Wordhunt was a national appeal run by the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...

'', looking for earlier evidence of the use of 50 words and phrases in the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

. New evidence found by members of the public in response to the appeal appears in the ''Oxford English Dictionary''. The appeal is a companion to the

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

television series ''

Balderdash and Piffle ''Balderdash and Piffle'' is a British television programme on BBC in which the writers of the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' asked the public for help in finding the origins and first known citations of a number of words and phrases. Presented b ...

''.

First Wordhunt

The first Wordhunt was launched in 2005 by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' and the BBC and resulted in the OED updating the entries of 34 words and phrases, featured in the first series of ''Balderdash and Piffle'' broadcast in early 2006. The 50 words and phrases were: * balti *

Beeb ''BEEB'' was a weekly, children's magazine centred on the BBC's most popular programmes at the time of its publication. It was published by Polystyle Publications and was created as a competitor to ITV's Look-in magazine. It lasted 20 issues ...

bog standard See also *Standard (disambiguation) *Bollocks#Positive uses {{Short pages monitor