New Statesman

Pippa Bailey explores the fascinating business of defining a word.

The Oxford English Dictionary remains, in many ways, a Victorian phenomenon, born in an era of remarkable innovation: of railways and steelworks, anthropology and anaesthesia, Charleses Dickens and Darwin. It is difficult, now, when the thought of consulting a paper dictionary seems so analogue, to grasp how audacious it once was to try to capture, for the very first time, every word and make it tell its story.

“The hotel that became home to 150 Afghan refugees.”

“After Scarlett Mansfield collated 200 accounts of sexual harassment, inspectors put her former school on notice. Could it be the first of many?”

The Hearing Voices Movement is reshaping our understanding of hallucination — and what it means to be “mad.”

“Acts of courage in the age of Covid-19.”

English universities appear to have done the impossible: attracting increasing numbers of students and graduating them with high scores. Unfortunately, lower academic standards and grade inflation are responsible for England’s so-called education miracle. Instead of selling academic rigor, universities sell degrees, and that’s what students come to buy.

A Reddit money pool — where anyone can sign up for a chance to win a few thousand dollars (and maybe even some bitcoin) — is testing the limits of online honor codes.

“It can be hard to fill the hours, so I try to make a mark every day.” Ralph Steadman, the Welsh artist best known for his political cartoons and collaborations with Hunter S. Thompson, continues to make art that makes a statement.

What does “remembering” mean in an age where human memory is outsourced to gadgets and social networks?

In 1987, Terence Trent D’Arby’s debut album sold a million copies in just three days, and the music press went crazy for him. There was nowhere to go but down.