The ‘Social’ Dimension of Online Lexicography: Gender, Dictionaries and Users

This paper investigates gender representation in the definitions and usage examples of a selected group of words in the Oxford Dictionary of English, hosted on the portal Lexico.com and licensed for use to technology giants like Google, Apple and Microsoft. The rationale behind this case study lies in two recent controversies which, blaming Oxford University Press for linguistic sexism, eventually prompted the publisher to revise thousands of entries. In this light, this paper aims to promote a debate about the current relationship between gender, Internet lexicography and users, while spotlighting the role online platforms may play as a new form of dictionary criticism.