Oxford English Dictionary: Killed And Saved By The Internet
from the information-overload dept
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) describes itself -- with somewhat un-British immodesty -- as "the definitive record of the English language." It's certainly big:The 20 volume Oxford English Dictionary is an unrivalled guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million wordsThis is all yours for a mere £750 (about $1250). But if you're keen to adorn your bookshelves with its hefty volumes, you'd better hurry: The Telegraph reports that this may be the last edition sold as physical books:
The Dictionary traces the evolution of over 600,000 words from across the English-speaking world through 2.4 million quotations
Publishers fear the next edition will never appear in print form because its vast size means only an online version will be feasible, and affordable, for scholars.Thanks to the Internet, then, the OED will live on in a digital form, at least. Ironically, though, it is the Internet that is killing the print version, and making production of the next edition harder than ever:
"Although the internet has made access easier," said [OED chief editor] Mr Proffitt, "it's also created the dilemma of information overload.And if that sounds slow, bear in mind that one researcher spent nine months revising definitions for the word "run." Whether or not there is a printed version, the plan is to have the next edition finished in 2034. But there could be some slippage there, if previous editions are anything to go by:
"In 1989, we looked for five years' recorded usage before a word entered the dictionary. Now, it's 10 years because there is so much more material to sift through."
...
He said his team working on the definition of new entries has a target of 50 to 60 words a month, slower than in the past because the world wide web has created so much more source material.
Mr Proffitt said: "I averaged about 80 when I started because, in 1989, we didn’t have computers on our desks, so there was a limit to how much you could research. The library was our primary resource."
The first edition, mooted in 1858 with completion expected in 10 years, took 70 years.So it might be best to buy the current edition while you can. As well as being "the definitive record of the English language," it will also probably become a collector's item, a monument to a pre-digital age -- and a symbol of the Internet's power both to save and destroy.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: dictionary, internet, oed, oxford english dictionary, printing
Companies: oed, oxford english dictionary
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Not seeing....
I would have thought "DVD" "Software" or "eBook" - can certainly see a dedicated OED kindle-style device, too.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Not seeing....
Sure, you're correct that those are all "choices", but so are "carved into a stone tablet", or "tattooed onto a herd of angry badgers".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Not seeing....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Not seeing....
Why would it be a sink for time and resources? You just take the basic text and convert it to whatever format you need.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Not seeing....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Not seeing....
But, hosted on the 'cloud' it is easier to keep up to date, and publish errata.
Although, who know what tech will be available for it when it is published in 2034 ?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Not seeing....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Not seeing....
Two of those were made obsolete as profitable choices by the internet before the print book. Remember all those reference CD-ROMs that cluttered shelves in the late 90s? Seen those around recently?
While an eBook might be a better choice than the other 2, that inevitably suffers from the same problem (it's quickly outdated) while anyone with an eBook reader can reasonably be assumed to have internet access. If you keep needing to access the internet all the time to keep it updated, why not simply use existing software to download and store the website itself?
Those might be reasonable ideas but, combined with the fact that none of them have the cachet and collectability of a printed book, they're ultimately niche products at best.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Still, I own an ebook reader and I still like to have the paper version. The reader gives me mobility. When at home, I always choose the paper version.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Interestingly I also have an older 1924 Encyclopedia as well which actually in some respects has more data in some respects (ie: "gunpowder recipes and practical uses") and is great to see how things change but also stay the same too.
As well as that I also have Blacks Legal Dictionaries ( a few editions) etc etc.
Though all of the above (bar the 1924 Encyclopedia) I also can obtain in electronic form to read and search at my convenience I still to this day prefer paper based books fr research and the enjoyment of reading and learning. Luckily I have instilled that sense into both my daughters who though "google' everything still would rather READ via paper.
Long live the OED and somehow I suspect the volumes will still be printed every so often.. might be a few decades between them though
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Oxford Press Luddism
Academic presses are plodding, atavistic institutions ill-suited for the digital world. I have little hope that Oxford dictionaries will succeed in the free market. They will have more committee meetings producing more outlines for consideration of prospective products, and they will fail.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
professor and the madman
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
shelf space?
I wonder if they use Google Trends to research new words. That's gotta be the fastest way to check things out.
And yeah, The Professor and the Madman is great.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Debates and lectures lose their power to move people, when there's no common agreement on what's being said.
OED became authoritative because of it's slowness to update definitions.
But in the last generation, OED has been updating definitions more frequently and it is no longer the stronghold of English.
The result is definitions become increasingly slippery and the power of communication shifts from teaching to manipulation.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
wikipedia-ize it?
If you wanted to have a bit more control, develop a github-like control environment where people can make commits and then the experts review. Others could vote on the commits so the experts could review the important/popular first.
Building something like Ubuntu would probably take as long as the OED if they didn't use tools like launchpad and github.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]