Sharp PW-E500A User Manual

Oxford Dictionary of English Oxford Thesaurus of English Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Oxford Crossword Dictionary Oxford Puzzle Solver

MODEL

PW-E500A

ELECTRONIC DICTIONARY

OPERATION MANUAL

Page

• Getting Started ........................................................ 3

• Using the

• Using the Solver functions .................................... 23

• Using the Super jump function ............................. 26

• Using the History function .................................... 28

• Using the Calculator function ............................... 29

• Using the Converter function ................................ 30

• Appendices ........................................................... 32

• Introductions to the Dictionaries ........................... 35

Oxford Dictionary of English ................

Oxford Thesaurus of English ................

Oxford Dictionary of Quotations ..........

15 18 20

Introduction

Thank you for purchasing the SHARP Electronic Dictionary, model PW-E500A.

The PW-E500A contains data based on the following dictionaries (see page 5):

• Oxford Dictionary of English

• Oxford Thesaurus of English

• Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

• Oxford Crossword Dictionary

• Oxford Puzzle Solver

After reading this manual, store it in a convenient location for future reference.

NOTICE

• SHARP will not be liable nor responsible for any incidental or consequential economic or property damage caused by misuse and/or malfunction of this product and its peripherals, unless such liability is acknowledged by law.

• The specification of this product and its accessories, as well as information provided in this manual, is subject to change without prior notice.

CAUTION

• Do not carry the PW-E500A in the back pocket of slacks or trousers.

• Do not apply excessive physical pressure on the LCD panel because the glass material may break.

• Do not drop the PW-E500A or apply excessive force to it. Bending the unit unduly can damage it.

• Do not subject the PW-E500A to extreme temperatures. Do not expose the unit to an extremely humid or dusty environment.

• Do not apply extreme force when pressing the keys.

• Sharp or hard objects can scratch and damage the unit. Make sure it is adequately protected when carried with other objects.

• Since the unit is not waterproof, do not use it or store it where fluids can splash onto it. Raindrops, water spray, juice, coffee, steam, perspiration, etc. will also cause malfunction.

• Clean only with a soft, dry cloth. Do not use solvents.

• Use only a SHARP approved service facility.

NOTES

• Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries.

• All company and/or product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

CONTENTS

Getting Started

Using the PW-E500A for the first time ......................................................... 3

Layout ........................................................................................................... 6

Basic operation .............................................................................................8

Set-up menu ............................................................................................... 12

Inputting characters ....................................................................................13

Using the

Oxford Dictionary of English

Looking up a word (Filter search) .............................................................. 15

Phrase search.............................................................................................16

Spellcheck function.....................................................................................16

Further information .....................................................................................17

Oxford Thesaurus of English

Looking up a word (Filter search) .............................................................. 18

Phrase search.............................................................................................19

Further information .....................................................................................19

Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

Searching by an author name (Filter search) ............................................ 20

Keyword search .......................................................................................... 21

Random quote ............................................................................................22

Further information .....................................................................................22

Using the Solver functions

Crossword solver ........................................................................................ 23

Puzzle solver .............................................................................................. 24

Anagram solver ...........................................................................................25

Using the Super jump function

How to use the Super jump function ..........................................................26

Using the History function

How to use the History function ................................................................. 28

Using the Calculator function

Prior to initiating calculations ..................................................................... 29

Calculation examples ................................................................................. 29

Using the Converter function

Currency converter .....................................................................................30

Metric converter .......................................................................................... 31

Appendices

Replacing the battery ................................................................................. 32

Reset procedure if trouble occurs ..............................................................33

Specifications ............................................................................................. 33

Troubleshooting .......................................................................................... 34

Product support .......................................................................................... 34

Introductions to the Dictionaries

Oxford Dictionary of English .......................................................................35

Oxford Thesaurus of English ......................................................................48

Oxford Dictionary of Quotations ................................................................. 53

Getting Started

Using the PW-E500A for the first time

Be sure to perform the following operations before using the PW-E500A for the first time.

1. Set the battery replacement switch on the bottom of the unit to the ‘REPLACE BATTERY’ position.

2. Remove the battery cover.

3. Insert the one battery. Make sure the battery polarity is correct.

4. Replace the battery cover.

5. Set the battery replacement switch to the ‘NORMAL OPERATION’ position.

6. Open the unit and press turn the power on.

The LCD contrast screen will appear.

• Should a different screen appear, follow the reset procedure on page

33.

• If the power cannot be turned on:

• Make sure the battery replacement switch is placed at the ‘NORMAL

OPERATION’ position, then press

• If the power still cannot be switched on, try following steps 1 through 6 in the

above procedure again.

7. Adjust the LCD contrast by using , and press

]

The key sound on/off screen will appear.

8. Select

on/off. The main menu screen will appear.

• The LCD contrast and the key sound settings can be adjusted later in the Set-up menu.

or N to turn the key sound

[

again.

Turning the power on/off

The power can be switched on by pressing the keys listed below. To turn off the power, press

Key

m d

t u s y

Restores the display as it was before the unit was switched off (Resume function).

The main menu screen appears. The input screen or menu screen of each dictionary appears (Direct-

on function)

Display status upon start-up

Auto power off function

To save the battery, the PW-E500A will automatically turn its power off if no key operations are detected for a set period of time. The activation interval initial setting is 5 minutes, but it can be adjusted by following the directions on page 13.

To attach a commercially available strap

A carrying strap can be attached, as shown in the picture below (strap not included).

Caution:

• Do not swing the unit by the strap, or use excessive force to pull the strap. Doing so will cause a malfunction or hardware damage to the unit.

Back of the unit

Backlight

This product has a built-in backlight, which allows you to view the display and use

the product even in low-light conditions. Pressing the display until you have not pressed any keys for approx. 1 minute or press again.

Note:

• Use the backlight in low-light conditions. It will drain power from the operating batteries and significantly reduce battery life.

• The backlight may remain on for less than 1 minute when

(Backlight) once illuminates

is displayed.

Key notation used in this manual

• All keys are framed (A, for instance); exceptions are found in the Calculator section, where the numeral entries are shown with real numbers.

•Keys are often assigned with more than one function. The appropriate key/ function will be shown according to the input status.

will be shown as either ‘Q’, ‘1’ or ‘1’ depending on the input status.

will be shown as either ‘G’ or ‘+’ depending on the input status.

• The functions indicated with green typeface are second functions. Press and release

, then press an appropriate key.

^ l ^ w

directs to press and release ^, then press l (f).

directs to press and release ^, then press

w (<

Data contained in the PW-E500A

The dictionary data contained in this unit is based on the following dictionaries:

• Oxford Dictionary of English 2e © Oxford University Press 2003

• Oxford Thesaurus of English 2e © Oxford University Press 2004

• Oxford Dictionary of Quotations 6e © Oxford University Press 2004

• Oxford Crossword Dictionary © Oxford University Press 2005

• Oxford Puzzle Solver © Oxford University Press 2005

retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press.

• The data content of each Dictionary is mostly retained faithful to the original. However, some sections of the dictionary contents have had to be altered due to the limitations of the LCD display and for other reasons; these modifications have been implemented under the provisions of the publisher(s). In some rare cases, misspellings and/or mistypings may be found; these are ‘errors’ that have been retained unmodified from the source Dictionaries.

Note:

•For information on the contents of the dictionaries, see Introductions on pages 35–57.

• Some prefatory material and some appendix data included in the printed book of the dictionaries are not featured in this product.

Layout

Display symbols

(Refer to the next page for details)

Menu key

Power on/off key

2nd function key

Utility keys for Dictionaries

Escape key

Display

Dictionary/function selection keys

Font size shift key

Backlight key

Backspace/Clear key

Page scroll keys

Cursor keys

Enter key

Key assignments Display symbols

: Opens the input screen for the

: Opens the input screen for the spell checker

: Opens the Solver functions menu

: Opens the history list of each Dictionary

:Brings up a ‘digest’ view of descriptions

: Launches a search for entries in the

Oxford Thesaurus of English

: Selects a Note icon in the detail view

: 2nd function key

Activates the second function (printed in green above, below, or to the left of keys) assigned to the next key pressed.

: Illuminates the display to view in low-light conditions.

Oxford Dictionary of English

Oxford Thesaurus of English

Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

Oxford Dictionary of English

matching a term selected in any detail view

or the

This symbol will be displayed when the battery level is low. Promptly replace the old battery with a new one.

Indicates that the key sound (beep) is set to ON.

Indicates that

These arrows suggest that more contents can be browsed by scrolling up/ down the window.

{ } < >

Note:

• In this manual, symbols are not shown in the display examples.

• Certain symbols may appear on the display only when the LCD contrast is set to dark. Please ignore these symbols as they are not used by this product.

has been pressed.

: Press to scroll up/down per text row. : Press to scroll up/down per visible window.

Operation guidance message

A brief guidance message may appear at the bottom of the screen to help you utilise functions more effectively.

Basic operation

Inputting words for a dictionary search

In this section, the basic search operation is described. For details, refer to the manual chapter for each dictionary.

Find definitions of ‘convenience’ in the

1. Press

to display the input

screen for the

English

starting with ‘conven’ are listed.

2. Enter ‘i’ to narrow down the list further. If the desired word is found, then you do not need to type any more letters.

Oxford Dictionary of

, then input ‘conven’. Entries

Oxford Dictionary of English

Selecting a dictionary / function in the main menu

Press

The main menu appears.

• Select an item by its index number

using the number keys (

). The initial screen of the selected

item appears.

• The desired item can also be selected by using the followed by pressing the

through

{ } [ ]

key.

keys,

3. While the ‘

• Press

Note:

• Refer to the section ‘Inputting characters’ on page 13.

•To learn different searching methods from those above, refer to the manual chapter for each dictionary.

’ indication is visible on the left of ‘convenience’, press

to return to the previous view.

^ l

to list the headwords in the

Oxford Dictionary of English

List view: selecting an item; scrolling

Press d to display the initial screen

Oxford Dictionary of English

of the

press

Dictionary of English

. The list view of the

appears.

, then

Oxford

Filter search view: selecting an item; scrolling

Press d, then type A, and B. ‘ab’ is entered, and words starting from

‘ab’ listed.

Selecting an item or a word

Use the corresponding number key to the index number on the left of each item, or

{

use the the

or } key to place the cursor on the desired item, followed by pressing

key.

Scrolling the view

‘ ’ and/or ‘ ’ may appear on the left side of the screen, indicating that more information can be browsed by scrolling up/down the view.

}

1) Press once.

2) Press

• Press and hold these keys to continuously scroll the lines/pages.

once to scroll down one text row. To scroll back one text row, press

to scroll down a page. Press < to scroll the page up.

{

Selecting each entry

Use

} {

to place the cursor (indicated as ‘ ’ on the left of the listed items) at

the desired entry, then press

. The detail view of the entry appears.

Scrolling the view

Refer to the section ‘Scrolling the view’ in the previous section, ‘List view: selecting an item; scrolling’.

Detail view: scrolling

Press d, then type A, and The detail view with definitions appears.

Browsing contents above/below the screen

‘ ’ and/or ‘ ’ may appear on the left side of the screen, indicating that more information can be browsed by scrolling up/down the view. Use or > <.

Scrolling up/down to the previous/next entry header

Press ^ header, press

to show the next entry header. To show the previous entry

^ w

Other useful keys

: Returns to the previous view

^ b

^ l

: Shows the input screen of each Dictionary or the initial display of a

function

: Shows the list view starting from the previously displayed header

} {

Shifting the displayed character size (z)

Press the 12 dot-based (vertical pixel resolution) or 9 dot-based characters can be selected.

For instance, press Press

key to shift the character size to be displayed.

to display the 12 dot characters to 9 dot characters.

again to toggle back the displayed characters to 12 dot-base.

12 dot-based (default)

• The character size setting will be retained until the next time

• The

key is functional in the following views:

• The list view, detail view, filter search view or Quick view of each Dictionary

• The Super jump window

• The contents of the Note

• The character size setting is saved for each dictionary in both the list view (including filter search view and Quick view) and the detail view.

9 dot-based

is pressed.

Recalling the terms previously searched (h)

The history of up to 30 items in each dictionary is automatically stored, and can be recalled easily by selecting the word in the history list. (For more information, see page 28.)

Listing a summary of detail view items (q)

The Quick view function suppresses some examples and additional information, and lists out the main sections and senses (or quotations) from each detail view entry. Use this function to browse quickly through the summary of an entry.

1. In the detail view shown on page 10,

press The Quick view screen appears.

2. While the relevant sense or section is on the screen, select the desired item by the index number. The detail view of the selected sense/section appears.

• Press

in the Quick view to display the detail view.

Searching a word on the screen (v)

A word or jump icon ( ) in the detail view can be selected for searching. (For more information, see page 26.)

Browsing Notes (r)

A Note icon ( be selected to view extra information (additional information, usage note, etc.) of the entry.

Press icon will be selected, and use the necessary, then press

To exit, press then the second deselects the icon.

Browse the Note contents of ‘earth’ in the

1. Open the detail view of ‘earth’.

2. Use the the view so that a Note icon will be visible.

3. Press selected (reversed).

4. Press Note is displayed.

) may appear in the detail view. This indicates that a note can

to select the icon. If more than one icon is visible, then the topmost

} { ] [

to view the contents.

twice. The first push of the f key closes the contents view,

• The symbol ‘ means that the word has a Note.

’ in front of ‘earth’

key or } key to scroll down

. The Note icon will be

. The contents of the

keys to select the desired icon if

Oxford Dictionary of English

Note:

• Using the

• Oxford Dictionary of English

• Usage notes

• Additional (boxed) information

• Oxford Thesaurus of English

• ‘Choose the Right Word’ and Confusables sections

• Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

• The full set of quotations for the given author (see page 21)

•Word Lists (extra items relevant to specific headwords) of the

of English

key will display the following:

are indicated by the jump icon ( ). Use the Super jump function.

