Thursday, June 07, 2007
Making of the OED podcast
The Oxford English Dictionary is an amazing tool and has a fascinating history, detailed in Simon Winchester's book, The Professor and the Madman
. Tom Johnson's I'd Rather Be Writing has posted a link to a podcast by Winchester about the book. Both the podcast and the book should be well worth checking out - Winchester is an articulate interviewee and a first-rate author - his book about Krakatoa" was one of the best non-fiction books I've read in a long time.
. Tom Johnson's I'd Rather Be Writing has posted a link to a podcast by Winchester about the book. Both the podcast and the book should be well worth checking out - Winchester is an articulate interviewee and a first-rate author - his book about Krakatoa" was one of the best non-fiction books I've read in a long time.Winchester narrates the story flawlessly in a classic English accent. The OED founders undertook the creation of a descriptive, rather than prescriptive, dictionary of the English language. Whereas Samuel Johnson, the first lexicographer, derived definitions for most words from his own intellect, the OED founders sent invitations to readers inviting them to contribute sentences demonstrating word meanings.
Labels: books, technical communication
Comments:
Post a Comment
