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Mind your language

Mind Your Language: Waybread

How a word given a new meaning by J.R.R. Tolkien made it into the Oxford English Dictionary

16 January 2016

9:00 AM

16 January 2016

9:00 AM

‘Did you say “fabric”?’ asked my husband when I was telling him about words that have just been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. No, phablet, but I can see why he misheard. It’s a dull portmanteau word meaning ‘half phone, half tablet,’ just as the first citation, from an Australian periodical, explained in 2010.

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