Re: OED

[Bill Troop billtroop@xxxxxxxx]

> How about totally free? I do believe our OED website refers to
> one or two kosher options, generously supplied by colleagues at
> OUP...
Robert, I'm not sure what you mean here, please s'plain, but the free
version I refer to is U of Glasgow only.
> Here's what I don't quite "get" about the
I totally agree with you. I think that using the HTOED in that way is
utterly pointless. Also, you could stick in all the authentic
vocabulary you wanted to, and it still wouldn't be used
authentically, because you wouldn't have a well-developed feeling for
how to use it. And in any case, it would just be confusing to your
reader. Tolkien was remarkably skillful at doing this in a way
sufficiently effective that it has one countless millions of readers,
and he didn't need a thesaurus. I doubt that this method of usage
would even have been mentioned except that OUP needed it as a
marketing ploy. It was not expected to be a big seller at all, and
they were astonished when it had to be quickly reprinted.
Perhaps there will be a tendency to expand the vocabulary amongst
students? Kay et al. have always made clear that HTOED was a thing
they knew had to be done, but that they couldn't foresee how it would
be used, and had no time themselves to use it during the decades when
they were busy creating it.
I think that the habit of searching for a meaning rather than word as
the first order of business is going to help everyone think more
deeply about words - - but I'm just making this up as I go along - -
pay no heed!
Best - - - B