So, is there a Shorter Shorter out there?
You can see how this can get confusing.
I seem to recall that the Swedish version of the OED still isn't
finished. Something to be side for using the volunteer approach. Good
article in the wikipedia on the OED, particularly this:
"In the end, there were some 800 enthusiastic volunteer readers, but
in a paper-and-ink-dependent process, the major drawback was that the
choices of the relatively untrained volunteers—regarding what to read
and select, what to discard, and how much detail to provide were
arbitrary. One prolific contributor, W. C. Minor, Murray later
learned, was an inmate of the Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally
Insane. As months and years passed, the project languished; Furnivall
began losing track of assistants, some of whom assumed the project
abandoned; others died and their slips went unreturned. Later, the
entire set of quotation slips for words starting with H was found in
Tuscany; others were assumed to be waste paper and burned as tinder."
Ah, the adventures of H. What must it have seen on the way to Tuscany?
Roger
On 9/8/07, MC Ward <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Not so easy mayhap: "Shorter" doesn't mean briefer in
> this case--it's the name of the author/editor.
>
> Candice
>
>
>
> --- Peter Cudmore <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > > And btw, I haven't seen any references to or
> > > recommendations of Shorter, where a lot of your
> > > etymological questions may be answered. I find it
> > very
> > > useful, especially when I consult it together with
> > a
> > > modern dictionary , such as Webster's 10th (the
> > newer
> > > edition of which should be even better.)
> > >
> > > Candice
> >
> > Ah that's easy: I have online access to the OED, and
> > I think Robin does too
> > (either that or a CD-Rom version).
> >
> > P
> >
>
>
>
>
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