The OED Straw Poll

[Mr Manifesto]

Please try not to be a smart alec when answering this poll (I don't mean the people who answer Planet X- that's legit- I'm talking about people who've never heard of the Oxford English Dictionary until this thread answering that they've heard of it... in this thread!!! (boom! tish!)). This is a very serious question. Until now, have you ever heard of the Oxford English Dictonary? I have differentiated between Poms and Non-Poms to allow for the possbility that some may not have heard of the dictionary due to the miles of vast seas it has to cross, with dictionary pirates along the way.

Why do a poll like this? It was in response to this comment"

Never heard of, or seen an Oxford dictionary. Been a book worm all my life. It may have more to do with the number of copies published in this country.

You don't get extra points for owning a copy, BTW, it's just all part of the straw-poll. Thank you kindly for your attention, and sorry if I sounded a little short in this introductory post, but this straw poll is so vitally important to my straw-poll firm I work for.

[Rat]

I said that I own it, but that may be a little misleading. Apart from 'the' OED (that is, the full 20 volume set), there is the Shorter, the Concise, and several other versions. I have a Shorter, a Concise, and a concise encyclopaedic.

I also have a Chambers concise, which some consider essential for crosswords and the like, but its lack of etymology lets it down badly.

Cheers,
Rat.

[epepke]

I think I qualify as owning it. I don't remember what it's called (alas, it has to be in storage for the time being), but it's in two big volumes printed in almost microscopic print on thin paper. It comes with its own magnifying glass in a little drawer so that you almost have a chance of reading it. It's about 20 years old and contains the text of the complete OED as of then. I don't know if that version is still in print.

[bjornart]

I hear about it all the time (since I read the Word Detective and World Wide Words), but I've never seen it. At school we used the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, and now I mostly use my Websters Unabridged Encyclopedic Dictionary, which I bought because it was huge and dirt cheap, or free online services like www.m-w.com and www.dictionary.com.

[mummymonkey]

I have OED2 on CD. It's the daddy, as somebody on another thread put it. Here is the entry for Pommy:

