Quoted: ABCDEF...
September 06, 2008
"All of the human emotions and experiences are right there in this dictionary, just as they would be in any fine work of literature. They just happen to be alphabetized."
from Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages, by Ammon Shea (Perigee/Penguin, 2008)
Read a GalleyCat interview with Shea, who also blogs for Oxford University Press USA (OUPblog).
I have longed for a full version of the Oxford English Dictionary. I doubt that I would read it from cover to cover, but you really can get lost in there.
Posted by: Wisteria | September 06, 2008 at 10:40 PM
Those dictionary writers. What a sense of humor they have.
Posted by: Mary Lee | September 07, 2008 at 08:14 AM
Wisteria, I bet you could find one on Craig's list. My dad ordered himself a set some years ago, and thoroughly enjoys looking at it. We've settled some Scrabble squabbles by checking the OED. I'm going to have to get this book for him.
See now, Mary Lee, Ammons would say that they DO have a sense of humor. But I haven't gotten to the humorous part yet... HE is a funny guy. His partner is a lexicographer, and even she asked him to quit telling her about some of the word definitions.
Posted by: Susan T. | September 09, 2008 at 08:37 AM