The Oxford English Dictionary Wants You to Share Your Profession's Slang Terms

The Oxford English Dictionary has been around for 135 years as of February 1, 2019, and the list of terms it recognizes keeps expanding. OED editors are always searching for new words like binge-watch, bromance, and mochaccino to add to the book as they solidify their spots in the lexicon. For a new project, they're calling on their readers to help, The Guardian reports.

If your profession uses slang terms that might be indecipherable to the general public, OED wants to hear about them. Maybe you're an anesthesiologist who uses the Woolworth's Test to determine if a patient can undergo anesthesia (if the patient seems well enough to go shopping at the retail store, they should be OK), or a trucker driver who cruises at a double nickel (55 mph). The dictionary is accepting any suggestions—no matter how obscure.

OED writes on its website that while some professional jargon is meant to keep clients in the dark, others can lead to communication problems: "You'd probably rather not hear your doctor describe someone as a gomer (that is, a difficult or disagreeable patient), and your veterinary friend may shy away from explaining DSTO (our sources tell us that it means 'dog smarter than owner'). However, at other times, not understanding the words used in a trade just leads to confusion. Not everyone knows, for instance, that sweating the pipes is plumbing slang for soldering two pipes together."

The Oxford English Dictionary is calling on doctors, journalists, teachers, firefighters, and everyone else to share their secret terminology. Some professionals are sharing their contributions on Twitter: Suggestions so far include banana (to walk in a curve, not a straight line, on stage), weed (to remove damaged or unpopular books from a library's inventory), and caped (railway term for a canceled train).

To submit your term directly to OED, you can fill out the form here.