Featured Resource - Oxford English Dictionary
News item published on: 2013-11-01 15:53:00November 2013
Each month, University Libraries highlights a resource from its collections. This month we are featuring the Oxford English Dictionary.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is not just a very large dictionary: it is also a historical dictionary, the most complete record of the English language ever assembled. It traces a word from its beginnings (which may be in Old or Middle English) to the present, showing the varied and changing ways in which it has been used and illustrating the changes with quotations which add to the historical and linguistic record.
As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from those of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll still find these in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, and of the language—traced through 3 million quotations, from classic literature and periodicals to films scripts and cook books.
Connect to the Oxford English Dictionary. Off-campus users will be prompted to login using their CampusID username and password.