ODWE - first edition (1981)

First edition (1981); reprinted with corrections 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988
Published by the Clarendon Press, no printer named

This edition was compiled by the Oxford English Dictionary Department at OUP; as such for the first time was published under the imprint of the Clarendon Press, which was reserved for academic works published in Oxford, as distinct from those published in London but printed in Oxford, as had formerly been the case with Collins’s work.

The format remains the same, but with the title running down the length of the spine and a return of the University device at its base. The blank pages for notes found at the end of each letter since the first edition have at last disappeared.

Click here for a pop-up image of the dustjacket (83k).

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

The present work is the successor to eleven editions of the Authors’ and Printers’ Dictionary, first published under the editorship of F. Howard Collins in 1905. The eleventh edition, published in 1973, has been thoroughly revised and extensively rewritten, and a great deal of new material—everyday words, proper names, and abbreviations—have been incorporated to bring the book up to date in matters of vocabulary and usage and to give it an orientation and purpose that are reflected in its new name. The editorial work has been undertaken by the Oxford English Dictionary Department, and in particular by R. E. Allen, D. J. Edmonds, and J. B. Sykes. The book may now be regarded as belonging to the family of Oxford dictionaries, on whose resources it has extensively drawn.

The policy of the book continues to be a presentation of the house style of the Oxford University Press, and the reader is therefore strongly recommended to use it in conjunction with Hart’s Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford 938th ed., 1978), which further explains and illustrates that style. ‘Writers and editors’ are the main concern of the dictionary, and it therefore no longer caters directly or extensively to the needs of printers except in so far as those needs are shared by writers and editors in their dealings with publishers and printers.

Because this is primarily a dictionary of style for written English, guidance on pronunciation has been given only in cases where the reader might otherwise experience difficulty or confusion, and where clarification could not be expected from a normal desk or household dictionary such as The Concise Oxford Dictionary (6th ed., 1976), to which the reader is referred for systematic treatment of pronunciation in individual cases.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The compilers wish to acknowledge assistance of various kinds afforded during the preparation of this dictionary from the British Standards Institution, the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the United Kingdom, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, and the Law Society; by the county archivists of Cheshire and Lancashire County Councils, and by many District and Borough Councils, and many town clerks, in Wales. The compilers are also indebted to Mr P. M. W. Duffy of the Printing Division of the Oxford University Press, and to Mr J. S. G. Simmons of All Souls College, Oxford.

NOTE ON PROPRIETARY TERMS

This dictionary includes some words which are or are asserted to be proprietary names or trade marks. Their inclusion does not imply that they have acquired for legal purposes a non-proprietary or general significance, nor is any other judgement implied concerning their legal status. In cases where the compilers have some evidence that a word is used as a proprietary name or trade mark this is indicated by the words ‘propr.term’, but no judgement concerning the legal status of such words is made or implied thereby.

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