Oxford Thesaurus

Set-up menu

Press

to display the main menu,

then press

Select a desired item to change the setting.

•To delete the history list, see page 28.

Setting the key sound on/off

The key sound (a short audible beep when a key is pressed) can be set to on or off.

1. Press A splash message appears to indicate the change of setting, then the main

menu will be displayed.

. The set-up menu appears.

m, 8

, then 1, to toggle the key sound on or off.

Setting the Auto power off activation time

This product automatically turns its power off to save the battery. The turn-off time is set to five minutes by default.

m, 8

1. Press The Auto power off setting screen

appears.

2. Use the

{, }, [

duration, then press The time will be set, then the main menu will be displayed.

, then 2.

and ] keys to place the check mark on the desired

Adjusting the LCD contrast

Select this menu item to adjust the LCD contrast.

1. Press

m, 8

2. To adjust the LCD contrast, use the

press

, then 3.

[

(Lighter) key or ] (Darker) key, then

to return to the main menu.

Starting Auto Demo mode

Activate the Auto demo for a guided tour through the key features of the product.

1. Press

• Press menu.

m, 8

, then 5, to start the Auto demo mode.

to end the Auto demo mode and return to the main

Inputting characters

Methods of inputting characters are described in this section.

Character entry

A simple example of inputting characters is shown below.

Enter a word ‘clear’ for search.

1. Press

2. Type ‘clear’. On the keyboard, press

Note:

• While entering characters, exclude characters such as spaces (except in Crossword solver), hyphens, apostrophes, slashes, and periods.

to open the input screen of the

C, L, E

, then R.

Word Entry for search

fast food fastfood

weak-kneed weakkneed

let's lets

either/or eitheror

a.m. am

Oxford Dictionary of English

• Convert uppercase letters to lowercase.

Word Entry for search

AC ac UK uk

• Spell out the numbers when applicable.

Word Entry for search 4WD fourwd

A5 afive

• Enter ‘and’ instead of ‘&’.

•To enter ‘£’, place ‘l’ instead. Likewise, place ‘a’ for ‘@’ instead.

• When searching for a word with accented characters (such as ‘ü’, ‘á’, etc.), enter their unaccented equivalents via the keypad (such as ‘u’, ‘a’, etc.).

Modifying entry

Deleting unnecessary characters

1. Press

to open the input screen of the

2. Type ‘external’.

3. While the cursor is at the end of the string, press

4. Next, press cursor under the letter ‘t’.

5. Press

[

three times to move the

(

once to delete a character on the left of cursor. ‘x’ will be deleted.

Adding characters

6. In the above example, press insert a letter ‘n’ on the left of the cursor. The search will be narrowed with the word ‘enter’.

Oxford Dictionary of English

(

three times to delete ‘nal’.

Note:

• Press

^ b

to delete all characters entered.

Using the

Oxford Dictionary of

English

In this Dictionary, definitions of a word can be found by entering its spelling. You can also search specifically for phrases by entering one or more keywords in Phrase search.

Looking up a word (Filter search)

A definition of a word can be looked up by inputting its spelling.

Find the definition of ‘advance’.

1. Press

Dictionary of English

The input screen appears.

2. Input the spelling of ‘advance’. As you type, candidates for matching

narrow. If the desired word is found, then there is no need to type any more letters.

3. While ‘ word appears.

•To browse contents on the next/previous page, press may also find the Quick view function useful.

• If a word selected is a close derivative of a headword, it may not have its own definitions. In these cases, it is helpful to scroll up within the detail view to find the definitions of the headword itself.

•To search for a word in the detail view, use the Super jump function.

• Press

to open the

’ appears on the left of ‘advance’, press

to return to the previous view.

^ l

Oxford

to list the headwords in the

Oxford Dictionary of English

. The detail view of the

} {

> <

. You

•To search for a different word, simply input a new spelling for the word, or press

^ b

or d to go to the dictionary's input screen.

If there is no match found

As you input the spelling of the desired word, the dictionary will narrow down the matching candidates. If the match is narrowed down to none (i.e. no word starting with the spelling is found in the Dictionary), the message ‘similar words’ appears.

In this case, press dictionary entries alphabetically after the entered spelling.

to list the

Note about entering characters

While entering characters, exclude characters such as spaces, hyphens, apostrophes, slashes, and periods. See page 13 for details.

Note:

• The wildcard character ‘?’ must not be entered in the input field of the Dictionary. The wildcard character ‘?’ can be used in the Crossword solver (see page 23) and Random quote function (see page 22).

• Up to 24 characters can be entered in the input field of the Dictionary. When searching words containing 25 characters or more, narrow down the search to select the words from the list manually.

Browsing Notes

When the browsed. For details, refer to page 11–12.

Note:

icons appear in the detail view, a note can be selected and

•A headword with a Note is marked with an asterisk (

•

In many cases, the contains important information about usage of the headword as a whole. If unsure about usage, scroll down to the bottom of the entry to access any relevant notes.

icon only appears at the bottom of an entry, but

Phrase search

To search for idioms or phrasal verbs, enter up to three words in the input field. The phrases containing ALL the entered words will be found.

Search for a phrase containing ‘take’ and ‘care’.

1. Press Press The input screen of the Phrase search appears.

2. Input ‘take’, press ‘care’.

To input more than one word, input each word in the separate input field. Use the cursor. Each input field can accommodate up to 24 characters.

3. Press A list of phrases containing the words appears. If no matching phrase is found, then a message ‘Not Found!’ will momentarily be

displayed.

4. Select the desired index of the phrase using the number key(s). The definition of the selected phrase is displayed.

• Press

•To search for a new phrase, simply begin inputting new words, or press

to open the

}

once to place the cursor at the ‘Phrase search’, then press

} {

to return to the previous view.

^ l

to go back to the input screen to start a new search.

Oxford Dictionary of English

}

, followed by

keys to move the

to list the index of phrases containing the words.

Spellcheck function

The spellcheck function can be helpful when the exact spelling of a query word is not known.

You are not sure whether ‘liason’ or ‘liaison’ is correct.

1. Press of the spellcheck function.

2. Enter ‘liason’.

3. Press function.

Words with similar spellings will be listed.

• While ‘Searching... Press [ENTER] to break’ is visible, press stop the search. Note that if the search is interrupted, the list of possible results may not include all the closest matches.

• If the word is typed with the correct spelling, it will appear at the top of the displayed list.

• If two or more words with an identical spelling are found in the list, then the relevant headword will also be displayed, after an arrow symbol.

to open the input screen

to initiate the spellcheck

4. In the list, select a desired word using the number keys (press 1, in this example). The detail view with descriptions of the word is displayed.

• If a word selected is not in its original form, and cannot be found as a headword, then the detail view of the word's original form will be displayed. It may be necessary to scroll down within the detail view to find the desired word form.

• Press

Note:

• Up to 100 words may be displayed in the list.

to go back to the previous view.

^ l

to list the headwords in the

Oxford Dictionary of English

If the list of words does not appear as expected:

• Searching words with particular spellings may take more time to complete than others.

• If no word is given, a message ‘Not Found!’ will momentarily be displayed, followed by the input screen of the spellcheck function. In this case you may wish to start the search again with a new spelling for the word.

Further information

For further information on using this dictionary, refer to the Introduction on pages 35–48.

Using the

Oxford Thesaurus of

English

Input a word in this Thesaurus to find its synonyms, as well as antonyms and other related terms in the detail view.

•To search for a word or jump icon ( ) in the detail view, use the Super jump function.

• Press

•To search for a different word, simply begin inputting a new word, or press

^ b

English

to return to the previous view.

^ l

to list the headwords in the

to go to the input screen of the

Oxford Thesaurus of English

Oxford Thesaurus of

Looking up a word (Filter search)

Find a set of alternative words by inputting the spelling of a given word.

Find a set of alternative words for ‘make’.

1. Press

Thesaurus of English

The spelling input screen of the Thesaurus appears.

2. Input ‘make’. As you type, options are narrowed. If

the desired word is found, then you do not need to type any more letters.

3. While ‘ press word ‘make’ appears.

•To browse contents on the next/ previous page, press

view function useful.

to open the

’ appears on the left of ‘make’,

. The detail view of the

. You may also find the Quick

Oxford

} {

If there is no match found

The same view/message appears as for the 15 for details.

Oxford Dictionary of English

. See page

Note about entering characters

While entering characters, exclude characters such as spaces, hyphens, apostrophes, slashes, and periods. See page 13 for details.

Note:

• Up to 24 characters can be entered in the input field. When searching words containing 25 characters or more, narrow down the search to select the words from the list manually.

Browsing Notes

When the browsed. For details, refer to page 11–12.

icons appear in the detail view, a note can be selected and

Phrase search

To search for idioms or phrasal verbs, enter up to three words in the input field. The phrases containing ALL the entered words will be found.

Search for a phrase containing ‘make’ and ‘up’, and find its synonyms.

1. Press Press The input screen of the Phrase search appears.

2. Input ‘make’, press ‘up’.

To input more than one word, input each word in the separate input field. Use the cursor. Each input field can accommodate up to 24 characters.

3. Press A list of phrases containing the words appears. If no matching phrase is found, then a message ‘Not Found!’ will momentarily be

displayed.

4. Select the desired index of the phrase using the number key(s). The detail view of the selected phrase is displayed.

• Press

•To search for a new phrase, simply begin inputting new words, or press

to open the

}

once to place the cursor at the ‘Phrase search’, then press

} {

keys to move the

to return to the previous view.

^ l

to go back to the input screen to start a new search.

Oxford Thesaurus of English

}

, followed by

to list the index of phrases containing the words.

Further information

For further information on using this thesaurus, refer to the Introduction on pages 48–52.

Using the

Oxford Dictionary of

Quotations

Input an author’s surname in the quotations. A search can also be initiated by keywords, or it is possible to display quotations at random.

Searching by an author name (Filter search)

Find a set of related quotations by inputting the spelling of an author.

List a set of quotations by ‘William Shakespeare’.

1. Press

Dictionary of Quotations

The name input screen of the

Dictionary of Quotations

2. Start to input the word ‘shakespeare’.

As you type, the match narrows. If the desired word is found, then you do not need to type any more letters.

• In this example, the rows headed by ‘

’ contain subheadings within the

entry for ‘William Shakespeare’.

3. While ‘ Shakespeare’, press detail view of the entry ‘William Shakespeare’ appears.

to open the

’ appears to the left of ‘William

Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

Oxford

appears.

. The

to find his/her

} {

> <

•To browse contents on the next/previous page, press may also find the Quick view function useful.

•To search for a word in the detail view, or to search for an item indicated under

, use the Super jump function.

the

• Press

to return to the previous view.

^ l

• Press

•To search for a different word, simply begin inputting the spelling for the new word, or press

Dictionary of Quotations

to list the headings in the

^ b

to go to the input screen of the

Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

. Yo u

Oxford

If there is no match found

The matching headings narrow down as you type. If the match is narrowed down to

none, a message ‘similar words’ will be displayed. Press that alphabetically follow the entered string.

to list the headers

Note about entering characters

While entering characters, exclude characters such as spaces, hyphens, apostrophes, slashes, and periods. See page 13 for details.

Note:

• The names of collections or compilations, such as the ‘Bible’ or ‘Anonymous’, can be used for a search.

• Instead of inputting an author's surname, you might wish to try entering his/her known pseudonym or nickname (see pages 55–57 for details).

• Some authors may appear in a joint entry with a common co-author or associate, as well as their own individual entry. In these cases, the author's name is listed twice in search results, ordered according to the first name in the joint entry. The detail view automatically scrolls down so the search term is at the top - if this is part of a larger entry, the up arrow will appear top left.

Keyword search

The

Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

The quotations containing ALL the entered keywords will be found.

Find quotations that incorporate ‘man’ and ‘woman’.

1. Press Press the

The input screen of the Keyword search appears.

2. Input ‘man’, press the input ‘woman’.

Up to 24 characters can be entered in each input field. To jump the cursor from one input field to another, use the

{ }

3. Press The search results of the

to open the

}

key to place the cursor at the ‘Keyword search’, then press

}

keys.

Dictionary of Quotations

no match is found, a message ‘Not Found!’ will momentarily be displayed.

Note:

• The list consists of essential words in the quotations that include the given keyword. Even if more than two keywords are given, the list will consist of essential words in the quotations that include the first keyword.

Singular and plural nouns must be searched for separately. Words such as ‘man’

• and ‘men’, as well as ‘lover’ and ‘lovers’, are to be searched as two different words.

•To search for compound words such as ‘Holy Ghost’, ‘middle class’, and ‘selfmade’, modify the entry by eliminating space and hyphen (i.e. ‘holyghost’, ‘middleclass’, and ‘selfmade’), to form a single keyword.

can accept up to three keywords for a search.

Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

key, then

Oxford

are listed. If

4. Select the desired quotation using the

number keys (press example). The details of the selected quotation appear.

• The Quick view function cannot be activated from this screen.

• The name of the author and the Note icon ( second row.

While the Note icon is visible on the screen, press view the full set of quotations of the author (the same result can be viewed by initiating the search by entering the name of the author).

• Press

f ^ l

• Press

•To initiate a new search, simply start typing, or press input screen of the keyword search.

, in this

to return to the previous view.

to list the search results.

) will appear on the first or

and

^ b

to go to the

Random quote

Random quote can be requested by pressing the ? at the initial screen of the

Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

1. Press

2. Press quotation is displayed.

• Press sequentially initiate the Random quotes.