Pommy (gp#m=), n. (a.) Austral. and N.Z. colloq. Also Pommie and with lower-case initial.
[Origin obscure.]
A. n. A derogatory term for an immigrant from the United Kingdom; an Englishman or Englishwoman, a Briton.
B. attrib. or as adj. Of or pertaining to a Pommy; British, English, spec. (often as a term of affectionate abuse) in Pommy bastard. Cf. Pom2.
The most widely held derivation of this term, for which, however, there is no firm evidence, is that which connects it with pomegranate (see quots. 1923, 1963). A discussion of this and of other theories may be found in W. S. Ramson Australian English (1966) 63.
1915 in B. Gammage Broken Years (1974) 86 We call the Regulars---Indians and Australians---_British'---but Pommies are nondescript.
1916 in Ibid. 240 They're only a b---- lot of Pommie Jackeroos and just as hopeless.
1916 Anzac Bk. 31 A Pommy can't go wrong out there if he isn't too lazy to work.
1920 D. O'Reilly in Murdoch & Drake-Brockman Austral. Short Stories (1951) 144 The _Pommy' parson made good, as a good man always will.
1923 D. H. Lawrence Kangaroo vii. 162 Pommy is supposed to be short for pomegranate. Pomegranate, pronounced invariably pommygranate, is a near enough rhyme to immigrant, in a naturally rhyming country. Furthermore, immigrants are known in their first months, before their blood _thins down', by their round and ruddy cheeks. So we are told.
Ibid. 164 In this way Mr Somers had to take himself to task, for his Pommy stupidity.
1926 Galsworthy Silver Spoon ii. iv. 137 They call us Pommies and treat us as if we'd took a liberty in coming to their blooming country.
1933 _P. Cadey' Broken Pattern xii. 130 _You should have heard the English accent!' _Pommy gab, eh?' commented his mate.
1938 N. Marsh Artists in Crime ix. 128 She was always shooting off her mouth about the way the Aussies don't know a good thing when they see it. These pommies! She gave me the jitters.
1946 B. James in Coast to Coast 1945 63 He was an Englishman, not a _pommy', mind you. It seemed he hadn't even reached to that dignity.
1947 B. Mason in D. M. Davin N.Z. Short Stories (1953) 333 What time we had left was spent on fruitless errands for the Pommie matelots.
1949 F. Sargeson I saw in my Dream ii. xiii. 118 Look at Wally's ma---she got over her Pommy ways.
1951 D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 214 Like most of these pommy bastards, he had funny ways but he wasn't a bad old bloke at heart.
1957 New Scientist 23 May 13/3 There is_an elusive background of strangeness, imbued with an element of timelessness, which comes home to the sensitive _new chum', or _pommy', only after he has lived for a while in this new-old southern continent.
1962 J. Frame Edge of Alphabet vii. 47 Look at the foreigners flooding the country on every immigrant ship, la-di-da Pommies and all.
1963 X. Herbert Disturbing Element vi. 91 He still wore the heavy clumsy British type of clothing of the day [before 1914]. When we kids saw people on the street dressed like that we would yell at them: _Jimmygrants, Pommygranates, Pommies!'
1966 R. D. Eagleson in Southerly XXVI. 200 Lest British readers should be misled, pommy is frequently pejorative.
1974 P. McCutchan Call for Simon Shard iv. 36 I'm Australian born and bred, not a pommie immigrant._ Now, grand-dad, 'e was a pommie bastard!
1975 Times 27 Aug 10/8 Colin Shaw_has just sent Ernest Whitehouse an explanation of how God came to be described in the television programme Beneath the News as a _Pommy bastard'._ Shaw adds that _Pommy bastard' is an _affectionate colloquialism' in Australia.
1979 Guardian 31 Oct. 3/2 British Leyland reacted angrily_to antipodean _pommy-bashing' about the quality of buses.
Hence
_Pommyland, Britain, England.
1957 R. Stow Bystander 21 I'm a Pommy. And going back to Pommy-land, after twenty-four years.
1967 F. Hardy Billy Borker yarns Again 61 Sir Robert himself wanted to be a whiskey-taster at the Melbourne show, but ended up as some kind of wharfie over in Pommy Land.
1973 Times 12 Oct. 15/7 An adaptation of Barry Humphries's cult strip cartoon about the life of darkest Pommie-land seen through the eyes of an antipodean innocent.
1979 M. Kaufman Container iii. 31, I suppose you'll head off back to Pommyland now?

[MoeFaux]

As a word slut, I of course have heard of the OED. And last year for my birthday, a friend gave me the compact version - one volume in very, very tiny print. I adore it. It's my most prized possesion (and maybe my most expensive?)
My friend has the whole expanded version. I think it's 10 volumes.
Randi has the compact in two volumes.

It's the authority.

[El Greco]

Originally posted by mummymonkey
I have OED2 on CD.

Is this (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004UD4F/ref=sr_aps_software_1_1/202-0273468-2071030) the one you have ? Is the software interface as inadequate as described by the reviewers ?

[Zep]

{aside}
An apocryphal derivation of the word "pommy" doing the rounds here is that it came from the letters emblazoned on transported convict clothes (alongside the convict broad arrow emblem): P.O.H.M. Standing for "Prisoner of Her Majesty" (namely, Queen Victoria). That would have dated it before the mid-1850's, when the last convict ships arrived here. The term was supposed to be used to distinguish newly-arrived English convicts from the native Australians (also known as "currency lads").

Historians and lexicographers will, no doubt, correct me...
{/aside}

[Peter Jenkins]

Originally posted by MoeFaux
As a word slut, I of course have heard of the OED.
[rushes to dictionary to look up 'word slut']
:)
P

[richardm]

I've got the "Shorter" version. That is a two-volume set with over half-a-million definitions.

It's gorgeous - but lethal to pick up if you have work to do, because you'll be there for hours flicking through it :D

Edited to add: I'd really love the full OED, but have neither the sponduliks nor the shelf space. (Somehow the CD version doesn't have the same appeal)

[mummymonkey]

Originally posted by El Greco
Is this (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004UD4F/ref=sr_aps_software_1_1/202-0273468-2071030) the one you have ? Is the software interface as inadequate as described by the reviewers ?
I have the old version. I got it when I lived abroad so that would be around 94-95. It has the old Win 3.1 style interface which looks very dated now but it will run straight off the CD.

http://www.ibrox.freeserve.co.uk/images/oed.png

Edit: to reduce image size

[Mr Manifesto]

Originally posted by ratcomp1974
I said that I own it, but that may be a little misleading. Apart from 'the' OED (that is, the full 20 volume set), there is the Shorter, the Concise, and several other versions. I have a Shorter, a Concise, and a concise encyclopaedic.

