I like to read too, but, uh….
WOW. This guy, Ammon Shea, read the entire Oxford English Dictionary. That’s the really expensive one. …and then he wrote about it.
Excerpt:
Almost immediately the simultaneous pleasures and frustrations of dictionary reading become apparent again. First and foremost, the OED is a great read. The definitions are usually beautifully written and there is a palpable sense of the massive amount of human thought and learning that was required to put this work together. The history of English seeps into your head as you read through not just the words and their definitions, but also their etymologies and the way in which they have been used by writers over the centuries.
I find myself subject to the entire range of emotions and reactions that a great book will call forth from its reader. I chuckle, laugh out loud, smile wistfully, cringe, widen my eyes in surprise, and even feel sadness – all from the neatly ordered rows of words and their explanations. All of the human emotions and experiences are right there in this dictionary, just as they would be in any fine work of literature. They just happen to be alphabetized.
Here is a list, he says, of some of his favorites. Not sure out of the ENTIRE dictionary these are the ones I would’ve picked, but I guess it’s his list, not mine.
- antapology – a response or reply to an apology
- bedinner – to treat to dinner
- conjugalism – the art of making a good marriage
- debag – to strip the pants from a person
- dilapidator – a person who neglects a building and allows it to deteriorate
- gymnologize – to dispute naked, like an Indian philosopher
- miskissing – kissing that is wrong
- paracme – the point at which one is past one’s prime
- quisquilious – of the nature of garbage or trash
- rapin – an unruly art student
- ruffing – the stomping of feet as a form of applause
- sanculottic – clothed inadequately, or in some improper fashion
- secretary – meant, during 4th c. “one privy to a secret”
- twi-thought – a vague or indistinct thought
- unlove – to cease loving a person
- vocabularian – one who pays too much attention to words
- xanthodontous – having teeth that are yellow, as do some rodents
- yuky – itchy; also, itchy with curiosity
- zyxt – to see
I’m sure I’ll never be compelled to read the dictionary, but I do definitely want to read his book, Reading the OED. Read the full article over at NPR.com.
Thanks to J for the link!
