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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 western Africa lying along the Gambia River and surrounded, except for a short coastline on the Atlantic Ocean, by Senegal. Once a part of the Mali Empire, it became a British crown colony in 1843 and a British protectorate in 1894. Gambia achieved independence in 1965. From 1982 to 1989 it formed with Senegal the Confederation of Senegambia. Banjul 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.