| Susie Dent | |
|---|---|
| Born | mid 1960s Woking, Surrey, England |
| Education | University of Oxford and Princeton University |
| Occupation | Lexicographer and television personality |
| Spouse | Paul[1] |
| Children | Two |
Susie Dent (born mid-sixties in Woking, Surrey) is an English lexicographer, well known as the resident dictionary expert and adjudicator on Channel 4’s long-running game show Countdown. As of January 2009, she is the longest-serving member of the current on-screen team, having first appeared on the show in 1992.
Dent was educated at the Marist Convent in Ascot.[2] She went on to study Modern Languages at Somerville College, Oxford and German at Princeton University, New Jersey, after which she worked as a language teacher in the United States and for a German publisher before going to work for the Oxford University Press (OUP). She now works as a writer and contributor to discussions of language issues and words in the news: the Language Corner column in the UK MSN Encarta online encyclopedia site is one of these.[3]
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From 2003 to 2007 she was the author of a series of annual Language Reports for the OUP. The first was entitled simply The Language Report; it was followed by Larpers and Shroomers (2004), Fanboys and Overdogs (2005), The Like, Language Report for Real (2006) and The Language Report: English on the Move 2000 - 2007 (2007). The format of this publication was revised for 2008 as an A-Z collection of new and newly resurrected words. It was published in October 2008 as Words of the Year.[4] In 2005 the same publisher issued Winning Ways (ISBN 0199198748). 2009 OUP published her latest work: What Made the Crocodile Cry? 101 questions about the English language (ISBN 0199574154). Dent's book about dialects, How to Talk Like a Local (ISBN 1905211791), was published in March 2010.[5]
Dent has appeared on Countdown since 1992, having made over 2,000 appearances; however, it was only in 2003 (series 49) that she took on her role full-time.
As well as her native English, she is fluent in French and German. She lives in Oxford with her husband, Paul, and two daughters.[1]
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