The Oxford Dictionary and a focus on learning to speak english, how to speak italian & how to speak german
Posted on July 26, 2009
Filed Under Learn Spanish CD, Learn Spanish Online | Leave a Comment
The Oxford dictionary is the final authority on the English language People respect it a great deal and people all over the world are using it when they are concerned with english lessons.
The Oxford dictionary is over 100 years old. It was way back in 1857. A society of linguists believed a more complete dictionary was needed. Their plan was to begin from square one. The project was much larger than they first thought.
The development of the Oxford dictionary had taken a big step in 1879 when the society made an agreement with the Oxford University press to begin work on a new dictionary of the English language. The name was to be the New English Dictionary. It would contain 6400 pages in four volumes. The plan was to cover the language from 1150 AD to present. They thought it would take 10 years to complete. It is a great matter that this lexicon endures as we see contemporary issues depending on whether or not a person is engaged with how to speak spanish.
By the five year mark this precursor to the Oxford dictionary had words up to ant. The schedule needed revising. One problem was the constant evolution of English. Words kept changing even as they wrote their entries, so they were constantly revising. And they had seven centuries of words to examine. The Enlish language is so important and as mentioned above many follow the example set by this dictionary and the context is relevant when connected to how to speak chinese.
For four decades work on the Oxford dictionary continued. Many new editors joined the project. The dictionary had expanded from the original concept of four volumes to 10 volumes. It had over 400,000 entries. It quickly became the ultimate authority on the English language. 40 years later the initial mission was accomplished.
Immediately they set about revising the Oxford dictionary. A supplement published in 1933 expanded the dictionary to 12 volumes. 1957 was the next major change. A new supplement was finally finished and published from 1972 through 1986 in four volumes.
In 1982 editors decided to bring the Oxford dictionary into the computer age. The editors began transferring it from paper to electronic format. They spent over 13 million dollars to make this happen. It was a 5 year task. The electronic version led to a second edition published in 1989. This printed version is 20 volumes containing a total of 22,000 pages.
The Oxford dictionary later was published on CD-ROM, and is now available online. What an interesting journey from concept to the present.
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