The Red Book of Westmarch (Archives)

Language
The word “Hobbit” in The Oxford English Dictionary
06.04.10 | Kunochan | Permalink | Speak, friend and comment!

I have fulfilled a lifelong dream, and acquired my very own (digital) copy of the complete Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Ed. Of course, the very first word I looked up was “hobbit,” which is famously included in this edition. I hereby reproduce the pertinent parts of the entry…
Events, Tolkien 101
Happy eleventy-eighth birthday to ‘Lord of the Rings’ author JRR Tolkien
01.03.10 | Kunochan | Permalink | Speak, friend and comment!

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE, Oxford University professor, and author of the globally beloved fantasy epics The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, was born eleventy-seven years ago today, on January 3rd, 1892, in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State, a British colony and a province of the Union of South Africa.
Language, News
Oxford Dictionary’s 2009 Word of the Year: ‘Unfriend’
11.18.09 | Kunochan | Permalink | 2 Comments

The editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary have chosen “unfriend” as its “2009 Word of the Year,” beating out other Internet-oriented neologisms such as “hashtag,” “netbook,” “paywall” and “sexting.”

Tolkien aficionados may remember the word from The Silmarillion, where it is used twice (once in the form “unfriendship”).