MW3, OED, etc.

[Frank Abate]

RE Doug Wilson's comments below on M-W 3rd Int'l Unabridged, OED, and RHDU:

It is hugely useful that MW3 is now available on CD. It is the biggest US
dict published as a single volume (since MW2, which was, in fact, bigger)
and is packed with valuable and unique info. It has more headwords and
forms listed than any other US dictionary, and is the largest in overall
extent. (The only US dictionary that really comes close to MW3 is the
little-known World Book Dictionary, published in 2 volumes, offered (once)
as an add-on to the WB Encyc. I do not know if the WBD is still available
or kept up to date, but it is very good.)

However, it is VERY important to realize that the MW3 is essentially 40
years old. Its last new edition was in 1961 -- do not go by copyright
dates. Its 3,000 pages of text are essentially unchanged since the original
1961 edition. Corrections have probably been made, but no extensive changes
besides. The only significant additions are in the separate Addendum
section, covering new words only -- not new senses of existing entries
(e.g., mouse, network). It offers a panoramic snapshot of the language at
the time of its preparation, the late 1950s. But it is an old snapshot.

OED, as a historical dictionary, has a completely different scope and
purpose from the US "unabridged" dictionaries. It does have more headwords
and forms than any other dictionary of English, US or otherwise. But its
mission is to document the known history of all words it includes, back to
earliest evidence, so it includes a lot of info that most people do not need
or care much about. It is a monumental triumph of scholarship, one of the
greatest in human history. But it cannot be fairly compared head-to-head
with any other dictionary. Its a case of comparing apples and watermelons.

OED is now being updated, and releasing its updates quarterly via the OED
Online subscription service.

RHDU is excellent, and, importantly, has been kept up to date all along
since it was first issued in 1966. The CD edition is a wonder, and includes
really new info, plus "talking" pronunciations for 160,000 words. It is the
best recently edited US dictionary available, in book or CD. It is nowhere
near the extent of MW3, but it is far more current.

Frank Abate

*************

>_Webster's Third New International D._, c. 1986 shows
>tumeric to be a variant of turmeric.
>>
Chalk one up for the home team.

I always thought the big M-W dictionary was the thing to have, if the OED
was excluded from the discussion. Recently in Crystal's big-format popular
book he compares the Third with the OED (IIRC).

Since the OED has decided to keep us riff-raff out through grotesque price
strategy ($400.00 for a CD which is acknowledged to be many years obsolete
at the time of purchase!), Webster's Third might be just the thing to have.
Newly available on CD, apparently it's $70.00 list -- which means $60.00
now, $40.00 'street' soon. [I've been using the RHUD on CD ... you can find
it for about $10.00 these days -- and it's pretty good too.]

Of course, I would no longer consider shopping for my dictionary (or for
anything else) at Amazon.

-- Doug Wilson
<<


Frank Abate

Dictionary & Reference Specialists (DRS)
Consulting & Lexicographic Services
phone: (860) 510-0100, ext 2311
email:   abatefr at earthlink.net