The Oxford English Dictionary (20 Vol. Set in 5 boxes) (Hardcover)

~ John Simpson (Editor), Edmund Weiner (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Oxford English Dictionary has long been considered the ultimate reference work in English lexicography. Compiled by the legendary editor James Murray and a staff of brilliant philologists and lexicographers (not to mention one homicidal maniac), the OED began as a a supplement to existing dictionaries, so that, as one lexicographer put it, "every word should be made to tell its own story." Enthusiastic readers sent Murray definitions and examples on identical slips of paper in response to a letter of appeal in 1879. By the time the last volume was published in 1928, the dictionary had swelled from 4 to 10 volumes containing over 400,000 entries. In the years since, the staff of the OED has continued to keep pace with our ever-evolving language, and today the dictionary weighs in at a whopping 20 volumes. The great joy of this dictionary lies in its extensive cross-references and word etymologies, which can run a full page or more. These features not only make the OED the most comprehensive and authoritative dictionary of the English language, but a delight to browse.

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What writers like most about the Oxford English Dictionary

	"I’m tempted to say that I love the OED because it contains every word in Middlemarch and To the Lighthouse, minus the unnecessary ones. I suspect, however, that that’s probably a familiar joke in dictionary circles."--Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours
	"The Oxford English Dictionary lets me follow the roots of words into the loamy depths of language. It lets me feel the abiding, generative life in it, the mysteries of its persistence and renewal."--Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Home
	"The OED is one of my favorite ways of avoiding writing, which under other circumstances can be tortuous. But not with the OED. To begin, I look up a word. Then I get interested in its derivation, which suggests another word, another derivation, another word--Wow!"--Jeanne Marie Laskas, author of The Exact Same Moon

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--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Review

Listen: the OED is priceless. The only disadvantage it's got is that the entries are so interesting and chocked with subsidiary info that sometimes what was originally supposed to be a quick one-word dash to the dictionary becomes a two-hour perusal of cross-references and ramifications and etymologies and the sorts of illustrative sentences that make your saliva flow with sheer interest. -- David Foster Wallace, novelist

Rummaging through the OED is as addicting as any narcotic. I ordered it originally to sell in my bookshop because I thought it would make a substantial statement about the quality of my books. Within a couple of months, though, I decided I treasured it too much to sell and took it home to keep. -- Thomas Brennan, owner, The Book Review, Atlanta, GA. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 22000 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition (December 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195219422
• ISBN-13: 978-0195219425
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 10 x 6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 179 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,019,557 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

84 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE Dictionary of English, August 30, 2000

By	"nara-yan" (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Oxford English Dictionary (20 Volume Set) (Vols 1-20) (Hardcover)

"Colonials" like me grew up in the shadow of this Everest of scholarship and the Himalayan series founded on its contents. And now, if we choose to, we can actually own the set, in its 2nd Edition. This is a very desirable acquisition.

Perhaps you worry that it might be an unwise purchase. We live in the age of the CD ROM, so why buy the printed volumes? The language seems to operate like a wheel rolling down a muddy slope picking up all manner of accretions as it progresses downhill. Will a work like this, then, become irrelevant? I think not. The citation formula used will always be relevant for readers interested in historical usage. The entire work constitutes, in a way, a history of the English Language, as well as a social history of English speaking peoples from the 12th century through to the end of the 20th century. Some scholars say it is unduly biased in the direction of English Victorian values, with a creeping pre-disposition toward a prescriptive rather than a descriptive stance on definitions. The compilers seem to want to position it to be a final arbiter on "Correct Usage". Who cares? It is manna in the wilderness to anyone who loves the language, who likes to browse, and is not stimulated by the inanity of television. If Political Correctness is the filter through which all literature must pass for you, you'll probably not read very much of value, anyway.

No other dictionary is so richly enjoyable as a work to read on its own. One does not go to the OED just to find the meaning of a word, one is beguiled, on opening a volume, to read many pages about all kinds of words. You'll never walk into the British Museum or the Louvre just to look at a single piece of Art and leave having looked only at that one piece. Here is the great exhibition of the language, its gallery.