I also have a Chambers concise, which some consider essential for crosswords and the like, but its lack of etymology lets it down badly.

Cheers,
Rat.

Well, I consider that I own it, and I have the 'shorter' (the big-@$$ two-volume set). I also have a concise Chambers. So it's time to get the big d!ck swinging into action.

Do you have Fowler's Guide to Modern English and "The King's English" by Kingsley Amis? Huh? Do ya, punk? BRING IT ON!

[MRC_Hans]

I voted: Not from UK (duh) use and own. It is not entirely true, what I have is the ALD (Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary), still...........

Hans

[Kullervo]

I have the same edition epepke does. A freebie from the Book of the Month club years ago. We use it a few times a year.

[LFTKBS]

When I was at the ol' University, we could access it online - it was totally sweet, and I thought the fun would never end. Then I left, and I have no more OED access (yes, yes, the library).

Maybe I should Kazaa for it. That would be pretty neat.

[Lord Emsworth]

Originally posted by MRC_Hans
I voted: Not from UK (duh) use and own. It is not entirely true, what I have is the ALD (Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary), still...........

Hans

I have the ALD, too, but it's are barely a comparision to the OED, which I don't own yet but have access to.

[Lord Muck oGentry]

Shorter
Pocket
Fowler
Fowler (revised by Gowers)
Complete Plain Words( Gowers)
Complete Plain Words ( revised by Fraser)



"Bring it on!" forsooth! :-)

[Luciana]

Hmmm... I have the Shorter OED and half a dozen of other Oxford dictionaries. I also have a few Webster, Cambridge, Longman in different sizes and scopes. I have 3 or 4 dictionaries in CD-ROMs. Those are the ones in English. Don't get me started on those in Portuguese, French and Spanish. German and Italian I only have one dictionary each. A Russian dictionary & grammar book. Wait, grammar books are another story... :)

[Lord Muck oGentry]

Madam,
Clearly, you are loaded for bear--and anything else foolish enough to cross your path!

Regards

[DrMatt]

I suggest you heed the example of the three little pigs and build your pole out of sturdier stuff.

[Deadbeat]

*ahem*

I'm not a bleedin' Pom, and I own the Oxford English Dictionary. First Edition (a 1970 reprinting of the 1933 re-issue).

12 volumes of original OED, a four volume supplement, and two single-volume supplements (one of which is still missing, d*mn it).

[Mr Manifesto]

Originally posted by Deadbeat
*ahem*

I'm not a bleedin' Pom, and I own the Oxford English Dictionary. First Edition (a 1970 reprinting of the 1933 re-issue).

12 volumes of original OED, a four volume supplement, and two single-volume supplements (one of which is still missing, d*mn it).

You da man!

A friend of mine collects old medical dictionarys. He has one that says acne is caused by masturbation.

[MoeFaux]

Originally posted by Mr Manifesto


You da man!

A friend of mine collects old medical dictionarys. He has one that says acne is caused by masturbation.

If that were true.....
nevermind.

[Darat]

Originally posted by Mr Manifesto


Well, I consider that I own it, and I have the 'shorter' (the big-@$$ two-volume set). I also have a concise Chambers. So it's time to get the big d!ck swinging into action.

Do you have Fowler's Guide to Modern English and "The King's English" by Kingsley Amis? Huh? Do ya, punk? BRING IT ON!

Looks at reference shelves above computer... "English" books owned:

OED (2 volume shorter edition)
Complete Plain Words & Plain English
Oxford English – “The written and spoken word - The language of literature, science, technology and commerce”
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable
Brewer's Modern Phrase & Fable
Fowler's (of course)
Roget's International Thesaurus
Cassell's Guide to Written English
Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English – Partridge

Hmmm… yet me English not be two good. must be rite bad wroters who written ‘em all.

