How Long Does It Take to Read the Dictionary

Ammon Shea recently spent a yr of his life reading the OED from start to end. Over the next few months he volition be posting weekly blogs nigh the insights, gems, and thoughts on linguistic communication that came from this feel. His volume, Reading the OED, will be published by Perigee in July. In the post beneath Ammon, an expert dictionary reader, shares some advice for beginners.

With the possible exception of the phone book, I can think of no other book which is so frequently owned, and yet so infrequently read, equally the dictionary. And given that the phone book is going the style of the vocative sense and the dodo, it is likely that the lexicon will reign supreme over this peculiar category of 'the book that anybody has and no one e'er reads'. This is both understandable and regrettable.

Why don't people read dictionaries? On the face of information technology this seems a rather easy question to answer. They are oftentimes quite long, the plot leaves something to be desired, and they are non compiled with the reader's amusement in mind. If you were to one day announce to your friends that y'all were reading the lexicon it is quite possible that they would await at yous askance, and possibly re-evaluate whether the friendship was worth saving.

Information technology is no wonder that I have no friends – I've been reading very petty only dictionaries for the past ten years or so. What began as a whimsical foray into looking for words has turned into an endeavour that is delightfully consuming. Dictionary reading, as it turns out, is not a sign of incipient madness, an onerous means of cocky-comeback, or a Sisyphean chore – it can be merely as enjoyable as reading whatsoever other book. Based on my experiences reading some great (and some not so neat) dictionaries, I've herewith compiled a short listing of advice for the showtime dictionary reader.

i) Start small.
In his Bibliography of Writing on the English language Language, Arthur Kennedy lists 13,402 different works. Only a few thousand of these are dictionaries or give-and-take books, but Kennedy's bibliography was published in 1922 – at that place have been hundreds, if non thousands of additional dictionaries since then. Rather than dive right into reading the OED, it might exist a good idea to begin by reading one of the smaller ones.

Near of the earliest monolingual English dictionaries, published in the 17th century, are only several hundred pages long. Robert Cawdrey's A Table Alphabeticall, Henry Cockeram's English Dictionarie, and John Bullokar'south English Expositor take all been reprinted in the 20th century, and can be bought for a fraction of what one of the originals would toll. Furthermore, they are all difficult-word dictionaries, and deal most entirely with unusual vocabulary. Which can be more than interesting to someone who is only starting time to read dictionaries, rather than exploring the hundreds of different meanings of words such every bit set or become.

If you are feeling more ambitious, you tin can notice a reading copy of one of the 18th century lexicographers for non as well dear a cost. Any of the many editions of Nathan Bailey'southward Etymological English Dictionary make for fine reading. Bailey did make an attempt to catalogue equally much of the English linguistic communication equally he can, but when he thinks that his reader already knows a word he doesn't devote likewise much fourth dimension to it (cow is divers every bit 'a beast well known'). And at 800-odd pages it is of a length that is manageable, yet will leave you with a feeling of accomplishment when finished.

ii) Keep notes.
Exercise not attempt to remember everything you read. Information technology is inevitable that if you lot do not write your favorite words down you will be constantly plagued every bit you become through life past the words that dance about on the edge of your encephalon, only past the accomplish of retentivity. Even though I retrieve that dictionaries can be read much similar other books (which you most probable do not keep notes on), information technology is a terribly distracting thing to always have some give-and-take that you cannot quite grasp. If you do not write downward your favorite words it is quite likely that yous volition spend much of your time re-reading in search of them.

3) Drink plenty of Coffee.
Sometimes reading a dictionary is an utterly transporting experience. I've read dictionaries which left me overwhelmed by the possibilities of language, in which all of the human experience seemed to be laid out in front of me in alphabetized rows, and I'll wonder why I e'er read anything else. But I won't lie to you – sometimes it is extraordinarily boring.

Even the all-time of dictionaries volition have occasional long stretches of words for which I have difficulty assertive that they could exist loved by anyone, even their mothers. Only if you skip over these sections in that location is always the possibility that you will miss some gem of a word that has been hiding there. For these moments the proper chemical assistance is absolutely essential. I recommend that you begin drinking coffee at least a half hour earlier starting to read, and adjust your dosage according to what part of the alphabet you are currently reading.

I realize that no matter how enjoyable I claim dictionary reading to be, it is unlikely that I will convince many people to take it up as a hobby. A big number of the almost interesting words you learn volition be practically useless, as very few other people will be familiar with them, or much care that you know them. It will not help you advance your career, and your friends and loved ones will not appreciate periodically beingness told 'ooh! – there'southward a word for that'.

But for those few of you lot out there who are already odd enough that this idea sounds like something you lot might like to try, I can say that reading dictionaries has given me more pure enjoyment than any other type of volume. Every i is filled with thousands and thousands of stories, the answers to questions that yous've had for years, and the answers to questions you lot've never dreamed of. One time you begin to read them there is the instantly comforting notion that you volition never once again be at a loss for something to read. And should anyone question your choice of reading textile, y'all tin always say 'at least I'm not reading the phone book.'

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Source: https://blog.oup.com/2008/04/dictionary-2/

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