Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Inside the OED: can the world’s biggest dictionary survive the internet?

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 72 posts

Re: Inside the OED: can the world’s biggest dictionary survive the internet?

#61

Post by WalterGR »

mmjaa wrote: post #52
WalterGR wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather like to have a service that allows me to construct my own dictionaries. In printed form, or is web-based okay?

I'd really prefer something not web-based, but if you know of any tool like this, I'm all ears anyway. What I'd really want is to be able to construct lexicographic sets and save the in SQLite databases, for use in apps of course - but that may be a tall order. You know of tools like this?

You know of tools like this?

I don't. I do have a background in dictionaries, though: I created The Online Slang Dictionary (http://onlineslangdictionary.com/) which is the eldest slang dictionary and thesaurus on the web. I've given some minutes of thought to turning the underlying code into a product...

What sort of data would you like to capture in the DB, and what would apps do with it?

Re: Inside the OED: can the world’s biggest dictionary survive the internet?

#62

Post by thaumasiotes »

dragonwriter wrote: post #47
thaumasiotes wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know many people will say that they can get a dictionary for free, why use the OED. The problem is that those who know better are not standing up to assert why it is superior, necessary, and incredibly valuable to the world. There are a couple of problems with this. First, the OED is primarily a work of historical scholarship. Anyone in the market for a dictionary so that they can look up the meanings of words wo…

> First, the OED is primarily a work of historical scholarship. Anyone in the market for a dictionary so that they can look up the meanings of words would be better off getting something else, like Merriam-Webster or really anything. The OED is not a good choice for this purpose The OED is excellent for this purpose, due to its completeness, and other, even “unabridged” dictionaries fall far short of it in this use.…

The OED may be excellent for this purpose in the same sense that a Juicero press was excellent for compressing a bag of vegetable mash, but, much like the Juicero press, that doesn't make it a good choice in the usual case.

Re: Inside the OED: can the world’s biggest dictionary survive the internet?

#63

Post by forapurpose »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #28
forapurpose wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the OED is primarily a work of historical scholarship. Anyone in the market for a dictionary so that they can look up the meanings of words would be better off getting something else I couldn't disagree more strongly. I use it to learn the meanings of words and there is no better source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16461549

If you want to know the meaning of words hundreds of years in the past, the OED is a good choice. That question is relevant to almost no one. If you want the current meaning, the OED is a poor choice.

> If you want the current meaning, the OED is a poor choice.

That's simply not true. The OED has the current meanings, in more depth than anyone else.

> That question is relevant to almost no one.

Also not true. Most books and other texts were written before 2018.

Re: Inside the OED: can the world’s biggest dictionary survive the internet?

#64

Post by forapurpose »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #62
dragonwriter wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First, the OED is primarily a work of historical scholarship. Anyone in the market for a dictionary so that they can look up the meanings of words would be better off getting something else, like Merriam-Webster or really anything. The OED is not a good choice for this purpose The OED is excellent for this purpose, due to its completeness, and other, even “unabridged” dictionaries fall far short of it in this use.…

The OED may be excellent for this purpose in the same sense that a Juicero press was excellent for compressing a bag of vegetable mash, but, much like the Juicero press, that doesn't make it a good choice in the usual case.

Perhaps what you mean is that you personally don't find it useful. Many, many people do.

Re: Inside the OED: can the world’s biggest dictionary survive the internet?

#65

Post by dragonwriter »

forapurpose wrote: post #63
thaumasiotes wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to know the meaning of words hundreds of years in the past, the OED is a good choice. That question is relevant to almost no one. If you want the current meaning, the OED is a poor choice.

> If you want the current meaning, the OED is a poor choice. That's simply not true. The OED has the current meanings, in more depth than anyone else. > That question is relevant to almost no one. Also not true. Most books and other texts were written before 2018.

> That's simply not true. The OED has the current meanings, in more depth than anyone else.

The printed OED does not, though there have been separate print supplements to the print edition that get it closer.