[Mahatma Kane Jeeves]

Originally posted by epepke
I think I qualify as owning it. I don't remember what it's called (alas, it has to be in storage for the time being), but it's in two big volumes printed in almost microscopic print on thin paper. It comes with its own magnifying glass in a little drawer so that you almost have a chance of reading it. It's about 20 years old and contains the text of the complete OED as of then. I don't know if that version is still in print.
That's known as the "Compact Edition" it is a photoreproduction of the full set reduced to fit in two volumes. You have a reprint of the first edition. The second edition of the Compact version (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0198612583/102-8027994-2247331?v=glance) is out now.

I have a full set of the first edition (reprinted). I'm only missing one of the supplementary volumes. It's also in storage because I don't have the shelf space for it at the moment.

I also have a copy of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (http://www.bibliomania.com/2/3/255/frameset.html). It's fun for browsing.

A couple more good browsing dictionaries:
New Dictionary of American Slang (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/006270107X/qid=1071101605/sr=12-1/102-8027994-2247331?v=glance&s=books). Great fun. I have the first edition, but they are already up to number three.

The Penguin Dictionary of Historical Slang seems to be out of print, but you might be able to find it used.

Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words: Gathered from Numerous and Diverse Authoritative Sources (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0806504986/qid=1071101974/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-8027994-2247331?v=glance&s=books). A dictionary that will actually make you laugh out loud.

Captain Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (http://www.harvestfields.netfirms.com/etexts/31/00.htm)

[69dodge]

I tend to use the online Century Dictionary (http://www.global-language.com/CENTURY/). It's an American dictionary that's old (1895) but very big.

[Mr Manifesto]

Originally posted by Mahatma Kane Jeeves

Captain Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (http://www.harvestfields.netfirms.com/etexts/31/00.htm)

Bah, I'm not getting caught out like that again. I had one of those once, and it didn't have any swear-words at all, just went on about words like 'obstroculous' or whatever.

[Mr Manifesto]

I'm going to have to save this thread- lots of stuff here I want to get, now.

[Mahatma Kane Jeeves]

Originally posted by Mr Manifesto


Bah, I'm not getting caught out like that again. I had one of those once, and it didn't have any swear-words at all, just went on about words like 'obstroculous' or whatever.
Well, they used to be swear words. ;) You'll want the New Dictionary of American Slang. It should be standard issue for the Navy: words every drunken sailor needs to know.

[bjornart]

Originally posted by Mahatma Kane Jeeves

Well, they used to be swear words. ;) You'll want the New Dictionary of American Slang. It should be standard issue for the Navy: words every drunken sailor needs to know.

On a couple of occasions friends and family have asked me for advice before buying Dictionaries (of English), apart from looking at the layout and stuff I have just one small test. I look up fanny. If it's only got the American definition I put it back on the shelf and move on. :D

[Mr Manifesto]

To me, the test of a true dictionary is the definition of 'vibrator'.

If it only says it's a sexual toy, specifically a (I hope I can say this) dildo, then back on the shelf it goes.

If it says it's a vibrating device for stimulation (I'll even let it get away with 'esp. for sexual stimulation'), it passes muster.

I've got a bug in my butt about this one. When I was going out with my first girlf, I said I was thinking of buying her a vibrator. She said she would have left me if I did.

I said, "No... Wait... I mean a vibrator... You massage with it."

She didn't get it. I blame dictionaries.

Oh... She eventually left me because I wanted to see Predator II instead of Greencard. I still think mine was the better choice, even with the benefit of hindsight.

[Mr Manifesto]

How much is the OED on CD? I don't want to do wrong by the publishers (even though I doubt they're short of a bob).

[Mahatma Kane Jeeves]

You know, I thought about the fact that Mr. Manifesto was Australian (?) when making that post. I figured, in the interest of internationial relations, it would be good to let people know about a reference book which would show them how to properly cuss out Americans. If you use your own cuss words on us, we'll just look puzzled and think you're inviting us to the pub or something. :p

[Mr Manifesto]

Originally posted by Mahatma Kane Jeeves
You know, I thought about the fact that Mr. Manifesto was Australian (?) when making that post. I figured, in the interest of internationial relations, it would be good to let people know about a reference book which would show them how to properly cuss out Americans. If you use your own cuss words on us, we'll just look puzzled and think you're inviting us to the pub or something. :p

Fortunately, I was born in Canada, so I have a little insight in hacking on Americans.

