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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.
An island country of the central Pacific Ocean south of the equator and west of Kiribati. Inhabited by a population of mainly Polynesian ancestry, Nauru was explored by the British in 1798, became a German protectorate in 1888, and was administered by Australia from 1914 until 1942, when it was captured by Japan. Recaptured by Australia in 1945, Nauru became independent in 1968. Yaren is the de facto capital.
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.