All speakers and students of the language are in Oxford's debt, and will forever be so. No dictionary comes close in comprehensiveness of coverage (its word count, i.e., the quantity of words defined, exceeds that covered in any other competing dictionary). This set, rightly, is the central jewel in OUP's crown of publications. If you're a writer, you can't afford not to purchase this set.

Legend has it that a new "improved" edition will be out some time between 2001 and 2003. I sense that the improvements will appeal particularly to the ultra-scholarly linguist/lexicographers among its readers. Improvements shall include the addition of citations that might, for instance, antedate the earliest citation shown in a previous edition. It might, however, not be utterly essential to you you to know, for example, that the first user of the term "Byronic" was Byron himself. The changes from the 2nd to the 3rd edition may be minimal, in print at least. Doubtless, there will be significant improvements to the search capability, appearance, and user friendliness of the software version. But, don't hesitate to purchase the printed 2nd edition. If you feel the CD ROM version is superior to the printed edition, this will boil down to whether or not you are a bibliophile. Nothing equals the tactile pleasure of the printed page, bound well. OED 2 is one of the handsomest printing jobs I've ever seen. The cloth binding is extremely rugged and well designed, elegant and solidly conservative in physical appearance. The paper is itself bright and smooth, the font/type clear and eminently readable. Even the dust jackets are beautiful, a real improvement over the previous design. "Additions" volumes (times 3) are available for anyone interested in the vocabulary of the 90s. The 3rd edition will integrate these into the main work. But, a dictionary in the hand is worth two in the planning stage. And the beautiful volumes of the 2nd edition are available from Amazon.com at what amounts to bargain price.

Buy this wonderful, beautifully produced and enduring work; it is a treasure for life that will never fail to impress you with the alluring beauty and quirky mutability of this most glorious of languages.

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For your reference, December 5, 2004

By	Edward P. Mahaney Walter (Providence, RI) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Oxford English Dictionary (20 Volume Set) (Vols 1-20) (Hardcover)

Those who, reading the below reviews, are unsure whether they should invest in the 2nd edition, or hold out for the 3rd, are advised that according to the official askoxford.com, the 3rd edition is as of this writing (late 2004) not expected to be completed until at least 2018, may run to 40+ volumes, and may or may not have a print edition. If it does, it will surely be priced and marketed only for the lavishly wealthy or for the few major research institutions that will at that point still value the luxury of print materials.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A valuable addition to any library, but long in the tooth, September 24, 2000

By	S. Owens (Melbourne, VIC, Oz) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Oxford English Dictionary (20 Volume Set) (Vols 1-20) (Hardcover)

This is the zenith of dictionaries. Almost all words in the English language put in an appearance, with many of them getting extensive etymologies. The only catch is that the second edition merely compiled the multitude of previous volumes, so the quotes for which the OED is justly famous stop abruptly about 1900 for many of the entries. A new version is currently being prepared, but won't be totally ready until 2010 (internet users get the revised sections as they are completed). My other minor peeve is that they deem standard British usage to be standard world usage. The dictionary should ideally reflect world usage.

However, a discussion of the numerous versions is also in order. I got my Compact OED last Christmas after using all three versions. Below is a list of what I feel to be the pros and cons of each version.

Compact

Pros: the cheapest way to get your hands on the OED; it IS a book; it comes with an abridged version of the user's guide (but not the full thing unfortunately); nicely presented.

Cons: an electron microscope is a more appropriate reading device than a magnifying glass; it's HEAVY, man (so an investment in a table and a good reading light may be in order).

CD ROM

Pros: scalable font, fully searchable and ... um ... er ... that's it.

Cons: How they can get away with charging more for the CD ROM than the Compact paper edition is beyond me; it's not a book, is it (where's the tactility?).

20 Volume Set

Pros: Something to give to the grandkids; easy to read

Cons: Do you have a spare metre or so of shelf space?; even at a reduced price, it still costs three times as much as the compact edition (although the average cost per volume is VERY low).