What Dictionary do you own?

I have been accompanied by my stalwart 1993 Chambers, since 1993, believe it or not! Finally in a moment of enlightenment I have purchased the Shorter Oxford Dictionary 6th Ed. in two volumes. It is one step closer to the 20 volume set!

I have my parent's compact OED from the 1930s, but the dictionary I use on a regular basis is the Random House Compact Unabridged.

I just wish I could find a dictionary that would last more than 30 days in my backpack. :(

I have the New Oxford American Dictionary built into my kindle 3. I was never a great fan of the e-book until I bought the kindle, but it has grown on me.

It also fits into a backpack :-)

> 2

Is that the Webster's?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Random-House-Websters-Unabridged-Dictionary/dp/037542599...

Compact OED, but our kids made off with the magnifier.

So, more often it's the American Heritage.

> 6

Was it the small spherical magnifier that came as part of the package? I often use a bigger handheld magnifier for when I am using my Liddell and Scott Greek Dictionary or my Lewis Latin.

I also have the single volume Oxford Reference Dictionary. It operates as a hybrid of an encyclopaedia and a dictionary.

1987 Hawkins ed.

5: Evidently. It appears that a court case now allows any dictionary maker to call itself Websters. So now there are two unabridged dictionaries called Webster in the U.S. Merriam Webster's 3rd, which is the same dictionary they published in 1961 with new words stuck in an addendum in the back and Random House, which, at least the last time I read up on the subject five years ago, was actually printing up new editions with the words in their proper place. (It took me two tries and a strongly worded memo to get the reference librarians in my library to use the Random House instead of the Merriam Webster. It's a good thing no one else is using the word "Oxford.")

> 9

I was not aware of the court case, which as I read from online sources, occurred in thee first quarter of the 20th Century, then subsequently we had a dispute of trademark in more recent years.

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/14/nyregion/in-a-word-dictionary-s-title-stands.h...

I suppose with even some superficial research, it would be difficult to mix up Random House with Merriam.

One of the strengths of the online edition of the OED, which is mentioned on another thread, is the ability, at the punch of a key, to update the dictionary, without having to resort to a lengthy and expensive reprint.

Also just come across another dictionary resource I had not been aware of" the Merriam Webster's Dictionary which is embedded as part of my Encyclopaedia Britannica CDROM.

I was reading about the lawsuits this morning, I should have included the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webster%27s_dictionary#The_name_Webster_used_by_oth...

> 12

Yes, I read that entry too. It is interesting that the substance of the work has moved considerably away from the originals yet the fight to retain the name has heightened in proportion.

I suppose Fowler's English Usage edited by Burchfield has moved considerably away from the original, though I know of no corporate wrangling in this case. Comparer des pommes avec des oranges.

I've got the 2 volume OED with the magnifying glass, the compact OED and the two volume World Book dictionary and variety of foreign language and other specialized dicitonaries.

I used to own a hard copy of the first edition text of the full OED in 12 volumes plus 1933 Supplement, plus the four later Burchfield supplements, plus the published volumes of the 'Additions' series. For reasons of space I sold the main 13-volume set and replaced it with the tiny-print Compact edition with magnifying glass. This too has now gone, along with the Burchfield volumes, and I'm on my second update of the OED on CD-ROM which I've uploaded to my laptop so I don't need to use the disc itself. I also have access to the online version through my wife's work.

I still regret parting with the print copies because I would often spend an hour or more browsing through the volumes as the fancy took me (sad, I know!) and you just can't do that in the same way in the digital format.

I do have a printed copy of the Shorter OED in 2 volumes (and the single-volume Concise OED and two even smaller versions), which is great, but 2 volumes vs. 20 (as it is now) is missing a lot. I also have print copies of the standard Oxford Thesaurus and of the newer 2-volume Historical Thesaurus which is based on the full OED.

For years I've used Webster's New World College Dictionary. It's a great dictionary, and I enjoy using it, but it has it's limitations. At about 160,000 words there are times when it just doesn't have what I'm looking for. So, for a while I've been keeping my eyes open, hoping I would stumble across a good deal on a Webster's Third or a Shorter OED.

Today my local library was discarding a few books so I stopped in to have a look. There were a a lot of old VHS tapes, along with some terribly outdated tech manuals, and then I saw it.

"Is that what I think it is?" I asked.

"All twenty volumes of it," replied the librarian.

"Do you have a cart I can borrow?"

I never really thought I'd own the Oxford English Dictionary, but I've been looking through it all evening. It's the 1991 reprint and in excellent condition. I'll eventually need to replace my College Dictionary, but I think I'm set as far as a big dictionary goes - at least for the next 25 years or so. Now I just need to buy another bookcase.

> 16

Green with envy.

:-)

>16 infrar3d:

Congratulations!

As long as it includes the word "haecceity" you're okay.

>19 barney67: Even Chambers has that.

