When I was about 18 I decided to read my 2-volume Shorter OED in its entirety - I was going great guns getting through 'A' in six weeks, but strangely I lapsed, never made it past the first hundred or so 'B's. Still my favourite dictionary though.

A little late to the discussion, ptero, but for what it's worth: I concur on MW2 and MW3, but my all-time favorite for browsing is the OED.

And speaking of reading dictionaries cover to cover. . . . When I was in elementary school and preparing for the annual statewide spelling bee, I decided that the best way to know any word they'd throw at me was to study the dictionary one word at a time. Never made it to Z, but it sure was fun trying. :-)

I'm not sure. I suppose the teacher assumed that we were trying to get out of reading, because really, who reads a dictionary word by word?
What she didn't get is that we both loved reading. While our classmates were struggling through their BSC and "Aussie Bites", 100 page novels (and hating every minute), we were reading adult fiction, which found so absorbing that we couldn't just read for 15 minutes and then stop (I still can't do that. It's torture).
Plus, we were having fun and learning new words (and partly we were doing it to be smart arses. Fun was discouraged whenever possible, and I think the teacher hated having to mark our spelling words each week because she didn't know what half the words meant, herself.

Thank you all! Your suggestions are lovely, and they're going to be darned useful as I assemble this presentation.

Frindley, I loved the TED video you posted. I think every Wordie should watch it (and be prepared to see the geek needle go all the way into the red...).

Plethora, why the heck wouldn't they let you read the dictionary? If I found a kid sitting quietly and reading the dictionary, I'd shower him or her with praise.

(I once started reading an encyclopedia cover to cover. I think I got about a quarter of the way through before I lost interest.)

Ptero, in making your presentation, you might want to mention words created in dictionaries. I have a list, Dictionary escapees, that describes various ways this happens.

Following up on John's comment, I regard MW2 as the greatest single volume dictionary. First issued in 1934, it weighed in at 16 pounds, 3350 pages, and more than 600,000 entries. I don't refer to it as W2, because the first dictionary by Noah Webster, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language came out in 1806, and the second, his masterwork, An American Dictionary of the English Language, came out in 1828. Also, the name "Webster" is not trademarked, so anyone can stick it in the title of a dictionary. Merriam-Webster is the company that continues the Webster tradition.

MW3 is the print dictionary I use most often, because it's much better for scientific terminology than MW2, but despite being styled as unabridged, it has 150,000 fewer entries than MW2 (and is 3.5 pounds lighter). MW3 was criticized for being too permissive, but I like that aspect. My main complaint about it is that all the headwords are lowercase (except for acronyms), with "cap", "usu cap", "often cap" stated in entry.

My favorite multi-volume dictionary is OED2, but CDC1 is better for scientific terms.

Perhaps you could mention reverse dictionaries, pter? I have always found them fascinating for some reason.

When I was in year 6, we had 15 minutes of compulsory reading time every day. My equally book-nerdy friend and I both felt that 15 minutes wasn't enough time to enjoy any sort of narrative, so we each brought in a dictionary and started reading at A. We only lasted a week before we were told off and our dictionaries confiscated.

My favourite dictionary is the Macquarie, I must say.

John: perhaps it's just that I'm feeling particularly apologetic lately...?

Seriously, I never cared much for dictionaries all my life. Words, yes; dictionaries, no. The OED is hella fun though. It's almost... dare I say... an OEDILF.

In learning foreign languages I've found picture dictionaries to be really useful. I don't think it's the pictures so much as the thematic organisation, eg, you can look at a diagram of a house and go through the words for every danged thing in it on a single page. Learning thematically-linked words in one big bunch works well for me. My Italian picture dictionary even had a diagram of a soccer field and names for the player positions ... twenty minutes with that and I was ready for my trip to the stadium!

c_b, I can't believe you just called yourself pedestrian because you enjoy the OED. This has to the the only place on the planet where anyone would ever say that :-)

The Macquarie Dictionary sponsored Australian Word Map is a fascinating attempt at using a kind of crowdsourcing to capture the diversity and intricacies of Australian regionalisms.

It's pedestrian for me to say so, but I have great fondness for the OED online. I especially love the quotations and etymologies.

Just for inspiration, Erin McKean gives a very entertaining presentation about dictionaries on TED.

And my favourite dictionary story of all time appears in Andrew Clements' Frindle (no, not named after me, alas).

I personally love the stories behind words and the ways they are used. So dictionaries that are "just" definitions are always less interesting to me than the ones with etymologies and historical usage.

Dictionaries! An older and very well-regarded copy editor of my acquaintance says that Webster's 2nd, aka W2 (though mollusque calls it the MW2), is the best dictionary ever created. It's beautifully written and opinionated without being overbearing. And it contains dord, one of the best accidental words ever.

I had a dictionary for years - a really old one -- called Eskay's (I think) joke dictionary. It was prety lame -- but also cool.

I also have a rhyming dictionary, also old.

Hello, fellow Wordies. I need your help...

