Discarding and Replacing Dictionaries

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Good afternoon.

My name is Catherine from Port Washington, Wisconsin, and I have a question about a dictionary.

Ooh.

Well.

Yes, I’m raising my hand.

We have a dictionary editor right here who can probably give you whatever answer you require.

Catherine, how can I help?

Well, I’ve owned my grandmother’s four-and-a-half-inch dictionary since 1975.

And one I hate, I don’t like to discard it because I listen to both of you talk about how many dictionaries should be kept because of the unabridged aspect of it.

So this one is a Newt Webster New 20th Century Unabridged Dictionary Copyright 1952, but the previous copyright is 1904.

And like I said, it’s four and a half inches thick.

Is this something that I need to keep?

Do you have it on a dictionary stand, or where do you keep it?

It used to be on a podium, but I just have it on a shelf in the closet at the moment.

That’s a really good question.

So a 1952 copyright date on that.

It’s not considered a particularly good dictionary, but it’s interesting to have and can add some texture to your reading.

It might have slightly different definitions.

But what’s really interesting is it doesn’t contain some important words.

How often do you look up things in the dictionary?

Oh, I look up things in the dictionary all the time.

I prefer to use the dictionary rather than the Internet or the computer.

And so when you say the Internet, you wouldn’t go, for example, to Merriam-Webster.com or American Heritage or Oxford?

No, not particularly.

I usually reach for the dictionary, but that’s probably force of habit.

Yeah, I get that.

The problem, and I own many, many dictionaries, not that one, but I own many, many dictionaries,

Including some unabridged that I will hopefully they’ll bury with me because they’re so useful.

But I should say the problem with this is it’s not going to have a ton of language and it’s missing the word Internet.

You probably don’t need to look that up. It’s missing the modern word computer.

It probably has the definition of computer, meaning a clerk who compiles, who adds up numbers rather than the machine computer.

It’s talking about the person computer.

It’s missing a huge number of scientific terms that reflect the developments that have happened in every field of science since the 1950s.

Oh, I’m sure that. I’m sure that’s true.

It is an unabridged edition, though.

Yeah, but even unabridged dictionaries that only have a small percentage of all the English that there is,

Do you find that it doesn’t have words that you’re looking up?

Sometimes, yes.

And I have a couple other dictionaries on my shelf, and I’ll refer to them, and I will find them in there.

Okay, good.

Are your other dictionaries newer?

Yes, they’re newer.

Okay, well, that’s good news.

I would say if you were just depending upon the 1952 dictionary, that you would definitely need something more current.

The one that I usually recommend for completeness sake is the American Heritage Dictionary.

It’s not quite unabridged, but they’ve done an exquisite job of including words that you are likely to look up.

By that I mean they’ve left out a lot of archaisms and obsolete terms that would just take up space and very few people would ever look up.

They’ve also taken out the stunty words, the words that you look up just because they’re funny words to look up, but you don’t actually read them in your day-to-day literature.

And it has some illustrations.

It’s got a lot of illustrations.

Photos.

It’s printed on a nice material.

But if failing in that, Merriam-Webster is currently preparing a new edition of their Unabridged.

I don’t know if it’s going to make it on paper, but if you want to hold off for a little bit, a couple years, I would keep my eyes out for that as well.

Oh, I will. That’s a great idea.

But don’t, if the British dictionary that I have, would they have taken some words out of this dictionary, say, if they were passé?

Or what do you think?

Yes, yes.

Every new edition of dictionaries probably takes out words in order to make space for new terms to include.

And I think that’s the only reason I saved it.

Yeah.

Plus, it’s hard to let go of them.

It is.

It truly is.

I know.

I still regret.

I had a whole set of the Scottish National Dictionary, and between one of my moves, I sold it.

I still regret it.

13 volumes.

Well, it’s got a beautiful cover, and it’s just not like books you find today.

Like I said, it stood on my grandmother’s podium.

Actually, every day, she would close the dictionary and just with her eyes closed, open the book dictionary and point her finger at a word and use that word for the day.

That’s nice.

That’s lovely.

I’ve sort of taken that on myself at times during these years.

Oh, that’s great.

Well, Catherine, thank you for asking this question about dictionaries.

I’m always happy to talk about dictionaries.

It does sound like you’re kind of covered with those other dictionaries,

But if you are looking for another underbridge, try the American Heritage,

Wait for the next edition of the Merriam-Webster’s,

And you might even find that the double volume, shorter Oxford English dictionary

Will cover a lot of bases, although it’s not very American.

I think it’s a little light on slang overall.

Well, thank you.

Thank you very much for your interpretation.

Yeah, sure.

Thanks for calling, Catherine.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

There should be a word for how you feel after you give away a dictionary.

Oh, right.

You kind of have regrets.

It’s like giving away kittens from a litter.

Right?

It’s the same feeling.

Yeah, yeah.

It’s kind of like there’s a place at the table.

And you call them and say, can you send me pictures of my dictionary?

Right.

I want to see it being used.

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