Dictionary Facts: Oxford English Dictionary | Hacker News Reader

Dictionary Facts: Oxford English Dictionary

oed.com

46 pointsdcminter26 comments

PSA: You can often access the full OED via your local library's website.

For example, folks in Denver can search it for free at: https://www.oed.com.ezproxy.denverlibrary.org/

I came here to say this, too. Please don't overlook this comment if you're interested in having the full OED online.

I've lived a few places, and my local library has given full free access to OED to all members. Just enter your library card number and library-given-password, and you are sent to an OED-hosted web app with full access to everything, all historical information - really deep rich full entries.

For example here in Wellington New Zealand, my local library access is at https://www-oed-com.wcl.idm.oclc.org/

If you're interested, just look up your local library's website, and find if they give members access.

Strangely enough, I was living in Oxford England for two years, and that was the only public library that didn't have OED access! But they had a free 3D printer, so fair trade.

Anyway - whenever I set up a new browser, putting in my local OED link is the first bookmark I create, and I use it every day. Highly recommended.

Seems that it's accessible from the Pisa university too? I've not deepen the subject, but that's the link if anyone's interested:

https://www.sba.unipi.it/en/resources/databases/oxford-engli...

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I have been using WordWeb Pro for years now, which pops up when you hover over a word and ctrl + right click. One of the many references available for purchase is the shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Others include their own dictionary with audio pronunciation, Chambers Dictionary and Thesaurus, New Oxford American Dictionary, and Collins English Dictionary. I have purchased all except Collins which I have in print. Since I work in patent prosecution and litigation, I use WordWeb many times per day. I also have print additions of many older dictionaries and other resources to ascertain the meaning of a word at the time the invention. It's amazing to look at multiple definitions and realize that each resource can have slightly or very different meanings.

One of my goals since I was in college has been to own the OED. I finally have the bookshelf space and have saved up for it, so I think this is the year I achieve my personal pinnacle of literary nerd-dom! There’s nothing like a stroll through the forgotten by-ways of the language.

I had that same goal for many years and was fortunate enough to get the 1989 edition (20 volumes) "on sale" for a mere $999. It came in four boxes of 5 volumes each. It was a chore just carrying them to my car outside the bookstore.

The OED is a marvellous human achievement. The thing I find most amazing is the confidence it represents that the meaning of language, despite its mindboggling complexity and ambiguity, can be captured in writing and transferred to others. It seems very much of a piece with the Enlightenment view that the universe is fully susceptible to human reason. I still find that outlook admirable, however imperfectly achieved.

Besides, the OED is great for games. My favorite is "find the oldest quote." It's not hard to find quotes from before 1000, for example.

I have a Compact Edition—a micrographically reduced two-volume edition of the full dictionary—and it's one of my favorite possessions. Unfortunately, I don't think I could justify the space or the money for the full multi-volume version.

Yes, used copies of the first-edition Compact OED are a great option. They don't take much space or cost much money: https://www.ebay.ie/itm/304361514092 . They only give you the first edition of the OED and the first, 1933, Supplement, but that's really a solid 80%+ solution to the not-having-an-OED problem. Used copies of the current compact edition are significantly dearer, but for many people not unthinkably expensive.

Not unthinkably expensive at all, at least compared to retail: Amazon lists several new copies of the second compact edition at $400–500.

Adjusting for inflation, that's comparable to the $273 retail I paid Amazon for my copy in 2002.

As with many other commenters, it remains one of my most prized possessions, and something I still use on a regular basis.

I'd personally be wary of used copies purchased sight unseen, as the paper is quite thin and easily torn, even under arguably "moderate" use, and would probably save up for a new copy if buying today. If nothing else, the used copies tend to be missing the supplementary materials (slipcase, magnifying glass, user's guide).

I have the compact OED as well. I will never give it up. The wonderful magnifying glass included with the set is still in perfect condition after thirty years of ownership.

You can still find these in used bookstores. If you're very lucky.

The Compact Edition is excellent, but be warned - it's quite big! You'll need an oversized shelf for it. My version came in a box with a pull-out drawer at the top to hold a magnifying glass. In my home, we sometimes race to see who can get random information quicker, from the internet or from the OED; the OED is often more efficient.