In one of the classes I'm taking this semester, I've just volunteered to do a 10-minute presentation about dictionaries. It's a topic that's near and dear to my heart, but I'm still a bit anxious about it.

So I'm asking for suggestions. What are the best and worst dictionaries out there (print or online)? Do you have any favorites? Any dictionaries that have let you down? What about fancy bells and whistles (like those sites where you can hear words pronounced)?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Conversely, "Words that would be even more interesting with a 'P' in front of them'
sounds like a really good list to me.

Ptruly.

;)

We had a conversation somewhere on Wordie about this very topic, as regards "slave" vs. "enslaved." I think you might be onto something here, and for the same reasons. "Enslaved" describes a condition, not an identity or an object itself. It's an adjective, and as such doesn't tell the whole story; it needs a noun to modify. That noun is the identity of the person. So when you say "slave," you're describing the person as identified with his or her condition—it isn't a person, it's a slave, an object. Whereas if you say "enslaved man," "enslaved woman," "enslaved child," etc., you're not only describing a PERSON who has the condition of being enslaved. You're also (because it's a verb used as an adjective) implying responsibility. Someone enslaved this person/this person was enslaved by someone else.

Not exactly the same thing as what you're talking about, but close.

In the instance of the two offensive as well as not-entirely-accepted terms cited here today, they are coined expressly to insult and denigrate, so it's kind of irrelevant whether they're used as adjectives or nouns. But I think you're onto something about the adj. vs. noun thing. :)

And may I just say, I love discussing language with fellow wordies. :)

Yes, it's a good point, and I think in many cases it may make a difference. But so does intent, of course.

I once talked to a Jewish friend about this, and he confirmed that to say, "Herman Smith is a Jew" sounded to his ear potentially offensive, whereas saying "Herman Smith is Jewish" is a neutral statement of fact. But the distinction, I think, is not merely that the nominal form defines you, but that it suggests that the speaker sees you as a member of a distinct group which he defines as "Other" or "them". To say, for example, "she's a Hungarian" implies not only that she is Hungarian but also "and we all know what Hungarians are like." Saying "she's Hungarian" doesn't seem to suggest so much "she's one of them."

Not for me, ptero. "Gaytard" is equally as offensive to me as "gaytarded." But you do bring up an interesting point.

I've been watching the discussion that's currently going on at gaytarded and americunt, and something's just occured to me:

Could it be that nouns are (slightly) more offensive than adjectives?

Consider:
- "she's a Jew" versus "she's Jewish"
- "he's a gay" versus "he's gay"

Perhaps the difference is that nouns define you, but adjectives only describe you.

Hmm.

Can you folks think of any more examples to confirm or disconfirm my theory?

pBoris and pNatasha are ppissed at this ridiculous pcanard that there is no internet in pCalifornia.

pWhat am I? pchopped pliver?

{psulks in pcorner}

MiaLuthien, do I see pterodactyl's silent P in your mouth? please leave it... bring it here... good girl...

Have a good time in California, P.! Make sure to gather up all the peculiar new words the Californians use, and bring them back here to share! :P

So, this is why there are no Californian Wordies. So many prunes and no DSL. Such a shame.

Soon!

P.S. Are you sure they don't have internet in California?

Have a great trip, ptero! We'll miss you. :-)

A note to the various and sundry Wordies: I shall be in California until 8/14, and as we all know, there's no internet in California. Ergo, I shall probably be incommunicado until then.

Hi, frogapplause -- you're welcome to use whatever you like from 50 Ways to Leave your Lover, or indeed from any of my lists. I prefer to remain anonymous, though, so if you do credit me, credit me as pterodactyl, not as...

..whoops! Almost let my real name slip, there!

Ptero: I'd like to harvest some of the creative goodness from your "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" list for my comic strip. Kindly write to me at shoecabink at yahoo dot com to let me know if you'd like me to acknowledge you by your "real name" or by your Wordie name. Thanks. (OMG. How bold of me to neglect asking for permission to even USE your material! Today is NOT my day).

Hey, I live in Brooklyn!

Gosh, thanks!

You're one of my favorite users on here... great lists.

Thanks*, ter.

(* See -no, don't see- vegetarian)

Those pronunciation maps are fantastic. Thanks for the links!

The "p" in pterodactyl has always frustrated me. But the word wouldn't have looked half as scientific and official if there wasn't a letter to through off the pronunciation...

Reminds me of my cousin's euphoria at married life and having ditched the family surname for hubby's:
'I've gone from being a clutch of consonants to Thompson with a P.'

can I be pchained_pbear?

Pterodactyl, I heard a comedian once years ago riffing about reading his confirmation code back to the flight agent over the phone, when he was buying an airline ticket. "P as in pneumonia ... Q as in Qaddafi... and K as in... Khaddafi." So your "P as in pterodactyl" just fits perfectly in that great comic tradition. :)

Great story! I hereby bestow you the honour of being allowed to call me pbilby.