A Guide to the Oxford English Dictionary

by Donna Lee Berg

In a recent review of the Oxford English Dictionary on CD-ROM, Library Journal called the accompanying booklet, a brief guide to the OED, a "work of art." Now, this work of art has been expanded and enhanced to a full-length book, A Guide to the Oxford English Dictionary . Here Donna Lee Berg
has provided a fascinating source of general information about the OED as well as a detailed account of the conventions and organization of the dictionary text, specially designed to enhance the reader's enjoyment and understanding of this incomparable work. This lively volume is the first to
provide an in-depth account of the structure of the OED : it gives an analysis of the components of a typical entry, and covers special entries, such as acronyms, abbreviations, and proper names. In addition, a fascinating A-Z companion section covers grammatical terms, languages, the history of the
Dictionary, the individuals who have shaped it, and a host of other topics. Also included are a bibliography, a chronology of the OED, and a listing of key facts and figures about the Dictionary. The Guide will be an invaluable handbook for everyone who relies on the OED , a roadmap to the greatest
dictionary ever compiled.

Genres: Reference, Language

216 pages, Hardcover

First published August 26, 1993

Reviews

[Kit]

This book resembles its subject in a pleasing, fractal-ly sort of way: the whole thing is scrupulously cross-referenced, pedantically explicit and richly formatted -- just like the OED itself.

The first part is worth reading in full, but with your reading tool set to 'skim'. Berg is very exact in her descriptions and distinctions. It is obvious she has spent a long time hefting and combing the OED, because she will not brook any confusion between an acronym and an initialism, or an adoption and an adaptation.

Not that this kind of exactitude is unwelcome: it's pedantry with a purpose. Without such attention to detail on behalf of the early editors who made the OED we surely would not have the world's best dictionary of the world's largest language. Real English-heads know that it's OED or nothin'.

The second half of the book is uneven in quality. After reading the first part, there are many terms that don't need any further elaboration. I didn't read it all the way through, since it is structured and written like a reference work. I liked the biographical sketches and I want to know more about the zany Scottish kooks who served as editors the and Victorian oddballs who used to spend their spare time filling out quotation slips and mailing them to Oxford for no pay.

When I think of the labour and dedication that went into preparing the first edition I can't help but be awestruck. Digital technology would have made their work so much easier. Ironically, many of the flaws the OED sought to rectify in English dictionaries have crept their way back in to the dictionaries of record of the day: wikipedia and google.

James Murray would have wept to hear that an ingorant Scottish teenager who wrote the Lion's share of the Scots language wiki (https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2...). The nineteen year-old kid single-handedly maimed a whole language, scarring it forever and hastening its slow withering away. Shallow reading, broken telephones, charalatans are everywhere. We have power without wisdom.



H Simp.: Noble reading embiggens even the most cromulent man.