It's one of those moments of cognitive dissonance, in which we find ourselves straddling our past and our future: the Oxford University Press has announced it has no plans to issue a new print edition of The Oxford English Dictionary.
The great work will now exist solely in Internet form, which, if you think about it, makes eminent sense in a constantly-changing field like lexicography.
Like the author of the NYT article we have the 1971 micrographic edition in one volume we can now read only with glasses and the magnifier the Book of the Month Club (another dinosaur) sent. We picked up the 1980s-era supplements in due course and have lugged them half way round the world ever since, winning more than one case with the US Customs Service with its etymological histories (an annunciator is not a loudspeaker, for example).
We always harbored hopes of getting a more readable complete, 20 volume set, but the nearly thousand dollar fare has always eluded us for such a magnificent luxury. So we'll just hang onto our tiny print one, and our thirty year old Concise OED, and soldier on, savoring the feel of a great book in our laps, waiting to unlock the linguistic and literary heritage of centuries.
Then we'll check the website for updates.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary- a one-volume version of the OED- is now available as a flash drive.
What a fun read! I always wanted my own OED, especially to read the definition and etymology of the word WASP, as written by one J.R.R. Tolkien.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're right, there is a certain pleasure to holding a book in one's hands and perusing its pages.
What a delightful, fun read. I have always wanted to own my own OED, for a number of reasons, but partly to read the definition and etymology of the word, "wasp," as written by one J.R.R. Tolkien.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're right, there is a certain pleasure to holding a book in your hands and perusing its pages.
I fear that in time the feel and smell of a book will be lost to us forever. Hopefully, it will not happen in my lifetime.
ReplyDeleteFor the past few years I have relied on the internet for recipes. Last Christmas my Dad gave me an actual physical book called "Mom's Best Meals". What a joy ! The pages are already dog-eared and spattered with bits and pieces of various concoctions. There's something about a real book that is just irreplaceable.