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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.
2. A state, region, or territory that is closely identified with a particular people or ethnic group.
3. Any of the ten regions designated by South Africa in the 1970s as semiautonomous or nominally independent territories for the black population. The black homelands were dissolved and reincorporated into South Africa in 1994.
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.