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Oxford Dictionary Does Science Fiction

Posted by timothy on from the narfle-the-garthag dept.

Embedded Geek writes: "The News Log for Locus has an item about the Oxford English Dictionary's attempt to capture unique words and phrases used in various fields. It has begun with a pilot site for science fiction. Specifically, they are looking for published uses of specific words in Science Fiction, SF Criticism, and SF Fandom. The goal is not to create a glossary of terms but rather find the earliest (antedating), latest (postdating), and intermediate (interdating) uses of these words already in the dictionary in books, magazines, etc. They are soliciting help from the public in this effort. Presumably, if this effort is a success, they will begin working on other fields: other literature, programming, open source... who knows?"

7 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Do you really want to work on this? by befletch · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm torn. The OED is an extremely important resource for the English language, and having more people contribute can only be a good thing. Actually, the Oxford has a history of community contributions so the concept is not entirely new. Just the medium.

    On the other hand, online access costs something like US$550/year for a private individual, which just seems a little excessive. It seems a little like getting open source coders to work on your closed source commercial project.

    Yes, it is expensive to build and maintain something like the OED and they claim that they're not actually trying to make money, just cover their costs. Here's some numbers in an old Salon article:

    http://www.salon.com/books/log/1999/09/08/oed/

    I guess it just saddens me that access is so unaffordable, when the resource itself is so rich. Am I being unreasonable?

    --
    If you say, "now I'll be modded down because of X", I'll happily oblige.
    1. Re:Do you really want to work on this? by Debillitatus · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I guess it just saddens me that access is so unaffordable, when the resource itself is so rich. Am I being unreasonable?

      Maybe you are, maybe you're not. But let me put it in a context for you.

      I think it's a bad idea to compare it to coding, open/closed-source, etc. This is not the right paradigm. I think this is more like an academic work. For example, if you write a scholarly article, you submit it to some journal or another. They don't pay you anything, and they even take the copyright. Then they turn around and sell these journals for tons of money. For example, it is common for mathematics journals to cost an institution US$1000 or more a year. The authors of the papers get nothing from this.

      Of course, if you're associated with a reasonable university, you'll be able to gain access to these journals as a scholar. So it seems to me that contributing to the OED is completely analogous to scholarly publication.

      --

      Come on, give it up, that's

  2. Etymology by Descartes · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think what's more important than the fact that they're compiling Sci-Fi definitions is that they're looking at the origins.

    This is really what makes the OED so much better than any other dictionary. As a student of classical languages I can't express how enough how annyoing it is to hear someone incorrectly use a word they got out of the thesaurus . I think the OED is sort of the anti-thesaurus, really.

    Now I'm not a huge Sci-Fi geek, (Except for quoting the Star Wars movies at appropriate times in conversation.) but I'm sure they feel the same way when people talk about the "Vulcan face-grab".

    1. Re:Etymology by T-Lex · · Score: 2, Interesting
      "As a student of classical languages I can't express how enough how annyoing it is to hear someone incorrectly use a word they got out of the thesaurus."

      I'm sure we all pity your plight.

      plight /plVIt/ n.2ME. [AN plit var. of OFr. ploit, pleit fold, PLAIT n. In branch I perh. infl. by prec.]
      I 1 Condition, state. Now esp. an unfortunate condition, a predicament. ME.

      What is ironic about your post, however,

      ironic /VI"rQnIk/ a.M17. [Fr. ironique or late L ironicus f. Gk eironikos dissembling, feigning ignorance, f. as IRONY n.: see -IC.]
      Pertaining to irony; uttering or given to irony; of the nature of or containing irony; = IRONICAL 1, 2.That's not a very satisfying definition, is it? Oh well.

      is that so many of the words in the OED are there because of an initial misusage . . .

      misusage /mIs"ju:sIdZ/ n. Now rare.M16. [f. MIS-1 2 + USAGE.]1 Misconduct; corrupt practice, abuse. M-L16.2 Ill usage; mistreatment. Formerly also in pl., instances of this. M16.
      3 Bad or wrong use, misuse. M16.

      . . .that became accepted and standardized.

      You could learn a lesson from Samuel Johnson, friend. Words change... so should you.

  3. Inexpensive access to the OED by Bill+Evans · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's the real thing, too!

    Grit your teeth and (gag) join the Quality Paperback Book Club (http://www.qpb.com). Once the dust settles, you get free online access to the OED, as long as you buy a book every six months.

    I hate book clubs, but this works for me.

    --
    Oh, this Beta, it is not so good.
  4. Re:Stanislaw Lem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Douglas Adams also released a dictionary of words that haven't been invented yet, complete with meanings - it's called "The Meaning of Liff", and is not one of his better books.

  5. Time to pull out the Phil K. Dick! by sh00z · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Spotted a few immediately obvious omissions: conapt, leady, kipple, etc.