Exhibitions

Art of the Book open house!

This Thursday, May 8, at 5:30 p.m., please join RBSC for an open house that offers a chance to view the delightful and surprising Art of the Book 2013 exhibition and to hear local book artists and members of Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild (CBBAG) discuss the works featured in the exhibition. The open house […]

Roy K. Kiyooka exhibition

Exhibition of works by Roy K. Kiyooka

Resistant to mainstream ideas of national identity, artistic success, and artistic conventions, Roy K. Kiyooka’s flexible, unconventional use of language in his poetry voices his Japanese-Canadian ‘inglish’ and questions his Canadian identity in light of the internment faced by Japanese-Canadian citizens during World War II. Kiyooka’s poetry has been anthologized in Canadian poetry collections and in the […]

A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language

The final installment!

Happy holidays from everyone here at Rare Books and Special Collections! As an early Christmas gift, we offer the final student dictionary report from the course English 320: History of the English Language. As I mentioned in last week’s post, the exhibition, The Road to the OED, has been extended until the end of January, so please […]

English Etymology

The etymology of Lemon…George Lemon

With the holidays just around the corner, I know you are all worried about making time (in between shopping, baking, wrapping, packing, cleaning, etc.) to visit The Road to the OED exhibition at Rare Books and Special Collections before it closes on December 24. Well, worry no longer! The exhibition has been extended until the […]

A General Dictionary of the English Language

An actor turned lexicographer

Now that classes at UBC are over, it’s a great time to stop by Rare Books and Special Collection to see our current exhibition The Road to the OED: A History of English-Language Dictionaries. In this week’s student dictionary report from the course English 320: History of the English Language, we learn about Thomas Sheridan, an […]

A New Dictionary of the English Language

“One of London’s most despised, drunken, and morally degenerate hack writers…”

For this week’s student dictionary report from the course English 320: History of the English Language…a tale of a particularly roguish lexicographer: Kenrick, William. A New Dictionary of the English Language. London: Printed for J. and F. Rivington, W. Johnston, T. Longman, and T. Cadell, 1773. PE25 .R62 V. 206   Writer William Kenrick was born […]

Lingua Britannica Reformata

Thanks for joining us!

Many thanks to everyone who attended Professor Dollinger’s talk last Friday on the past, present, and possible future(s) of the Oxford English Dictionary. It was entertaining, insightful, and provided lots of food for thought. Even if you weren’t able to make it to the talk, the related exhibition, The Road to the OED: A History […]

An English Dictionary

The OED and Miley Cyrus?!

So what does Miley have to do with the Oxford English Dictionary, you may ask? If anyone can tell us, it’s UBC’s Professor Stefan Dollinger. Professor Dollinger will be giving a talk this Friday, November 15, at 12 p.m. entitled: The Oxford English Dictionary, the Grimm Brothers, and Miley Cyrus On the Changing Expectations of […]

The New World of English Words

Time to hit the road…The Road to the OED!

A new exhibition, The Road to the OED: A History of English-Language Dictionaries, is now up in Rare Books and Special Collections! This exhibition features work done by seven students from the course English 320: History of the English Language. For this class, Professor Laurel Brinton asked each student to select one dictionary from the […]

The Road to the OED: A History of English-Language Dictionaries

The Road to the OED: A History of English-Language Dictionaries

Rare Books and Special Collections at UBC Library announces an upcoming exhibition! The Road to the OED: A History of English-Language Dictionaries Join Rare Books and Special Collections on a journey through the history of English-language dictionaries. This exhibition will explore how lexicographers of the past built on the work of their predecessor (or stole […]