Shorter Oxford English Dictionary: On Historical Principles (5th edition)

The first edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (SOED) was published in 1933, just five years after the completion of the magisterial Oxford English Dictionary (OED), and was essentially an abridged version of the parent work. Further editions appeared in 1936 and 1944 and in 1973 the third edition was reprinted with revised etymologies and addenda.

When the editors of the fourth edition started work in 1980 they did not set about merely revising and updating the text of the long out‐of‐date third edition. Instead they returned to the OED itself, whose second edition (...