Your birthday word: Wordlady's is... hydroflumethiazide?

The Oxford English Dictionary has a cool "birthday word" generator which lets you find out what word shares your year of birth (and sometimes your actual birthday).

How to search for a personal birthday word

If you don't have subscriber access to the OED, 
1) Complain to your public library that they should get it!
2) go to the Oxford Words blog, where you can find out a word first attested in the year of your birth.

If you have access to the online OED (for instance through your public library, such as Toronto Public Library for those of you who have a TPL card, and most university libraries), you can find out what word is first attested in the month of your birth, sometimes even on your birthday itself. 

Subscriber only Advanced Search

Step 1: Choose Advanced Search (under the "Quick Search" window at the top of the OED homepage)

Step 2: Enter the abbreviation for your month of birth in the advanced search box.

Month	Abbreviation
January	Jan
February	Feb
March	Mar
April	Apr
May	May
June	June
July	July
August	Aug
September	Sept
October	Oct
November	Nov
December	Dec

Step 3: Select the  ‘-First Quotation’ option from the drop down menu  
Step 4: Enter your year of birth in the ‘Date of entry’ field  
Step 5: Click Search and discover if you have a personal OED birthday word.

You can imagine how excited I was to discover that the word closest to my birthday designates

A white crystalline compound, C₈H₈F₃N₃O₄S₂, analogous to hydrochlorothiazide and having similar effects and uses (given orally in the treatment of œdema and as an adjuvant in the treatment of hypertension).

and how mortified to discover that I almost share a birthday with... Barbie!

Share YOUR birthday word in the comments!

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