the new shorter oxford english dictionary

#The new shorter oxford english dictionary update#
#The new shorter oxford english dictionary full#
#The new shorter oxford english dictionary plus#

The new edition, with a new introductory essay by language expert David Crystal on the History of English, includes 2,500 new words and senses, plus thousands of antedatings of existing words, drawing on the huge ongoing research project for the Oxford English Dictionary and the wealth of information on language in use provided by the Oxford English Corpus. Based on the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary contains an incredible one-third of the coverage of the Oxford English Dictionary, is just one-tenth of the size, and includes all words in current English from 1700 to the present day, plus the vocabulary of Shakespeare, the Bible and other major works in English from before 1700.

#The new shorter oxford english dictionary update#

The Sixth Edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary provides a complete update of this unique reference work.

The Fifth Edition was published in 2002, and reverted to the name Shorter Oxford English Dictionary to emphasize the link between this 2-volume dictionary and the original 20-volume OED. It was the first complete revision of the dictionary, being in fact not so much an overhaul of the existing text as a reabridgement of the OED and its Supplements. The New Shorter was prepared under the editorship of Lesley Brown 1980-1993. The Third Edition (1944) contained an appendix of addenda and corrigenda, and this edition was reprinted several times with corrections and additions, the most significant being in 1973, with enlarged addenda (now running to over 70 pages) and a major revision of all the etymologies. The Second Edition, published in 1936, contained about 3,000 revisions and additions. The First Edition was published in 1933, in two volumes. He worked on it until his death in 1922, after which the dictionary was completed by H. The first editor, William Little, was appointed in 1902.

#The new shorter oxford english dictionary full#

There may be a better dictionary for me out there yet, but even if I could find it, I can't imagine I could afford to own it.From the beginning, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary was intended to be an abridgement of the full Oxford English Dictionary. A minor quibble, but it does mar the perfection a tiny bit. In most of my prose I shun hyphenation, but when I was desktop-publishing a newsletter it was essential to be able to squeeze my verbosity into columns, and these tomes offered me no assistance. My only real complaint: the lack of syllabication. The binding has held up very well, and it is still sufficiently manageable for my wife and I to cuddle around on a lazy Saturday morning. In twelve years of heavy use I can recall only twice where I failed to find a ridiculously-obscure word within these covers, which is a track record that I am completely satisfied with.

I won't go so far as to say this is THE dictionary for personal use (I haven't tried them all yet), but it is right up there, especially for people who need authoritative access to a vast array of words at all hours of the day and night.

The bulk of my high school graduation gift money went to ordering this two-volume treasure directly from the publisher (it was on sale!) and solidifying the Anglophiliac bent to my logomania. In twelve years One of the most fantastic investments I have ever made. One of the most fantastic investments I have ever made.