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The Oxford English Dictionary, Volume 1-20, (20 Volume Set) Hardcover – March 30, 1989
The key feature of the OED, of course, is its unique historical focus. Accompanying each definition is a chronologically arranged group of quotations that illustrate the evolution of meaning from the word's first recorded usage and show the contexts in which it can be used. The quotations are drawn from a huge variety of sources--literary, scholarly, technical, popular-and represent authors as disparate as Geoffrey Chaucer and Erica Jong, William Shakespeare and Raymond Chandler, Charles Darwin and John Le Carre. In all, nearly 2.5 million quotations--illustrating over a half-million words--can be found in the OED. Other features distinguishing the entries in the dictionary are the most authoritative definitions, detailed information on pronunciation, variant spellings throughout each word's history, extensive treatment of etymology, and details of area of usage and of any regional characteristics (including geographical origins).
A dictionary like no other in the world, the OED has been described as "among the wonders of the world of scholarship." Reflecting upon the Dictionary's 80 years, that statement is today more apt than it ever has been.
Also available online at: www.oed.com.
- Print length21728 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherClarendon Press
- Publication dateMarch 30, 1989
- Dimensions53.15 x 11.14 x 69.88 inches
- ISBN-100198611862
- ISBN-13978-0198611868
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Editorial Reviews
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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
Review
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.
"Being the most expansive and exhaustive not to mention the most fun of all English dictionaries, its the finest testament I know to everything I love (and, all right, occasionally hate) about words."--Michael Cunningham (celebrated author of The Hours)
"Word lovers, the gods are smiling upon you. It no longer takes a small mortgage, or at least a trip to the library, to plumb the Oxford English Dictionary--the big one, not the abridged training-wheels versions. For its 75th anniversary since the last volume of the First Edition was published, Oxford University Press has knocked down the prices big time."--Chicago Sun-Times
"With its exhaustive definitions and precise etymology, the Oxford English Dictionary is absolutely indispensable to our work here at Jeopardy!"--Gary Johnson, Jeopardy! Supervising Producer/Writer
"The richest people in the world are those who have the OED on their shelves. Here is the greatest treasure of words waiting to be assembled into fiery tracts and rants, literary novels, histories, sagas, comic poems, exposes, polemics, tall tales and learned treatises, kids' books, advert copy, reports on busted dams and declarations, all the expressions of a hundred different cultures. And the sturdy boxes in which the dictionary comes are each the perfect size for a manuscript. So there it is, all the raw material a writer needs for a lifetime of work."--Annie Proulx
"Since my Milton teacher sent me to the OED at the start of my college career, that vast and virtuous monument has been an almost daily companion. It's far the most important of my reference aids; and of all things for a dictionary, it's proved likewise a steady source of surprise and delight."--Reynolds Price
"When I first got the OED I read it through from A to Z. I wondered which word had the greatest coverage, and in Volume VIII (Q-Sh), I found it: 'set.' More than a hundred and twenty meanings were given for the verb 'set' used alone; another thirty or so when used in conjunction with various prepositions and adverbs (set aside, set about, set apart, etc.). I got the feeling that this little three-letter word might be the most useful and versatile in the entire English language."--Oliver Sacks
"The OED has been to me a teacher, a companion, a source of endless discovery. I could not have become a writer without it. "--Anthony Burgess
"No similar work, not even the great Lexicon of the brothers Grimm, is comparable to [the OED] in magnitude, accuracy, or completeness. It is one of the monuments to the patient persistence of scholarship and one of the most sterling illustrations of that strange piety which only scholars can understand."--The Nation
"No one who reads or writes seriously can be without the OED."--The Washington Post
"In all probability, the greatest continuing work of scholarship that this century has produced."--Newsweek
"It is a remarkable work of scholarship, and must rank high among the wonders of the world of learning."--The Times Educational Supplement
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Product details
- Publisher : Clarendon Press; 2nd edition (March 30, 1989)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 21728 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0198611862
- ISBN-13 : 978-0198611868
- Item Weight : 144.8 pounds
- Dimensions : 53.15 x 11.14 x 69.88 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #737,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #398 in English Dictionaries & Thesauruses
- #993 in Dictionaries (Books)
- #1,235 in Ancient Greek & Roman Philosophy
- Customer Reviews:
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When ordering the Oxford English Dictionary, I recommend preparations for 120 cm (47 to 48 inches) of shelf space to be set aside. 4 feet is safe. Anything less than 4 feet is slicing it a bit thin. Very few shelves today are more than a metre (37-38 inches)wide. I run mine across two shelves with the planks at the same height. Anything less spacious and all 20 volumes will be wedged so tightly that retrieval of individual volumes become tiresome. I cover my volumes with plastic wrap, some uncompressed area every few volumes avoids "stickiness" and helps the hand grasp a volume.
