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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 country of southeast Europe on the Black Sea. Settled in the 6th century AD by Slavs, it was subject to the Ottoman Empire from the late 14th century until 1908, when it became an independent kingdom. The Soviet Union invaded in 1944 and established the People's Republic of Bulgaria. Communist rule came to an end in 1989, and a democratic constitution was established in 1991. Sofia is the capital and 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.