> 19

My Shorter Oxford has 'funest' but not 'funestation'.

>1 LesMiserables: I am still accompanied here at my desk by my Chambers Pocket 20th Century Dictionary (1984) which I bought when I departed the family home and went off to the big, bad city of Lun-Don to be a student. I have bought bigger and more comprehensive dictionaries since then but this one will always have a special place :-)

>23 Cat_of_Ulthar:

Ah yes, a nice scrabble dictionary. This reminds me somewhat of my wife's little handbag/work dictionary she has had forever: a Collins Gem.

These often get amazing usage when compared the grandiose multi-volumed sets that don the shelves in my home.

I see the The Compact Edition of the OED is currently on sales on Amazon with a hefty 39% discount ISBN 0198612583

This is the Hardcover slipcase edition with magnifying glass.

>25 LesMiserables:

That's a great price. It's similar to the UK site (37%). The OUP price is £400.00. I got it some time ago when I thought I would never be able to justify the 20-vol. version. Then, along came the Folio offer (in around 2014, I think it was), so I am now the proud owner of both. That said, I know which I prefer! Nine original pages to a page is pushing it.

I'm currently going through a bit of a private study session on the OED. It comes up fresh now and again and it's such a fascinating story. I've started going through the literature and there's quite a lot of it now, mostly published in the last 20 years. Of course, reading them has reawakened my interest in the first edition (completed in 1928). The 1933 reissue, which I used to own many years ago, comprised twelve volumes and the 1933 Supplement (reprinted up to the 1980s). I also had the Burchfield supplements (1972-1986, 4 vols.) and the three small Additions volumes. When I got the 20-vol. second edition I foolishly (as I see it now) sold everything I had that came before except the Additions. As I read through the various books (listed below), of course the footnotes are directing me to all those lost volumes, so I'm just in the process of re-acquiring Burchfield and the Compact version of the 1933 edition and Supplement. That compact edition has only 4 pages to the page, so I'm hopeful I will be able to refer to it without losing my eyesight. If not, I'm just going to have to go for the "real thing"!

By the way, how do you explain to people that a Dictionary can be so interesting without them doubting your sanity?

Here's my list of books about the OED (I expect you already know about many of these):

• John Cowley, The Making of the Oxford English Dictionary: Some Background Notes. OUP, 1972 (16-page booklet).
A rarity. Originally issued as an insert in the Clarendonian (a magazine for OUP employees). Illustrated with black and white photographs and one or two colour facsimiles (reduced) of early publicity material.

• K. M. Elizabeth Murray, Caught in the Web of Words: James A. H. Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary. Yale University Press, 1977; seventh printing (with corrections), 1978.
Written by Murray's granddaughter. Preface by R. W. Burchfield.

• Donna Lee Berg, A Guide to The Oxford English Dictionary: The Essential Companion and User's Guide. OUP, 1993.
Does what it says on the tin.

• John Willinsky, Empire of Words: The Reign of the OED. Princeton University Press, 1994.
A corrective among the hagiography! Using traditional research and computer analysis, Willinsky accuses the OED of too narrow a quotation base, and brands it elitist, masculine in its emphasis, chauvinistic, imperialist, and in a general way insulting to minority groups. Well someone had to! But see Sarah Ogilvie, Words of the World, below.

• Simon Winchester, The Surgeon of Crowthorne: A Tale of Murder, Madness and the Love of Words. Viking, 1998.
Perhaps the most popular and well-known book on the OED. A runaway bestseller, telling the story of one of Murray's most prolific readers and suppliers of quotations, Dr Minor, a deranged murderer incarcerated in Broadmoor Mental Asylum.

• Lynda Mugglestone (Ed.), Lexicography and the OED: Pioneers in the Untrodden Forest. OUP, 2000.
Contains 12 papers by various authors, covering topics such as Readers and Editors: A Critical Survey, Murray and His European Counterparts, Time and Meaning: Sense and Definition in the OED, The Compass of the Vocabulary, The Reputation of the OED, etc. Also contains a useful appendix listing the original Part and Fascicle issues, with dates.

• Simon Winchester, The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary. OUP, 2003.
Winchester's more wide-ranging follow-up bestseller to Crowthorne.

• Lynda Mugglestone, Lost for Words: The Hidden History of the Oxford English Dictionary. Yale University Press, 2005.
Looking for the first time at the extensive proofs preserved in the OED archives, Mugglestone tells the story of the creative processes and personalities behind the first edition of the Dictionary, finally published in full in 1928.

• Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall, Edmund Weiner, The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary. OUP, 2006.
Taking its title from RLS. . .

• Charlotte Brewer, Treasure-House of the Language: The Living OED Yale University Press, 2007.
Brewers History carries on the story of the OED from where Mugglestone leaves off (Lost for Words, 2005), i.e. 1928, covering the 1933 Supplement, the 1989 Second Edition, Burchfield's Supplement (1972-1986), the three interim Additions volumes of the 1990s, and continuing the story up to the the launch (in 2000) and early years of the 'New Oxford English Dictionary Project' online. She also looks at the shifting role and function of the OED over time.

