The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, Vol 3: A Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary, Vols 1-4

by James W. Burchfield (editor), Robert Burchfield (editor)

In 1971 the Compact Oxford English Dictionary made publishing & printing history by ingeniously reducing the 13 volumes of the OED to two, without losing one word of the original. Newsweek hailed the achievement "a brilliant success," while the NY Times declared that the Compact was "something of a miracle...easier to work with than the original...an extraordinary bargain." Since then it has sold over 330,000 copies in the USA alone. But the Compact did not contain the Supplements to the OED which have been appearing at regular intervals since '72. Now, with their completion in '86, all four volumes are being produced in a single micrographically reproduced volume to be called Volume 3 of the Compact OED. So the vital addendum, which transforms the OED into an indispensable tool for the 80s, will be made available for the first time in this convenient format. The Supplement, called the "book of the century" by Phillip Howard in the London Times, contains all the new words that have come into use during the 20th century & includes as well the countless new meanings that have been applied to older words--over 69,000 entries altogether. It includes business terms, "computerese," space-age terminology, colloquialisms & coinages by modern authors ranging from Wm Faulkner & Virginia Woolf to Gore Vidal & Erica Jong. Words like G-man, yuppie, user-friendly, test-tube baby & Zen Buddhism rub shoulders with the most recent additions to subjects like law, medicine & engineering. The wealth of Americanisms in the Supplement also reflects a new direction for the dictionary. As editor Robert Burchfield explains it, "The center of gravity for the English language is no longer Britain. American English is the greatest influence on English everywhere." Volume 3 of the Compact is available in its own jndividual slipcase or combined with Volumes 1-2 in one slipcase. By a process of photoreduction four pages from the original work appear on each page of the Compact edition & both versions include a magnifying glass that makes the reduced type easily readable.

Genres: Reference

1424 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 1987

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having owned the first volumes of The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary since the mid-seventies I was delighted to pick up this, their supplement, at a very affordable price at the Bridgman, Michigan Library. Indeed, I purchased one copy and recommended that my brother buy a second which was also available there.