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Re: Language, Really OT (was [OM] Cricket Match)

Subject: Re: Language, Really OT (was [OM] Cricket Match)
From: Chris Barker <imagopus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001 20:22:32 +0200
Although, as someone pointed out  some weeks ago, an American soldier
(captain I think) called, I believe, William Morris was one of the
major contributors while he was in prison in England for murder.  He
was a sad man by the account that I have read, but he was an avid
reader.

The contribution was not really a matter of erudition, merely that he
read widely and recorded the usage of language while he was in
prison.  The story goes that he was indulged by his jailers, but when
the prison governor changed late in his life, he became a recluse and
lost interest.

Chris

 >I have no argument with the rest of what you say, but to even
mention an American dictionary in the same sentence with the OED,
which should have its place with the 7 wonders of the world,  is
slightly embarrassing.


Indeed.  I bought a copy of the full OED on CD, and the massiveness
of its scholarship and erudition takes my breath away some days.
Comparing the American Heritage Dictionary to it is like comparing
gunpowder to a cobalt bomb.  And Encarta?  As they say in New Yawhk
Citee, "fuggedabowdit!"

Garth
--
___________
???>-}
C M I Barker
Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire, Great Britain
mailto:imagopus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
mailto:chris_barker@xxxxxxxxx
YaC tel: +44 (0)7092 251126

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