Obituary: The Compact Edition of The Oxford English Dictionary, Complete Text Reproduced Micrographically
I had a race last week with the editor I sit next at work: I swiped my paperback Oxford Dictionary of Current English off the shelf to see if I could find a definition in print before she could retrieve it online. She won.
It reminded me of my favorite Tall Tale from childhood, the story of John Henry, the steel-driving man who died trying to to out-work a steam drill. As a Minnesotan, I should have preferred Paul Bunyan to the railroad laborer who was replaced by a machine, but I like anachronisms.
This is why I'm so upset that the The Compact Edition of The Oxford English Dictionary, Complete Text Reproduced Micrographically is going out of print.
I know it's easier to read and quicker to use online. And I know my argument about surprise power outages during word emergencies is weak. But I prefer paper. When I'm working on the computer, whether I'm at work or at home, I use a paper dictionary to look up words.
The CEOED is still for sale ($399.95). It's "not an abridgement, but a direct photoreduction of the entire 20-volume set, with nine pages of the original on every nine-by-twelve page of the Compact." It's one 15-pound volume of 2402 pages, and it comes with a magnifying glass.
It's so big because: "The OED records not only words and meanings currently in use but also those that have long been considered obsolete." Like Boeotian (pronounced bee-ocean), a word I discovered browsing a three-volume edition of the OED. It refers to the ancient Greek culture and means "exceptionally dull or stupid."
But this soon-to-be obsolete edition is, in my estimation, inferior to the earlier, three-volume set, which condensed a mere four or so pages to every page. It can be read without a magnifying glass if your eyes are good.
And if you want the electronic version of the OED, you have to get it online. It costs $295 per year for a subscription. So while Oxford University Press is saving money by going out of print, we are not.
It reminded me of my favorite Tall Tale from childhood, the story of John Henry, the steel-driving man who died trying to to out-work a steam drill. As a Minnesotan, I should have preferred Paul Bunyan to the railroad laborer who was replaced by a machine, but I like anachronisms.
This is why I'm so upset that the The Compact Edition of The Oxford English Dictionary, Complete Text Reproduced Micrographically is going out of print. I know it's easier to read and quicker to use online. And I know my argument about surprise power outages during word emergencies is weak. But I prefer paper. When I'm working on the computer, whether I'm at work or at home, I use a paper dictionary to look up words.
The CEOED is still for sale ($399.95). It's "not an abridgement, but a direct photoreduction of the entire 20-volume set, with nine pages of the original on every nine-by-twelve page of the Compact." It's one 15-pound volume of 2402 pages, and it comes with a magnifying glass.
It's so big because: "The OED records not only words and meanings currently in use but also those that have long been considered obsolete." Like Boeotian (pronounced bee-ocean), a word I discovered browsing a three-volume edition of the OED. It refers to the ancient Greek culture and means "exceptionally dull or stupid."
But this soon-to-be obsolete edition is, in my estimation, inferior to the earlier, three-volume set, which condensed a mere four or so pages to every page. It can be read without a magnifying glass if your eyes are good.
And if you want the electronic version of the OED, you have to get it online. It costs $295 per year for a subscription. So while Oxford University Press is saving money by going out of print, we are not.
Labels: words
posted by The Masticator at 5/18/2008 01:35:00 PM
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