The dictionary element of this work is based on the Concise Oxford Dictionary (8th ed.), substantially updated and revised with the addition of some 3,000 new words and meanings. Headwords are clearly indicated in bold type, with entries giving pronunciation, parts of speech, and meaning. This is only the basic content: alternative spellings and pronunciations, different meanings, etymologies and origins, compounds, derivatives and illustrative examples are other elements of a large number of the entries – everything one expects from a standard dictionary. But there is more, much more!
“This book”, write the senior editors, “is a fully integrated reference book, a ‘dictionary in depth’, which combines within a single volume the breadth of information one would expect to find in a dictionary of current English together with greater depth of information than is normal in a dictionary”. Judy Pearsall and Bill Trumble, in best Oxbridge tradition, understate the case. This 1,800‐page, 7cm thick, large format heavyweight, is also a gazetteer, a biographical dictionary, a dictionary of abbreviations, a guide to usage, and a book of facts – a veritable dictionary of reference indeed!
In a page chosen at random, “farl” to “fashion” (farl=a thin Scottish cake of oatmeal or flour), we have the places Farnborough, Farne Islands, Faro and the Far West, all with brief details; the celebrities Alessandro Farnese (Duke of Parma), King Farouk of Egypt, Irish dramatist George Farquhar, and J.G. Farnell and J.T. Farnell, English and North American novelists; with Farsii and Fascism as other proper nouns. Other words include farms, farming, faro (card game), farouche (sullen, sly), farrago, farrier, farthingale, fasces (Roman emblem of authority), fascia, fascinate and fartlek (a method of athletic training of Swedish origin). Farm has five meanings as a noun, and five as a verb (with further subdivisions according to whether transitive or intransitive). The entry for fascism includes a paragraph giving a potted history. Over the page I spotted Father Christmas, Father of the House, and Little Lord Fauntleroy, all with brief backgrounds.
The encyclopaedic tendency continues into no fewer than 28 appendices and 16 coloured maps of countries of the world. These appendices include a chronology of world events; a listing of countries of the world with their size, capital, population and currency; schemata of the British, US and EU constitutions; musical notation; British royal family trees; the descent of Indo‐European languages; hallmarks; Morse code; and the Beaufort Scale of Wind Force, to note but a few.
The quantity and quality of the information is impressive, and as a one‐stop reference dictionary the book is ideal for enquiry desks and quick‐reference shelves. Much of the information will, of course, be available in other reference sources but here it is all brought together. The price is amazingly low for a hardback work of this size and excellence.
