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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 eastern United States. One of the original Thirteen Colonies, it was explored by Europeans in the early 1600s, settled by Swedes in 1634, and granted by an English royal charter to William Penn in 1681. The Mason-Dixon Line (surveyed in 1763-1767) established the colony's southern boundary and was extended westward in 1784. Pennsylvania played a crucial role in the American Revolution and ratified the US Constitution in 1787. Harrisburg is the capital and Philadelphia 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.