• Press screen of the

• The name of the author and the Note icon ( second row. While the Note icon is visible on the screen, press view the full set of quotations of the author (the same result can be viewed by initiating the search by entering the name of the author).

to open the initial screen of the

. A randomly selected

several times to

to return to the initial

Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

or in the detail view of the author.

Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

) will appear on the first or

and

Further information

For further information on using this dictionary, refer to the Introduction on pages 53–57.

Using the Solver functions

Crossword solver

To search for words with incomplete spellings using the

Dictionary

the appropriate number of ‘?’ characters in the places of characters yet to be determined. To put a space between words, enter

Find a matching compound or expression for the pattern ‘go ????’.

1. Press

2. Press

3. Type ‘go ????’ into the input field. To

4. Press

5. In the list, select a desired word using

, enter a wildcard character, ‘?’, anywhere a character is not known. Place

functions menu.

solver. The Crossword solver's input screen

appears.

enter ‘ ????’, press enter a space and

A list of the wildcard matches appear.

the number keys or press

to open the Solver

to open the Crossword

^ i

four times.

to start the search.

{ }

and

Oxford Crossword

^ i (r

key).

A list of the lemmas with the given number and pattern of letters appears. In this example, the list would be the total number of 6-letter patterns consisting of a 2letter and a 4-letter word (2, 4 (6) letters).

•To see other words/expressions with the same number(s) of letters, use

to scroll up/down. Use ^

previous or next pattern list.

• Press

to return to the previous view.

^ l

• Press

•To search for the available details of a word, use the Super jump function.

•To initiate another search, simply type in the new spelling or press to return to the input screen of the Crossword solver.

Notes:

• Unknown characters within single or multiple words can be replaced with question marks, ‘?’, as in ‘ma???n’ or ‘g? b???’.

• Multiple word patterns up to a maximum of six words can be searched.

• Up to a maximum of 25 letters can be searched for (not counting spaces).

• The Crossword Dictionary database does not include regular inflections, so if your original search does not give you the required answer, try removing any final -s, -ed, or -ing, and search again.

to see the list of all patterns (e.g., 5 letters).

or ^

to jump to the

^ b

Puzzle solver

The Puzzle solver can be searched by category (such as names of writers, famous films, types of car, examples of plants, and a whole host of other useful categories) to find a word (clue word).

This was incorporated to provide easy-to-find answers to general knowledge clues and quiz questions and thereby be useful while playing a wide variety of games.

Find words related to ‘wine’.

1. Press Puzzle solver.

2. Type ‘wine’ into the input field. As you type, the number of matching

list titles/items is narrowed down.

• The matching list items (in plain style) and list titles (in bold style) are listed.

3. With ‘

press A list of category names related to

‘wine’ (the clue word) appears.

• Select the jump icon ( using the Super jump function.

• Press

and 2 to open the

’ appearing on the left of ’wine’,

) in the list

^ l

to list the clue words.

4. Press

select ‘wine and grape varieties’, and

press A list of words in the ‘wine and grape

varieties’ category appears, ordered first by word length, then alphabetically.

• Press

^ l

• Press

•To search for the details of the selected word, use the Super jump function.

•To initiate another search, simply type in the new spelling or press to return to the input screen of the Puzzle solver.

5. Press

twice and press { twice

to select ‘colours’, and then press

twice.

A list of words related to ‘colours’ category appears.

• Press ‘wine’.

Note:

• Some additional clue words are included in the index to aid access, without themselves being items in the list (e.g. ‘monster’ links to the ‘mythical creatures’ list).

several times to find

four times to

twice.

to return to the previous view.

to list the category names.

^ b

If there is no match found

The same view/message appears as the for details.

Oxford Dictionary of English

. See page 15

Entering characters

When entering characters, exclude those such as spaces, hyphens, apostrophes, slashes, and periods. See page 13 for details.

Note:

• The wildcard character ‘?’ must not be entered into the input field of the Puzzle solver.

The wildcard character ‘?’ can only be used in the Crossword solver (see page

23) or the Random quote function (see page 22).

• Up to 24 characters can be entered into the input field of the Puzzle solver. When searching for words containing 25 characters or more, narrow down the search and select the words from the list manually.

Anagram solver

A word or series of letters can be entered to find any matching anagrams found in

Oxford Crossword Dictionary

the

Find anagrams for ‘dear’.

1. Press Anagram solver, then type ‘dear’ into the input field.

2. Press Up to 100 words may be displayed in the list.

3. In the list of matches, use the number keys to select a word. A list of the lemmas with the given number of letters appears. In this example,

the list would be the total number of words consisting of 4 letters.

•To see other words/expressions with the same number(s) of letters, use

to scroll up/down. Use ^

previous or next pattern list.

• Press

•To initiate another search, simply type in the new spelling or press to return to the input screen of the Anagram solver.

Note

•For the Anagram solver, not only single word but also multiword solutions will be offered - e.g. ‘gono’ finds ‘go on’ and ‘no go’ as well as ‘goon’.

• The Crossword Dictionary database does not include regular inflections, so if your original search does not give you the required answer, try removing an -s,

-ed, or -ing, and search again.

and 3 to open the

to initiate the search.

to return to the previous view.

^ l

or ^

to jump to the

to see the list of all patterns (e.g., 5 letters).

^ b

Using the Super jump function

Use the Super jump function to select any word in the detail view of each dictionary, then initiate a search based on the selected word.

How to use the Super jump function

Initiate a Super jump search via the

1. In the

Oxford Dictionary of English

2. Press appears to select the first word in the view.

3. Use the

4. While the desired word is selected,

} { ] [

desired word.

• The pressing of

press

The Super jump window appears to display selectable items.

•A list of matching words is displayed. If the selected word is in a variant or inflected form, the original spelling may be displayed instead.

• If only one match is found, or if an item indicated by the jump icon ( selected, then the description of the item will be displayed in the Super jump window instead.

. The cursor

Oxford Dictionary of English

, show the detail view of the word ‘function’.

keys to move the cursor (and its selection of word) to a

moves the cursor to the next.

) is

5. Use the number keys to select a desired word in the list (press example).

The definition of the selected word is displayed in the Super jump window.

• Press

• When ‘

6. Press of the selected word.

The detail view of the selected word appears.

• Press view.

Note:

•A Super jump search from any of the dictionaries will return matching entries in the following dictionaries:

• Oxford Dictionary of English

• Oxford Thesaurus of English

•For items marked with a jump icon (

Quotations,

Super jump executes a cross-reference upon selection.

to go back to the previous view.

’ and/or ‘ ’ appears on the left side of the window,

can be used to scroll the window.

to jump to the definition

to display the previous

) found in the

the

Oxford Thesaurus of English

or the Solver functions, the

Oxford Dictionary of

in this

} {

Specifying a Dictionary to jump to

In step 4 above, press d or Dictionary to jump to.

instead of pressing

, to specify the

Note icon in the Super jump window

When the Note icon appears in the Super jump window, press to view the contents.

and

About the detail view after the jump

• The behaviour and function of the detail view is the same as the detail view after an ordinary search.

^ b

• Press

•A chain of multiple Super jump actions can be backtracked up to 10 times by pressing the

at the detail view to go back to the Dictionary's input screen.

key.

Using the History function

Use the History function to recall a headword or phrase previously searched in the Dictionaries.

How to use the History function

Recall the search history in the

1. Press

to open the

2. Press

appears, with the most recent search placed at the top of the list.

When ‘ left side of the window,

can be used to scroll the window.

3. Use the number keys to select a desired word in the list.

The detail view of the selected word appears.

Note:

• Each Dictionary has its own history list. Additionally, phrase search history list of each of the made.

• Solver functions (Crossword solver, Puzzle solver and Anagram solver) have no history list.

•To view the history list, press and the initial screen of each phrase search.

•Truncated words in the list are indicated with trailing ‘...’ at the end.

• Each history list can contain up to 30 items. The oldest item will be deleted as item count exceeds 30.

. The history view

’ and/or ‘ ’ appears on the

Oxford Dictionary of English

} {

and the

at the initial screen of each Dictionary,

Oxford Thesaurus of English

• The items selected by the Random quote in the will also be added in the history.

Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

Deleting a history item

1. Display the history list on the screen.

2. Use the

3. Press

4. Press

}

or { key to place the cursor on the word to be deleted. The reverse

colour indicates the selected item.

(

. A confirmation dialog for deletion appears.

. The selected word is deleted.

Deleting the history list of a Dictionary

1. Press

, then 8 to open the Set-up menu.

2. Press

to select ‘Deleting history’.

3. Use the number keys to select the history list you wish to delete. A confirmation dialog for deletion appears.

•To delete all history lists, select ‘ALL’.

• Selecting ‘only DICT’ or ‘only THES’ will also delete the history list of each phrase search.

4. Press

. The selected history is deleted and the main menu appears.

Using the Calculator function

The built-in calculator in the Electronic Dictionary can perform 12-digit arithmetic calculations with memory function. To access the Calculator function, press then 6 to select ‘Calculator’.

Prior to initiating calculations

• Before performing any calculation, press memory and the display.

•To start a calculation with a negative number, place a subtraction sign by

pressing

at the beginning of the calculation.

• If you wish to correct a wrong entry, press

• In the calculation examples found in this section, indications and icons that may appear on the screen (‘=’, ‘M+’, ‘M–’, ‘+’, ‘–’, ‘ not shown. These icons appear to show you the interim result of calculations. For example, the ‘=’ icon appears on the screen when icons such as ‘M+’ and ‘+’ appear after each corresponding key has been pressed.

• An ‘M’ is shown when a value other than 0 is put in the memory. To clear the content of the memory, press

also functions as =.

• Press

to enter ‘=’. To input ‘.’ (decimal point), press .

• An error message ‘E’ is displayed if:

• the integer section of a calculation result exceeds 12 digits

• the memory exceeds 12 digits

• an attempt is made to divide a number by zero.

Press

to clear the error condition.

@ @ ^ b

and re-enter the figure.

’, and ‘÷’) are abbreviated or are

or % is pressed, while

twice. Note that the pressing of $ or

to clear the

Calculation examples

Example

4 – 2 =

(–24) 34 + 57 = 45 + 57 =

25 =

68 68

40 = What is 10% of 200? What percentage is 9 of 36?

200 + (200 500 – (500

3)2

10 %) =

20 %) =

1/8

5 =

–) 84

3 = +) 68 + 17 = (Total) =

135

(12 + 14) =

(12 + 14)

123456789098

5 =

145 =

Operation

! -

34 + 57=The second figure (57) 45 (Subtraction and division are performed in

the same way as above.) 68

200 9 / 36 200 + 10 500 - 20 4 * = = * 8 /

84 / 3 68 + 17

135 *

@ @

123456789098 * 145

(17.9012344192

24 / 4 - 2

becomes the constant.

25=The first figure (68)

becomes the constant.

% %

25 * 5

12 + 14

@ =

/ 5

@ ^ b

1012 = 17901234419200)

Display

–8.

91.

102.

1,700. 2,720.

20.

25.

220.

400.

4,096.

0.125

125.

28.

85.

182.

26.

3,510.

5.2

17.9012344192

Using the Converter function

The Converter function consists of two converters: the Currency converter, and the Metric converter.

Currency converter

Setting a currency rate

One conversion rate can be set.

€

Set the following rate: £1 =

m 7 1

1. Press Currency converter.

2. Press currency name and rate appear.

. The input fields for the

0.7

to access the

3. Use the

4. Press

{ }

keys to place the cursor at the desired input field, then input the

}

currency name and its rate. In this example, press

• The currency name field of currency converter is temporarily pre-defined, as seen in the above example.

• When inputting the desired currency name, press input field and use no more than four letters. Use the cursor on the left/right of the currently selected input field.

• In the left input field, enter the base currency name. In the input field on the right, place the currency name of which you wish to set the conversion rate.

• Up to 10 digits (excluding the decimal point) can be entered in the currency rate input field.

. The currency name and its rate are set.

and input ‘0.7’.

^ b

to clear the

[ ]

keys to set the

Converting currencies

The conversion calculation can be performed using the previously set conversion rate.

€

Convert

1. Press

2. Input ‘175’. You may input a simple formula, such as ‘35

3. Press

175 to pounds (£) when setting the rate: £1 = €0.7.

m 7 1

[

to execute the conversion from € to £. The converted value of £250 is

displayed.

• Pressing

• The

•To initiate conversion of a different value, just enter the value to be converted,

• Press

]

€

122.5 will be displayed.

and arrows on the screen indicate the direction of conversion.

or press

conversion.

to display the currency converter.

5 =’, instead.

executes a £-to-€ conversion. In this case, the converted value

to clear the value in the input field prior to entering the new

to return to the Converter menu.

Metric converter

Conversions between different units of measurement (length, mass, etc.) can be performed.

Convert 40 feet to metres.

m 7 2

1. Press

{ }

2. Use [length2]’.

3. Input ‘40’. You may input a simple formula, such as ‘25 + 15 =’, instead.

4. Press

• Press

• The

•To initiate conversion of a different value, just enter the value to be converted,

• Use the

• Press

to select ‘Converter

]

. The value in feet is converted to the metric value.

[

to convert from the metric value to feet. In this case, the given value

‘40’ will be taken as the metric value to be converted to feet.

and arrows on the screen indicate the direction of conversion.

or press conversion.

}

to access the Metric converter.

to clear the value in the input field prior to entering the new

or { key to select one of the other Metric converters. to return to the Converter menu.

Units capable of being converted

The following conversion formulae can be utilised.

⇔

length1: inch length2: feet length3: yard length4: mile weight1: ounce weight2: pound temperature: °F volume: pint surface area1: mile surface area2: acre⇔hectare

⇔

°C

⇔

litre

⇔

Appendices

Replacing the battery

Battery used

• Use only the specified alkaline battery.

