OED Appeals

[Michelle Nevitt]

I got this email from Oxford University Press this morning and wondered if anyone on here could contribute. I can't. But some other wordy geek may be able to.

"The Appeals are a new part of the Oxford English Dictionary website where OED editors ask for your help in uncovering the history of particular words and phrases. Each appeal is an invitation to assist OED editors in finding the earliest recorded date (or some other key aspect) of a word, to provide an accurate picture of when it made its first appearance in English.
The first example of Bellini might be hiding in a forgotten cocktail book or menu on your bookshelf; your high school year book might hold the first evidence of the phrase in your dreams. Our goal is to leave no stone unturned in our search for the earliest evidence of each word included in the dictionary. Can you help us?
Did you ‘bimble’ before 1983?
Can you inform on who first used the phrase ‘to come in from the cold’? Was it coined by le Carré, or has it ever been used by actual intelligence officers?"

http://public.oed.com/appeals/