UC Library Online Resources

OED traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources, including classical literature, specialist periodicals, film scripts and cookbooks.

The OED Online covers words from across the English-speaking world, from North America to South Africa, from Australia and New Zealand to the Caribbean. This historical dictionary offers etymological analysis, listings of variant spellings and shows pronunciation using the International Phonetic Alphabet.

As a historical dictionary, OED entry structure is different from dictionary of current English. For each word:

• Groupings of senses (definitions) are in chronological order with the earliest meaning first
• Recently developed senses (definitions) are at the end of the entry

A core collection of 5 encyclopedias and 18 reference sources that cover all aspects of the African American past includes:

• Africana
• The Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895
• The African American National Biography
• Black Women in America, Second Edition
• Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature

• Interactive timelines and maps in general and specific themes
• Thematic photo essays and image collections
• Over 100 key primary source documents including: the Emancipation Proclamation and Fredrick Douglass's slave narrative
• Charts, tables and graphs representing demographic information in the areas of history, government and politics, business and labor, education, law and crime, the arts, and more