Type

Alkaline battery

Size / Model

Size “AAA” / LR03

Quantity

When to replace the battery

Replace the battery immediately in the following cases:

• When

• When the message ‘Replace the battery’ appears upon turning the power on.

Note:

• If you do not follow the procedure describing battery replacement, the History list, as well as the Calculator's memory, may be cleared or altered. Also, Currency converter and the Set-up menu configurations may be reset.

• When

is displayed.

is displayed, the backlight will not operate.

Precautions

• Fluid from a leaking battery accidentally entering an eye could result in serious injury. Should this occur, wash with clean water and immediately consult a doctor.

• Should fluid from a leaking battery come in contact with your skin or clothes, immediately wash with clean water.

• If the product is not to be used for some time, to avoid damage to the unit from a leaking battery, remove it and store in a safe place.

• Do not leave an exhausted battery inside the product. It may leak and damage the product.

•Keep batteries out of the reach of children.

• Incorrect handling of batteries may introduce risk of explosion.

• Do not throw batteries into a fire as they may explode.

• Make sure the new battery is the correct type before fitting.

• When installing, orientate the battery correctly as indicated in the unit.

• The battery packaged with this product may be partially exhausted during the shipment and/or storage period, and may need to be replaced sooner than expected.

Replacement procedure

1. Switch off the power by pressing

2. Set the battery replacement switch located on the bottom of the unit to the ‘REPLACE BATTERY’ position.

3. Remove the battery cover.

4. Remove the used battery and insert the one new battery. Make sure the battery polarity is correctly orientated.

5. Replace the battery cover.

6. Set the battery replacement switch to the ‘NORMAL OPERATION’ position.

7. Open the unit and press The LCD contrast screen appears.

• If the power cannot be switched on, try following steps 2 through 7 in the above procedure again. Should this fail, then follow the reset procedure on the following page.

8. Follow the instructions on the screen to adjust the LCD contrast, as well as to set the key sound on/off configuration (see steps 7 through 8 of the procedure on page 3).

to turn the power on.

Reset procedure if trouble occurs

Exposure to a strong physical shock or powerful electrical fields may render the keys inoperable, to the point that the power cannot be switched on. If such case is suspected, try following the procedure below.

Reset procedures

1. Press the RESET switch located on the bottom of the unit, with the tip of a ball-point pen or similar object. Do not use an object with a breakable or sharp tip.

The message ‘Do you want to initialize?’ appears.

2. Press

3. Follow the instructions on the screen to adjust the LCD contrast, as well as to set the key sound on/off configuration (see steps 7 through 8 of the procedure on page 3.)

Note:

• The reset procedure will clear the History list, and Calculator's memory, as

well as to reset the Currency converter and the Set-up menu configurations. To avoid these, you may press

• After the

to the detection of corrupt data. If this occurs, the message ‘Initialized!’ will be displayed, followed by the LCD contrast screen. Follow the instructions to set the LCD contrast, as well as to set the key sound on/off configuration.

to initialize the unit.

•A message ‘Initialized!’ is momentarily displayed, followed by the LCD contrast adjustment screen.

is selected, then the unit will not be initialized.

• If

at step two of the above.

key is pressed as described in the case above, or even when the

key is pressed, the reset procedure may automatically be initiated due

Specifications

Model: PW-E500A Product name: Electronic Dictionary

Display: 159 Number of entries: • Oxford Dictionary of English:

Calculator function: 12-digit calculation of addition, subtraction,

Converter function: 12-digit conversion of currency and measurement Power consumption: 0.23 W Operating temperature: 0°C - 40°C (32°F - 104°F) Power supply: 1.5 V … Battery life: • Approx. 200 hours

80 dot matrix LCD

Approx. 355,000 words, phrases, and definitions

• Oxford Thesaurus of English: Approx. 600,000 alternative and opposite words

• Oxford Dictionary of Quotations: Approx. 20,000 quotations, comprehensively indexed Approx. 3,200 authors

• Oxford Crossword Dictionary: Over 150,000 words and expressions, from 1 to 6 words in length

• Oxford Puzzle Solver: 50,000 items listed in over 500 categories

multiplication, division, percentage, memory calculation, etc.

–

(DC): Alkaline battery LR03 (size “AAA”) × 1

If data is continuously displayed at 25°C (77°F) without backlight

• Approx. 70 hours

If data is searched for 5 minutes and displayed for 55 minutes per hour at 25°C (77°F) without backlight

• Approx. 55 hours If data is searched for 5 minutes and displayed for

55 minutes with 2 minute backlight use per hour at 25°C (77°F)

Note: May vary according to various usage conditions

Weight (including battery): Approx. 156 g (0.35 lb) Dimensions (when closed): 125 mm (W)

4-29/32” (W)

Accessories: Alkaline battery LR03 (size “AAA”)

operation manual

79.4 mm (D) × 16.8 mm (H)

3-1/8” (D) × 21/32” (H)

Tr oubleshooting

Refer to the list of possible symptoms, and solutions may be found here.

The key sound cannot be heard.

• The key sound may be set to OFF. See page 12.

The unit does not respond to a key press.

• Press the RESET switch. See page 33.

The unit shuts off automatically.

• The Auto power off function is in action. The activation interval of the Auto power off function can be adjusted. See page 13.

The desired word cannot be found.

•A variant form of the word may have been entered. Enter the original form.

• Use the Spellcheck function to verify spellings.

The unit cannot be switched on.

• Check if the battery is not drained. See page 32.

• Check the battery replacement switch; it should be set at the ‘NORMAL OPERATION’ position. See page 3.

• Check the polarity of the battery. See page 3.

•Verify the LCD contrast setting; the power may be switched on, but the message on the screen may not be visible. See page 13.

• If the above settings appear normal, then press the RESET switch. See page

33.

The backlight cannot be switched on.

• Check if the battery is exhausted. See page 32.

The screen is dark or light.

• Adjust the LCD contrast. See page 13.

Product support

If you have read this operation manual, but you still require product support, you can:

Visit our web site http://www.sharp.co.uk

Or Telephone 08705 274277

Introductions to the Dictionaries

nose

CORE SENSE

the part projecting above the mouth on the face of a person or animal,

containing the nostrils and used for breathing and smelling.

Oxford Dictionary of English

Introduction

The

Oxford Dictionary of English

are quite different from those of traditional dictionaries. New types of evidence are now available in sufficient quantity to allow lexicographers to construct a picture of the language that is more accurate than has been possible before. The approach to structuring and organizing within individual dictionary entries has been rethought, as has the approach to the selection and presentation of information in every aspect of the dictionary: definitions, choice of examples, grammar, word histories, and every other category. New approaches have been adopted in response to a reappraisal of the workings of language in general and its relationship to the presentation of information in a dictionary in particular. The aim of this introduction is to give the user background information for using this dictionary and, in particular, to explain some of the thinking behind these new approaches.

Structure: Core Sense and Subsense

The first part of speech is the primary one for that word: thus, for bag and balloon the senses of the noun are given before those for the verb, while for babble and

bake the senses of the verb are given before those of the noun.

has been compiled according to principles which

SUBSENSE

the sense of smell, especially a dog’s ability to track something by its scent:

a dog with a keen nose.

Within each part of speech the first definition given is the core sense. The general principle on which the senses in the that each word has at least one core meaning, to which a number of subsenses may be attached. If there is more than one core sense (see below), this is introduced by a bold sense number. Core meanings represent typical, central uses of the word in question in modern standard English, as established by research on and analysis of the Oxford English Corpus and other citation databases. The core meaning is the one accepted by native speakers as the most literal and central in ordinary modern usage. This is not necessarily the same as the oldest meaning, because word meanings change over time. Nor is it necessarily the most frequent meaning, because sometimes the most frequently used modern sense of a word is a figurative one.

The core sense also acts as a gateway to other, related subsenses. These subsenses are grouped under the core sense, each one being introduced by a solid square symbol.

There is a logical relationship between each subsense and the core sense under which it appears. The organization of senses according to this logical relationship is designed to help the user, not only in being able to navigate the entry more easily and find relevant senses more readily, but also in building up an understanding of how senses in the language relate to one another and how the language is constructed on this model. The main types of relationship of core sense to subsense are as follows:

SUBSENSE

figurative

an instinctive talent for detecting something:

he has a nose for a

good script.

Oxford Dictionary of English

SUBSENSE

the aroma of a particular substance, especially wine.

are organized is

(a) figurative extension of the core sense, e.g.

HEADWORD: logjam

CORE SENSE: a crowded mass of logs blocking a river.

figurative

SUBSENSE:

a situation that seems irresolvable:

EXAMPLE: the president can use his power to break the logjam over

this issue.

figurative

SUBSENSE:

a backlog:

EXAMPLE: keeping a diary may ease the logjam of work.

HEADWORD: bankrupt

CORE SENSE: (of a person or organization) declared in law as unable to pay

their debts:

figurative

SUBSENSE:

completely lacking in a particular good quality:

EXAMPLE: their cause is morally bankrupt.

(b) specialized case of the core sense, e.g.

HEADWORD: ball

CORE SENSE: a single throw, kick, or hit of the ball in a game, in particular:

Cricket

SUBSENSE: SUBSENSE:

a delivery of the ball by the bowler to the batsman.

Baseball

a pitch delivered outside the strike zone which the

batter does not attempt to hit.

HEADWORD: basement

CORE SENSE: the floor of a building which is partly or entirely below ground

level.

Geology

SUBSENSE:

the oldest formation of rocks underlying a particular

area.

elements of the core sense, e.g.

HEADWORD: bamboo

CORE SENSE: [mass noun] a giant woody grass which is grown chiefly in the

tropics.

SUBSENSE: the hollow jointed stem of this plant, used as a cane or to make

furniture and implements.

HEADWORD: management

CORE SENSE: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people.

SUBSENSE: [treated as sing. or pl.] the people managing a company or

organization, regarded collectively:

EXAMPLE: management were extremely cooperative.

HEADWORD: ambassador

CORE SENSE: an accredited diplomat sent by a state as its permanent

representative in a foreign country.

SUBSENSE: a representative or promoter of a specified activity:

EXAMPLE: he is a good ambassador for the industry.

Many entries have just one core sense. However some entries are more complex and have different strands of meaning, each constituting a core sense. In this case, each core sense is introduced by a bold sense number, and each potentially has its own block of subsenses relating to it.

Specialist Vocabulary

One of the most important uses of a dictionary is to provide explanations of terms in specialized fields which are unfamiliar to a general user. Yet in many traditional dictionaries the definitions have been written by specialists as if for other specialists, and as a result the definitions are often opaque and difficult for the general user to understand.

One of the primary aims of the down the barriers to understanding specialist vocabulary. The challenge has been, on the one hand, to give information which is comprehensible, relevant, and readable, suitable for the general user, while on the other hand maintaining the high level of technical information and accuracy suitable for the more specialist user.

This has been achieved in some cases, notably entries for plants and animals and chemical substances, by separating out technical information, eg Latin names, chemical formulae, from the rest of the definition (shown immediately after a bullet). For examples, see balloonfish and benzopyrene.

In other cases, it is achieved by giving additional explanatory information within the definition itself, typically in a separate sentence. For examples, see curling and cuttlebone.

As elsewhere, the purpose is to give information which is relevant and interesting, aiming not just to define the word but also to describe and explain its context in the real world. Additional information of this type, where it is substantial, is given in the form of separate note (

An especially important feature of the of animals and plants. In-depth research and a thorough review have been carried out for animals and plants throughout the world and, as a result, a large number of entries have been included which have never before been included in general dictionaries. The style and presentation of these entries follow the general principles for specialist vocabulary in the not only give the technical information, but also describe, in everyday English, the appearance and other characteristics (of behaviour, medicinal or culinary use, mythological significance, reason for the name, etc.) and the typical habitat and distribution. For examples, see mesosaur, kowari and hiba.

Oxford Dictionary of English

). For examples, see earth and Eocene.

Oxford Dictionary of English

has been to break

is the coverage

: the entries

Encyclopedic Material

Some British dictionaries do not include entries for the names of people and places and other proper names. The argument for this is based on a distinction between ‘words’ and ‘facts’, by which dictionaries are about ‘words’ while encyclopedias and other reference works are about ‘facts’. The distinction is an interesting theoretical one but in practice there is a considerable overlap: names such as and

language

The enduring common knowledge of English speakers, regardless of whether they are classified as ‘words’ or ‘names’. The information given is the kind of information that people are likely to need from a dictionary, however that information may be traditionally classified. Both the style of definitions in the

English

approach. The

4,000 biographical entries, and just under 3,000 other proper names. The entries are designed to provide not just the basic facts (such as birth and death dates, full name, and nationality), but also a brief context giving information about, for example, a person's life and why he or she is important.

For a few really important encyclopedic entries–for example, countries–a fuller treatment is given and additional information is given in a separate note (

Shakespeare

England

are as much part of the language as words such as

, and belong in a large dictionary.

Oxford Dictionary of English

includes all those terms forming part of the

drama

Oxford Dictionary of

and the inclusion of additional material in separate blocks reflect this

Oxford Dictionary of English

includes more than 4,500 place-name entries,

Grammar

In recent years grammar has begun to enjoy greater prominence than in previous decades. It is once again being taught explicitly in state schools throughout Britain and elsewhere. In addition there is a recognition that different meanings of a word are closely associated with different lexical and syntactic patterns. The

Dictionary of English

at the relevant senses of each word, thus giving guidance on language use as well as word meaning.

For example, with the word bomb, it is possible to distinguish the main senses of the verb simply on the basis of the grammar: whether the verb takes a direct object, no direct object, or no direct object plus an obligatory adverbial:

CORE SENSE: attack *(a place or object)* with a bomb or bombs:

EXAMPLE: they bombed *the city* at dawn.

