OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS The Compact English Dictionary

First two advantages: not only the whole 20-volume set is expensive but also you need lots of space to keep them while the compact version, even if it is giant for a book, occupies far less space. Besides if you are that kind of dictionary geek who loves to open random pages and read random definitions, having everything in just one book is better than having them separated in 20 books one of which you must "pick" beforehand. As for the print, definitions are actually readible with naked eye if you don't have any problems with your eyesight. Quotations are much smaller though - still can be read with naked eye but push the limit. If you don't want to strain your eyes, just use magnifying glass or smartphone, tablet, etc. My only complain is that they could have left less blank spaces between "the pages" (I mean 9 micrographically reproduced pages of the original OED) and thus used at least slightly "larger" fonts but it's no big deal anyway. It is great to have this treasure of the English language "financially accessible" in just one piece.

読んでいる本に出てくる単語が辞書に載っていないことが時々あり、英語の歴史や歴史的英語にも興味があるので、購入しました。Compact とは縮刷版ということですが、それでも我が家の辞書の中では最大になりました。写真の左端が今まで使っていた中型英和辞典ですが、豆粒のようです・・・いわゆる 9 アップで印刷されています。オリジナル OED の２ページが１枚のはがきに収まるサイズです。細かい字ですが、十分に明瞭な印刷です。紙はやや厚めで、裏の文字が透けて見えて邪魔、ということはありません。近眼の私は、明るいところなら直にも読めないことはありませんが、付属のルーペは役に立ちます。英語とは思えない Old English から、綴りや変化形の歴史など、詳しく述べられています。現代英語だけが興味なら、牛刀割鶏かもしれません。

There are so many cons to a purchase like this. The book is unwieldy: it is large and heavy. Your desk would have to be three times the standard size to open it comfortably. The print is small. Ants need glasses to read it.'Compact' is not the word I would use to describe it. Basically it takes all 20 volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary, which to buy eliminates your kid's college fund, and it puts it in a vice and squeezes into one volume. Nine pages Oxford English Dictionary = One page Compact Oxford English Dictionary. What is cute and maybe slightly sadistic: the introductory pages have even been condensed too. There is nothing in this book that hasn't been shrunk!They provide a magnifying glass. It is heavy and it takes the print from ant scrawl to Winnipeg horsefly scrawl. If you are in your 30's and 40's it is doable. But in your 50's you need to take off your glasses and put your nose next to the glass as you whirl it around the page.So what makes this dictionary so gosh darn fun? You feel like Merlin ruminating over an esoteric book of spells. You have your magnifying glass and book out on the kitchen table. It is in the early hours and the house isn't awake. You open it up and glide your glass over the pages stopping to here and there. Pausing. Thinking. Soaking in words and roots you never knew existed. You visit old friends and learn something new. You make new friends and try to remember their names and their meanings but you know you won't before the glass slides over to a new word.Do you have options?. Sure you can buy the Oxford Dictionary in 20 volumes plus supplements. It is rather like putting a baby grand piano in your house and having to brace the floor. Make sure the shelves can take the weight. You can buy it on CD-ROM but the reviews are lukewarm. And you can buy it as a monthly or yearly online subscription that is equivalent to buying the 'compact version' every year.So why buy an ant scrawl dictionary that comes with a bulbous archaic magnifying glass that ouijis over the pages? Because I haven't had such a good time in a book since I can remember.

I've wanted one of these beasts since I was about 12 and saw one at a friend's house. Quite aside from the content, it's beautiful. A work of love and tremendous labour.I'm surprised by those that complain that it's hard to lug around. It belongs on a writing desk or its own plinth. It should never move more than 2 feet. Oxford University Press publish many abridged versions that cater to the more mobile readership.Remember, this is a 20 volume book squished into one (more on that in a moment). The print will be small. I have nearly perfect eyesight though and having arrived off a long-haul flight the other day to find this waiting for me, I must admit that tiredness did indeed necessitate use of the magnifying glass. However, I just tried again and can read it just fine in good light without any artificial aid.Now. Amazon. Dear dear me. When one pays $217 (the price has gone up in the past couple of days, I see) for a delicate gem of a book (remember, you started life as booksellers, after all), even though that book should cost nearly twice as much, one does not expect some intern to have removed it from its packaging, and stuck two security tags in it. One on a page over the tiny exquisite print (a delicate operation to remove without apparent damage). One in the box at the back. Nor indeed does one expect this process to have folded the accompanying guidebook in two. Furthermore (and worse still) a number of the pages of the dictionary itself had been folded en-masse, presumably also during this clumsy tagging process. Fortunately, the book is so heavy and well made that the pages appear to have been rescued by gravity and a night on its side, but I'm nonetheless displeased as the guide still looks like it's accompanied me on a long train journey, stuffed into a trouser pocket and slept upon in the mid-day sun.Tut tut.I've seldom been more pleased with a book purchase though. I just wish Amazon had treated it a little better but: Pay money, get choice.UPDATE: The photo is now accurate - here's what I had to say about it originally: Ah. Yes. The photos on the product page. Now, I should have done my research and perhaps realised that OUP no longer produce the two-volume edition and I was going to get a single volume. The photos here at Amazon showing two volumes with a drawer for the magnifying glass (to be honest, the bit I actually liked aged twelve) are out-of-date. This is a single volume edition with a loose magnifying glass that must find its own place to rest.

The dictionary, being something I'd been wanting to buy for 20 years and more, was as expected, wonderful; though the print was even smaller than I thought it would be, for which a more powerful magnifying glass is required at my age. Yet the glass sent was better than I expected, after reading all the earlier reviews on it.Disappointed with the handling of the packing though. The top part of the slipcase was torn off from the rest of the case at one end, thereby spoiling the look. Otherwise the book was in excellent condition.