Talk:Oxford English Dictionary

How do you say OED?

Is it O.E.D. or ode? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.128.246.1 (talk) 11:07, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

I have only ever heard O.E.D. (letters pronounced separately). By the way, in the future for questions like this you can turn to the Wikipedia:Reference desk. Lesgles (talk) 08:22, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

I'd beg to differ. I am quite certain it is pronounced "oh-ee-dee". Furthermore, questions regarding the subject of an article, such as the above, should be asked in discussion pages as it allows the editors to gauge what is missing in the article and amend it: for every question asked one can be sure there where umpteen times that number in people wondering the same and not asking. --Squidonius (talk) 21:01, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

cd screenshot

new screenshot added of cd v4.0 win7 added --Umar1996 (talk) 12:59, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

Spelling

Since this article is about the Oxford English Dictionary itself, shouldn't it use OED spelling? Bob A (talk) 17:38, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

What did you have in mind? There's an OUP spelling style, but not a specifically OED spelling (it records all spellings, in general). quota (talk) 08:59, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

The Pocket Oxford Dictionary of Current English

Also called the "Pocket Oxford Dictionary" is not on this page. Why is this? Snowman (talk) 08:53, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Agreed. From the OUP site there is also: the Compact Oxford Dictionary & Thesaurus; the Oxford Paperback Dictionary & Thesaurus; the Little Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus; the Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus; the Oxford Dictionary of English; the Pocket Oxford English Dictionary; and the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary Deluxe Edition. It would be great if someone could classify all these into some intelligible taxonomy and add it to the article. Oxford University Press seem unwilling/incapable of doing it. 84.250.130.175 (talk) 13:05, 16 November 2011 (UTC)

I have had occasion to consult at least one of those pocket editions and found it to be pretty awful. There's a similar problem with the Merriam-Webster: unabridged (excellent), collegiate (excellent), high-school edition (awful). If we could just find a tactful and diplomatic way of saying that. Zyxwv99 (talk) 14:31, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

close paraphrasing

Two paragraphs of the wikipedia article are very close paraphrases of the article on the OED in the Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. Here are the two paragraphs:

Furnivall understood the need for an efficient excerpting system, and instituted several prefatory projects. In 1864, he founded the Early English Text Society, and in 1868, he founded the Chaucer Society for preparing general benefit editions of immediate value to the dictionary project. The compilation lasted 21 years.[citation needed]

Despite the participation of some 800 volunteer readers, the technology of paper-and-ink was the major drawback regarding the arbitrary choices of relatively untrained volunteers about "what to read and select" and "what to discard."[cite this quote][clarification needed]

And here is the relevant text from the Companion:

On his premature death in 1861 at 31, the editorship passed to Furnivall, who realized that an efficient system of excerpting was needed. This meant that for the earlier centuries printed texts had to be prepared of manuscripts not hitherto easily available; he therefore founded in 1864 the Early English Text Society and in 1865 the Chaucer Society, preparing editions of texts of general benefit as well as immediate value to the project. None of this work, however, led to compilation; it was entirely preparatory and lasted for 21 years. There were in the end some 800 voluntary readers. Their enthusiasm was enormous, but in a process which depended on paper and pen alone a major drawback was the often arbitrary choices made by the relatively untrained volunteers regarding what to read and select, what to discard, and how much detail to provide.

I am going to rewrite these two paragraphs both for clarity and to properly cite the source. GabrielF (talk) 17:10, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Definitions or Descriptions?

@Quota: I don't know what your source is for saying that the OED "doesn't define meanings." The back of my Concise OED (2002) says, "This world-famous dictionary provides a comprehensive description of the English language..."; of course I can't dispute the fact that the OED 'describes' the words it 'defines', but it does also define. Forgive me for quibbling. Throughout the introduction to that dictionary, the authors refer to the entries as 'definitions.' (To delve into nerdiness, it is not clear whether an individual definition refers to the entire entry for a word or just one of the numbered components thereof, which the introduction refers to interchangeably as 'meanings', 'senses', etc. If there are 600,000 entries, there may be 600,000 definitions or there may only be definitions for 600,000 words.) Tdimhcs (talk) 17:55, 3 August 2011 (UTC)

(Sorry about the delay in replying.) You may be confusing the Concise OED with the OED. The former is indeed a 'prescriptive' dictionary (which attempts to offer definitions and decscribe 'correct' usage, etc.). The latter simply documents words, describes their common meanings, and illustrates their usage (whether 'correct' or not). Hope that helps. quota (talk) 13:21, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Template

I expanded the template, Template:Dictionaries of English, and added it to this article, and a few others. Does this seem useful? should i add pub dates? is it correct in its categorizing?Mercurywoodrose (talk) 06:12, 31 October 2011 (UTC)

Humorous

It is humorus that reference is made to several foreign dictionaries as preceding the OED, but not Webster's dictionary which was the standard for comprehensive English language dictionaries for much of the 19th century (in both America and England). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.158.38.6 (talk) 20:30, 7 November 2011 (UTC)

This doesn't seem substantiated by the entries here according to which there were several English dictionaries that preceded the Oxford project and Webster's was a dictionary of American English and a work of an entirely different order. LookingGlass (talk) 13:13, 16 November 2011 (UTC)

File:OED2-CD-1.png Nominated for speedy Deletion

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