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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 southeast United States bordering on the Atlantic Ocean. One of the original Thirteen Colonies, it was settled by colonists from Virginia in the mid-1600s, was part of the province of Carolina until 1691, and became a separate British colony in 1711. North Carolina ratified the United States Constitution in 1789. It seceded in May 1861 and was readmitted to the Union in 1868. The state has long been a center of tobacco growing and processing. Raleigh is the capital and Charlotte 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.