Shorter Oxford English Dictionary: Sixth Edition
by William R. Trumble
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Book Summary Information
Author: William R. TrumbleEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-09-20
ISBN: 0199233241
Number of pages: 3472
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of Shorter Oxford English Dictionary: Sixth Edition
Book Review: Dust Jacket, CD, Lexicographomania and trivia
Summary: 5 Stars
The impressive box cover is a foldable protective device and not a Slip Cover. The artwork on the slippery Dust Jacket is not reproduced on the blue covers, unlike the DK Oxford Illustrated Dictionaries. With strong glue and sensible folding, a home-made slip cover can be fashioned from the box cover.
Shamelessly, I can "request" my staff put on a plastic wrap right away (outside their job description!), while I am going to the computer to order another set for my home. Better investment than futures derivatives and other dictionaries, I think.
These two volumes need to have mylar plastic jackets with custom-made retaining end-pockets, so the publishers may want to consider this as an optional extra. I consider custom-made plastic jackets Mandatory, and those who do not want the Mylar jacket can just slip it away.
Thus plastic protected, this Dictionary makes excellent reading from cover to cover, like a novel. The layout is superb. The words stand out. Etymology is usefully condensed and unobstrusive. All words are of the Good to Know category, and this is the FEEL GOOD dictionary of all time. I read it recreationally.
I wondered if the CD proclaimed loudly on the protective box dropped out during shipping, but it was found securely stuck on an inside page at the end of Volume 2. Shrink wrapping on the 2 volumes means the CD is tamper-proof.
This dictionary is more likely to go up in price rather than down. It was once Eligible for Super-Saver Shipping (mine), but this is no longer the case. Lock in your order now, before you get charged for the CD, which I thought was a pleasant unadvertised bonus. There is a hefty premium for the CD with the Concise Oxford.
Much has been said of the scarily thin paper printed in Italy. I tugged on random pages and opined it can withstand a lifetime of reasonable use without tearing. It is not the heavy duty paper of the 1993 editionS, (there were several versions), which were ironically Printed in the United States of America, and had the American pronouncing key in many 1993 versions. This edition has the International Phonetic Transcription.
I pinched a singular thin page with both hands and managed to lift the spine half an inch off the table with that singular page before my nerves gave way, rather than the page.
The paper was of high quality; bright and pleasing to touch. Very little of the print on the reverse page can be "seen through", and the translucent effect was not noticeable unless you looked for it. Paradoxically, a different dictionary from another reputable publisher with much thicker Finnish paper had the print of the reverse page showing through.
Words are divided into:
A. MUST KNOW: the 3000 core words of any language which enables you to read the newspaper in that language,
B. SHOULD KNOW: the 10000 words which allows you to argue, persuade, communicate, get a raise, and make you sound smart,
C. GOOD TO KNOW: that is our SHORTER OXFORD forte. No archaic words. There is not a single word which might not come in handy one day. This is a fascinating journey of discovery into words I should have looked up, but was too lazy to do so at the time - reading in the toilet, space shuttle, being legit excuses, and
D. THERE TO KNOW: which is the 20 Volume "Mother" OXFORD, which is also fascinating reading, but I have rarely bothered to resort to it for two decades, except in extremis, and it remains a vanity possession.
The Head-letter of each and every entry is not auto-capitalised, unlike some idiotic 1993 versions. You can figure out how "Bangalore torpedo" is capitalised, but it is useful to know "clarence" the coach is not capitalised.
If only I had known this dictionary was so reader friendly, I would have raved less about some other dictionaries, which are now reduced to compendiums by this Shorter Oxford. Let me explain:
a. all Latin phrases are there, so there is no pressing need for a separate dictionary of latin phrases; and they are in useful phrase form, not in single word form which drives you crazy,
b. all French phrases in common and uncommon use are there,
c. all the commonly used Chinese, Japanese, asian romanised terms are there,
d. all the medical terms of a small medical dictionary are there - "trust me, I am a doctor" :) - so there is no need for you to buy a "just in case" medical dictionary. I believe this applies to the "contingency" dictionaries in other professional disciplines and liberal arts. I am afraid to point out examples from the fabulous array of medical terms and products, for fear that my colleagues might construe it as a sign of my prior ignorance of these terms,
e. a dictionary of Acronyms would now be totally subsumed,
...I think you get the idea of just how usefully comprehensive this work is.
