![]() ![]() ![]() It is the most popular and friendly language among all the languages over the earth. ![]() Thankfully, for the English language, we have the most popular and the most referred Oxford English Dictionary.Įnglish is the only language based on which the world’s communication system rolls. (Or again, a copy of the Century, although that's ten volumes.To understand a language from its core, you need to dive up to the depth of the linguistic aspects, only then will you able to appreciate the written word and it won’t be lost in translation. To tell you whether or not something is a word? No dictionary will tell you that, only usage.Įtymology? The OED is among the best for etymology, although there are other sites that have better ones for particular words (and despite the Century's age, its etymologies are on a par with the OED).Īdvice on correct or accepted usage? You'd be better off with the Dictionary of Modern American Usage.Īn impressive book to put on a stand? True dictionary aficionados like Merriam Webster's Second International (rather than the third), as a prestige thing. The bigger question is: what do you want a standard for? ![]() It has not been updated for about a hundred years, though. If you are looking for a dictionary that set itself up as a standard, especially for scientific and technical vocabulary of the day you might look at the Century Dictionary(commentary at link). (If you have a Mac, you already have this dictionary, because it's the dictionary used by the Dictionary Widget in the dashboard.) The New Oxford American Dictionary is not a historical dictionary, but a dictionary of current English, and is much smaller than the OED in the number of terms covered. People use it as a standard, but it does not set out to be one, and the editors of the OED discourage people from deciding whether or not to use a word based solely on its inclusion in the OED. The OED is a historical dictionary, which means it shows the meanings of words as they developed over time. Americans generally don’t distinguish among dictionaries and typically refer to all dictionaries as “the dictionary”, as in “I’ll look that up in the dictionary”. There are othe American dictionaries which are well-regarded but not as well-known, such as the Oxford American, Random House, and Webster’s New World. The American Heritage Dictionary is notable for pioneering the use of corpus linguistics in dictionary compilation, as well as for its 200-member “usage panel” who the dictionary consults when writing usage notes, reporting what percentage of the panel approved or disapproved of different contested usages. The other significant dictionary of American English is the American Heritage Dictionary, which was published by the owner of the history magazine American Heritage, who was appalled by the permissiveness of Webster’s Third. It is also the best-selling dictionary of American English. The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, which is shorter and can be held in one hand, remains Merriam-Webster’s flagship dictionary, receiving frequent updates and revisions. It remains the most important unabridged dictionary of American English, although it hasn’t received a major revision since it was first published in 1961. Probably the most famous American dictionary is the controversial Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, which made headlines when it was first published for taking a hard-line descriptivist stance, particularly for its treatment of the word ain’t. ![]()
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