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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 landlocked country of central Europe. Settled by Slavic peoples c. 6th century AD, the region was conquered by Magyars in the early 10th century and was generally under Hungarian rule until 1918, when it became part of Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became a German puppet state during World War II. It was taken by the Soviets in 1945 and again made part of Czechoslovakia, which came under Communist rule in 1948. After the end of Communist rule in 1989, government leaders reached an agreement to separate the country into two fully independent republics. The Republic of Slovakia came into existence on January 1, 1993. Bratislava is the capital and 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.