Call it the end of an era. The NYT says that Oxford University Press has no official plans to publish a new print edition of the multi-volume Oxford English Dictionary often considered as the authority on the usage and meaning of English words and phrases.
Visit BBC and Wikipedia to learn more about the interesting history of Oxford Dictionary the first edition of which took nearly 70 years to complete. If you have never seen the print edition dictionary before, check this sample page from the dictionary. The dictionary weighs 62.6 kilos or 137.72 lbs.
Oxford University Press will instead focus on the online and CD-ROM edition of the Oxford English dictionary. The planned Third Edition of the OED is expected to finish sometime around 2018 but will only be available electronically. Thanks Divya.
The first edition of Oxford English Dictionary was published under James Murray see here at work.
Find this article at:
http://www.labnol.org/software/organize/oxford-english-dictionary-print-edition/3450/
web: http://www.labnol.org/
email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
I can’t say I’m surprised by this decision. This is exactly the sort of work that makes far more sense to view electronically than to have a print version of. It’s so expensive that it will only rarely be purchased in print form by individuals. In order to use the print version, most people are going to have to go to the local library. It’s much faster and easier to be able to access the dictionary either on the internet or on CD.
Written by Joshua Jabin on 05.29.08
Some said when Wikipedia started it was an Oxford Dictionary Killer, now it has officially killed Oxford Dictionary. Will Britannica be the next victim?
Written by Chris on 05.29.08
The fact that a print version of the dictionary will no longer be available hardly means the OED is dead. I have never even seen a copy of the print dictionary, but I use the online version on a regular basis. The OED is changing it’s business model to adapt to changing technologies. That’s the sort of thing that I wish more companies were doing.
Written by Joshua Jabin on 05.30.08
Sad news indeed.
But, totally unrelated to the OED itself, Amit, you fell into the units conversion trap:
“The dictionary weighs 62.6 kilos or 137.72 lbs.”
3 significant figures in the kg value becomes 5 in the lb value, which implies increased precision, which is just plain wrong. 138 kg is as precise as you should give it.
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Written by David Bradley on 06.02.08