Peter's Favourite Dictionary

My favourite dictionary is the Oxford English Dictionary [OED]. I regularly use other English dictionaries, such as the Compact Oxford and the Concise Oxford, which is both installed on my computer and sitting on my book shelf. However, the OED is easily my favourite. I've been using it ever since I was first at university. Then, it was a major effort: it took up about two metres on the shelf, and the volumes were very large and heavy: using it was a good way to work out your biceps. Around 1998, it became available on a CD, and that was a big improvement. Having it on CD was not only much lighter, it greatly increased the search options. And as you already know, these days, I use the online version, which is even better. It's available everywhere, the search facility is even better, and it's constantly updated. Another big improvement in the online version over the CD version, and an enormous improvement over the multi-volume book version, is that it's a lot easier on the eyes. A very large book full of very tiny print is not easy to read, at least not when your eyes are as bad as mine are getting. 

But I still haven't really explained why I think the OED is so wonderful. Perhaps it will help to explain why I sometimes use the Concise OED or the even smaller Compact OED. Both of these smaller dictionaries are enough to quickly check the common definitions in use today of the most common words in English, and sometimes that's all I really want. In fact, if I was, for example, looking for a normal dictionary definition to quote for the word abnormal, it would be more useful to use the Concise OED, since the purpose of that dictionary is to give the most common definitions of words in fairly common use. The Concise OED only has one definition for abnormal, which is "deviating from what is normal" (2000), and that is pretty much the same as Hartmann's first definition in her reading "What is Abnormal?" in Quest (2007). The entry for abnormal in the Compact OED is the same as in the Concise (abnormal, 2006). 

So, why do I prefer the OED to the Compact and the Concise and the numerous other excellent English dictionaries that are available? Basically, because it gives so much more information, and also the way that information is arranged. In most dictionaries, such as the Concise OED and teh Compact OED, the definitions are arranged from most to least common, but the OED is quite different, and in fact, the first definitions listed are often never used in ordinary English today, or are very rare. That's because the definitions in the OED are arranged from earliest to latest. Thus, when we look up country in the OED, the first definition is "A tract or expanse of land of undefined extent; a region, district," (country, 1989) which is not the most common modern meaning of the word. However, this use of the word country is first recorded in 1275, whereas the usual modern meaning, "a nation with its own government, occupying a particular territory", which is the first definition listed in the Concise OED, is recorded later, and so is not listed until number 3 in the OED. 

Apart from the way it gives a very detailed history of how the words have been used and changed in English over the past 1,500 years, which is very interesting, the OED also gives supporting quotations for every word and for every definition. These are always real quotations from writers, and there is usually more than one, so we can see exactly how writers have used the word in English over the past fifteen centuries or so. Just giving a list of possible definitions out of context is not nearly as useful as actually showing the words in use, with, for example, a quotation from Shakespeare, or Beowulf or J.K. Rowling, who is cited as the first writer to use the word muggle. Rowling used the word in 1997, and it was added to the OED in 2003.  I just did a search of cited authors: Rowling only occurs once, compared to Shakespeare's 7,264 citations. Shakespeare made up or promoted a lot of new words in his writing. 

You can see what a typical OED Online entry looks like by following the OED Word of the Day link in the Daily Updates on the right. 

And what is your favourite dictionary? 

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References

abnormal,  a. (1989) The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved November 17, 2008, from  http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50000512

abnormal,  adjective. (2006) The Compact Oxford English Dictionary. AskOxford.com. Oxford University Press. Retrieved November 17, 2008, from http://www.askoxford.com/results/?view=dev_dict&field-12668446=abnormal&branch=13842570&textsearchtype=exact&sortorder=score,name 

Compact Oxford English Dictionary (2006). [Electronic version]. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Concise Oxford English Dictionary (2000). (Tenth Ed.)[CDrom version]. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

country,  n. (1989) The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved November 17, 2008, from http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50052210 

Hartmann, P. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing (second ed.). McGraw-Hill ESL/ELT

OED Online. (2008). Oxford University Press.