h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: 'Hitchhiker' Quotations in the Oxford English Dictionary - A87774592
Author: Icy North - U225620

Greetings, Peer Reviewers.

This is quite a geeky entry, but I hope some of you find the subject as interesting as I did.

Comments and suggestions welcome

Icy

This is fun. As always.

I have one timid question: is 'have weaved' correct in the UK? I know I end up asking this about every strong verb that used to be in the English language, but I'm used to 'have woven'.

Thanks Dmitri,

I only put these things to test whether people read it

Oh, did you spot the crude attempt to avoid a word being trapped by the profanity filter?

Great fun! Really enjoyed this one.

Z

Having been informed by a fellow Guide Editor as to the inappropriateness of the word 'n0nce' over there, er, yes...

Wow, why didn’t someone do this before? [smiles]

Brilliant.

Given that this article is so brilliant, I ask you if you want to polish your *Guide’s entry* so as not to confuse me which Guide, h2g2 or Adams’. It is technically there, but OED could have referenced h2g2 [smiles] and you are publishing in the h2g2 Guide.

*Looking through the OED's Hitchhiker's quotations, Some are more obvious than others. Perhaps the best known of them is the Guide's entry on Space:*>> is that Guide’s entry

AE

This is a brilliant entry!

My knowledge would say that "I have weaved" and "I have woven" would both be correct, someone is free to check if they wish

Thanks all

I've replaced 'Guide' in that context with the lowercase 'guide', AE. Hope this is clearer.

I was half way through before I realised that I wasn't seeing the quotes. (They come up white on white in Goo/Firefox) So I marked it all and started again.

Aaah! - now it makes sense!

White on white in Goo/Firefox! Good grief

Ever thought of switching either your browser or your h2g2 default skin? I can attest that Alabaster works well on all popular browsers.

In that light:

How did you find all that out?

On Recumbentman's behalf - is there any chance of slotting in a link to the OED in limerick form? It's nothing to do with the entry directly, but as he is a major contributor, it deserves a plug.

Show me the limerick and I'll see if it fits (although I'm concerned about it breaking the flow of this entry)

No - not changing browser or skin. I'll just sit here and suffer. I have to Ctrl-A lots of pages which come up white-on-white (my conversations for example)


Anyway, I thought maybe you could just reference with a link on the side of the page - not incorporated into the entry. If not - have a look round anyway, it's very interesting.

http://www.oedilf.com

I kind of expect to see TC sitting on a rocking chair on a porch clutching a rifle shouting "get orff my property, vermin!"

I also am interested in how you found them - did you just access the OED and search hitchhikers (or similar)?

The trick is to use the 'advanced search' button, Nbb. It allows you to search authors

DNA had 32 Hitchhiker quotations as well as two from Dirk Gently and a couple of other miscellaneous ones - about 35-40 in all.

...but did he have more or fewer than Terry Pratchett?


Hi TC, what's the OED link to that limerick site? And what's the Douglas Adams link, come to think of it?

He must have fewer quotes than Terry Pratchett, he crops up all over the place - and that's assuming that the words he makes up aren't cited in the news commonly enough to be classified proper words - in which case they'd all have to be quoted back

The score is DNA 35, Pratchett 25

OK, who wins out of Dan Brown versus JK Rowling?

Well, I hope 'headology' gets into the OED sometime. I use it...

Thank you, TC, for describing me as a 'major contributor' to OEDILF (the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form). I have contributed a mere 170 approved limericks, which places me 94th in the list: the top contributor has had over 9,000 accepted.

There are currently 15 limericks there mentioning Douglas Adams: http://www.oedilf.com/db/Lim.php?button=Search&Word=Douglas%20Adams&Start=0

Originally called 'The Oxford English Dictionary in Limerick Form', OEDILF's name was changed when Oxford demurred. Why they were ever asked to accept the homage in the first place beats me.

Thanks Recumbentman,

I think to mention the OEDILF in this entry would be confusing, but it would make a fascinating subject for a separate entry, if you or anyone else was inclined to write it?

Icy