Help the OED Find a Lost Book 91
New submitter imlepid writes "The Oxford English Dictionary is currently undergoing a complete overhaul which includes a reexamination of the 300,000+ entries and citations for those entries. Understandably for a work which is over 150 years old, some of the sources have become hard to find. One such example is a book titled 'Meanderings of Memory' by Nightlark, which is cited 49 times in the OED, including for some rare words. The OED's editorial team has appealed to the public, 'Have you seen a copy of this book?'"
'Meanderings of Memory' by Nightlark (Score:5, Funny)
A famous literary hoax, of Borgesian dimensions [wikipedia.org].
One might adduce as much, from the enigmatic title of the purported work, and the pseudonymous attribution of authorship.
In fact, this was the product of several Oxford dons, in the generation before Tolkien - who expanded on the academic chicanery of spurious reference work by creating an entire cosmos, populated with libraries of such.
Now, let us turn to the Voynich manuscript, and the Dictionary of the Khazars...
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Perhaps they were doMs...
Translated from Latin, the epigraph says something like "why should Philomel fancy my tears?"
Perhaps a little S&M?
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Well. Oxford. They all bottom, from reputation.
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IN BEFORE APK
Yes, of course, now I see it. They should just remove the line
from their hosts file, then they'll find the book.
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I've known a few witches at work.
I've met a work witch (Score:4, Funny)
Their work ethic is wicked.
How silly. (Score:3, Funny)
Or retirement.
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Literally definition changes [slate.com]
Did they check the filing cabinet? (Score:5, Funny)
"But Mr Dent, Meanderings of Memory has been available in the local library for the last nine months."
"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see it, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."
"But the book was on display ..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find it."
"That's the display department."
"With a flashlight."
"Ah, well the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the book didn't you?"
"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."
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Well, I tried to remember where the book is, but my memory always started to meander when I tried.
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I put it on my mobile device but it managed to disappear. For some reason it pulled a 1984. I guess that's what I get for using Amazon's book reader.
Thought it would feel at home on a mobile device.
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Dear sir,
As this is the OED, and you are quoting HHG another British work, the line was 'torch' not flashlight.
psh...
amateurs.
The lesson is --- back up your porn (Score:1)
Someday it may be history.
As a work witch (Score:1)
..it was probably burned at the stake.
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I doubt, however, judging from the title, that "revirginizing" will feature in the tome.
It actually will. The March 2010 update of the OED Online contains "revirginize" as a new entry. Wait for the Third Edition to be available in print. You will then be able to stroll through your living room, a hefty OED tome in your hand ( of which there is not one, BTW, but currently there are 20 ) , muttering "revirginize....revirginize..."
Irony? (Score:5, Funny)
Does it even really exist? (Score:5, Funny)
What if "Meanderings of Memory" never existed in the first place, but was made up by sloppy 19th-century OED editors when they couldn't find a real source? It's not as if this practice is unknown...
Re:Does it even really exist? (Score:5, Informative)
check the comments under the OED blog - there's a link to a catalog on google books which lists it
Re:Does it even really exist? (Score:5, Informative)
check the comments under the OED blog - there's a link to a catalog on google books which lists it
Would that I could mod you up. Here's the catalog [google.co.uk]. It's entirely possible that it's also made up, but seems less likely.
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Might it be possible that they got the reference from OED?
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The OED was first published in 1889, and those catalogues date from 1854.
Re:Does it even really exist? (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course, by your logic, there are also numerous copies of The Necronomicon, as well as at least two of the Al Asif (the Arabic, untranslated source of The Necronomicon) in various libraries. Just to extend the joke, most have been borrowed by a member of the Whateley family and are years overdue. I also understand that librarians have added a few copies of The King In Yellow (the mythical play, not the collection of stories about it) around the country. In a few years, expect to see works by Nickolaus Flamel (sp?) start showing up, as Harry Potter fans get in charge of things.
Librarians with too much time on there hands leave all sorts of in-jokes around.
Re:Does it even really exist? (Score:5, Interesting)
What if "Meanderings of Memory" never existed in the first place, but was made up by sloppy 19th-century OED editors when they couldn't find a real source? It's not as if this practice is unknown...
Maybe its like the fake roads that cartographers put into maps... anyone else who references it clearly copied the OED!
Re:Does it even really exist? (Score:4, Interesting)
You almost got it right: The OED itself is the copy! The creates of the OED must have stolen information from some other, older source, who put fake references in to detect it. The OED is a fraud!
