To jew or not to jew
Sir: I was reading Anthony Blond's article in last week's issue 'On being a British Jew' with interest and enjoyment until I came to the misstatement of fact about the Oxford English Dictionary and the verb `to jew'. It Is true that an action was taken against the Oxford University Press in 1971 by an ,elderly man, inspired more by zeal and loYalty than any understanding of the prin- ciples on which words are treated in a dic- tionary compiled on historical principles. But the court found in our favour, agreeing With us that a large dictionary like the Shorter Oxford is a record of the language as it is used now and has been used by writers in previous centuries. There are
many words that are distasteful — words that editors working on Oxford dictionaries would not themselves use in speech or writing — but offensive words can't be swept under the carpet and it is no use pretending that they have never existed. In our larger dictionaries the definition of the verb `to jew' remains unchanged even though it records a regrettable use.
Robert Burchfield
Chief Editor, The Oxford English Dictionaries, 37a St Giles's, Oxford
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