The Idea Blog

This news from Virginia Heffernan in the NY Times…

The O.E.D. - that’s the Oxford English Dictionary, sir - is no longer printed in either its 13+ volume or its two volume micro edition.

I quit the Book-of-the-Month Club in 1974 in order to re-join and make the “compact” version my free selection. I loved having all that word history around, pulling out the magnifying glass in the little drawer of the boxed edition and impressing anyone (especially the girls) within eye-shot with my studiousness.

“The future is here, and the immortal O.E.D., the one that lives in bound pages last published micrographically in 1991, is obsolete — at least according to the folks who publish it. As of now, Oxford University Press has no official plans to publish a new print edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.”

I still have copy of the OED, but I find I use the magnifying glass as often for other things these days. ‘Tis a shame, yes it is.