[Lexicog] Re: archaic entries

[rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU]

> By the way, I was in Blackwells bookshop in Oxford today and they have the
> 20 volume Oxford English Dictionary 2nd edition on sale for £550, knocked
> down from £2000.
>
> John Roberts

     ---That's because the 2nd edition is obsolete! The online version is,
as I understand it, being gradually updated as they work through the alphabet,
so they are undoubtedly trying to get rid of the stock on hand before the
3rd edition comes out.

     As someone mentioned, "obsolete" can apply variably within a community.
I'm sure that there are still plenty of people who refer to the "wireless",
just as I use "ice box" for "refrigerator" instead of the rapidly spreading
(in the US) "fridge", which I had thought of as British. So I guess we are
swapping radios for fridges. In any case, I'm sure younger speakers regard
my usage of "ice box" as "obsolete" (maybe they regard me that way also).
But dictionaries don't usually discriminate age-stratification in usage,
except perhaps in this oblique way.

      Rudy Troike






 
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