words like "computer" "keyboard" etc.

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detaro
Just search the actual dictionary for the word, no need for a special page.

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Insanity
oh thanks! I probably should just have tried looking around on the page there
:)

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vxxzy
Wonder why less words are being added over time?

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jacquesm
Because a dictionary is something to asymptotically nears completeness and
languages only get expanded with new words for new concepts. The bulk of the
increase is in the long dead past, then it slows down until finally only a
small trickle of new words are added every year.

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Theodores
For full feature 'traditional' English the custodians are the Oxford English
Dictionary and the BBC. Every once in a while, and with great fanfare, the BBC
announce what new words have been deemed appropriate to add to the language.

The OED have an archive of these updates for more recent times online. Not so
long ago they would make you buy the actual dictionary to get this information
so these 'updates' do not go that far back in time. Words have to be hoarded
and protected, can't let anyone have them...

[https://public.oed.com/updates/](https://public.oed.com/updates/)

I believe Merriam-Webster had something to do with this rival 'simplified'
English that has been popular across the pond since some incident involving
tea in Boston. The real deal is obviously spelt out in the Oxford English
Dictionary.

~~~
isostatic
> Every once in a while, and with great fanfare, the BBC announce what new
> words have been deemed appropriate to add to the language.

Citation needed. BBC News report when OED release new words, so do ITN, Sky,
and the papers.