I would be interested to provide a new home to the 1989 edition in 20 vol. of the OED, if a reader owns it or know someone who does.

Hmm. Since 1928 is the "Year of the Dictionary", https://public.oed.com/blog/1928-year-of-the-dictionary/ all of the first edition should be out of copyright on or after 2023, no? OTOH the first supplement is from 1933 so it will presumably still be in copyright for a while yet. That first supplement is important, so I'm surprised that the OP doesn't mention it. It's included in the first edition compact OED https://www.ebay.ie/itm/304361514092 which sold lots of copies, and it contains the first OED entry for many words which you couldn't imagine not finding in a dictionary.

The first edition (1884) had 252,200 words. Counter intuitively, I think that's less than modern versions. I wonder if that's because we speak more homogenously these days, leading to fewer synonyms, and hence a smaller dictionary.

The Oxford English Dictionary is a historical dictionary. It aims to be a complete lexicon of the English language over time. It doesn't aim to reflect modern usage, except by adding new words. In contrast, the Oxford Dictionary of English (ODE, not OED) does aim to reflect modern usage.

Very interesting, I hadn't come across the term historical dictionary until today.

From wikiepdia:

> A historical dictionary or dictionary on historical principles is a dictionary which deals not only with the latterday meanings of words but also the historical development of their forms and meanings. It may also describe the vocabulary of an earlier stage of a language's development without covering present-day usage at all. A historical dictionary is primarily of interest to scholars of language, but may also be used as a general dictionary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_dictionary

Yes, and the criteria for inclusion are interesting. According to https://www.oed.com/public/oldenglishintheoed/old, any word that survived in English after 1150 qualifies for inclusion, but once it is included examples of its usage may be taken from the earliest Anglo-Saxon literature, so back to about the year 600. So some of the usage examples are not very easy for a typical modern reader to understand, to put it mildly.

The OED also cheats a little by using quotes from other languages like Latin, which does not seem completely cricket. Definition 1 of Peer in the 1989 Edition has the following starting quote from the Magna Carta:

1215 Magna Carta xxi. Comites & barones non amercientur nisi per pares suos.

Counts and barons shall not be fined except by their equals.

Is there anywhere from which a deeper set of facts / characteristics might be gleaned.

E.g., the most quoted books and authors are the Bible and Shakespeare, respectively, with Hamlet the most quoted Shakespearian play.

I'd be curious what the distribution of, say, top 100 or 1,000 quoted works is, and associated dates.

Why is there no OED app (just the Shorter one ... which is awful)? How much would it cost to open source the OED and put it inside a proper foundation? That dictionary was built by volunteers and it's time for it to be free.

> Why is there no OED app (just the Shorter one ... which is awful)?

It's some combination of OUP wanting to push the Oxford Dictionary of English and OUP wanting to go on charging $100 a year for individual OED access https://public.oed.com/help/how-to-subscribe/ . Though indeed for that kind of money you might think you were owed an app instead of just a web interface. There can't yet be a free version because no edition of the OED is fully out of copyright yet ... not just yet, at least.

At one point it was possible to purchase the OED on a CD-ROM (https://www.oed.com/page/buy/loginpage), though in recent years the CD-ROM version has been discontinued in favor of subscriptions to the Web version. Every now and then I search eBay to see if anybody is selling their copy of the OED on CD-ROM.

For now I have the Shorter OED app for Windows 10, which suffices for me.

From the linked page, they allege the data itself would be 540M, plus another 60M or so for app-framework (and 300M for social media trackers) so that'd likely be bigger than one might wish for an app

> Number of megabytes of electronic storage required for text: 540

It's likely they're using "pdf scan size" or such, because I find their number suspicious

At 8 characters per word, plus a space, and 59 million words, 540 MB checks out:

  You have: 540 MB / 59 million
  You want: bytes
          * 9.1525424
          / 0.10925926

I have a considerable collection of digital books, many in PDF form. A typical book tends to run 1--5 MB in straight text. Scanned pages or image-heavy content can run to 30--300 MB for 200--1500 pages or so.

On the contrary, if the OED were available as an app for any reasonable price, or even a somewhat-unreasonable price, I would download it instantly for my phone and tablet.

600MB or even 900MB of storage would be well-spent.

GTA: San Andreas or Genshin Impact will consume several times that space on iOS, indeed.

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