- Hardcover: 3836 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press; Revised edition edition (1 Nov 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0198612710
- ISBN-13: 978-0198612711
- Product Dimensions: 28.4 x 22.4 x 6.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,003,742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
"Every entry in this famed reference source has been rewritten, many new words have been added, and the majority of the illustrative quotations used have been taken from nineteenth- and twentieth-century sources. The result is an impressive collection of 98,000 headwords and 500,000 definitions in this replacement of the decades-old Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Many earlier and later examples of a word's use have been identified and included. Entries provide pronunciation, parts of speech, date etymology, and definitions. The definitions are modern and easy to understand and are often accompanied by usage indicators. Word lovers everywhere will welcome this up-to-date new addition to the OED family."--American Libraries
"A splendid achievement and a splendid value."--Hugh Kenner, writing in The Washington Times
"In dictionary terms, the publication of the new Shorter OED is among the major events of the last half-century."--front page article, Chicago Tribune
Product Description
This abridged edition of the "Oxford English Dictionary" contains 220,000 entries, and illustrates definitions with quotations which show precisely how the meanings of words have changed over the centuries. Each entry provides a wealth of information, including history and meaning, pronunciation, etymology, definitions, variant spellings, irregular inflections, quotations, idiomatic phrases and a record of the word's use.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The New Shorter OED is far more than a dictionary - it forms a living history of the English language, and shows how English has evolved from Shakespeare's times to the mid-90s.
The dictionary is derived from the Second Edition of the OED, and manages to condense that vast work into something that can sit comfortably on your bookshelves without crowding everything else out. In these two volumes, totalling nearly 3800 pages, you'll find about half a million definitions - so it's almost guaranteed that you'll come across something fascinating, obscure or bizarre on almost every page.
Although the Shorter OED is admirably suited to being used for serious work, it's also great fun - a quick consultation of it to look up a word can, if you have the time, often also turn into a couple of hours of browsing... and in my opinion, there can be no higher praise for a work of reference than that.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I ave alwayz wonted a reellee gud dictunary, und ges wot. I purchazed dis item wot arrivd ded quik and in ded gud conditshun. Unfurnitulee it int made mutch differenz to me spelin. Not to to mind too mutch as it maks niz bed tyme readin.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
20 reviews
79 of 79 people found the following review helpful
The best dictionary for all
20 Oct 2001
Format:Hardcover
I'm a mature student of linguistics and English with seven English dictionaries, including two copies of this works earlier edition, a smaller Oxford, a large Webster's and a facsimile edition of Jonson's original dictionary. This dictionary is the one that gets used the most.
For many years I swore by the earlier edition and this new one improves it with a newer selection of words and the thumb indexes for each letter making it a little quicker to find the word you need.
For a student of lexicography this dictionary is unmistakably an Oxford while moving towards a more modern world. While the pronunciation is the good old southern received from the original OED they have moved to the International Phonetic Alphabet from the one developed for the first OED. The layout and typeface for entries are still the same; easily read and well laid out. They keep the same marvelous information regarding derivation of a word but replace a definitive date for earliest use with a symbol that places it in the first second or final third of a century, probably more honest anyway. Like the earlier Shorter Oxford most entries also have usage examples for the word, many offer a usage for each sense of the headword.
While the word choice among the 100,000 or so headwords in these two volumes has some holes they are not large at all and mostly confined to more particular areas that border on jargon or industry specific terms. Like some other reviewers I can bemoan the absence of words in my particular topics of interest but there is no point, almost all people will never notice their absence.
For most of the English speaking world this is the dictionary that all high school and university students should own, the perfect answer for most of us who cannot afford or house the definitive Oxford English Dictionary. OK, it may be fairly costly but a dictionary this good is purchased once a lifetime and one this large will not be lost at school or be left at the bus stop. My family has had an earlier edition for thirty years.
Argument can perhaps be made that within the US, with its more Elizabethan spelling, a home grown dictionary such as Webster's should perhaps be recommended, since the Shorter Oxford lists US spellings and notes where they are the prevalent US spelling I would disagree.
I would recommend this dictionary to everyone who speaks the English language. Every home deserves a copy of this dictionary.
79 of 81 people found the following review helpful
Excellent reference
2 Feb 1998
Format:Hardcover
The best of the large dictionaries. Although I'll concede that the NSOED does not live up to its dust jacket claim for including all words since 1700, it is far more comprehensive than any of its desk top competitors. By breaking it into two volumes, Oxford has made each book manageable and one doesn't need to lift weights to look up a word. The use of the OED's approach to etymology makes this dictionary superior to any in its price range, including, specifically, the Random House and the American Heritage. It dwarfs the Collegiate dictionaries (Webster's and the New World) for number of words included. Easy to read, easy to browse, endlesslly rewarding. Own this, the 2nd OED, and Webster's Unabridged and you've got everything you need.
89 of 94 people found the following review helpful
the second best english dictionary
28 Jan 1999
Format:Hardcover
despite the odd complaints of the 'websters' fetishist who reviewed this book in 1997, this dictionary is second only to the full oed. it suffers in comparison to its sire only from necessary abbreviations due to size.
i have not been disappointed with it so far, and suspect that scholars, except perhaps of modern animal husbandry and american vernacular, will not be disapointed either. this is an ideal reference for graduate students, and others who have need of a serious text at a reasonable price.
and anyone who claims not to know that 'cilantro' is merely a recent american name for the native european herb 'coriander' (p.511) is not fit, in my humble opinion, to act as a referee for this excellent book!
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