MEDIACOM-RELEASE-OXFORD-ENGLISH-DICT
LONDON, March 14 RNewswire-AsiaNet/ -- On 14 March 2000 the Oxford English Dictionary Online will be launched on the
world-wide web at www.oed.com. On view will be the full text, currently in 20 volumes -- 60 Million Words describing
nearly three-quarters of a million terms, illustrated by more than 2.4 million quotations -- in a format developed for
easy accessibility. New Material: the initial findings of the project to revise the Oxford English Dictionary
comprising: the first 1000-entry section ("M"-"MAH") to be fully revised and updated; and more than 9,000 words
researched over the last decade now included within the Dictionary for the first time.
Stg35m /US$55m Revision Could Double the Size of World English in the OED
Over the next decade readers will be able to watch the Dictionary, described in the New York Times as "the greatest
work in dictionary-making ever undertaken", develop and grow. Chief Editor, John Simpson notes: "Delivering the Oxford
English Dictionary online will represent the achievement of a major goal, but this is only part of the story." More than
300 staff and advisers are completely revising the Dictionary -- the first revision since it was originally completed in
1928. The work is being funded by the Oxford University Press, and is scheduled for completion in 2010. Although it is
still in its early stages, Simpson believes that the revision could double the length of the Dictionary, currently
available in 20 hardback volumes, taking the number of words and phrases covered to 1.3 million.
Words from Australia and New Zealand Among New 10,000
Of the 10,000 new words, new meanings, and radically revised entries now added to the Dictionary, many are from
Australasia, including Young Spunk; Rage; and Gurgler. 200 new words are found in the first section of the OED to be
completely revised, including Mabo (from Eddie Mabo, principal claimant in the case which led to recognition of
Australian Aborigines' ancestral rights to land dating from before European settlement); Macquarie; Maginnis; Mackenzie
Bean; Mag; Macadamia; and Magic Million (horse race). Quarterly updates of more than 1,000 words -- including more words
from Australia and New Zealand -- will be released during the year 2000, and many thousands more will be added until the
Dictionary is completed in ten years' time.
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