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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 ancient country of northwest Africa corresponding roughly to present-day Algeria. It was part of the Carthaginian empire before the Punic Wars and became a separate kingdom after 201 BC. Conquered by Rome in 46 BC and invaded by the Vandals in the fifth century AD, Numidia was absorbed by the Umayyad caliphate in the early eighth century.
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.