astronomy

Philip Durkin

Philip Durkin is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Philip Durkin rather than just read about it. In short: Philip N. R.

Key takeaways

Philip Durkin belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Philip Durkin to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Philip Durkin from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Philip N. R. Durkin is a lexicographer and etymologist, Deputy Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary and leader of its team of specialist etymology editors. His books include The Oxford Guide to Etymology (2009) and Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English (2014), and he is the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Lexicography (2015).

Education Durkin earned a doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1994 with a thesis on late Middle English prose texts.

Career Durkin has worked on the OED since the late 1990s and leads its etymology and form-history work. He has also held an honorary research post in the School of Critical Studies at the University of Glasgow.

Selected works

Books Durkin, Philip (2009). The Oxford Guide to Etymology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-969161-6. Durkin, Philip (2014). Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-957499-5. Durkin, Philip, ed. (2015). The Oxford Handbook of Lexicography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-969163-0. Harvey, Anthony; Durkin, Philip (2018). Spoken Through: How Scholarly Dictionaries Mediate the Past. H. M. Chadwick Memorial Lectures 28. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, University of Cambridge Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. ISBN 978-1-909106-18-5.

Articles Durkin, Philip N. R. (May 1999). "Root and Branch: Revising the etymological component of the Oxford English Dictionary". Transactions of the Philological Society. 97 (1): 1–150. doi:10.1111/1467-968X.00044.

References

External links University of Oxford profile

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Philip Durkin

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Philip Durkin claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Philip Durkin before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Philip Durkin ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Philip Durkin

In research: Philip Durkin appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Philip Durkin in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Philip Durkin is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Alumni of the University of Oxford, Etymologists, Lexicographers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Philip Durkin outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Philip Durkin in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Philip Durkin means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Philip Durkin out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Philip Durkin in simple terms?

Philip N. R.

Why does Philip Durkin matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Philip Durkin?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Philip Durkin.