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The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions.
A state of the United States in extreme northwest North America including the Aleutian Islands and Alexander Archipelago and separated from the other mainland states by Canada. Purchased from Russia in 1867, Alaska received an influx of settlers during the Alaskan gold rush of the 1890s and was admitted as the 49th state in 1959. It includes a vast area of Arctic wilderness and is home to a large population of Alaska Natives. Juneau is the capital and Anchorage the largest city.
Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:
The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.