The next edition of the world's most definitive dictionary Oxford English Dictionary will never be available in prints because of its “vast size, which will be feasible and affordable only on online.”
Michael Proffitt, the OED’s first new chief editor for 20 years, said the mammoth masterpiece was facing delays because “information overload” from the Internet was slowing his compilers, reported the Telegraph online.
The upcoming third edition of the famous dictionary, estimated to fill 40 volumes, is running at least 20 years behind schedule.
A team of 70 philologists, including lexicographers, etymologists and pronunciation experts, have been working on the latest version, known as OED3, for the past 20 years.
Michael Proffitt revealed that the next edition will not be completed until 2034, and likely only to be offered in an online form because of its gargantuan size.
“A lot of the first principles of the OED stand firm, but how it manifests has to change, and how it reaches people has to change,” said the 48-year-old Edinburgh-born editor.
Work on the new version, currently numbering 800,000 words, has been going on since 1994. The first edition, mooted in 1858 with completion expected in 10 years, took 70 years.
“We look not only for frequency and longevity, but also breadth of use because, once a word enters the OED, it doesn’t come out. It’s a permanent record of language. I don’t think of it as a purely linguistic document, but as a part of social history.”
He said his team working on the definition of new entries has a target of 50 to 60 words a month, slower than in the past because the world wide web has created so much more source material.
If the new dictionary is printed – and publishers Oxford University Press says a print version will only appear if there is sufficient demand at the time - it will comprise of 40 volumes, double the length of the second edition in 1989.
