The Oxford English Dictionary

A very special thanks to Owen who brought in his family edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. The original, like I told the students, is in 20 volumes, and university libraries usually have a set in their reference sections. Demand the best! Especially in your dictionaries! The edition we saw today in class is the 2 volume Compact set that comes with a Bausch & Lomb magnifying glass to read the tiny print. There are other Oxford Dictionaries of shorter length for daily use, but it is now possible to access the Oxford Dictionary online.

And for those of you interested in the history of the dictionary, you can read this amazing New York Times bestseller: The Professor and the Madman.