I am going to postpone my purchase of a Hebrew-English dictionary after finding "Talmid Chacham" (smart-ass) properly explained. For legal definitions, I would rather have professionally researched words, but I can foresee this Shorter Oxford coming in useful as evidence of Every Day usage of the English words, replacing the Concise Oxford, like in libel suits. Just about every small "specialised" dictionary, even technical ones, has been subsumed within the latest Shorter Oxford. In this respect, it is great value for money.
Fear of clowns, "coulrophobia", on page 535, cannot be found in the 20 Volume Oxford and its Addition Series, nor in large Medical Dictionaries, nor in The American Psychiatric Association's DSM-IV TR Manual - shame!
At the time of this review, it has been marked down from the list price of $175 to $110. In 1993, the dictionary was 39.95 pounds sterling. Some later revisions were 79.95 pounds sterling; special versions priced, well, specially. Given the exchange rate then of English money, the current Shorter Oxford is cheaper today in absolute terms. And if you factor in the purchasing power of money in 1993, you are getting this at just a fraction of the inflation-adjusted 1990s price, and a free CD too.
To the Editors' credit, the Shorter Oxford steers well clear from being a thesaurus. Precise definitions are given, not a list of similar words leaving you wondering how to match the meaning with the appropriate simile.
The height of the Shorter Oxford is just slightly less than the 20 Volume Mother Oxford. I suspect these two colourfully jacketed volumes are to join the 2009 (now printed in China) Mother Oxford , forming the preface of a 22 volume set. Sneaky.
Other than my gripe with the unfortified Dust Jacket, this super-duper Edition merits association with the word "lexicographomania", which is not in the Shorter Oxford, but neither is it in the 20 volume Mother Oxford. And yes, the Shorter Oxford deliberately leaves out many portmanteau words where you can go figure out the meaning for yourself.
Summary of Shorter Oxford English Dictionary: Sixth Edition
The sixth edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary is updated, enlarged and enlivened with new words, new definitions, revised illustrative quotations--and a fully customizable CD-ROM.If the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary is the mother of all dictionaries, the Shorter is its most accomplished offspring. At a fraction of the price, the Shorter offers much of the same content, and provides the same quality of lexical excellence as its parent dictionary.
No other dictionary comes close to the Shorter's range and depth. It offers over 500,000 definitions covering virtually every word or phrase in use in the English language--worldwide--since 1700. Each entry identifies a word's various meanings, origins, part of speech, pronunciation, and presents combinations in which the word is often found as well as cross-references to related words. The Shorter offers a historical and literary approach made famous by the OED, which no competitor can match.
Now with 2,500 new words and meanings based on the ongoing research program of Oxford Dictionaries and the Oxford English Corpus, the Shorter is fresher than ever. Some of the new words included in this edition are; Afrobeat, carbon-neutral, darknet, heaviosity, impactful, knuckle-dragger, nanomaterial, retro-futurist, smoosh, testosteronic, webinar, and thousands more. Also new to this edition is a never-before-published, introductory essay by language commentator David Crystal on the History of English providing stimulating insight into the development of the English language.
In hardcover it takes up two thick volumes, but on CD-ROM you get the same 7.5 million words of text (with half a million definitions and 83,000 quotations) on a thin compact disc. The computerized New SOED is a great pleasure. It readily accomplishes the simple task of looking up a word, providing definition, usage, and simple etymology. But the program also searches by anagram and by rhyme, by quotation and by etymology. Perusing the headword group is like flipping the pages. In this fashion, I ran across "nesh" (soft--in consistency, mind, or morals), "convell" (refute completely) and "xoanon" (primitive carved statue of a deity). My Scrabble game is getting less nesh all the time. --Stephanie Gold
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