Russian loanwords in the Oxford English Dictionary revisited
Russian loanwords in the Oxford English Dictionary revisited

Summary/Abstract: This paper is dedicated to words of Russian provenance in the Oxford English Dictionary (2000–), the most comprehensive historical dictionary of English. Comparing and contrasting the differences in the lexicographic treatment of Russianisms between the second and third edition, the Author traces changes in the dictionary’s content, including coverage, etymology, spelling, pronunciation, ways of discriminating senses, and illustrative citations. The pool of the so-called loanwords proper includes 399 words first attested before 1990, which may suggest that today interest in the Russian language has decreased significantly. The loans have been classified to thematic categories, of which ‘Science and technology’ is the largest. This sheds new light on the functions of Russianisms in English, so far associated primarily with culture-bound terms.

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