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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 former colonial possession of central Africa. Once a part of German East Africa, the territory was occupied by Belgian troops during World War I and later became a Belgian League of Nations mandate under the name Ruanda-Urundi. When independence was achieved in 1962, the region split into the present-day countries of Rwanda and Burundi.
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.