January 3, 2007

  • OED2

    Ok, fine. FINE. I'll post already! (er, it has been a month, hasn't it? eheh...)

    My students -- my wonderful, incredible, thoughtful, generous, considerate, perceptive, wise students -- bought me the OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY for Christmas. Not the photo-reduced one that needs a powerful magnifying glass and constant glasses prescription upgrades. Oh no. Not my students. They don't do small. They think big and they do big. They got me the real deal, the real McCoy. The 20-volume second edition (the latest that exists) of the greatest dictionary every created, the most massive literary endeavor ever conceived and executed, the most astonishing and mind-bogglingly garantuan project ever to stun and daunt even the most visionary of visionaries, the vastest and most magnificent work ever cranked out of that great publishing house, Oxford University Press and its gloriously cool academic and totally unprofitable subsidiary the Clarendon Press.

    gasps for breath

    And now... would you like to see pictures? I thought you'd never ask.

    And they got me the coolest lectern to read it on (but it's not put together yet). 

Comments (5)

  • Wow... I'm just glad the National Spelling Bee uses Webster's Unabridged!!

  • It's beautiful! 

  • I love the grid shot in particular.

  • glad you like it Mr.C! :P

  • THE RING OF WORDS
    TOLKIEN and the OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY

    "I learned more in those two years than in any equal period of my life." ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
    Tolkien's first job, on returning home from World War I, was as an assistant on the staff of the Oxford English Dictionary. The Ring of Words reveals how his professional work on the Oxford English Dictionary influenced Tolkien's creative use of language in his fictional world. Here three senior editors of the OED offer an intriguing exploration of Tolkien's career as a lexicographer and illuminate his creativity as a word user and word creator.

    The centerpiece of the book is a wonderful collection of "word studies" which will delight the heart of Ring fans and word lovers everywhere.

    The editors look at the origin of such Tolkienesque words as "hobbit," "mithril, "Smeagol," "Ent," "halfling," and "worm" (meaning "dragon"). Readers discover that a word such as "mathom" (anything a hobbit had no immediate use for, but was unwilling to throw away) was actually common in Old English, but that "Mithril," on the other hand, is a complete invention (and the first "Elven" word to have an entry in the OED).

    And fans of Harry Potter will be surprised to find that "Dumbledore" was a word used by Tolkien and many others (it is a dialect word meaning "bumblebee").

    Few novelists have found so much of their creative inspiration in the shapes and histories of words. Presenting archival material not found anywhere else, The Ring of Words offers a fresh and unexplored angle on the literary achievements of one of the world's most famous and best-loved writers. A physical description follows...

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