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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 central Europe bordering on the Baltic Sea. Unified as a kingdom in the 11th century, it enjoyed a golden age under the Jagiello dynasty (1386-1572) and was a major power in the 15th and 16th centuries. National independence was lost in 1697 and it was carved up among other states in three partitions (1772, 1793, and 1795). Poland then disappeared as a geographic entity until its reconstitution as a republic in 1918. Its present boundaries date from the end of World War II. Warsaw 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.