[词典讯] The Oxford Dictionary Phrase and Fable

This new edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable has been substantially updated and revised since it was first published, in 2000. Although the first edition was a hefty 1,200 pages, this new edition is 805 pages. The reduction in size is comes from trimming the number of biographical and geographical entries, such as Ferdinand of Aragon and Zurich. The first edition also had numerous single-word entries, such as fault, faience, and zucchetto, that could be found in a regular dictionary. These types of entries have been taken out and replaced by many more contemporary phrases. Gone, too, are the boxed entries for special categories. The second edition has also changed the formatting of its entries, listing all phrases using the same word under that word, with numerous cross-references to related phrases. The first edition listed all phrases separately.

What makes this new edition especially valuable are the many new entries from politics, popular culture, science, and contemporary language, such as axis of evil, chaos theory, elephant in the room, glass ceiling, ground zero, Sunni Triangle,and many more. All entries explain what the phrase means and where it was first used. The second edition has also expanded the number of phrases from classic literature, history, mythology, religion, and figurative language using Oxford's extensive word and language online resources.

The major competitor is Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, the seventeenth edition of which was published in Great Britain last year. Brewer's was first published in 1870 and has always been very classically oriented, with numerous entries for the names of mythological characters, persons from the Bible, and historical personages, which were deleted from the Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Without seeing the new Brewer's, it's probably safe to say that, although the two dictionaries have considerable overlap, each has a wide variety of entries that are unique.

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable is a highly useful tool to help understand what phrases mean and where they come from and should definitely be added to all reference collections. It is recommended that libraries keep the first edition since many entries in the first edition have been deleted from the second. Libraries should also have Brewer's since its focus is more classical and it includes phrases that are not found in Oxford.Merle Jacob
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