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Help the OED Find a Lost Book

Posted by Unknown on from the doesn't-everyone-have-that-book dept.

New submitter imlepid writes "The Oxford English Dictionary is currently undergoing a complete overhaul which includes a reexamination of the 300,000+ entries and citations for those entries. Understandably for a work which is over 150 years old, some of the sources have become hard to find. One such example is a book titled 'Meanderings of Memory' by Nightlark, which is cited 49 times in the OED, including for some rare words. The OED's editorial team has appealed to the public, 'Have you seen a copy of this book?'"

16 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. I've met a work witch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Their work ethic is wicked.

  2. How silly. by Aerokii · · Score: 3, Funny

    When your work witch is over 150 years old, you'll definitely want an overhaul.

    Or retirement.

  3. Did they check the filing cabinet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "But Mr Dent, Meanderings of Memory has been available in the local library for the last nine months."

    "Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see it, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."

    "But the book was on display ..."

    "On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find it."

    "That's the display department."

    "With a flashlight."

    "Ah, well the lights had probably gone."

    "So had the stairs."

    "But look, you found the book didn't you?"

    "Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."

  4. Irony? by ubrgeek · · Score: 5, Funny

    They can't remember where they left the 'Meanderings of Memory' book?

    --
    Bark less. Wag more.
  5. Does it even really exist? by JDG1980 · · Score: 4, Funny

    What if "Meanderings of Memory" never existed in the first place, but was made up by sloppy 19th-century OED editors when they couldn't find a real source? It's not as if this practice is unknown...

    1. Re:Does it even really exist? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      check the comments under the OED blog - there's a link to a catalog on google books which lists it

    2. Re:Does it even really exist? by tgd · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What if "Meanderings of Memory" never existed in the first place, but was made up by sloppy 19th-century OED editors when they couldn't find a real source? It's not as if this practice is unknown...

      Maybe its like the fake roads that cartographers put into maps... anyone else who references it clearly copied the OED!

    3. Re:Does it even really exist? by MobyDisk · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You almost got it right: The OED itself is the copy! The creates of the OED must have stolen information from some other, older source, who put fake references in to detect it. The OED is a fraud!

    4. Re:Does it even really exist? by Spiridios · · Score: 4, Informative

      check the comments under the OED blog - there's a link to a catalog on google books which lists it

      Would that I could mod you up. Here's the catalog. It's entirely possible that it's also made up, but seems less likely.

    5. Re:Does it even really exist? by dwye · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Of course, by your logic, there are also numerous copies of The Necronomicon, as well as at least two of the Al Asif (the Arabic, untranslated source of The Necronomicon) in various libraries. Just to extend the joke, most have been borrowed by a member of the Whateley family and are years overdue. I also understand that librarians have added a few copies of The King In Yellow (the mythical play, not the collection of stories about it) around the country. In a few years, expect to see works by Nickolaus Flamel (sp?) start showing up, as Harry Potter fans get in charge of things.

      Librarians with too much time on there hands leave all sorts of in-jokes around.

  6. I'll Check by HtR · · Score: 4, Funny

    Let me check. It might be sitting on my desk.

    Umm - this might take a couple of hours ...

    --
    Have you tried turning it off and on again?
  7. No help for the OED until they change pricing by lsommerer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I would love to use the OED occasionally and wouldn't mind paying to do so, but who can afford to spend $295 per year for a subscription?

    I have to assume that they are not all idiots and that they actually have some subscribers at that price point, but I can't imagine that that model makes the most money possible. I want to look up maybe one word a month, and I would be willing to pay to do so, but I can't pay $295 a year (or even $29.95 per month).

    1. Re:No help for the OED until they change pricing by Anubis+IV · · Score: 3, Informative

      A word being used once or twice in a body of literature might indicate that the word was in use around the area where the author worked and may have even been a common term at that time and place. The word may no longer be useful to us in everyday speech, but it may be useful if someone were to read the works of others from around that time and place who happened to use the word in personal journals or the like that historians are later trying to make sense of.

  8. 'Meanderings of Memory' by Nightlark by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Funny

    A famous literary hoax, of Borgesian dimensions.

    One might adduce as much, from the enigmatic title of the purported work, and the pseudonymous attribution of authorship.

    In fact, this was the product of several Oxford dons, in the generation before Tolkien - who expanded on the academic chicanery of spurious reference work by creating an entire cosmos, populated with libraries of such.

    Now, let us turn to the Voynich manuscript, and the Dictionary of the Khazars...

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  9. I'm not bringing it back ... by PPH · · Score: 3, Funny

    .... to the library unless someone gives me a break on 150 years of late fees.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  10. Re:Could Be Worse by dwye · · Score: 3, Funny

    Countless number of books lost forever when the Library of Alexandria was burnt down.

    Which time?