GRAMMAR: [with obj.]

records and exemplifies the most important of these patterns

(the asterisks match the direct object in the example with the bracketed item in the definition)

CORE SENSE:

EXAMPLE: we were bombing *down the motorway* at breakneck speed.

GRAMMAR: [no obj., with adverbial of direction]

Brit. informal

move very quickly:

(asterisks show adverbial in example)

CORE SENSE:

EXAMPLE: it just became another big-budget film that bombed.

GRAMMAR: [no obj.]

This has particular relevance for a dictionary such as the

, where the aim is to present information in such a way that it helps to

English

explain the structure of the language itself, not just the meanings of individual senses. For this reason, special attention has been paid to the grammar of each word, and grammatical structures are given explicitly.

informal

(of a film, play, or other event) fail badly:

Oxford Dictionary of

Oxford

Where possible, the syntactic behaviour of a word is presented directly: for example, if a verb is normally found in a particular sense followed by a certain preposition, this is indicated before the definition, in bold. For an example, see build (build on).

In other cases, collocations which are typical of the word in use, though not obligatory, are shown highlighted within the example sentence. For examples, see cushy (a cushy number) and end (ended up in, end up with).

Great efforts have been made to use a minimum of specialist terminology. Nevertheless, a small number of terms are essential in explaining the grammar of a word. The less familiar terms are explained below. All terms are, of course, defined and explained under their own entries in the dictionary.

Terms relating to nouns

Nouns and senses of nouns are generally categorized in this dictionary as being either [mass noun] or [count noun]. A mass noun is one which is not ordinarily found in the plural and is not used in the singular with the indefinite article ‘a’ (it is normal to talk about ‘bacon’, for example, but not ‘a bacon’ or ‘three bacons’), while a count noun is one which can be used with the indefinite article ‘a’ and can take a plural (e.g. shirt, shirts).

For examples of mass nouns, see bacon, badminton and banking. By default all nouns in this dictionary are to be regarded as count nouns unless stated otherwise. The label [count noun] is used to mark those nouns and senses of nouns which can take a plural where this is in contrast with an already stated mass noun. For examples, compare the core sense and subsenses at ballet and brokerage.

However, there are particular groups of mass noun that can take a plural form in certain circumstances, for instance when referring to different types of something such as food (as in such uses are recorded in the particularly important. Some categories of mass noun that can take a plural (although this may not be explicitly stated in the dictionary) are given below. The

Oxford Dictionary of English Countdown

programme:

the panel tasted a range of cheeses

Oxford Dictionary of English

is the official dictionary of the television word game

, and the following list may be helpful for people who enjoy the

). For reasons of space,

only when they are

1 Types or varieties of:

•food and drink: e.g. yogurt/yogurts, pasta/pastas, rum/rums.

• plants: e.g. clover/clovers, barley/barleys.

•fabric: e.g. gingham/ginghams, silk/silks.

• certain languages or subjects: e.g. English/Englishes, music/musics.

• metals and alloys: e.g. steel/steels, solder/solders.

• rocks: e.g. granite/granites, lava/lavas, clay/clays.

• chemical compounds: e.g. fluoride/fluorides, hydride/hydrides.

• other substances or materials: e.g. rind/rinds, soil/soils, sealskin/sealskins, suncream/suncreams.

2 Por tions or units of something, especially food and drink: e.g. lager (glasses/

bottles of lager = lagers), paella (portions of paella = paellas).

3 Shades of colours: e.g. pink/pinks, scarlet/scarlets, grey/greys. 4 An instance of:

• an action or process: e.g. completion (an instance of completing a property sale = completions), genocide (act of genocide = genocides), lambing (an act of lambing = lambings).

•a surgical operation: e.g. circumcision/circumcisions.

• an emotion, pain, or feeling: e.g. backache/backaches, grief (an instance or cause of grief = griefs).

5 An area of land of a specified type: e.g. bogland/boglands, terrain/terrains.

Other terms relating to nouns

[as modifier]: used to mark a noun which can be placed before another noun in order to modify its meaning. For examples see boom and bedside.

[treated as sing.]: used to mark a noun which is plural in form but is used with a singular verb, e.g. ‘mumps’ in ‘genetics’ in

[treated as sing. or pl.]: used to mark a noun which can be used with either a singular or a plural verb without any change in meaning or in the form of the headword (often called people considered collectively), e.g.

genetics has played a major role in this work

the government is trying to gag its critics

[in sing.]: used to mark a noun which is used as a count noun but is never or rarely found in the plural, e.g. ear in

Terms relating to verbs

[with obj.]: used to mark a verb which takes a direct object, i.e. is transitive (the type of direct object being shown in brackets in the definition). For example, see

belabour. [no obj.]: used to mark a verb which takes no direct object, i.e. is intransitive. For

example, see bristle. [with adverbial]: used to mark a verb which takes an obligatory adverbial, typically

a prepositional phrase, without which the sentence in which the verb occurs would sound unnatural or odd, e.g. barge into under barge.

Terms relating to adjectives

[attrib.]: used to mark an adjective which is normally used attributively, i.e. comes before the noun which it modifies, e.g. certain in

, which means something very different). Note that attributive use is

certain

standard for many adjectives, especially those in specialist or technical fields: the [attrib.] label is not used in such cases.

[predic.]: used to mark an adjective which is normally used predicatively, i.e. comes after the verb, e.g. ajar in

mumps is one of the major childhood diseases

collective nouns

, because they typically denote groups of

the government are committed to this policy

an ear for rhythm and melody

a certain man

the door was ajar

(not

the ajar door

(not

the man is

[postpositive]: used to mark an adjective which is used postpositively, i.e. it

typically comes immediately after the noun which it modifies. Such uses are unusual in English and generally arise because the adjective has been adopted from a language where postpositive use is standard, e.g. galore in

prizes galore for everything

Terms relating to adverbs

[sentence adverb]: used to mark an adverb which stands outside a sentence or clause, providing commentary on it as a whole or showing the speaker’s or writer’s attitude to what is being said, rather than the manner in which something was done. Sentence adverbs most frequently express the speaker's or writer's point of view, although they may also be used to set a context by stating a field of reference, e.g.

certainly. [as submodifier]: used to mark an adverb which is used to modify an adjective or

another adverb, e.g. comparatively.

there were

Evidence and Illustrative Examples

The information presented in the dictionary about individual words is based on close analysis of how words behave in real, natural language. Behind every dictionary entry are examples of the word in use–often hundreds and thousands of them–which have been analysed to give information about typical usage, about distribution (whether typically British or typically US, for example), about register (whether informal or derogatory, for example), about currency (whether archaic or dated, for example), and about subject field (whether used only in Medicine, Finance, Chemistry, or Sport, for example).

1. Oxford English Corpus

The

Oxford Dictionary of English

and new material added to this second edition has been derived from this source. The Oxford English Corpus is the name for the Oxford University Press holdings of language databases amounting to hundreds of million words of written and spoken English in machine-readable form, available for computational analysis. Among these language resources are the British National Corpus (100 million words), a new corpus of comparable size, and the database of the Oxford Reading

was compiled using the Oxford English Corpus,

Programme (see below). By using concordancing techniques, each word can be viewed almost instantaneously in the immediate contexts in which it is used. Whereas compilers of previous dictionaries were able to base their work on only a limited selection of citations, lexicographers on the analysed hundreds of real examples of each word to see how real language behaves today.

Concordances show at a glance that some combinations of words (called ‘collocations’) occur together much more often than others. For example, concordance entries might show that ‘end in’, ‘end the’, and ‘end up’ all occur quite often. But are any of these combinations important enough to be given special treatment in the dictionary?

Recent research has focused on identifying combinations that are not merely frequent but also statistically significant. In the Oxford English Corpus, the two words ‘end the’ occur very frequently together but they do not form a statistically significant unit, since the word ‘the’ is the commonest in the language. The combinations end up and end in, on the other hand, are shown to be more significant and tell the lexicographer something about the way the verb end behaves in normal use. Of course, a dictionary for general use cannot go into detailed statistical analysis of word combinations, but it can present examples that are typical of normal usage. In the significant or important patterns are highlighted, in bold, e.g. end in, end up under end.

For further details, see the section on Grammar.

2. Oxford Reading Programme

The citation database created by the Oxford Reading Programme is an ongoing research project in which readers around the world select citations from a huge variety of specialist and non-specialist sources in all varieties of English. This database currently stands at around 77 million words and is growing at a rate of 7 million words a year.

Oxford Dictionary of English

particularly

3. Specialist reading

A general corpus does not, by definition, contain large quantities of specialized terminology. For this reason, a directed reading programme was set up specially

Oxford Dictionary of English

for the citations in a number of neglected fields, for example food and cooking, health and fitness, boats and sailing, photography, genetics, martial arts, and complementary medicine.

4. Examples

The

Oxford Dictionary of English

than any other comparable dictionary. Generally, they are there to show typical uses of the word or sense. All examples are authentic, in that they represent actual usage. In the past, dictionaries have used made-up examples, partly because not enough authentic text was available and partly through an assumption that invented examples were somehow better in that they could be tailored to the precise needs of the dictionary entry. Such a view finds little favour today, and it is now generally recognized that the ‘naturalness’ provided by authentic examples is of the utmost importance in providing an accurate picture of language in use.

, enabling additional research and collection of

contains many more examples of words in use

Word Histories

The etymologies in standard dictionaries explain the language from which a word was brought into English, the period at which it is first recorded in English, and the development of modern word forms. While the this, it also goes further. It explains sense development as well as morphological (or form) development. Information is presented clearly and with a minimum of technical terminology, and the perspective taken is that of the general user who would like to know about word origins but who is not a philological specialist. In this context, the history of how and why a particular meaning developed from an apparently quite different older meaning is likely to be at least as interesting as, for example, what the original form was in Latin or Greek.

For example, the word history for the word oaf shows how the present meaning developed from the meaning ‘elf’, while the entry for conker shows how the word may be related both to ‘conch’ and ‘conquer’ (explaining how the original game of conkers was played with snail shells rather than the nut of the horse chestnut).

Additional special features of the etymologies’ and ‘folk etymologies’. Internal etymologies are given within entries to explain the origin of particular senses, phrases, or idioms. For example, how did the figurative use of red herring come about? Why do we call something a flash in the pan? See the internal etymologies under red herring and flash.

Oxford Dictionary of English

The user-friendly fashion immediately following the relevant definition.

In a similar vein, folk etymologies–those explanations which are unfounded but nevertheless well known to many people–have traditionally simply been ignored in dictionaries. The often erroneous folk etymologies for the benefit of the general user, explaining competing theories and assessing their relative merits where applicable. See the folk etymologies at posh and snob.

Researching word histories is similar in some respects to archaeology: the evidence is often partial or not there at all, and etymologists must make informed decisions using the evidence available, however inadequate it may be. From time to time new evidence becomes available, and the known history of a word may need to be reconsidered. In this, the on the extensive expertise and ongoing research of the

Oxford Dictionary of English

presents the information in a straightforward,

Oxford Dictionary of English

include ‘internal

gives an account of widely held but

has been able to draw

Oxford English Dictionary

does

Usage Notes (&)

Interest in questions of good usage is widespread among English speakers everywhere, and many issues are hotly debated. In the

, traditional issues have been reappraised, and guidance is given on various

English

points, old and new. The aim is to help people to use the language more accurately, more clearly, and more elegantly, and to give information and offer reassurance in the face of some of the more baffling assertions about ‘correctness’ that are sometimes made.

This reappraisal has involved looking carefully at evidence of actual usage (in the Oxford English Corpus, the citations collected by the Oxford Reading Programme, and other sources) in order to find out where mistakes are actually being made, and where confusion and ambiguity actually arise. The issues on which journalists and others tend to comment have been reassessed and a judgement made about whether their comments are justified.

From the 15th century onwards, traditionalists have been objecting to particular senses of certain English words and phrases, for example ‘aggravate’, ‘due to’, and ‘hopefully’. Certain grammatical structures, too, have been singled out for adverse comment, notably the split infinitive and the use of a preposition at the end of a clause. Some of these objections are founded on very dubious arguments, for example the notion that English grammatical structures should precisely parallel those of Latin or that meaning change of any kind is inherently suspect. For examples of notes on such issues, see preposition, due and aggravate.

The usage notes in the English, not Latin, and that English is, like all languages, subject to change. Good usage is usage that gets the writer's message across, not usage that conforms to some arbitrary rules that fly in the face of historical fact or current evidence. The editors of the pundits in the past have had remarkably little practical effect on the way the language is actually used. A good dictionary reports the language as it is, not as the editors (or anyone else) would wish it to be, and the usage notes must give guidance that accords with observed facts about present-day usage.

Oxford Dictionary of English

are well aware that the prescriptions of

Oxford Dictionary of

take the view that English is

This is not to imply that the issues are straightforward or that there are simple solutions, however. Much of the debate about use of language is highly political and controversy is, occasionally, inevitable. Changing social attitudes have stigmatized long-established uses such as the word ‘man’ to denote the human race in general, for example, and have highlighted the absence of a gender-neutral singular pronoun meaning both ‘he’ and ‘she’ (for which purpose ‘they’ is increasingly being used). Similarly, words such as ‘race’ and ‘native’ are now associated with particular problems of sensitivity in use, and the ways that disability is referred to have come under close examination. The usage notes in the information and practical advice on such issues. For examples, see man, native and disabled.

Oxford Dictionary of English

offer

Standard English

Unless otherwise stated, the words and senses recorded in this dictionary are all part of standard English; that is, they are in normal use in both speech and writing everywhere in the world, at many different levels of formality, ranging from official documents to casual conversation. Some words, however, are appropriate only in particular contexts, and these are labelled accordingly. The technical term for a particular level of use in language is register.

