• ARGUS History
  • Join The ARGUS
  • Advertise With Us
  • ARGUSnewsnow
  • Contact
  • ARGUS H.E.A.L
Saturday, May 17, 2025
  • Login
St. Louis Argus
  • HOME
  • NewsWatch
    • St. Louis City
    • Community
    • Politics
    • Education
    • National
    • World
  • A Closer Look
    • Opinion
  • Events
  • the vibe
    • Art & Entertainment
    • Beauty, Wellness and Fashion
    • Books
    • Education
    • Entertainment
    • Fashion
    • Harris Stowe
    • Food
    • Health
    • HBCUs
    • Sports
      • Black College Sports
      • High School
      • St. Louis Cardinals
  • National
  • E-Editions
  • The Narrative Matters
  • Video
  • Contact
No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • NewsWatch
    • St. Louis City
    • Community
    • Politics
    • Education
    • National
    • World
  • A Closer Look
    • Opinion
  • Events
  • the vibe
    • Art & Entertainment
    • Beauty, Wellness and Fashion
    • Books
    • Education
    • Entertainment
    • Fashion
    • Harris Stowe
    • Food
    • Health
    • HBCUs
    • Sports
      • Black College Sports
      • High School
      • St. Louis Cardinals
  • National
  • E-Editions
  • The Narrative Matters
  • Video
  • Contact
No Result
View All Result
St. Louis Argus
No Result
View All Result

Henry Louis Gates Jr. announced as editor-in-chief of the new Oxford Dictionary of African American English

 Claretta Bellamy by Claretta Bellamy
July 25, 2022
in Editor's Note, National
Home Opinion Editor's Note
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare with Email

Popular words used in Black culture for centuries are making their way into Oxford’s newest dictionary.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., historian and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, has announced he will serve as editor-in-chief of the Oxford Dictionary of African American English, a new glossary of language that will contain popular phrases used by historical Black figures and modern-day Black Americans. 

“Just the way Louis Armstrong took the trumpet and turned it inside out from the way people played European classical music,” Gates told the New York Times, Black people took English and “reinvented it, to make it reflect their sensibilities and to make it mirror their cultural selves.”

According to the dictionary’s site, the project was a joint venture of the Oxford University Press and the Hutchins Center. Gates Jr. told The New York Times that the idea for the new dictionary came about when the Oxford Press asked him to collaborate on their existing dictionaries, leading him to propose a more ambitious project. 

Funded by grants from the Mellon and Wagner Foundations, the dictionary stems from a three-year research project led by a diverse team of researchers and lexicographers whose focus is to preserve the vocabulary of African-Americans. The new dictionary, which Gates said is heavily influenced by “words invented by African Americans,” will serve as an authoritative record of African-American English.

“Words with African origins such as ‘ ‘goober,’ ‘gumbo’ and ‘okra’ survived the Middle Passage along with our African ancestors,” Gates Jr. explained. “And words that we take for granted today, such as ‘cool’ and ‘crib,’ ‘hokum’ and ‘diss,’ ‘hip’ and ‘hep,’ ‘bad,’ meaning ‘good,’ and ‘dig,’ meaning ‘to understand ’— these are just a tiny fraction of the words that have come into American English from African American speakers … over the last few hundred years.” 

The first copy of the Oxford Dictionary of African American English is expected to be released in 2025.

Image: Henry Louis Gates Jr. arrives at the Statue Of Liberty Museum Opening Celebration at Battery Park on May 15, 2019 in New York. Jemal Countess / Getty Images for Statue Of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation file
Post Views: 101
Tags: announcementblackdictionaryeditorenglishnew

Related Posts

National

Gun Violence Touches Nearly 60 Percent of Black Americans – and Predicts Disability

May 8, 2025
National

How Black Americans have been cheated out of land ownership – and the movement to reverse this

May 1, 2025
Health

Five breast cancer organizations that help communities of color

April 25, 2025
National

Censure of Rep. Al Green Highlights Democratic Party’s Internal Divisions

March 10, 2025
Editor's Note

Senator Warren Advocates for Permanent Block on Musk’s Interference with Federal Payments System

February 7, 2025
Editor's Note

Dr. Martin Luther King’s Missing Legacy: Woke Warrior – Awakening Racial Awareness Part 5-Finale

January 24, 2025
Next Post

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln relocated 453 freed Black Americans to a Haitian island as a part of an 'experiment.' The plan failed catastrophically.

No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Severe Supercell Storm and Tornado wreak havoc across St. Louis, MO

May 17, 2025

DISC Sports: The Week’s Top Sports News: PGA Showdown, Brock Purdy’s Record Deal, and NBA Playoff Thrills

May 17, 2025

DISCPlus: Hip-Hop Icon Slick Rick at 60: The Real Story of the Ruler

May 17, 2025
Facebook Twitter Instagram
  • ARGUS History
  • Join The ARGUS
  • Advertise With Us
  • ARGUSnewsnow
  • Contact
  • ARGUS H.E.A.L

© 2025 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • NewsWatch
    • St. Louis City
    • Community
    • Politics
    • Education
    • National
    • World
  • A Closer Look
    • Opinion
  • Events
  • the vibe
    • Art & Entertainment
    • Beauty, Wellness and Fashion
    • Books
    • Education
    • Entertainment
    • Fashion
    • Harris Stowe
    • Food
    • Health
    • HBCUs
    • Sports
      • Black College Sports
      • High School
      • St. Louis Cardinals
  • National
  • E-Editions
  • The Narrative Matters
  • Video
  • Contact

© 2025 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.