If you’re looking for dictionary recommendations, you’ve tuned to the right program! For comprehensive, desk-dwelling dictionaries, Grant likes the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 6th Edition, a two-volume set, and the brand-new American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, which contains original etymologies, illustrations, and plenty of guides and charts. The latter publication took nearly ten years to complete, and its authority is worth the investment. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Grant’s Dictionary Recommendations”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
We received an email from Judith Piper, who’s looking for a dictionary recommendation.
Grant, she wants the kind of dictionary that you can put on your desk,
Not on your desktop, on your computer, but on your desk.
She wants one that has good paper, lots of pictures and other special articles,
Guides, keys, and charts of Indo-European languages.
What would you recommend for Judith?
Ooh, that’s great. What is she replacing?
Right now, she has the American Heritage, the new college edition, and the Random House Webster’s College Dictionary.
One is from 1979, the other from 1991.
I’d say it’s time.
You came to the right place.
I’m nothing if I’m not a dictionary nerd.
If you ever make it to San Diego, I’ll show you my little collection.
There are two dictionaries that I typically recommend for people who want something that’s not particularly portable,
Something that you put on the desk at home or at the office, something that has a little bit of class, right?
The first one is the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.
It’s a two-volume work.
You want the latest sixth edition.
It’s a little British for an American audience,
But the great thing about it is it’s basically the OED
With a lot of new words that the OED doesn’t have yet
And a lot of the archaisms taken out.
So it’s right to the point.
It’s going to have almost anything you find
If you’re reading stuff from the 1700s or 1800s or 1900s.
Great stuff, a lot of obscure stuff, pretty good etymologies.
It’s classy.
That’s the word for it.
And then the other one, which I’m excited to talk about,
Is the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition.
It’s brand new. It’s just come out.
Hot off the presses.
I know their work. This is published by Houghton Mifflin.
They do fantastic work. This one apparently has 10,000 new words.
It’s well known for its great etymologies, original etymologies.
They don’t just rip them off from other sources.
Lots of illustrations.
Great front matter, which is where you get the keys and the guides
And the information about language in general.
Just a really reliable work.
So again, those two dictionaries I would recommend, Judith, are the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.
It’s a two-volume, sixth edition.
And the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the fifth edition, which is a big, big one-volume dictionary.
That’s really exciting that it’s making news.
It’s just coming out right now.
Yeah, brand-new dictionary.
And they’ve been working on it for 10 years or more.
I don’t know, a long time.
Cool.
So it’s wonderful.
Well, if you have a question about reference works or grammar, slang, word origins, call us.
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