• Ammon Shea, "Reading the Oxford English Dictionary: One Man, One Year, 21,370 Pages. Allen Lane, 2008.
A fun and light-hearted account of one man's obsession to read through the entire OED in a year. Along the way, he shares his favourite words and definitions.

• Sarah Ogilvie, Words of the World: A Global History of the Oxford English Dictionary. Cambridge UP, 2013.
Argues that Murray's aims, far from being insular, conservative, and distinctly British, as stated or implied by critics such as Burchfield, Willinsky (see above), Edward Said, etc., were to actively seek out and include "Englishes" from across the world, and that he was at pains to avoid a bias of Britishness.

• Peter Gilliver, The Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. OUP, 2016.
A comprehensive and authoritative history of the OED from the beginnings in 1857 to the online Third Edition in progress, by a senior lexicographer on the team who joined the staff in 1987.

• Sarah Ogilvie, The Dictionary People: The unsung heroes who created the Oxford English Dictionary. Chatto & Windus, 2023.
In 2014, Ogilvie stumbled on a dusty and seemingly unremarkable notebook in the OED archives in Oxford. It contained hundreds of names and addresses of readers from all over the world to whom Murray sent his own reading lists and further requests to read local English-language books, in order to mine the widest possible vocubulary as raw material for his Dictionary project. In this popular and entertaining book she describes the lives and backgrounds of these unsung people behind the word slips.
_________________________

Useful websites:

https://www.oed.com/information/about-the-oed/history-of-the-oed/oed-editions/?t...

https://global.oup.com/uk/archives/16.html

https://oed.hertford.ox.ac.uk/

https://oed.hertford.ox.ac.uk/bibliography/
_________________________

A general academic book on the history and development of dictionaries, which includes chapters on the OED by Lynda Mugglestone, Charlotte Brewer, and Edmund Weiner:

A. P. Cowie, The Oxford History of English Lexicography, Volume I: General-Purpose Dictionaries; volume II: Specialized Dictionaries. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2009.

>25 LesMiserables:

By the way, how do you explain to people that a Dictionary can be so interesting without them doubting your sanity?

I've no idea. My wife actually said to me last night Is that a dictionary you are reading? which I was. I think she already doubts my sanity, so I wasn't overly worried that this would presage a surreptitious phone call to the local hospital.

Great list of books. I had a conversation with Ammon Shea (and partly with his wife) about his undertaking and my search for a word that he couldn't help me with: I'll share it here.

I asked: Can you tell me if you know of a word that describes the accidental formation of a shape on a page of text made with letters or spaces? I usually pick this up with my peripheral vision.

He asked his wife, who is a Lexicographer and PhD Cognitive Scientist, and her first question to me was if I was dyslexic.

I posed your question to her, and she asked if you were by any chance a dyslexic astrophysicist (there's a reason for this). She pointed out some interesting research - http://www.stanford.edu/group/neurostudents/cgi-bin/wordpress/?p=1175 - which contains the notable line "dyslexic astrophysicists are remarkably superior at detecting black holes, showing a significant increase in signal-to-noise threshold at periphery of visual field." I have doubts as to whether you would fall into this rather narrow category, but it's too good to not pass along.

I have the 20-volume set, acquired as a gift when I turned 16. My grandparents at the time wanted to purchase me a used car, but I had no interest.

"Okay," they asked, "what can we give you in a similar price range?"

"The Oxford English Dictionary, all 20 volumes," I answered promptly.

This caused some bafflement. I was well into my twenties before every family gathering no longer required at least one relative to ritually ask me, "And have you finished reading your dictionary yet?" (No.) But because my grandparents loved their weird grandkid, they did. (They were helped by the fact that my dad had published a book with Oxford University Press and was eligible for a generous author's discount on all works by the press, including the OED.)

I am 39 now, and I've still never owned a car, but the dictionary has traveled with me everywhere except my college dorm room. Although I did have some difficulty prying it out of my parents' hands after they stored it for those four years--but if they wanted one, they could have bought two sets with Dad's discount!

>28 ambyrglow:

Great anecdote. Have you added the supplements to your volumes?

>29 LesMiserables: No, though I do periodically hint to various family members that they'd make good gifts. Although I'd need to do some rearrangement to make shelf space for them...

I bought all 20 volumes one at a time as deaccessioned library copies from ABE. Yeah, they're mismatched in some ways but it doesn't seem to make much difference. Some were very inexpensive ($4 or $5) though a few were moderately pricey ($15, $20. I already had the 2 vol + magnifying glass + supplement -- but now i have both!

I can't remember the last time that I have actually owned a paperback dictionary. Since definitions constantly change and are amended (sometimes daily) I tend to rely on online dictionary's such as Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster.