The second half of 1997 is an exciting period for the publication of books on language by Oxford University Press Australia and New Zealand. In July, Harry Orsman’s Dictionary of New Zealand Englishwas published, and so great was the demand for it that a reprint was necessary after only one month. Julia Robinson reviews the dictionary on page 6. A new edition of the Australian Concise Oxford Dictionaryappears in October — 15 per cent or 220 pages longer than the previous edition. Bruce Moore discusses on page 5 how the ANDC went about preparing this new edition. An updated edition of Nick Hudson’s Modern Australian Usagealso appears in October. A review will appear in the next number of Ozwords.Meanwhile, The Australian National Dictionary,which has sold 10,000 copies since publication in 1988, was reissued with new covers in September.

The ANDC has greatly increased the material on its Home Page, with discussions of some forty Australian words and idioms, and suggestions for dictionary topics which teachers can use in the classroom. If you have Internet access, visit us at http://www.anu.edu.au/ANDC.

Our lead article for this number of Ozwordsis by Annie Warburton, radio presenter on ABC Hobart.

Frederick Ludowyk
Editor