By Edward Short on 9.20.07 @ 12:07AM
The sixth edition of the abridged Oxford English Dictionary is a work of heroic distillation.
Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
Sixth Edition.
(Oxford University Press. 2 volumes. 3,742 pages.
$175)
In her delightful biography of her grandfather, James Murray,
the great founding editor of the OED, Caught in the Web of
Words (1977), Elisabeth Murray included a photograph of the
great man seated in the middle of his huge family, looking every
inch the contented Victorian paterfamilias. Of course, his
contentment was not unalloyed. In a letter written in 1908, when he
was 71 and nowhere near completing his great work, Murray confided
to one of his sons that "The greatest sacrifice the Dictionary
entailed upon me...was the sacrifice of the constant companionship
of my children..."
What this philoprogenitive man would have made of The
Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (SOED), the first of his
lexicographical grandchildren, is an interesting question. The
first edition was only published in 1933, eighteen years after his
death. Now, nearly 75 years later, the sixth edition has been
released. From all that we know of the lexicographer -- his
recognition of the true scope of the language, as well as his
readiness to be innovative in presenting its riches -- it is clear
that Murray would have rejoiced in any abridgement that brings so
many of the glories of the full edition within the compass of two
volumes.
Overseen by editor-at-large Jesse Sheidlower, the 6th edition
manages to abridge the current 20-volume OED into 500,000
definitions covering every word or phrase in use since 1700,
amounting to a full third of the OED. Putting aside any other
reservations, the current edition must be accounted a work of
heroic distillation.
Nevertheless, fans of the OED and of earlier editions of the
SOED will be puzzled by Sheidlower's decision to replace
approximate dates for the entry of words into the language with
ranges of dates. By jettisoning dates, the new edition compromises
the distinctly historical approach of the OED.
The value of those dates (however approximate) was driven home
to me recently when I reviewed Michael Alexander's brilliant new
book, Medievalism (Yale University Press), a good deal of
which pivots on the fact that the word medieval only came
into the language in 1827. Now, if one looks the word up in the
current SOED, the entry only cites the word as having entered the
language in the early 19th century -- not the same
thing.
Another questionable feature of this new edition is the choice
of new writers for the illustrations of words. In choosing to cite
such people as Spike Lee, Dan Brown, Charles Bukowski and Susan
Faludi -- surely a "rum lot," as Evelyn Waugh might say --
Sheidlower makes clear his fondness for pop culture. Many of the
new words underscore this, "wow factor," "pimp (up),"
"supervillain," and "splitsville" being just a few of the fatuous
neologisms added here.
One advantage of the 6th edition is that it comes with a CD-ROM
that allows the reader to search definitions, hear the
pronunciation of words, and see which authors illustrate which
words. After downloading the CD, the reader can also access entries
from the SOED simply by highlighting and copying a word of
text.
The CD format is a browser's paradise. For example, one can see
the relative number of words illustrated by different authors.
Shakespeare illustrates 1786, Addison 78, Fanny Burney 53, Trollope
78, Jean Rhys 50, Katherine Anne Porter 43, and Julian Barnes 67.
(Jean Rhys illustrates moo: "The cows here moo at
me.") It is odd that there are no citations from A.J. Liebling --
by any measure a master of English prose. Elizabeth Bowen has 352
illustrations compared to Jane Austen's 78. For some tastes,
Bowen's style might seem fussy, static, ostentatiously elaborate.
Yet the SOED exhibits a writer who could be remarkably exemplary.
"The... writing desk... yawned open, too
overflowing to close." "This conversation we're having now... seems
to me the apogee of bad taste." "This evening's
fiasco has been definitive: I think it better our
acquaintance should close." "The chintz...
advertised its original delicacy by being...
always a little soiled." "Two rather alone
people." All of these show not only what a witty but what a precise
writer Bowen was.
An unscientific survey conducted with the help of this amusing
feature confirmed my sense that the best exemplars of English tend
to be women. Proof? Try this from Beryl Bainbridge for
desiccated. "She was so desiccated by age that a
smile might have broken her into little pieces." Or this from Molly
Keane for ripen. "The stones seemed to ripen in
the hot sunshine." There is something neatly evocative from Willa
Cather for tincture. "Drinking raw alcohol,
tinctured with oil of cinnamon." Ivy Compton-Burnett is cited for
ferment. "It is good to speak of things openly.
Then nothing can ferment and fester underneath..." Sybille Bedford
provides a characteristically witty illustration for
proverbial. "A foreigner, a divorcee, and
of course the proverbial woman old enough to be his mother." Mary
Kingsley, the intrepid explorer of West Africa, nicely illustrates
scrappy. "My classical knowledge is scrappy."
Speaking of West Africa, Zadie Smith has a good entry for
pum-pum, a new word courtesy of West Africa. "He
got a face like a donkey's pum-pum."
In this and many other well-chosen illustrations, the editors
show with what exactitude and flair English can be written. Despite
its incidental shortcomings, The Shorter Oxford English
Dictionary remains the most reliable and certainly the most
capacious of abridged dictionaries. Now with the CD-ROM thrown in,
it is also the most convenient.
topics:
Africa, Oil
