It was first published 126 years ago and is respected the world over. But the Oxford English Dictionary will never appear in print again, its owners have announced. Instead, the 80 lexicographers who have been working on the third edition f...
It was first published 126 years ago and is respected the world over.
But the Oxford English Dictionary will never appear in print again, its owners have announced.
Instead, the 80 lexicographers who have been working on the third edition for the past 21 years have been told the fruits of their labour will exist solely online.
The OED has been available on the internet for the past ten years and receives two million hits a month from subscribers who pay ￡205 a year, plus VAT, to access it.
Oxford University Press says the dominance of the internet means the latest update to the definitive record of the English language - currently 28 per cent complete - will never be published in print.
'The print dictionary market is just disappearing - it is falling away by tens of per cent a year,' said Nigel Portwood, 44, chief executive of OUP.
'Our primary purpose - and this takes a bit of adjusting to - is not profit, it is the dissemination of knowledge,' he said.
'Print is still pretty important round here but, wherever possible, if there is an opportunity, we are moving out of it.'
The printed dictionary has a shelf life of another 30 years, he predicts.
The third edition is only expected to be completed by 2037. The OUP has already stopped producing illustrated reference books because of the growing popularity of the Wikipedia website.
Erin McKean, co-founder and chief executive of Wordnik, an online dictionary, said: 'I want my young son to think of the print dictionary like an eight-track tape - a format that died because it was not useful enough.'
(Read by Renee Haines. Renee Haines is a journalist at the China Daily Web site.)
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(Agencies)
《牛津英语大词典》在126年前首次出版，如今在全世界范围内受到尊敬。
然而该词典的所有者宣布，该词典将不会再出纸质版本。
在过去21年间修订第三版的80位词典编纂者被告知他们的劳动成果将只存在于网上。
过去十年人们已经能够在网上读到《牛津英语大词典》，该词典每个月所用户点击量达两百万次，订阅费用为每年205英镑（含增值税）。
牛津大学出版社说，由于网络已经占据主导地位，最新更新的英语词条（目前已完成了28%）将不会再出纸质版本。
牛津大学出版社的总裁——44岁的奈杰尔?波特伍德说：“纸质词典的市场正在消失，每年减少10%。”
他说：“我们的主要目的不是赚钱，而是传播知识，要实现这个目的还需要一些调整。”
“印刷在我们这一行业依然相当重要，不过，只要有可能，只要有机会，我们会舍弃这一途径。”
他预言说，纸质词典还有30年的寿命。
第三版预计在2037年才会修订完毕。由于维基百科网站越来越受欢迎，牛津大学出版社已经停止出版带插图的工具书。
网上词典Wordnik的联合创始人兼总裁艾琳?麦凯恩说：“我想让我年幼的儿子把纸质词典看作像八轨道磁带一样的老古董，一种因为用处不大而消亡的形式。”
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