It
comprises
1,888
pages,
and
defines
more
than
2,200
distinctly
Canadian
nouns,
adjectives
and
verbs
in
addition
to
the
145,000
words
in
the
English
language.
It
provides
journalists,
students
and
the
common
Canadian
with
the
correct
terminology
when
they
are
hungry
for
a
“bismark”
(a
donut)
or
need
to
“book
off”
(slack
off)
work
for
a
vacation
from
the
“cube
farm”
(an
array
of
office
cubicles).
And
now
the
second
edition
of
the
“Canadian
Oxford
Dictionary”
—
the
country’s
bestselling
lexicon
—
includes
definitions
for
the
vernacular
used
by
gays
for
years,
from
“gaydar”
to
“lipstick
lesbian,”
“cruisy”
to
“civil
union.”
It
also
delineates
the
word
“marriage”
in
much
broader
terms
as
“the
legal
or
religious
union
of
two
people”
without
mentioning
“a
man
and
a
woman.”
The
release
of
the
official
Canadian
dictionary
this
fall
marks
the
first
attempt
to
formally
sanction
gay-specific
language
and
widely
introduce
it
to
the
mainstream.
While
publishers
of
United
States
dictionaries,
such
as
Miriam-Webster,
say
they
will
not
likely
follow
suit
for
quite
some
time,
Oxford
University
Press,
the
house
behind
several
country-specific
dictionaries,
plans
on
keeping
up-to-date
with
gay
lingo
as
it
progresses.
“Dictionaries
just
reflect
what
the
actual
reality
is,”
said
lexicographer
Tom
Howell,
a
lexicographer
with
Oxford
University
Press
Canadian
Oxford.
“If
a
dictionary
says
a
marriage
is
the
union
of
a
man
and
a
woman,
that’s
just
describing
the
fact
that
has
been
the
case
for
hundreds
of
years.
But
if
the
law
changes
or
society
changes
or
something
happens
where
the
word
‘marriage’
comes
to
apply
to
same-sex
unions,
we
just
change
the
definition.”
Katherine
Barber,
the
top
editor
of
the
“Canadian
Oxford
Dictionary,”
green-lighted
the
new
definition
for
marriage
after
a
ruling
by
the
Ontario
Court
of
Appeals
on
June
10,
in
which
a
judge
decided
that
restricting
matrimony
to
“one
man
and
one
woman”
violated
the
dignity
of
gay
couples.
The
court
redefined
marriage
as
“the
voluntary
union
for
life
of
two
persons
to
the
exclusion
of
all
others,”
and
Barber
decided
that
Oxford
should,
too,
ditching
its
previous
designation
based
on
an
1866
English
ruling.
Many
Canadians
have
criticized
Barber
for
the
definition
change,
writing
letters
to
local
newspapers,
which
have
designated
the
dictionary
as
its
official
word
source.
Barber
says
the
reason
some
people
object
to
a
new
definition
boils
down
to
homophobia.
She
pointed
out
that
the
word
“marriage,”
when
traced
back
to
its
Latin
origins,
does
not
actually
specify
a
man
and
a
woman.
In
fact,
the
word,
“marry,”
properly
means,
“to
provide
with
a
husband”
and
derives
from
the
Latin
mari,
meaning
“male.”
“They
don’t
want
to
admit
that
gay
people
can
have
relationships
that
are
just
like
their
ideal
heterosexual
relationship,”
said
Barber,
who
said
she
read
Fowler’s
“Modern
English
Usage”
in
bed
as
a
child.
For
the
other
gay
terms
—
as
well
as
the
other
5,000
new
words
added
this
year
—
five
professionally
trained
lexicographers
spent
five
years
examining
databases
containing
more
than
20
million
words
of
Canadian
text
from
more
than
8,000
Canadian
sources
of
an
astonishing
diversity:
Inuit
magazines,
the
work
of
prominent
Canadian
writers,
daily
and
weekly
newspapers
from
all
of
the
country’s
regions
and,
of
course,
the
Canadian
Tire
catalogue.
“To
us,
of
course,
the
gay
media
is
also
totally
legitimate
media,
and
we
definitely
consider
its
language,”
Howell
said.
“It
is
a
matter
of
lexicographical
principle.”
Many
of
the
new
words
reflect
changes
in
Canadian
attitudes
and
social
mores.
“In
addition
to
our
revised
definition
of
marriage,
there
is
a
particularly
Canadian
aspect
to
our
coverage
of
gay
and
lesbian
vocabulary
in
that
we
include
the
term
‘two-spirited,’
used
to
mean
gay
or
lesbian
in
the
Canadian
Aboriginal
community,”
Barber
said.
She
first
noticed
this
word
on
a
City
of
Toronto
bus
shelter
advertisement
promoting
tolerance.
Though
being
a
Canadian
dictionary,
it
still
features
a
lot
of
hockey
words,
curling
terms
and
euphemisms
for
beer.
But
linguists
and
anthropologists
say
that
the
decision
of
the
lexicographers
at
Oxford
to
include
gay
vocabulary
among
those
new
words
amounts
to
more
than
just
“lexicographical
principle.”
It
lends
a
widespread,
social
affirmation
of
a
minority
group’s
identity.
For
more
than
150
years,
language
experts
have
regarded
the
dictionary
department
of
Oxford
University
Press,
with
its
dozens
of
regional
dictionary
editions,
as
one
of
the
most
trusted
language
references
in
the
world.
When
the
first
edition
of
the
“Canadian
Oxford
Dictionary”
arrived
in
bookstores
in
1999,
it
sold
more
than
190,000
copies
and
spent
over
a
year
on
the
Toronto
Globe
&
Mail’s
bestseller
list.
The
following
new
gay
terms
in
the
second
edition
might
be
familiar
jargon
to
some
gay
people,
but
when
in
doubt,
now
you
can
just
pull
out
the
Oxford.
[abbreviation]
gay,
lesbian,
bisexual,
and
transgendered.
[adjective
&
adverb]
1
-
on
an
unsaddled
horse
etc.
2
-
[slang]
(of
sex)
without
a
condom.
[adjective]
(of
a
heterosexual
person)
interested
in
experiencing
a
first
encounter
or
relationship
with
a
person
of
the
same
sex.
[noun]
a
legally
recognized
union
of
a
same-sex
couple,
with
rights
similar
to
those
of
marriage.
[transitive
verb]
(of
a
divorced
couple
or
a
gay
man
and
a
lesbian)
share
parenting
duties
for
(a
child).
[]
co-parenting
[noun]
[noun]
1
-
spending
time
in
a
cottage
in
the
country.
2
-
[informal]
casual
gay
sex
in
public
washrooms.
[adjective]
(also
cruisey)
(cruisier,
cruisiest)
[informal]
(of
a
bar,
location,
etc.)
much
frequented
by
gay
people
cruising
for
casual
partners.
gay
pride
[noun]
a
sense
of
strong
self-esteem
associated
with
a
person’s
public
acknowledgement
of
their
homosexuality.
[noun]
[informal]
an
ability
to
discern
that
someone
is
gay
...