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We did this in high school. "Must have 10 sources" or something like that. Dammit, the encyclopedia was all you really needed. It was literally impossible to find even 3 sources that made sense. We made some up. Made up names, ISBN number, the whole works. I knew the teacher was busy. I totally got away with it, kinda gives me a chuckle. I don't feel much guilt about this since it was a ridiculous requirement. I do kind of wonder, if the teacher had been told that she fell for a book reference publ
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Re: Does it even really exist? (Score:3)
Well, if you had to cite a source, but all you had was your own recollection that you had heard the word, 'Meanderings of Memory' is pretty much the perfect name for it. It's even possible that within the community of people working on it, it was a well understood practice. Like giving a directing credit to Alan Smithee for a film. (For a guy who never existed, he sure was prolific!)
Busted! (Score:1)
'Meanderings of Memory' was somebody's code for "I made it up."
I'll Check (Score:4, Funny)
Let me check. It might be sitting on my desk.
Umm - this might take a couple of hours ...
Re:Could Be Worse (Score:4, Funny)
Countless number of books lost forever when the Library of Alexandria [wikipedia.org] was burnt down.
Which time?
No help for the OED until they change pricing (Score:4, Insightful)
I would love to use the OED occasionally and wouldn't mind paying to do so, but who can afford to spend $295 per year for a subscription?
I have to assume that they are not all idiots and that they actually have some subscribers at that price point, but I can't imagine that that model makes the most money possible. I want to look up maybe one word a month, and I would be willing to pay to do so, but I can't pay $295 a year (or even $29.95 per month).
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The unabridged OED is pretty much just for libraries and research institutions. It's not just a matter of price, previous to them coming up with an online edition, the books took up like 3m of shelf space. And many of the additional words in there are used once or twice in the entire body of known literature.
If it's not in the largest single book version of the OED, you're not likely to encounter a word that isn't in it. Now, if you do, then paying for the full unabridged version might make sense.
Re:No help for the OED until they change pricing (Score:4, Informative)
A word being used once or twice in a body of literature might indicate that the word was in use around the area where the author worked and may have even been a common term at that time and place. The word may no longer be useful to us in everyday speech, but it may be useful if someone were to read the works of others from around that time and place who happened to use the word in personal journals or the like that historians are later trying to make sense of.
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As Anubis said, it might mean that it's a regional term, or that it's slang of the day or that it was commonly used, but not typically in print. The OED itself is mostly composed of words that you don't typically encounter. If you typically encountered most of those words, you probably wouldn't need to look them up.
Even a more modest dictionary which only aims to contain the commonly used words is likely to have far more words than what a typical person is likely to come into contact with on a regular basis
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If a word is used only once [...] is it really a word?
Yes... it is a hapax legomenon [wikipedia.org].
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> it comes with a magnifying glass (but you end up needing something more like a microscope, actually).
You do maybe. We had this edition when I was in school, printed at 25%. It was small, but I didn't even need the magnifying glass, I could always read it unaided. In fact, after learning this, and that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was on Project Guttenberg, I really annoyed my teacher by reading it online and bringing printed chapters to class, printed in the smallest font I could read off the laser printer in t
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I've been this close to purchasing both the compact edition and the full edition (used). My point was that they need a more accessible online pricing structure for people who occasionally "need" access to The Dictionary. It just seems so strange to me that I can't spend $20.00 for access to 20 words or something like that.
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This was one of the best christmas gifts I ever got from my wife. It's the single volume, recently printed, nine pages to one, on onionskin paper. It is a beautiful thing. To they guy who said the plates had worn in the recent printings, I see no such effect, and mine is from the early 2000's. Used copies of the compact OED (compact is the complete 2nd edition) can be had for less than a hundred dollars.
