The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary On Historical Principles

The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary is the most significant dictionary of the decade. Freshly abridged from the acclaimed Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, it represents the ultimate authority on contemporary and historical English, next to the OED itself. Incorporating a wealth of newly researched material, it includes all the key features of the OED in just two volumes, making it the top-of-the-range Oxford dictionary for eveyday use. Both current and historical English are covered in its 220,000 entries, including such neologisms as dweeb,sellathon, masculist, and winterim. Its 500,000 definitions are illustrated with 87,000 quotations from 10,000 authors, each showing precisely how a word has been used over the centuries. New 'contributors' range from Stephen King to Keri Hulme, Doris Lessing to Seamus Heaney. Each entry provides a wealth of information, including history and meaning, pronunciation, entymology, definitions, varient spellings, irregular inflections, quotations, idiomatic phrases and combinations, and a precise record of a word's use. No other general dictionary can provide access to sucha comprehensive account of the English language. * All the key features of the OED in just two volumes * Covers English from 1700 to today * 220,000 entries and over 500,000 definitions * 87,000 illustrative quotations from 10,000 authors * Four million words of text * Thousands of rare words, as well as the very latest vocabulary * Up-to-date pronunciation systems * Generous coverage of English around the world

Encompassing all words current in general English from 1700 to the present day, this dictionary provides more than 600,000 definitions and more than 85,000 quotations from seven thousand authors.

The Fifth Edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary is a complete update of the most authoritative reference work for modern English. The text is based on the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary and, in fact, the Shorter manages more than one third of the coverage of the OED in onetenth of the size. The Fifth Edition contains more than half a million definitions in its 3792 pages. Its innovative design makes this vast amount of information easy to consult, and especially makes the fascinating illustrative quotations identifiable in their surrounding text . This new editionincorporates a complete vocabulary update with over 3,500 new words and meanings, and many new illustrative quotations from modern authors. In total there are over 83,000 illustrative quotations from 7,000 authors. There is extensive coverage of scientific and technical English as well as Englishfrom around the world. The Dictionary is written on historical principles: entries show the historical development of words by listing meanings chronologically and giving datings for the first use of each sense. All major words used in English after 1700, as well as all the words in Shakespeare,Milton, Spenser's Faerie Queene, and the King James Bible, are included; many rare and obsolete words are also defined. For scholars and those with a serious interest in the English language, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary is an unrivalled resource for the study of the development and use of Modern English.Publication history:The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary was envisaged from the beginning as an abridgement of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). The first editor, William Little, was appointed in 1902. He worked on it until his death in 1922, after which the dictionary was completed by H. W. Fowler, Jessie Coulson, and C. T. Onions. The First Edition was published in 1933, in two volumes. The Second Edition (1936) contained about 3,000 revisions and additions. The Third Edition (1944) contained an appendix of addenda and corrigenda, and this edition was reprinted several times with corrections and additions, the most significant being in 1973, with enlarged addenda (now running to over 70 pages) and a major revision of all the etymologies.The 'New Shorter' was prepared under the editorship of Lesley Brown 1980-1993. It was the first complete revision of the dictionary, being in fact not so much an overhaul of the existing text as a reabridgement of the OED and its Supplements. The New Shorter also included much material not yet published by OED. This Fifth Edition is an update of the New Shorter with thousands of new words. The title has changed to the original 'Shorter Oxford English Dictionary' to emphasize the link between this 2-volume dictionary and the original 20-volume OED.

The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary is the most significant dictionary of the decade. Freshly abridged from the acclaimed Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, it represents the ultimate authority on contemporary and historical English, next to the OED itself. Incorporating a wealth of newly researched material, it includes all the key features of the OED in just two volumes, making it the top-of-the-range Oxford dictionary for eveyday use. Both current and historical English are covered in its 220,000 entries, including such neologisms as dweeb,sellathon, masculist, and winterim. Its 500,000 definitions are illustrated with 87,000 quotations from 10,000 authors, each showing precisely how a word has been used over the centuries. New 'contributors' range from Stephen King to Keri Hulme, Doris Lessing to Seamus Heaney. Each entry provides a wealth of information, including history and meaning, pronunciation, entymology, definitions, varient spellings, irregular inflections, quotations, idiomatic phrases and combinations, and a precise record of a word's use. No other general dictionary can provide access to sucha comprehensive account of the English language. * All the key features of the OED in just two volumes * Covers English from 1700 to today * 220,000 entries and over 500,000 definitions * 87,000 illustrative quotations from 10,000 authors * Four million words of text * Thousands of rare words, as well as the very latest vocabulary * Up-to-date pronunciation systems * Generous coverage of English around the world

Encompassing all words current in general English from 1700 to the present day, this dictionary provides more than 600,000 definitions and more than 85,000 quotations from seven thousand authors.

The Oxford English Dictionary is the internationally recognized authority on the evolution of the English language from 1150 to the present day. The Dictionary defines over 500,000 words, making it an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, pronunciation, and history of the English language. This new upgrade version of The Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM offers unparalleled access to the world's most important reference work for the English language. The text of this version has been augmented with the inclusion of the Oxford English Dictionary Additions Series (Volumes 1-3), published in 1993 and 1997, the Bibliography to the Second Edition, and other ancillary material. System requirements: PC with minimum 200 MHz Pentium-class processor; 32 MB RAM (64 MB recommended); 16-speed CD-ROM drive (32-speed recommended); Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 200, or XP (Local administrator rights are required to install and open the OED for the first time on a PC running Windows NT 4 and to install and run the OED on Windows 2000 and XP); 1.1 GB hard disk space to run the OED from the CD-ROM and 1.7 GB to install the CD-ROM to the hard disk: SVGA monitor: 800 x 600 pixels: 16-bit (64k, high color) setting recommended. Please note: for the upgrade, installation requires the use of the OED CD-ROM v2.0.