Oxford Dictionary of English

The

formal: normally used only in writing, in contexts such as official documents. informal: normally used only in contexts such as conversations or letters

among friends.

dated: no longer used by the majority of English speakers, but still

encountered occasionally, especially among the older generation.

archaic:very old-fashioned language, not in ordinary use at all today, but

sometimes used to give a deliberately old-fashioned effect or found in works of the past that are still widely read.

historical: still used today, but only to refer to some practice or artefact that is

no longer part of the modern world, e.g. baldric and almoner.

literary:found only or mainly in literature written in an ‘elevated' style.

uses the following register labels:

technical: normally used only in technical and specialist language, though not

necessarily restricted to any specific subject field.

rare: not in normal use. humorous: used with the intention of sounding funny or playful. dialect: not used in the standard language, but still widely used in certain

local regions of the English-speaking world. A distinction is made between traditional dialect, which is generally to do with rural society and agricultural practices which have mostly died out, and contemporary dialect, where speakers may not even be aware that the term is in fact a regionalism. The aims to include the main contemporary dialect terms, but does not set out to record traditional dialect.

offensive: language that is likely to cause offence, particularly racial offence,

whether the speaker intends it or not.

derogatory: language intended to convey a low opinion or cause personal

offence.

euphemistic: mild or indirect language used to avoid making direct reference to

something unpleasant or taboo.

vulgar slang: informal language that may cause offence, often because it refers to

the bodily functions of sexual activity or excretion, which are still widely regarded as taboo.

Oxford Dictionary of English

World English

English is spoken as a first language by more than 300 million people throughout the world, and used as a second language by many millions more. It is the language of international communication in trade, diplomacy, sport, science, technology, and countless other fields.

The main regional standards are British, US and Canadian, Australian and New Zealand, South African, Indian, West Indian, and SE Asian. Within each of these regional varieties, a number of highly differentiated local dialects may be found. For example, within British English, Scottish and Irish English have a long history and a number of distinctive features, which have in turn influenced particular North American and other varieties.

The scope of a dictionary such as the breadth of material it aims to cover, must be limited in the main to the vocabulary of the standard language throughout the world rather than local dialectal variation. Nevertheless, the encountered in standard contexts in the different English-speaking areas of the world. For examples, see bakkie, larrikin, ale, history-sheeter, sufferation.

The underlying approach has been to get away from the traditional, parochial notion that ‘correct’ English is spoken only in England and more particularly only in Oxford or London. A network of consultants in all parts of the English-speaking world has assisted in this by giving information and answering queries–by e-mail, on a regular, often daily basis–on all aspects of the language in a particular region. Often, the aim has been to find out whether a particular word, sense, or expression, well known and standard in British English, is used anywhere else. The picture that emerges is one of complex interactions among an overlapping set of regional standards.

The vast majority of words and senses in the common to all the major regional standard varieties of English, but where important local differences exist, the more than 14,000 geographical labels on words and senses in this dictionary, but this contrasts with more than ten times that number which are not labelled at all.

The complexity of the overall picture has necessarily been simplified, principally for reasons of space and clarity of presentation. For example, a label such as ‘chiefly Brit.’ implies but does not state that a term is not standard in American English, though it may nevertheless be found in some local varieties in the US. In addition, the label ‘US’ implies that the use is typically US (and probably originated in the US) and is not standard in British English, but it might be found in other varieties such as Australian or South African English. The label ‘Brit.’, on the other hand, implies that the use is found typically in standard British English but is not found in standard American English, though it may be found elsewhere.

Oxford Dictionary of English

includes thousands of regionalisms

Oxford Dictionary of English

records them. There are

, given the

are

Spelling

It is often said that English spelling is both irregular and illogical, and it is certainly true that it is only indirectly related to contemporary pronunciation. English spelling reflects not modern pronunciation but the pronunciation of the 14th century, as used by Chaucer. This traditional spelling was reinforced in the 16th and 17th centuries, in particular through the influence of the works of Shakespeare and the Authorized Version of the Bible. However, in the two centuries between Chaucer and Shakespeare English pronunciation had undergone huge changes, but spelling had failed to follow.

In the 18th century, standard spelling became almost completely fixed. The dictionaries written in this period, particularly Samuel Johnson's

English Language

minor change and variation, is the standard accepted in English today. The complex history of the English language, together with the absence of any ruling body imposing ‘spelling reform’, has ensured that many idiosyncrasies and anomalies in standard spelling have not only arisen but have also been preserved.

Oxford Dictionary of English

The particularly those cases which are irregular or which otherwise cause difficulty for native speakers. The main categories are summarized below.

Variant spellings

The main form of each word given in the standard British spelling. If there is a standard variant, e.g. a standard US spelling variant, this is indicated at the top of the entry and is cross-referred if its alphabetical position is more than three entries distant from the main entry. For examples, compare filo/phyllo and aluminium/aluminum.

Other variants, such as archaic, old-fashioned, or informal spellings, are crossreferred to the main entry, but are not themselves listed at the parent entry. For example, compare Esquimau/Eskimo.

(1755), helped establish this national standard, which, with only

gives advice and information on spelling,

Oxford Dictionary of English

Dictionary of the

is always the

-ise or ize?

Many verbs end with the suffix –ize or ise. The form –ize has been in use in English since the 16th century, and, despite what some people think, is not an Americanism. The alternative form –ise is found more commonly in British than in American English. For most verbs of this class either –ize or –ise is acceptable; this dictionary has used –ize spellings, with –ise given as an equally correct, alternative spelling. For some words, however, -ise is obligatory: first, where it forms part of a larger word element, such as –mise (= sending) in compromise, and –prise (= taking) in surprise; and second, in verbs corresponding to nouns with –s- in the stem, such as advertise and televise.

Hyphenation

Although standard spelling in English is fixed, the use of hyphenation is not. In standard English a few general rules are followed, and these are outlined below.

Hyphenation of noun compounds: There is no hard-and-fast rule saying whether, for example, airstream, air stream, or air-stream is correct. All forms are found in use: all are recorded in the Oxford English Corpus and other standard texts. However, there is a broad tendency to avoid hyphenation for noun compounds in modern English (except when used to show grammatical function: see below). Thus there is, for example, a preference for airstream rather than air-stream and for air raid rather than air-raid. Although this is a tendency in both British and US English there is an additional preference in US English for the form to be one word and in British English for the form to be two words, e.g. buck tooth tends to be the commonest form in British English, while bucktooth tends to be the commonest form in US English. To save space and avoid confusion, only one of the three potential forms of each noun compound (the standard British one) is used as the headword form in the that other forms are incorrect or not used.

Grammatical function: Hyphens are also used to perform certain grammatical functions. When a noun compound made up of two separate words (e.g. credit card) is placed before another noun and used to modify it, the general rule is that the noun compound becomes hyphenated, e.g.

. This sort of regular alternation is seen in example sentences in the

debt Dictionary of English

entries.

Oxford Dictionary of English

but is not otherwise explicitly mentioned in the dictionary

. This does not, however, imply

I used my credit card

but

credit-card

Oxford

A similar alternation is found in compound adjectives such as well intentioned. When used predicatively (i.e. after the verb), such adjectives are unhyphenated, but when used attributively (i.e. before the noun), they are hyphenated:

but

were well intentioned

A general rule governing verb compounds means that, where a noun compound is two words (e.g. beta test), any verb derived from it is normally hyphenated (to beta-test: more often hyphenated than ordinary noun or adjective compounds (e.g. glass- making, nation-building).

Phrasal verbs such as ‘take off’, ‘take over’, and ‘set up’ are not hyphenated, but nouns formed from phrasal verbs are hyphenated, or, increasingly, written as one word:

set-up

the system was beta-tested

the plane accelerated for take-off; a hostile takeover; he didn’t die, it was a

. There is an increasing tendency to hyphenate the verb form as well (

available to take-away

Inflection

Compared with other European languages, English has comparatively few inflections, and those that exist are remarkably regular. We add an to make a plural; we add participle, and

Occasionally, a difficulty arises: for example, a single consonant after a short stressed vowel is doubled before adding hummed). In addition, words borrowed from other languages generally bring their foreign inflections with them, causing problems for English speakers who are not proficient in those languages.

In all such cases, guidance is given in the areas covered are outlined below.

-ing

a well-intentioned remark

). Similarly, verbal nouns and adjectives are

) but this is not good writing style and should be avoided.

-ed

to most verbs to make a past tense or a past

to make a present participle.

-ed

-ing

(hum, hums, humming,

Oxford Dictionary of English

his remarks

food

to most nouns

. The main

The following forms are regarded as regular and are therefore not shown in the dictionary:

• third person singular present forms adding -

• past tenses and past participles dropping a final silent

• present participles dropping a final silent

Other forms are given in the dictionary, notably for:

•verbs which inflect by doubling a consonant, e.g. bat

•verbs ending in

•verbs in which past tense and past participle do not follow the regular

• present participles which add

Plurals formed by adding -s (or regarded as regular and are not shown.

Other plural forms are given in the dictionary, notably for:

• nouns ending in

• nouns with more than one plural form, e.g. storey

• nouns with plurals showing a change in the stem, e.g. foot

• nouns with plurals unchanged from the singular form, e.g. sheep

Verbs

-s, -x, -z, -sh

stem, e.g. change

change

, or soft

→

changing or dance → dancing

-y

to the stem (or

-ch

), e.g. find → finds or change → changes

→

changed or dance → danced

and adding

which inflect by changing -y to -i, e.g. try → tries, tried

-es

to stems ending

and adding

-ing

to the stem, e.g.

→

batting, batted

-ed

to the

-ed

pattern, e.g. feel → past and past participle felt; awake → past awoke; past participle awoken

-ing

but retain a final e (in order to make clear that

the pronunciation of

Nouns

→

alumna

alumnae; spectrum → spectra; alveolus → alveoli

remains soft), e.g. singe → singeing

-es

when they end in -s, -x, -z,

-i

or -o, e.g. agouti → agoutis; albino → albinos

-a, -um

, or

-us

which are or appear to be Latinate forms, e.g.

-y

, e.g. fly → flies

→

-sh

, or soft

storeys or stories

→

feet

→

sheep

-ch

) are

Adjectives

The following forms for comparative and superlative are regarded as regular and are not shown in the dictionary:

-er

and

-est

•words of one syllable adding

•words of one syllable ending in silent

→

e.g. brave

•words which form the comparative and superlative by adding ‘more’ and ‘most’

Other forms are given in the dictionary, notably for:

• adjectives which form the comparative and superlative by doubling a final consonant, e.g. hot

•two-syllable adjectives which form the comparative and superlative with

-est

(typically adjectives ending in -y and their negative forms), e.g. happy

happier, happiest; unhappy → unhappier, unhappiest

braver, bravest

→

hotter, hottest

, e.g. great → greater, greatest

, which drop the -e and add

-er

and

-er

-est

and

→

Pronunciations

Generally speaking, native speakers of English do not need information about the pronunciation for ordinary, everyday words such as bake, baby, beach, bewilder, boastful, or budget. For this reason, no pronunciations are given for such words (or their compounds and derivatives) in the such as baba ganoush, baccalaureate, beatific, bijouterie, bucolic, and buddleia, on the other hand, are less familiar and may give problems. Similarly, difficulties are often encountered in pronouncing names of people and places, especially foreign ones, such as Chechnya, Kieslowski, and Althusser.

Oxford Dictionary of English

In the given where they are likely to cause problems for the native speaker of English, in particular for foreign words, foreign names, scientific and other specialist terms, rare words, words with unusual stress patterns, and words where there are alternative pronunciations or where there is a dispute about the standard pronunciation.

Oxford Dictionary of English

, the principle followed is that pronunciations are

. Words

Oxford Dictionary of English

The represent the standard accent of English as spoken in the south of England (sometimes called Received Pronunciation or RP). The transcriptions reflect pronunciation as it actually is in modern English, unlike some longer-established systems, which reflect the standard pronunciation of broadcasters and public schools in the 1930s. It is recognized that, although the English of southern England is the pronunciation given, many variations are heard in standard speech in other parts of the English-speaking world.

The symbols used for English words, with their values, are given below. In multisyllable words the symbol ' is used to show that the following syllable is stressed

k@"bal

(as in

Consonants: values. Other symbols are used as follows:

Vo wels

); the symbol % indicates a secondary stress (as in

b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w

get chip jar

uses the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to

%kal@"bri;s

, and z have their usual English

loch ring thin

this she decision

yes

short vowels long vowels diphthongs triphthongs

(;

indicates length

cat

bed

ago

sit

cosy

hot

run

put

arm

hair

her

see

saw

too

)

my how day no near boy poor

VI@

aU@

fire sour

(@) before /l/, /m/, or /n/ indicates that the syllable may be realized with a syllabic l,

"bVt(@)n

m, or n, rather than with a vowel and consonant, e.g. /

) indicates an r that is sometimes sounded when a vowel follows, as in drawer,

(

/ rather than /

"bVt@n

cha-chaing.

Foreign pronunciations

Foreign words and phrases, whether naturalized or not, are always given an anglicized pronunciation. The anglicized pronunciation represents the normal pronunciation used by native speakers of standard English (who may not be speakers of other languages) when using the word in an English context. A foreign pronunciation is also given for words taken from other languages (principally French, Dutch, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish) where this is appreciably different from the anglicized form and where the other language is familiar to a reasonable number of English speakers.

Where the native form of a foreign place name is given in addition to the anglicized form, only the foreign pronunciation of this form is given.

Foreign-language transcriptions are based on current national standards. Regional variations have not been given, except in the case of Spanish transcriptions, where both Castilian and American Spanish variants are given (if distinct). Transcriptions are broad, and many symbols, identical to those used for transcribing English, have similar values to those of RP. In a few cases, where there is no English equivalent to a foreign sound, a symbol has been added to the inventory. The additional symbols used to represent foreign pronunciations are given on the right.

