The next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, the world’s most definitive work on the language, will never be printed because of the impact of the internet on book sales.
Dictionaries are the canaries in the coalmine of civilisation.
Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.
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Monday, September 06, 2010
Oxford will not print another OED
This news actually made my chest clench in fear.
Dictionaries are the canaries in the coalmine of civilisation.
Dictionaries are the canaries in the coalmine of civilisation.
This just means they will keep updating their electronic version. You know all the advantages of the printed word, so I won't go into them here, but it is actually a lot faster to consult the electronic version. Cheaper to get too. I have the print version, but not here in Rome with me (graduation gift). Why? It would cost a fortune to ship!
ReplyDeleteYes, this will indeed make the process of deconstruction of the English language much easier. So much easier to make things go down an electronic memory hole so that no one can look anything up that went before.
ReplyDeleteDestroy the past because no one can prove the past ever happened.
But some day, the internet will be gone and we'll have to read books again.
ReplyDeleteMay that day arrive soon and free the captives.
The (online) OED has "access" as a verb, by the way.
ReplyDeleteThe internet has done great things for books, in particular, old (sometimes pretty rare) books in the public domain. It's simple enough to print and bind for personal use because you can learn how from the internet, too. The printing press did not kill off manuscript.
While the internet is ephemeral, so is the English language. Books will likely outlast our native tongue as we know it. But as much as I love Latin, I certainly don't wish for the death of the English language.
"The (online) OED has "access" as a verb, by the way."
ReplyDeleteSee?!
It was added in the 1989 second edition, so I imagine it's in print too.
ReplyDelete