Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

I am moved to introduce this thread by a couple of responses to my
postings on sci.lang and on alt.english.usage.  Be warned that this
posting largely presents nothing but my opinions about British
dictionaries of English.

First, in a discussion of the '-our' spellings in British English, I
asserted that BrEng distinguishes the two spellings 'rigour' and
'rigor', with each associated with a distinct set of meanings.  A
respondent queried this statement, complaining that Collins was the
only British dictionary he could find that recognized such a
difference.

Second, I complained about a tendency in Britain to assert that the
American word 'mugwump' means 'chief, boss'.  I asserted that the word
has no such meaning, and that it means only 'political independent,
person who declines to take sides'.  A respondent replied by quoting
the British (actually Scottish) dictionary Chambers, which reports
both uses.

Well, Collins is right on the first point, and Chambers is wrong on
the second.  This is not entirely surprising, since not all
dictionaries are equal, and there are clear differences in
reliability.

The four most prominent dictionary publishers in Britain are Collins,
Longman, Chambers and Oxford.  I have been teaching my students for
years that the big Collins is far and away the best desk dictionary of
English in Britain.  I've examined a number of sample entries, and
Collins beats the others into a cocked hat for coverage and for
clarity and accuracy of definitions.

Longman is not in the same league, and it compares badly with Collins.
(Try looking up the word 'game' in each, and draw your own
conclusions.)  Chambers is traditionally eccentric, and it is
recommended only to Scrabble players.  (That's the red Chambers; the
new black Chambers is much more mainstream, but hardly a competitor to
Collins.)  As for the Oxford desk dictionaries, they are strictly
antiques.  They are compiled by cannibalizing the great OED, and they
are hugely out of date.

But the picture has changed with the recent publication of the
entirely new Oxford Dictionary of English.  The ODE is based on a
corpus, and it is superb.  A colleague in my department who has a
research interest in lexicography tells me that she now regards ODE as
the best British dictionary, ahead even of Collins.

So, not all dictionaries are equal.  Collins and ODE are very reliable
(and ODE, by the way, agrees with Collins in recognizing both 'rigour'
and 'rigor', with different senses).  If some of the other
dictionaries disagree with the big two, then in most cases that merely
shows that they are not of the same standard.

I see too little of most American dictionaries to comment, but my
colleague assures me that American Heritage is the best US dictionary.
Good, because that's the one I use.

Larry Trask
larryt@sussex.ac.uk