Consonants

(German)

(French) (Italian) (Portuguese) (Spanish)

(Spanish)

Ehrlich, gemütlich Monseigneur, Auvergne, Daubigny

Emilia-Romagna Minho España, Buñuel

Bilbao

(Spanish)

(Italian)

(Hungarian)

French ‘r’

all other values of ‘r’ in other featured languages.

Vowels

Short vowels

(German) Abitur

(Dutch) Nederland

(French) abbé (Italian) Croce (Spanish) Albacete

(French) auberge (Italian) Palio (Spanish) Cortes

(French) Bonnard (German) durchkomponiert (Greek) Dhílos (Hungarian) Brassó (Italian) Borgia

(French) Pasteur

{

(French) Montreux

(French) Anjou (Italian) Duccio (Spanish) Asunción

Burgos Cagliari Magyarország Anvers, Arles (German) Braunschweig

(Italian) Alberti (Russian) Grozny (Spanish) Algeciras, zarzuela

long vowels

(;

indicates length

(Dutch) Den Haag

)

(German) Aachen

(German) Wehrmacht (Dutch) Nederland (Irish) Gaeltacht

(German) verboten (Hungarian) Brassó

{;

(German) Gasthöfe

(French) cru

(German) München

(Irish) Dáil (Russian) Arkhangelsk

(French) Horta

(German) gemütlich

nasalized vowels diphthongs

(

indicates nasality

pincette

cordon bleu

(French) Danton, Lac Leman

(French) Amiens, Rodin

(French) Verdun

(French) arrondissement

)

used for anglicized

}

French pronunciations

(German) Gleichschaltung

Oxford Thesaurus of English

Introduction

The

Oxford Thesaurus of English (OTE

new ways, in order to create an original work of reference that will be most useful to a wide range of users for many different purposes. It is an independent resource in its own right, but it may also be viewed as a companion volume to the

Dictionary of English

based on systematic analysis of hundreds of millions of words of real English, presents the most accurate picture of the language available. same data to give sets of words compiled according to their similarity in meaning and checked for actual usage against the evidence in the Oxford English Corpus.

All thesauruses contain lists of words that are linked by having a similar or related meaning, but this thesaurus also contains:

■

opposites (e.g. for the different senses of smart:

slow

, and

■

word links (e.g. words related to horse, such as

■

studies of synonyms with similar meanings, entitled ‘Choose the Right Word’

brusque, abrupt, curt

(e.g.

■

advice on pairs of confusingly similar words (e.g. “militate or mitigate?”)

■

a broad selection of word lists (e.g. herbs:

bergamot

For more information on these features, see the relevant sections on pages 51–52.

, Oxford’s ground-breaking one-volume dictionary which,

gentle

, and

, etc.)

Selection of entries

The primary purpose of of English: words with roughly the same meaning as the entry word (headword). Some words, especially those for animals, plants, and physical objects, do not have synonyms, so they do not get entries in a thesaurus. You will not find synonyms of

gerbil

geranium

squirrel something away

away

OTE

is to give synonyms for the common everyday words

, but there is an entry for

, which has synonyms such as

) has been compiled using new evidence in

Oxford

OTE

draws on the

scruffy, unfashionable, stupid

terse

stallion, mare

)

, and

equine

angelica, anise, basil, bay leaf

squirrel

because of the phrasal verb

save, put aside

, and

)

stash

The words selected as headwords are general words that nonspecialists are likely to want to look up. It is the job of a dictionary, not a thesaurus, to explain the meanings of unusual words, such as alphabetical entry here. However, for the more familiar words can thus lead the user from the familiar to the unfamiliar, improving his or her word power.

inessential, needless

supererogatory

, so such words do not get an

is given as a synonym at entries

, and

unnecessary

. A thesaurus

Homonyms

Homonyms are words that are written the same but have different and unrelated

bank

meanings, such as the money. Each has its own numbered entry, thus:

bank

… the banks of Lake Michigan

… I paid the money into my bank

bank

of a river or lake and a

bank

that looks after people’s

Synonyms

It is sometimes argued that no two words have exactly the same meaning. Even

and

shut

words as similar in meaning as

Closing

a shop implies that the shop is no longer open for business, so no one can

shutting

come in. On the other hand, secure, so that nothing can be taken out. A similar distinction is found between

strong

and

powerful: powerful enemies

on the inside will deter them from attacking. However, these are unusually

defence

subtle distinctions. For most practical purposes,

strong

and

meaning, as do emphasize different aspects of the meaning. For example, another close synonym

strong

of contrast, of this meaning of

alcoholic

are not, of course, synonyms of each other. In this title, the broadest possible definition of the term ‘synonym’ has been

adopted, as being the one that will be most useful to users. Even words whose

muscular

stalwart

are other close synonyms of strong, but all in quite different senses. They

powerful

, but it places much more emphasis on physical strength. By

and

staunch

strong. Forceful, secure, durable, loud, intense, bright

a shop implies that the shop is being made

. Other synonyms are more distant, or

are synonyms that emphasize more abstract aspects

may have slightly different nuances.

may threaten from outside, but a

and

shut

have the same

strong

, and

meaning is quite distantly related to that of the headword are supplied if they can be used to get the same message across in appropriate contexts or if they are synonymous with a part of the meaning of the headword.

The synonyms in each entry are grouped together in synonym sets. Major synonym sets correspond roughly to different senses of a word in a dictionary, but the divisions are also governed by the matches between headwords and synonyms. Each major synonym set is numbered, and many have finer subdivisions, which are separated by semicolons.

At the start of almost every synonym set is a ‘core synonym’: the term which is closest in meaning to the headword in that particular sense. Core synonyms are printed in BOLD. If no one synonym is particularly close, there may be no bold core synonym. Some synonym sets have more than one core synonym; for example at

avant-garde

the headword, so both are given as core synonyms. Two different core synonyms within the same sense group may emphasize slightly different aspects of the meaning of the headword. For example, at

conscientious

meaning. Then, after a semicolon, a second core synonym, a further group of synonyms related to that aspect.

Synonyms whose usage is restricted in some way, such as regional expressions and informal or very formal words, are placed at the end of each major synonym set and labelled accordingly. See Register below.

(adjective), both

, followed by a group of words closely related to this aspect of its

innovative

and

advanced

dutiful

are very close in meaning to

, the first core synonym given is

obedient

, is given, with

Illustrative examples

Almost every synonym set in the word in use in the relevant sense. These are authentic examples of natural usage taken from the Oxford English Corpus (see Linguistic evidence below). The examples can therefore be trusted for guidance on using unfamiliar words in an idiomatic way, but it does not follow that each synonym given can be used in the example, in place of the headword.

Where part of an example is printed in bold the synonyms can be substituted for that particular phrase, not just for the headword alone. Thus at

OTE

is illustrated with a carefully chosen example of

type, this indicates that some or all of

attached

, the example given is:

she was very attached to her brother

because the synonyms are equivalent to

attached to

fond of, devoted to, full of regard for, full of admiration for; affectionate towards, tender towards, caring towards; <informal> mad about, crazy about, nuts about.

Linguistic evidence

OTE

was compiled using the Oxford English Corpus, the collective name for Oxford’s holdings of language databases amounting currently to over 300 million words of written and spoken English, which are in machine-readable form and available for computational and lexicographical analysis. The text is drawn from a very diverse range of sources (from scholarly journals to internet chatrooms, via novels and newspapers), either as large portions of continuous text or as short extracts selected for the ever-growing database of the Oxford Reading Programme by its international network of readers.

The Oxford English Corpus allows lexicographers to sort and analyse thousands of examples in context and thereby see more clearly than ever before how words are actually used. For the specific purposes of this thesaurus they have been able to:

■

confirm whether a word has senses for which there are suitable synonyms

■

check the sense of words being selected as synonyms

■

actively find synonyms which have not previously been recorded.

The Corpus is also used to obtain the sentences and phrases given as examples of usage.

Idiomatic phrases and phrasal verbs

English is full of idiomatic expressions—phrases whose meaning is more than the sum of their parts. For example,

means ‘a boost’. Neither of these has very much to do with more literal

the arm

shot

meanings of

. Phrasal verbs are expressions such as

a shot in the dark

consisting of a verb plus a particle. The meaning of a phrasal verb is also often quite idiomatic; for example, the meanings of

take

meanings of

. This thesaurus includes a rich selection of both kinds of idiomatic

expression, and provides synonyms for each. If a word is used as both a noun and

means ‘a guess’, while

book in

and

take off

are quite distinct from the

a shot in

turn out

a verb, the idiomatic expressions are entered as subentries under the part of speech in which the word is used. Thus,

book

, while

book in

senses of

is given under the verb senses.

by the book

is given under the noun

Informal usage is more prevalent than it was even just a few years ago. People may be heard using slang expressions in quite formal contexts, while the use of swear words and taboo words is on the increase. Taboos generally are weakening, though

bastard

more so in Australia, where

is scarcely different from so in southern US States such as Texas. This thesaurus contains a rich selection of informal and vulgar synonyms for more formal expressions. Users who wish to avoid giving offence should treat the

vulgar slang

labels as warning notices.

Most of the synonyms given are, of course, part of standard English; that is, they are in normal use in both speech and writing everywhere in the world, at many different levels of formality, ranging from official documents to casual conversation. These general synonyms are given first in each synonym set. Some words, however, are appropriate only in particular contexts, and these are placed after the standard expressions and labelled accordingly. The technical term for these differences in levels of usage is ‘register’. The main register labels used in this thesaurus are the following:

informal: normally used only in contexts such as conversations or letters

swig

between friends, e.g.

as a synonym for

vulgar slang: informal language that may cause offence, usually because it refers

to bodily functions.

formal: normally used only in writing, in contexts such as official docu-

dwelling

ments, e.g.

as a synonym for

technical: normally used only in technical and specialist language, though not

necessarily restricted to any specific field, e.g.

beach

for e.g.

. Words used in specific fields are given appropriate labels,

Medicine, Christianity

literary:found only or mainly in literature written in an ‘elevated’ style, e.g.

ambrosial

as a synonym for

delicious

home

guy

drink

littoral

chap

, and less

as a synonym

dated: no longer used by the majority of English speakers, but still

encountered occasionally, especially among the older generation,

measure one’s length

e.g.

historical: still used today, but only to refer to some practice or article that is no

longer part of the modern world, e.g.

humorous: used with the intention of sounding funny or playful, e.g.

cal inexactitude

archaic:very old-fashioned language, not in ordinary use at all today, but

sometimes used to give a deliberately old-fashioned effect, or found in works of the past that are still widely read, e.g. synonym for

rare: not in common use, e.g.

as a synonym for

food

as a synonym for

ruff

lie

acclivitous

as a synonym for

fall down

, the type of collar.

aliment

steep

terminologi-

as a

World English

It is a truism that English is now a world language. In this thesaurus, particular care has been taken to include synonyms from every variety of English, not just British; and when these are exclusively or very strongly associated with a region of the world they are labelled as such.

The main regional standards are British (abbreviated to <Brit.>), North American <N. Amer.>, Australian and New Zealand <Austral./NZ>, South African <S. African>, Indian (in the sense of the variety of English found throughout the subcontinent), and West Indian <W. Indian>. If the distinction is very clear, finer used, as with

Scottish, Irish, and Northern English are varieties within the British Isles containing distinctive vocabulary items of their own. The main synonyms found as regional terms of this kind are entered and labelled accordingly.

The term for something found mainly or exclusively in a particular country or region (although it may be mentioned in any variety of English) is identified by an indication such as ‘(

Many regionally restricted terms are informal, rather than being part of the standard language. Writers in the northern hemisphere in search of local colour may be delighted to learn that an Australian synonym for

beer parlour

, a Canadian synonym for

in the Caribbean

)’. An example is

bar

key

sordid

labelling may be

(as a synonym for

scungy

, while Australian

island

writers may find it equally useful to be given equivalent British terms,

grotty

Words that are used in English but still generally regarded is foreign are labelled with their language of origin. For example, among the synonyms for

French

pension, auberge;

pensione;

German

Spanish

Gasthaus.

posada, parador;

Por tuguese

manky

hotel

pousada;

and

are:

Italian

Opposites

Many synonym sets are followed by one or more words that have the opposite meaning from the headword, often called ‘antonyms’. There are several different

Tr ue

and

false

kinds of opposite. Logically, a statement is either true or false: it cannot be slightly true or rather false.

Hot

and

cold

, on the other hand, are opposites with gradations of meaning: it makes perfectly good sense to say that something is rather hot or very cold, and there are a number of words ( stages. It makes sense to ask about something “How hot is it?” but that commits the speaker to the notion that it is hot at least to some extent. So opposite ends of a continuum, rather than being absolutes.

