Synopsis
In 1971 the Compact Oxford English Dictionary made publishing and printing history by ingeniously reducing the 13 volumes of the OED to two, without losing one word of the original. Newsweek hailed the achievement "a brilliant success," while the New York Times declared that the Compact was "something of a miracle... easier to work with than the original... an extraordinary bargain." Since then it has sold over 330,000 copies in the United States alone.
But the Compact did not contain the Supplements to the OED which have been appearing at regular intervals since 1972. Now, with their completion in 1986, all four volumes are being produced in a single micrographically reproduced volume to be called Volume III of the Compact OED. So the vital addendum, which transforms the OED into an indispensable tool for the eighties, will be made available for the first time in this convenient and affordable format.
The Supplement, called the "book of the century" by Phillip Howard in the London Times, contains all the new words that have come into use during the twentieth century and includes as well the countless new meanings that have been applied to older words--over 69,000 entries altogether. It includes business terms, "computerese," space-age terminology, colloquialisms and coinages by modern authors ranging from William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf to Gore Vidal and Erica Jong. Words like G-man, yuppie, user-friendly , test-tube baby, and Zen Buddhism rub shoulders with the most recent additions to subjects like law, medicine and engineering. The wealth of Americanisms in the Supplement also reflects a new direction for the dictionary. As editor Robert Burchfield explains it, "The center of gravity for the English language is no longer Britain. American English is the greatest influence on English everywhere."
Volume III of the Compact is available in its own jndividual slipcase or combined with Volumes I and II in one slipcase. By a process of photoreduction four pages from the original work appear on each page of the Compact edition and both versions include a magnifying glass that makes the reduced type easily readable.
The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, Volume III (A Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary, Volumes I-IV) $75.00, 861211-7, 1424 pp., 9 1/2 x 12 1/2 1 volume in slipcase (adhesive strips on the slipcase allow it to be attached to the 2-volume Compact OED boxed set) with reading glass
The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, Volumes I-III $250.00, 861212-5, 5568 pp., 9 1/2 x 12 1/2 Volumes I, II and III in a single slipcase with reading glass
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