Each volume is slightly more than 2 inches thick. They are not of uniform thickness. Volumes 1-10 is about 1.5 inches wider on the shelf than Volumes 11-20.
The height of the shelves should be just over 32 cm. 13 inch height is fine. Anything more and the volumes will not look aesthetically pleasing. Such an august collection should not look as if it were an ill-fitting after-thought. Too much head space in the shelf is to be avoided.
Getting a shelf 30 cm or 12 inches deep should not be a problem.
For 20 years, my first set sat on scandinavian solid pine 1 inch thick shelves, so that was uneventful, but such furniture is now virtually unavailable. Another set meant for more robust use sat on half inch thick shelves made of tropical teak ply, each 32 inch wide. After a few months, the two shelves started bowing (warping downwards at the centre). There were some other books on these shelves to act as "book-ends". I turned over the teak ply planks, only to have them bow from convexity to concavity again. I bought some extra half inch planks and two planks held the Dictionary without them warping downwards.
I would advise against IKEA "Billy" shelves (suggested by a reviewer) for long term use. Other lighter volumes (like law journals) have collapsed a shelf every now and then, spilling the books on to the floor. Perhaps the fault was in my poor workmanship as an outsourced assembler of otherwise sturdy Swedish furniture. The volumes look solidly bound to survive such a fall, but I am loathe to crash-test them.
The weather in my country is tropical, and is harsh to books. The Dust Jacket colour has held up extremely well, with no noticeable deterioration of colour over 20 years. The page edges are blue-speckled, and my earlier type-set in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England and MANUFACTURED IN THE USA shows some additional light brown speckling from age. Otherwise it is like the day it was bought. There is no mention of where it was printed. The latest sets are printed in China (it says so on the box and in the book), and the jury is out on which country produces the better product. For example, Volume 15 2002 7th reprint in the USA weighs 2.8 kg, while the same Vol 15 8th reprint PRINTED IN CHINA on acid-free paper weighs 3.0 kg. The Printed in China volume looks less glossy, and duller, which makes the print easier to read, and feels far more solid. I prefer the United States marque although evidence in the physical product points to the contrary.
It is a dilemma looking at the three versions: 1989, 2002 and the present China one, each having its own merits. The irony is that the 2002 version from Fulfilment by Amazon (click under "see 2 other formats") from Intelligent Entertainment is $799.99; the USA product being $200 to $400 cheaper than the China product is an irony when the balance of trade points to the contrary. Maybe the Chinese, as they told you in their 2008 Olympics, were the inventors of paper and had several millenia advantage over Yankee newbies.
20 years ago, I bought the Oxford for the USD equivalent of about $4,000, and shipping from England cost about $800 and it took 3 months to arrive. Nowadays, a set with the CD is just 1,099. And Amazon got it to Singapore by Standard Shipping by DHL from USA to Singapore in just 3 days for a mere $71 dollars.
It got cheaper when I ordered the 2002 reprint from the Amazon Fulfilment centre, at USD799. The shipping was just a nominal $9.99 (the same as a normal book - $5 plus 4.99 for an overseas Standard Shipping). And Amazon delivered it by DHL in just 3 days yet again, and again. For the price of ONE set in 1989, I can have multiple sets in 2010. Plus instant gratification too. I do not have to worry about misplacing a volume any more. In 1989, a Manhattan apartment cost around $40,000, so $4,000 for the Oxford was a 10% down-payment on an apartment.
I thought I should put things in perspective if anyone is wondering if the 20 volume set is good value for money. The only considerations in acquisition are: (1) the availability of 4 feet of shelf space, and
(2) current fortuitous availability of disposable income, which otherwise might have been misspent elsewhere.
Fortunately, I live in an area where tropical hardwood shelves are bountiful. My dvd collection looks great on stylish IKEA shelves, but I urge caution when using the terms "IKEA" and "OXFORD 20 VOLUME SET" in the same context.