For many words, such as but the phrase definition has been adopted, giving the maximum amount of information to the user. In some cases, a phrasal opposite is given for a phrasal subentry, e.g.

as an opposite for

The antonyms given in this thesaurus are not the only possible opposites, but they are usually the furthest in meaning from the headword. By looking up the ‘opposite’ word as an entry in its own right, the user will generally find a much larger range of opposites to choose from. For example, the entry for

Both

add

include, append

in the prime of life

let off steam

-OPPOSITE(S) add, insert.

and

insert

are entries in their own right and give synonyms such as

, and

interpolate

are absolute opposites, with no middle ground.

warm, tepid, cool

senile

, there is no single word that serves as an opposite,

does the job. In this title the broadest possible

) which represent intermediate

hot

and

delete

includes:

cold

are at

bottle things

Word links

The ‘Word Links’ sections at the end of certain entries supply words which are not

actual synonyms but which have a different kind of relation to the headword. For

milk

example, at adjectives relation include collective nouns (e.g. for the male, female, or young of an animal (e.g.

kitten

subject (e.g.

pentagon

(e.g. Some ‘word links’ are prefixes or suffixes related to the headword, such as

light, cerebro

suffixes helps the user to understand many new or unfamiliar words, such as

photometry

, the adjective relating to milk is given (

urban, municipal

, and the rarer

school

cat

), phobias (e.g.

bryology

five

- at

brain

and

cerebrospinal

arachnophobia

moss

), or a geometric figure with a given number of sides

, and -

metry

measurement

oppidan

spider

lactic

); at

town

, the related

. Examples of other types of

dolphin

, or

cast

hawk

) and words

leveret

hare

, or

tom, queen

), the study of a particular

photo

; knowledge of prefixes and

, and

- at

‘Choose the Right Word’ notes

No two synonyms are exactly the same: they may have subtly different meanings or be used in different contexts. For instance, the words

outspoken

and same meaning, but there are subtle differences. There are 120 ‘Choose the Right Word’ notes devoted to explaining the differences in meaning between groups of close synonyms totalling well over 400. The distinctions are based on careful analysis of actual usage as recorded in the Oxford English Corpus (see Linguistic Evidence above). This analysis involved the most up-to-date computational techniques to sift large amounts of data, as well as traditional lexicographical analysis.

are all synonyms of each other because they all have roughly the

blunt, candid, forthright, frank

Confusables

There are, in addition, 45 notes explaining the difference between pairs of words

militate

and

such as cause difficulty because they are written or pronounced similarly but have different meanings.

mitigate, flaunt

and

flout

, or

principal

and

principle

, that may

for

sport—game, recreation

particular sports— thesaurus an invaluable aid to crossword-solving and a fascinating source of encyclopedic information on subjects as diverse as clouds, cocktails, marsupials, and martial arts. There are cross-references ( words in the main text.

, etc.—the list entitled ‘Sports’ gives the names of

archery, badminton, curling, dressage

, etc. These lists make this

) to these lists from appropriate

Word lists

The updated word list feature in supplement the main entries. While the main entry for, say,

OTE

comprises over 400 lists designed to

sport

gives synonyms

Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

Introduction (abridged)

In this new sixth edition of the nature of its coverage has been extended and sustained. Since the fifth edition appeared in 1999, the diamond jubilee. Earlier editions provided the foundations of the current edition, and these foundations are constantly added to with new material from the reading programme with which we monitor the language. Such new material includes not only high-profile utterances of the last few years (from ‘axis of evil’ to ‘shock and awe’), but also, and excitingly, quotations from an earlier time which have acquired new resonance and currency.

A notable example of this occurred in the aftermath of ‘9/11’, the terrorist attacks of 11 September, 2001, which destroyed the World Trade Center. In the debate on a possible invasion of Afghanistan, those opposed to intervention cited the words of John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States, who in 1821 gave it as his view that America ‘goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy’. A later President was also to be directly quoted. At an address in Washington National Cathedral, on 14 September 2001, George W. Bush stated that ‘Today we feel what Franklin Roosevelt called the warm courage of national unity’, reaching back to Roosevelt’s first inaugural address of 4 March 1933.

At the end of the 20

war correspondent in with the news that there would be trouble in the Balkans in the spring.’ What happened during the crumbling of the former Yugoslavia reminded us of the dreadful nature of civil war, but one aspect of its cruelty was highlighted over three centuries ago, when the Parliamentary General William Waller wrote to his Royalist counterpart (and old comrade) Ralph Hopton, ‘With what a perfect hatred I detest this war without an enemy.’ A few years later, another soldier of the time summed up the possible dangers of military victory. The Royalist Sir Jacob Astley, captured after a battle in 1646, said prophetically to his captors, ‘Gentlemen, ye may now sit and play, for you have done all your work, if you fall not out among yourselves.’

It is fascinating to see similar ideas echoing across the centuries. ‘The chief merit of

Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

Dictionary

, first published in 1941, has celebrated its

, the comprehensive

century, events in the Balkans recalled Kipling’s 19th-century

The Light that Failed

, who ‘always opened his conversation

language is clearness, and we know that nothing detracts so much from this as do unfamiliar terms,’ said Galen, the Greek physician of the 2

century AD. In 1665, John Bunyan (alluding to the Authorized Version of the Bible) wrote that ‘Words easy to be understood do often hit the mark; when high and learned ones do only pierce the air.’ Anxieties about heavy taxes might be thought of as a more recent concern, but it was the Roman Emperor Tiberius who pointed out to his provincial governors that ‘It is the part of the good shepherd to shear his flock, not skin it.’ (Tiberius would presumably have agreed with the words attributed to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, chief minister to Louis XIV of France, ‘The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.’) The Machiavellian French cleric and statesman of the 17

century, the Cardinal de Retz, held the view that ‘A man who

does not trust himself will never really trust anybody.’ Two centuries later we find in

Faust

Goethe’s

the line, ‘Just trust yourself and you’ll learn the art of living.’ In the uncertain aftermath of the American Presidential election of 2000, when the exact nature of the vote in Florida was still being discussed, Bill Clinton commented, ‘The American people have spoken…but it’s going to take a little while to determine exactly what they said.’ The remark would have been appreciated by the great 19

century Conservative statesman, Lord Salisbury, who after a by-election in 1877 said wryly, ‘One of the nuisances of the ballot is that when the oracle has spoken you never know what it means.’

Sometimes it is the precise wording of a quotation which is reworked. In 1931, Rudyard Kipling coined the phrase ‘Power without responsibility.’ In our own time, the Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman offers the revision: ‘Responsibility without power, the fate of the secretary through the ages.’

The advisability of taking thought before committing oneself to a course is often pointed out. ‘The closer these practical probabilities drive war toward the absolute…the more imperative the need not to take the first step without considering the last,’ warned the Prussian military theorist Karl von Clausewitz. An earlier quotation, attributed to Edmund Burke, looks at the dangers of large-scale undertakings:

Those who carry on great public schemes must be proof against the most fatiguing delays, the most mortifying disappointments, the most shocking

insults, and, worst of all, the presumptuous judgements of the ignorant upon their designs.

We think of concern about the influence of spin-doctors to be a comparatively recent phenomenon, but John Buchan in recognizable account of the process: ‘Have you ever considered what a diabolical weapon that can be—using all the channels of modern publicity to poison and warp men’s minds?’ He described it as the most dangerous thing on earth, although happily in the long run (and having ‘sown the world with mischief’) self-defeating. Again, the accuracy of media reports is frequently criticized today, but it was in 1807 that Thomas Jefferson wrote, ‘Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.’

Power has traditionally been seen as a dangerous commodity. ‘Excessive dealings with tyrants are not good for the security of free states’ said the Athenian statesman Demosthenes. In the sixteenth century, Thomas More warned that, ‘Anyone who campaigns for public office becomes disqualified for holding any office at all.’ On the other hand, Nathan Hale, the American revolutionary hanged as a spy by the British in 1776, thought that ‘Every kind of service necessary to the public good becomes honourable by being necessary.’ In the twentieth century Willy Brandt was determinedly optimistic: ‘We want to risk more democracy.’

Some quotations reflect a personal passion. ‘Good food is always a trouble and its preparation should be regarded as a labour of love,’ said Elizabeth David in 1951, introducing her groundbreaking designer Susie Cooper pointed out, sensibly, the advantages of her chosen medium. ‘Pottery…is a practical and lasting form of art. Not everyone can afford original paintings, but most people can afford pottery.’ Another ceramic artist, Clarice Cliff, reflected, ‘Colour seems to radiate happiness and the spirit of modern life and movement, and I cannot put too much of it in my designs to please women.’ The sculptor Barbara Hepworth said of her own work, ‘I rarely draw what I see—I draw what I feel in my own body.’ The chemist Dorothy Hodgkin, a Nobel prizewinner, said of her early engagement in her subject, ‘I was captured for life by chemistry and by crystals.’ The French painter Paul Cézanne asserted, ‘I will astonish Paris with an apple.’

The Three Hostages

French Country Cooking

(1924) has a

. The English ceramic

A number of quotations bring the individuality (and story) of the speaker strongly to mind. ‘I will not be triumphed over’ said Cleopatra (according to the Roman historian Livy). ‘Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle’ said Michelangelo (according to Samuel Smiles). Lord Melbourne, the Prime Minister who liked the Garter because there was ‘no damned merit’ about it, had a clear view of the management of higher education: ‘Universities never reform themselves; everyone knows that.’ Theodore Roosevelt likened the attempt to make an agreement with Colombia to trying to nail currant jelly to a wall. ‘And the failure to nail currant jelly to the wall is not due to the nail. It’s due to the currant jelly.’ The explorer Ernest Shackleton thought that, ‘Superhuman effort isn’t worth a damn unless it achieves results.’ Eleanor Roosevelt, speaking to the new President after the sudden death of her husband Franklin, said to Harry Truman, ‘Is there anything we can do for you? For you are the one in trouble now.’ The Canadian writer Robert MacNeil said of reading aloud to children, ‘Parents can plant magic in a child’s mind through certain words spoken with some thrilling quality of voice.’

The fifth edition, of 1999, for the first time gave proper place to the sacred texts of world religions other than Christianity. This was of course appropriate to a multicultural age, but it was fascinating to see how words and phrases from such sources were already permeating the English language. More contextual information was provided: because something is familiar to one section of our readership, we cannot necessarily assume that everyone will know it. We also responded to queries from readers by restoring proverbs and nursery rhymes (it has been clear from correspondence over the years that our readers expect to find this kind of material in the

The 1999 edition was also the first to be compiled online, and this fed back to the presentation of material: more navigational paths were provided for our readers, including a consciously generous system of cross-referencing. Particular categories of quotation, which in the main had previously been buried in the Anonymous section, were brought together in special category sections integrated into the main sequence: for example, Advertising slogans and Newspaper headlines.

The world of quotations is a kaleidoscopic one. What of the future? The collection of quotations, and background material, will continue, and new

information may be discovered relating even to apparently familiar sayings. The

Dictionary

comment on T. E. Lawrence, ‘Always backing into the limelight’, is traditionally attributed to Lord Berners, but we now know that a similar comment was made by George Bernard Shaw, and recorded in a contemporary source. The diaries of the German diplomat, Count Harry Kessler, tell of a meeting with Shaw in November

1929. Lawrence had apparently complained that every move of his was followed by the Press, eliciting the Shavian response, ‘You always hide just in the middle of the limelight.’ The information came to light just too late to be fully covered by this edition.

What will perhaps be considered the most famous soundbite of 2003 (‘Ladies and gentlemen, we got him’—Paul Bremer on the capture of Saddam Hussein) was uttered after the book went to Press. Topical material will always be a problem, not least because we have a devoted, and protective, readership. Those who care for

Dictionary

the extrapolate the view that the inclusion of topical or ephemeral material is somehow likely to devalue an adjacent quotation from classical literature. While having the charge of an iconic reference book is properly a serious responsibility, we still need to remember that we are publishing for our own times. A quotations collection published in 2004 needs to include the highest profile quotations of the recent past, though with the awareness that by the time the next edition is published some of them will be dropped. In the interim, however, we cannot tell people what they should remember, or refuse to answer questions which they may reasonably ask.

In compiling the new edition, we have once more drawn on the resources of Oxford Quotations Dictionaries: our published texts (and the research which lies behind them), and our growing database of new quotations derived from our reading programme. As always we have benefited from the generosity of readers who take the trouble to write to us with questions, comments, and suggestions. Colleagues in the Reference Department have again put forward quotations encountered in work and leisure. Among those to whom we are particularly grateful for contributions of material or solutions to particular questions, we would like to thank Matthew Carter, Margot Charlton, Mike Clark, Susie Dent, Henry Hardy, Antony Jay, Ian Linton, Kirk Marlow, Nigel Rees, Ned Sherrin, Donald Smith, and Sarah Waldram. Finally, and most importantly, Susan Ratcliffe’s editorial contribution has been of key importance in the preparation of this edition.

are, rightly, concerned for its quality: less rightly, they may then

In his Introduction to the First Edition, Bernard Darwin envisaged typical readers of

Dictionary

the as allies trying to solve a crossword puzzle. In 2004, readers are as likely to turn to it as a resource when trying to outdo a contestant on a television quiz show, solving a reference found while browsing the Net, or preparing for a presentation of their own. But although there are over sixty years, and infinite cultural and technological differences, between the worlds of the first and sixth editions, there is still a common thread: the fascination with words identified by Darwin in his opening sentence: ‘Quotation brings to many people one of the intensest joys of living.’ It is in response to this continuing fascination that we monitor the language and collect quotations. It is as always our aim to edit a text that for our own time will answer the key quotations questions, ‘Who said that?’ and ‘What’s been said about this?’

Elizabeth Knowles Oxford 2004

How to use the Dictionary

The sequence of entries is by alphabetical order of author, usually by surname but with occasional exceptions such as members of royal families (e.g. Diana, Princess of Wales and Elizabeth II) and Popes (John Paul II), or authors known by a pseudonym (‘Saki’) or a nickname (Caligula). In general authors’ names are given in the form by which they are best known, so that we have Harold Macmillan (not Lord Stockton), George Eliot (not Mary Ann Evans), and H.G.Wells (not Herbert George Wells). Collections such as Anonymous, the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, the Missal, and so forth, are included in the alphabetical sequence. Some Anonymous quotations may be included in one of the special category sections (see below).

Author names are followed by dates of birth and death (where known) and brief descriptions; where appropriate, cross-references ( about that author elsewhere in the text ( are also made to other entries in which the author appears, e.g. ‘ Epitaphs’ and ‘ quotations are separated by literary form (novels, plays, poems: see further below)

as ‘friends by the fireside…indulging in a heated quoting-match’, or

) are then given to quotations

on Byron: see

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