Oxford English Dictionary asks for the full monty

You might want to get your diaries from the loft, but did you by any chance go dogging before 1993? If the answer is yes then the Oxford English Dictionary would like to hear from you.

Or are you called Gordon Bennett and your name was being used exasperatingly before 1967? Did you call someone a plonker before 1966, a prat before 1968, a wally before 1969, a tosser before 1977 or a wazzock before 1984?

Were you the dog's bollocks long before 1989?

The OED is today enlisting the public to help them trace 40 well-known words and phrases. All of them are in the dictionary with a date of the earliest evidence of usage, but researchers want to know if the British people can do better.

The 40 words include some whose origin is still unknown or uncertain including shaggy dog story, loo, bonkers, Bloody Mary, take the mickey, bung and spiv.

The dictionary is also hoping for more information on mucky pup, sick puppy, glamour model, hoodie, shell-suit, stiletto, marital aid, pole dance, duh brain, and one sandwich short of a picnic.

More information here.