The online edition, OTOH, does.

Re: Inside the OED: can the world’s biggest dictionary survive the internet?

#66

Post by forapurpose »

dragonwriter wrote: post #65
forapurpose wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you want the current meaning, the OED is a poor choice. That's simply not true. The OED has the current meanings, in more depth than anyone else. > That question is relevant to almost no one. Also not true. Most books and other texts were written before 2018.

> That's simply not true. The OED has the current meanings, in more depth than anyone else. The printed OED does not, though there have been separate print supplements to the print edition that get it closer. The online edition, OTOH, does.

It depends on how fast the meaning of that particular word has changed.

Tangentially, is there a better use case for moving to a database than 20+ volumes of books? To put it another way, if someone had a database and said, 'hey, let's print this thing out - it will be around 20 large books - and sell it!' ...

Re: Inside the OED: can the world’s biggest dictionary survive the internet?

#67

Post by thaumasiotes »

forapurpose wrote: post #64
thaumasiotes wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The OED may be excellent for this purpose in the same sense that a Juicero press was excellent for compressing a bag of vegetable mash, but, much like the Juicero press, that doesn't make it a good choice in the usual case.

Perhaps what you mean is that you personally don't find it useful. Many, many people do.

I personally find the OED just as useful as many of the people commenting here to defend it. I am interested in the content and it's something I would be happy to own and occasionally consult. (Though not to purchase.)

But unlike most everyone here, I'm acknowledging that the value I get from the OED is purely entertainment value, not utility.

I'll note also that it obviously cannot be true that "many, many people" find the OED useful, as the total number of people who access the OED more than a couple of times a year is less than "many, many".

Re: Inside the OED: can the world’s biggest dictionary survive the internet?

#68

Post by forapurpose »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #67
forapurpose wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps what you mean is that you personally don't find it useful. Many, many people do.

I personally find the OED just as useful as many of the people commenting here to defend it. I am interested in the content and it's something I would be happy to own and occasionally consult. (Though not to purchase.) But unlike most everyone here, I'm acknowledging that the value I get from the OED is purely entertainment value, not utility. I'll note also that it obviously cannot be true that "many, many people" f…

> But unlike most everyone here, I'm acknowledging that the value I get from the OED is purely entertainment value, not utility.

The premise of this comment is that everyone must agree with it (they just aren't admitting it). I'm sure there's a word for that ...

Re: Inside the OED: can the world’s biggest dictionary survive the internet?

#69

Post by dragonwriter »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #67
forapurpose wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps what you mean is that you personally don't find it useful. Many, many people do.

I personally find the OED just as useful as many of the people commenting here to defend it. I am interested in the content and it's something I would be happy to own and occasionally consult. (Though not to purchase.) But unlike most everyone here, I'm acknowledging that the value I get from the OED is purely entertainment value, not utility. I'll note also that it obviously cannot be true that "many, many people" f…

> I'll note also that it obviously cannot be true that "many, many people" find the OED useful, as the total number of people who access the OED more than a couple of times a year is less than "many, many".

I don't access an optometrist more than once a year.

I find optometry very, very useful to me. Frequency of access and value derived from a thing have no necessary relationship.

Re: Inside the OED: can the world’s biggest dictionary survive the internet?

#70

Post by thaumasiotes »

forapurpose wrote: post #68
thaumasiotes wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally find the OED just as useful as many of the people commenting here to defend it. I am interested in the content and it's something I would be happy to own and occasionally consult. (Though not to purchase.) But unlike most everyone here, I'm acknowledging that the value I get from the OED is purely entertainment value, not utility. I'll note also that it obviously cannot be true that "many, many people" f…

> But unlike most everyone here, I'm acknowledging that the value I get from the OED is purely entertainment value, not utility. The premise of this comment is that everyone must agree with it (they just aren't admitting it). I'm sure there's a word for that ...

The premise of the comment is that it is true for almost everyone, not that they realize it's true.
Post reply on HN