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Wilde

(wild), Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills1854–1900.

Irish writer. Renowned as a wit in London literary circles, he achieved recognition with The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), a novel. He also wrote plays of lively dialogue, such as The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), and poetry, including "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" (1898).

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Oscar Wilde

photographed in 1882 by Napoleon Sarony (1821–1896)

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

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:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

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.

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