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...Webster-Collegiate, with which the OAD is intended to compete, still probably has the edge. Despite its smaller type, Webster's vastly greater scope, superior graphics (the OAD has none) and convenient thumb index (not available in the OAD) and $11.95 price tag make it still the better...

Author: By Jeffrey R. Toobin, | Title: A Lexicographical Truce | 12/12/1980 | See Source »

...Oxford American Dictionary, not surprisingly dubbed the OAD by its authors, lays down the law on color ("colour" does not appear in its listings) and 816-pages-worth of other words. Despite the similar acronym, the authors, four editors working in consultation with the Hudson Group in the Oxford University Press New York office, have not sought to write a comprehensive OED for the States. With more realistic goals in mind, they have instead entered the competitive--and lucrative--field of desk-top hardcover and paperback dictionaries. (The Avon paperback...

Author: By Jeffrey R. Toobin, | Title: A Lexicographical Truce | 12/12/1980 | See Source »

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN probably would have liked the OAD's simplicity. Words appear in large, clear, bold-face type, and even better the pronunciations are given in normal, English letters, not in the incomprehensible, upside-down, umlaut- laden code favored by Webster's and American Heritage. Franklin might be less pleased with the OAD because he doesn't appear in it. The editors mysteriously decided to include the spellings of every nation in the world and their capitals (Umtata is the capital of Transkei) but to avoid all personal names except those of the 40 Presidents of the United States. Vice...

Author: By Jeffrey R. Toobin, | Title: A Lexicographical Truce | 12/12/1980 | See Source »

...peculiar standard by which contemporary dictionaries might still be judged. Johnson collected more than 100,000 words, mostly by memory, and his definition of "network" set a lofty and graceful standard in lexicographic science: "anything reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections." The OAD effort has an admirable simplicity ("an arrangement or pattern with intersecting lines") and certainly surpasses the bulky Webster entry ("a fabric or structure of cords or wires that cross at regular intervals and are knotted or secured at the crossings") but neither improves on the work of the master...

Author: By Jeffrey R. Toobin, | Title: A Lexicographical Truce | 12/12/1980 | See Source »

...John Simon-William Safire-Edwin Newman-style of linguistic Jeremiad is so fashionable in the United States, Americans can draw a little satisfaction from the Oxford dons' attentions. Of course, the Oxford Press embarked on this enterprise because there was money to be made, but the publication of the OAD does give final legitimacy to a language now even more vital and alive than the mother tongue. American English deserves celebration. Oxford, citadel of the Old World, has finally made peace with the new; the phonies probably never will...

Author: By Jeffrey R. Toobin, | Title: A Lexicographical Truce | 12/12/1980 | See Source »

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