The Oxford English Dictionary (Hardcover, 2nd Revised edition)

An obvious choice, maybe, but probably not for the most obvious reason. When I am writing my own books on the origins of well-known phrases and sayings, I always check to see what the OED has to say. Usually, I hunt about first in the cd-rom version because of the speed with which words and phrases can be located. Then I turn to the 20 hardback volumes for a more leisurely read. But my chief interest in the OED lies in its rich store of citations. These provide a fascinating indication of when and how a word or phrase has first been found in the language. It is certainly the finest dictionary in the world. (Kirkus UK)

The 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past. The OED has a unique historical focus. Accompanying each definition is a chronologically arranged group of quotations that trace the usage of words, and show the contexts in which they can be used. The quotations are drawn from a huge variety of international sources - literary, scholarly, technical, popular - and represent authors as disparate as Geoffrey Chaucer and Erica Jong, William Shakespeare and Raymond Chandler, Charles Darwin and John Le Carré. In all, nearly 2.5 million quotations can be found in the OED. Other features distinguishing the entries in the Dictionary are authoritative definitions of over 500,000 words; detailed information on pronunciation using the International Phonetic Alphabet; listings of variant spellings used throughout each word's history; extensive treatment of etymology; and details of area of usage and of any regional characteristics (including geographical origins).

General

Imprint:	Clarendon Press
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	March 1989
First published:	March 1989
Editors:	John Simpson • Edmund Weiner
Dimensions:	680 x 525 x 505mm (L x W x H)
Format:	Hardcover
Volumes:	20
Pages:	2000
Edition:	2nd Revised edition
ISBN-13:	978-0-19-861186-8
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Literary & linguistic reference works > Dictionaries > General Books > Academic & Education > Dictionaries > Oxford
LSN:	0-19-861186-2
Barcode:	9780198611868

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