Bibliophile the BibleGuru wrote:None! The OED2 is your primary choice. The MWUD is your secondary choice. That's it.
If you are interested in using a dictionary as a resource you won't do any better than these. Back in the day when I was a rare book seller, these were the only ones we trusted.
My 2 lati
JGoldman10 wrote:PLease don't be offended, but I was anticipating getting more responses. Does anyone have any input?
You have your email address out for the world to see - you WILL get responses! :wink:
In terms of the English language there is no reference work that surpasses the OED*. Combined with a fairly comprehensive one that lists strange North American 'words', you will have covered English 'as-she-is-spoke'. I would also recommend the purchase of the 'Macquarie Dictionary', that includes words and variant usages peculiar to Australia and New Zealand. At the very least they will give you a good laugh.
*about $5,000 US to get the latest edition (electronic) - I would give anything to have a 2nd edition, but that's me.
I am interested in buying Comprehensive and Unabridged Dictionaries in Addition to the OED second edition. What dictionares have the same and/or similar features as the OED second edition?
Yes, I'm interested in buying a collection.
I am interested in the OED edition, as well. Which version of the OED second edtion the version that comes with magnifying glass?
J Goldman, are you a human on the other end of these somewhat demanding questions? Could you perhaps say please and thank you? Posters here aren't paid information folks, they are all just trying to help you from their own knowledge base.
Interesting question, ossobuco. I was trying to put my finger on what I found odd about this thread...
JGoldman10,
If you do not value opinions, read no more of this post, because it is riddled with them.
It is surprising to me that you use the term "Comprehensive Dictionary", since no dictionary is truly comprehensive. This includes the OED, whose editors, I believe, would be the first to admit that the OED is not comprehensive. In support of this fact, a two-volume Supplement to the OED was published in 1972. So far as I know, there may have been more recent supplements, as well. By the way, the OED3 is now in progress, but it will be years before its completion.
The OED in both its online or CD-ROM form and its paper-and-ink form have advantages and disadvantages that the other form lacks.
As for the boxed, two-volume OED in micro-type, complete with magnifying glass, that is better than not having an OED at all, but it should be purchased only if limited space and money create firm constraints.
I believe it is more realistic to build a personal library of books providing the information you seek, rather than trying to find a single book (or set of books) to fill all those informational needs. You seem to be rather scholarly, judging by the tone of your introductory post, and it is far more scholarly to use several or many books, rather than one single source.
In making your evaluation of resources, I recommend that you compile a short list of words, perhaps half a dozen, that you consider essential, despite their being rare. Armed with this list, make your own computer or hand-drawn spreadsheet, look up each of these words in the resource, and mark a column to indicate the presence or quality of descriptors you must have, such as etymology.
Mr. Stillwater,
You referred to: strange North American "words"
I see things quite differently from what I infer in reading your terminology. North America is a totally valid source of words. Something that is written, read, or spoken as a word is, in fact, a word. Sometimes these linguistic oddities have not yet been codified into a dictionary, but they are nevertheless words. They may be extremely new words, or extremely localized or specialized words, but they retain their essence as words.
Aa, nice to see you. I do appreciate the light you shed here; your comments make sense to me.
An Aa sighting!!! Oh frabjous day!!! C'mon, Osso, help me spread the word!
OK, MA, but where? Maybe on the Missing a2kers thread?
Wherever the old-timers congregate, Osso.
Merry Andrew & ossobuco,
Thank you both for your warm welcome. I am generally an infrequent poster, but I consider the Rainforest thread my home base.
Merry Andrew: "An Aa sighting"? That sounds like a fleeting glimpse of a rare bird. In the book of taxonomy, you will find me included in the "crona tougholdbirdia" family.
Starkly off-topic, one of the books I've accumulated is Birds of the Caribbean, by James Bond. Yes, James Bond. The author of the James Bond books lived in the Caribbean for years, and he took the name of that character from the ornithologist who wrote the book I mentioned.
ossobucco: It's good to see another Californian, though you are Far Northern, and I am more of the mountainous middle - that's geographical, not necessarily body type. "Foothills" would be more specific, but I sacrificed that in order to make an offering on the altar of alliteration.
Addendum to my input about OED:
The OED has a distinct bias toward British culture and to antiquariana. One instance of this is the word "suffrage". If you are interested in the application of this word to "women's suffrage", you will have to wade through two-and-a-half columns of definitions and related material before you reach deficition #11.b, which is the final entry. This usage of "suffrage" includes a list of categories:
"With prefixed word indicating the extent, as adult, female, household, manhood, universal, women's, woman's suffrage."
It is only under the main entry of "suffragette" that you would find the material most people would expect to find under the word "suffrage" itself.
As I see it, the OED treatment of the word "suffrage" is barely inclusive of the primary usage as written and spoken in our own times - that is, women's suffrage.
<thud>
and you can go look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls
You make a valid point, Aa, about the OED. It's a wonderful resource if you have the time and inclination to wade through reams of info on words. One can get pleasurably lost in there for hours.
For looking up a word just to know what it means right now, though, the OED isn't an easy read. A good one-volume dictionary serves that purpose. I like the Random House, second edition...
Csan someone here tell me which comprehensive and/or unabriged dictionaries I shoul dbuy or use in addition tio the OED 2nd edition?
Where are all the dictionary experts?
fishin' yes I'm interested in building a collection. I posted those links and listed some titles because I wanted feedback.
D'artagnan, do you have any input about any other dictiuonaries?
Ossobuco, all I want is a list of dictionaries British and English that have the same and/or similar features as the OED Second Edition.
D'artagnan, can you comprise a list of British and American English dictionaries that have the same and/or similar features as the OED?
