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How much do words weigh?

edited February 2014 in - Reading
A recent review on Amazon complains that the Oxford Dictionary of English is, 'too big...and a sufferance to carry'.


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  • But clearly not too big to peruse in search of archaic language...
  • edited February 2014
    But clearly not too big to peruse in search of archaic language...
    Liz, there are lighter books that can solve that issue...

    :D
  • Surely a doorstop of a dictionary should stay at home? Why would anyone want to carry one about? Seems to me they're being deliberately picky.
  • That's why they invented bookshelves.
  • Oh, I love dictionaries. Never thought I'd say that when younger. My cousin read an entire dictionary (the Oxford shorter) when he was a teenager. I thought he was mad. Goodness knows if it made him more articulate, but he does have a very high-powered job...

    The trouble with taking abridged copies, like student editions with you when you are away (I do this - and a small thesaurus and a small rhyming dictionary) is that you are never satisfied with the choice they have available. And tbh, any word you actually have to look up is bound not to be in it...
  • Looking forward to seeing what the Wikipedia volumes weigh in at and the comments on Amazon for that

    http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/20/wikipedia-1000-volume-print-edition-crowdfunding
  • Well, with a dictionary you are never lost for words! I vey rarely look at a printed dictionary, I always go to the online dictionaries.
  • Dictionaries are excessively diverting. You go looking for one word and find yourself being sidetracked by others you've never heard of but wish you'll be able to remember at the right moment (though you never will).
    Opening OED at random, I find: malapert, which would fit many a TBer, meaning boldly disrespectful or impudent, and can be used as a noun, meaning an impudent person. You bunch of malaperts, you.
    Or penetralia: the innermost parts of a building; a secret or hidden place.
    Or ropeable: (Aus/NZ informal) angry, furious.
    Dictionaries are fun!
  • LizLiz
    edited February 2014
    I've heard ropeable a lot on Neighbours in the old days... that and 'sarnies', 'this arvo', etc!

    I prefer a book dictionary to an internet one - as internet ones are not always correct, and can be misleading in their lack of information and examples.

    Plus Chambers gives the root of the words which is helpful in remembering how to spell them - a skill that is ignored by schools but which has helped me to know how to spell stuff through my life.
  • S T U F F spells stuff - useful knowing how to spell stuff!! :)
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