July 2010 update: I have had the 20 volume set on a professionally assembled IKEA basic economy "billy" 30 inch bookshelf and it seems to have held up well for months. The $50 shelf and the $799.99 Fulfilment by Amazon USA set placed within arm's reach of my work station really encourage its use, even over the Shorter Oxford, which is on the same Ikea bookshelf.
Christmas 2010 update: The same stuff plus CD Rom under "Oxford English Dictionary Set" is just $1,091.78. So if clicked "Check Out" under this heading, you would be paying about $200 extra. If you were suckered, write to Amazon to demand a refund.
I take the point of another reviewer that the cost of the Oxford does fluctuate from time to time. The 20 volume set with the CD-rom Version 4.0 dropped from $1,299 to $1,099 during the three months when it was "out of stock" at Amazon in 2009. The CD rom ($220 if bought separately) is thrown in for just $100 more, now that 20 volume Hard Copy+ CD is in stock.
That reviewer's claim that he got his set at only $300, during what must be a Black Friday Gold Box flash sale, rubs salt into wound. The same Oxford is readily available today for what is less than a month's mortgage payment on the same time-travelled Manhattan apartment. However, that claim of a give-away $300 for 20 volumes grates on my nerves.
I want to whack that guy on the head with a volume of Oxford. Individual volumes of the Oxford are finely balanced and handles well for its size, both for reading as well as for use as a blunt instrument.
Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2024
I am still reading the rather elaborate introductory pages so that I can appreciate this awesome book better and also make the fullest possible use of it.
If you are an ambitious writer, a journalist, a voracious reader or simply a lover of English words, you just cannot do without this book!
The only complaint is that the shipping was delayed a little (though I had opted for the expedited option); it took about 15 days to receive the 20-volume set. (I had also asked for the 3-volume Additions Series which I received in exactly 3 days and in excellent condition too.)
But I must say that Amazon compensated me and also promptly responded to all my queries. Also the books were in such excellent condition. Here in India, even if I purchase new books from the biggest bookshops, I rarely receive books that are in such excellent condition. The books were also packed with meticulous care and still retained the fresh crisp smell of new pages and printing ink! What more can a bibliophile ask for?!
There is no reason to add to the superlatives others have used to describe this. I am including the measurements because I wanted them for preparing for its arrival, but the measurements given by Amazon are not very useful.
Each volume is 9 1/2 inches wide and 12 3/8 inches tall and 2 inches thick. Placed on a shelf together, ten volumes measure 22 1/4 inches wide. My glass door bookshelves from IKEA are 10 1/4 inches deep and my oak bookshelves from Fred Myers in Oregon are 10 3/4 inches deep.
In addition to the astounding content, the books are physically beautiful. One of the boxes was severely damaged, even half open, but the books did not have the tiniest blemish on them. The printing, the binding, everything about them is worthy of the content, that is, every word and every meaning and every worthwhile reference of the greatest language in the history of the world.
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2009
There is no reason to add to the superlatives others have used to describe this. I am including the measurements because I wanted them for preparing for its arrival, but the measurements given by Amazon are not very useful.
Each volume is 9 1/2 inches wide and 12 3/8 inches tall and 2 inches thick. Placed on a shelf together, ten volumes measure 22 1/4 inches wide. My glass door bookshelves from IKEA are 10 1/4 inches deep and my oak bookshelves from Fred Myers in Oregon are 10 3/4 inches deep.
In addition to the astounding content, the books are physically beautiful. One of the boxes was severely damaged, even half open, but the books did not have the tiniest blemish on them. The printing, the binding, everything about them is worthy of the content, that is, every word and every meaning and every worthwhile reference of the greatest language in the history of the world.
The next set arrived MINUS volumes 5-8! So we now had 2 volumes 16 and no volumes 5-8. So we contacted Amazon yet again and they said, "OK we'll replace the whole lot again!" Well, I don't know about you but the utter waste of thousands of pages of beautiful books I can't abide, so I said, "NOooooo."
Its obvious that Amazon in all its multinational high powered glory can't, after repeated attempts, get the OED to Australia. So we ordered the 4 missing volumes separately from a book shop affiliated with Amazon and are hoping for better things.... will keep you posted.