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This is true, though a lot of people have access to the OED through a local library and don't know it. Lots of urban public libraries also subscribe to it, as do a decent number of library consortia, and these often allow you to use it online from home. And of course many, maybe most, academic libraries have access to it. I'm a Chicagoan and can use it online through a link at the Chicago Public Library's home page (once I prov
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The unabridged OED is pretty much just for libraries and research institutions
FAIL. I, being neither a library nor a research institution, possess the print version of the unabridged OED. ( My girlfriend, after years of hesitation, has begun using it for her Ethnology studies, too. At work, alas, I must use the digital version. Colleagues have begun to come and consult it. My profession: a software architect.... ) Yes, it DOES take up 2+ m of shelf space. It is my proudest and most precious possession ( "precious" not measured in financial terms here ). Yes, I spent close to € 1
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the Kindle edition is less than $50 for all 2110 pages. Note on Amazon's web page: "Due to its large file size, this book may take longer to download"
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Last time I checked the purchase price, a single copy of the full-text print version of the 2d edition (about twenty volumes) sold for around $11k, I believe. It might have been $18k, it has been a while. I've seen used copies of the two-volume, small print OED (requires a magnifying glass to
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Many public libraries purchase OED Online subscriptions which they make available to their users for free. All you need is your library card number to log in and use it as much as you like. In addition most educational institutions have site licences for use by their people in the same way. It may not he
What for it... (Score:1)
How do you know she is a witch?
Sir Bedevere: There are ways of telling whether she is a witch. ...because they're made of... wood?
Peasant 1: Are there? Oh well, tell us.
Sir Bedevere: Tell me. What do you do with witches?
Peasant 1: Burn them.
Sir Bedevere: And what do you burn, apart from witches?
Peasant 1: More witches.
Peasant 2: Wood.
Sir Bedevere: Good. Now, why do witches burn?
Peasant 3:
Sir Bedevere: Good. So how do you tell whether she is made of wood?
Peasant 1: Build a bridge out of her.
Sir Bedevere: But
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"What for it"?
Wait are we whatting for?
Maybe it was The Madman (Score:2)
I recently picked up "The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary" and this post made me think of the the story. A quick check gives a time frame of 150 years ago, and maybe everyone that works at the OED isn't familiar with the history of Dr. Minor. If he truly was a "Madman", I wouldn't put it beyond him to make up sources for some of his many contributions.
Ye olde Troll (Score:1)
...other than every religion's grand accomplishments, of course.
LMGTFY? (Score:1)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/catablogger/8717819652/in/photostream/
Translation of the Latin phrase (Score:3)
For those wanting to know what the Latin phrase underneath translates to:
Cur potius lacrimae tibi mi Philomela placebant?
Why do tears please you more, My Philomela?
From Wikipedia: Philomela or Philomel (Ancient Greek: ) is a minor figure in Greek mythology and is frequently invoked as a direct and figurative symbol in literary, artistic, and musical works in the Western canon.
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Someone had an interesting comment in the New Yorker article:
Also, there is more than one
I remember that book! (Score:1)
I threw it on the fire when we burnt Alexandria.
Cyclic.... (Score:2)
Someone create the book and have it cite the OED... if you are able to make it look old enough to pass it will make their heads explode....
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No need to create the whole book. why I've already fabricated enough relevant quotes from it on wikipedia.
I'm not bringing it back ... (Score:4, Funny)
Arnold? (Score:2)
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"The Chapelled templer."
"Who can trim a cock~abundy, turn a rod with him?"
"Care for your couchward path."
"Day-drowsiness--and night's arousing power."
"Dyke-cloistered Taddington, of cold intense."
"The dikeside watch when Midnight-feeders stray."
"In the droop ash shade."
"An heiress doughy-like and dump."
"'Tis noted down--Epistled to the Duke."
"Matter to sustain The staggering extemporizer's pain."
"The fa
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And here's the rest:
"Oh freddled gruntbuggly"
"thy micturations are to me"
"As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee"
"Groop I implore thee, my foonting turlingdromes"
"And hooptiously drangle me with crinkly bindlewurdles"
"Or I will rend thee in the gobberwarts with my blurglecruncheon, see if I don't!"
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--
A Copy of Verses kept in the Cabinet, and only shewn to a few Friends, is like a Virgin much sought after and admired; but when printed and published, is like a common Whore, whom any body may purchase for half a Crown (Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects)
Finishing the 49 (Score:2)
"Where that cosmetic..Shall e'er revirginize that brow's abuse."
"Raw November's rheumatizing grass."
"If a thought Should cream the blood in sanctuaried court."
"He crowned his head but with another cap Than Cardinal'sâ"for that he wants no Sap."
"Yon vermined Sarcophage."
"Scarf-like and ethereally slight."
"The brain will scavage and the breast unstuff."
"He looked submission with a shoeward eye."
"We..Rambled such river sides and templed lands."
"So thence u