And anyway, there're so many American TV shows and movies in Australia now that very little gets by us. If we use an Australianism on you, it's just to try and prove that we're mad playas too. Who're we kidding? :D

[hgc]

I'll make a plug for a book I got for my birthday, The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0395893380/qid=1071159011/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-9637043-3488116?v=glance&s=books#product-details). This book is great reading. The author, Charles Elster, makes very entertaining arguments for why a word should be pronounced in particular ways (by "educated" speakers), and not others, including use of citations from numerous authorities and historical context.

[ceo_esq]

I've got a subscription to the complete online version.

[Cleopatra]

Has anybody read the "Professor and the Madman" of Simon Winchester??

Read it, wordmongers, if you haven't read it yet, it's a FASCINATING book about the most fascinating History of a Dictionary in the world :)

Here, (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/006099486X/102-0191946-6426563?v=glance) read about it!

Hey Mr. Manifesto, did you know that an American was one of its most memorable contributors? Sorry to break such sad news to you :)

[Luciana]

Originally posted by hgc
I'll make a plug for a book I got for my birthday, The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0395893380/qid=1071159011/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-9637043-3488116?v=glance&s=books#product-details). This book is great reading. The author, Charles Elster, makes very entertaining arguments for why a word should be pronounced in particular ways (by "educated" speakers), and not others, including use of citations from numerous authorities and historical context.

Excellent, book, hgc! The entries are both erudite and funny. Richard Lederer is another author (a self-entitled herbivore) I also admire, for his books on language.

[Luciana]

Wait, I've just remembered! I also own a book about the making of the OED. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/006099486X/qid=1071173092//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i0_xgl14/104-2465096-8151931?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

It's a delightful read, as it explains the background on the making of the dictionary. Imagine that they had large pigeon-holes for each letters, which they would fill with contributions from people throughout England. Each slip of paper was a word, with its definition, etymology and, if possible, indication of the first time it was used in print. Some words took years to be properly defined.

[Halbert]

I wonder how many have Strunk and White (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/020530902X/qid=1071191659//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i0_xgl14/103-7215094-6182264?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). Probably rather american, so I don't know that anyone outside the US would like it as much.

I frequently used the OED in college, not so much now that I don't have access.

[tedly]

I agree, this book was delightful; so is the author. He also wrote 'Krakatoa' which I am getting to, but his 'The map that changed the world' is a m_u_s_t read. The dust jacket folds out into the map, and I'm looking at my framed version..now.
Buy it, give it to a friend, and borrow it back. Make two people happy.

Originally posted by Luciana Nery
Wait, I've just remembered! I also own a book about the making of the OED. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/006099486X/qid=1071173092//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i0_xgl14/104-2465096-8151931?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

It's a delightful read, as it explains the background on the making of the dictionary. Imagine that they had large pigeon-holes for each letters, which they would fill with contributions from people throughout England. Each slip of paper was a word, with its definition, etymology and, if possible, indication of the first time it was used in print. Some words took years to be properly defined.

[BillyTK]

I'm from the UK, have heard of, seen, and in fact use the online service on a regular basis for free because the organisation I work for has a subscription.

And it's absolutely top banana as (some of) we Brits say. Which reminds me, at some point I ought to look up the origin of the phrase "top banana"...

[Mr Manifesto]

Originally posted by Cleopatra
Has anybody read the "Professor and the Madman" of Simon Winchester??

Read it, wordmongers, if you haven't read it yet, it's a FASCINATING book about the most fascinating History of a Dictionary in the world :)

Here, (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/006099486X/102-0191946-6426563?v=glance) read about it!

Hey Mr. Manifesto, did you know that an American was one of its most memorable contributors? Sorry to break such sad news to you :)

I'm still waiting for you to fry me in flame wars. It's been, what, two weeks now?

[Deviant Pixie]

The profesor and the madman has also been published as

The Surgeon of Crowthorne: a tale of murder madness and the love of words