Amazon.co.uk Review
Anyone looking for a concise dictionary of English is currently faced with a difficult choice, since 2001 has seen the publication of new editions of three major works; the
Concise Oxford Dictionary the
Collins Concise Dictionary and the
Encarta Concise Dictionary. All cover the same core material and at first sight seem much the same, giving definitions that place the most common sense first, guidance on such things as how formal or informal a word is and information on the origin of a word and when it first came into the language. However, a closer look at the text shows that they all have different strengths.
The Concise Oxford is the most grown up of the three. It saves space for other things by not giving pronunciation guidance for standard English vocabulary (such as "cheese") but only for words that might be difficult ("cheetah", "Chekhovian"). Instead it gives extra information on phrases, so that the reader does not have to search through "hard" for "hard cheese" is under "cheese". There is no major encyclopaedic element, although "Chekhovian" will give you the basic information on Chekhov, and there is an appendix giving information on countries of the world, as well as others on proof marks, weights and measures, different alphabets, abbreviations used in texting and an extensive guide to good English. This is the only one of the three to give good coverage of obsolete words, and is particularly strong on science and foreign words used in English. --Julia Cresswell
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Amazon.co.uk Review
Dictionary [Oxford, Concise] n. a book that lists the words of a language in alphabetical order and gives their meaning, or their equivalent in a different language. Oxford n. a type of lace-up shoe with a low heel. Origin C19th: named after the city of Oxford. Concise adj. giving a lot of information clearly and in a few words.
Compiled from the world's biggest language research programme, Oxford lexicographers have rewritten all 220,000 entries in the latest and greatest edition of
The Concise Oxford English Dictionary. The very first edition of this dictionary, published in 1911, drew on the content and method of Editor James Murray's revolutionary lifework, the
Oxford English Dictionary, the vivid history of which is captured in Simon Winchester's bestselling linguistic detective story of words, murder and madness,
The Surgeon of Crowthorne:
"Other dictionaries in other languages took longer to make; but none was greater, grander or had more authority than this. The greatest effort since the invention of printing. The longest sensational serial ever written."
As its name suggests, the
Concise Oxford Dictionary provides a streamlined compendium of easily accessible edited highlights from its more cumbersome ancestor. Arduously edited from longhand submissions, a typewritten manuscript and handset on a letter press, the very first edition was a labour of love. Nearly a century later, this new tenth edition draws extensively on new technology--including the citation database of the Oxford World Reading Programme which houses approximately 50 million words--to present an inclusive reference guide to living, breathing English. In its own concise definition of its method:
"Each entry is built around the core sense or senses of the word in current English, as based on rigorous analysis of large amounts of real, modern evidence available in computerized form."
So no need to scrabble for other dictionaries, this is the last word in quick authoritative reference, and a lexical luxury for etymologists. --Rachel Holmes
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