Collins Dictionary of the English Language [antikvár]

When Collins English Dictionary was published in 1979, it rapidly established itself as a standard work. Since then its reputation and authority have steadily grown among an ever-widening circle of users all over the world. Those who have commented apprecia- tively on its quality range from leading figures in the academic world, translators, and specialists of all kinds to students, family users, and a growing band of crossword enthusiasts. The reasons for this success are easily identified. Here, for the first time in over 45 years, was a dic- tionary based on a fresh survey of the contemporary language as it was actually being used in both its writ- ten and its spoken forms — a survey that not only involved some 200 specialist consultants and in-house editors, but one that set out to reflect contemporary English as the international language it had become. Parallel to this concern with the contemporary lan- guage went a comprehensive treatment of modern science and technology, the most thorough and encyclopedic of any general single-volume dictionary to date. This encyclopedic approach was extended by a generous provision of biographical and geographi- cal entries that provided information on people and places of cultural importance on an international scale. This proved to be a feature that won particular approbation from users of the Dictionary. For the first time in a major dictionary of this kind, computer technology was used from the inception of the work. This made it possible to survey every field of human activity subject by subject, defining technical as well as everyday vocabulary in an exceptionally short time. Specialist consultants and general defin- ing editors, pronunciation editors, etymologists, and other contributors were all enabled to work in parallel and then their contributions were sorted into their proper places by computer. This ensured consistency of treatment and balance of coverage and enabled the editors to produce a book that was completely up-to-date. In addition, this vast amount of information was presented with skill and clarity. The full, descriptive definitions, the absence of dictionary jargon and typographical codes, the orderly layout of entries, and the legibility of the type contributed significantly to the success of Collins English Dictionary. This new, revised edition of Collins English Dic- tionary appears at a time when the language is chang- ing faster than at any time in the last 300 years. The ever-expanding role of English as the lingua franca, not only of science, technology, commerce, and diplomacy, but of culture as well, is adding to the main river of English refreshing streams from a var- iety of linguistic cultures. And the rise to predomin- ance of spoken English, mainly as the result of the world-wide penetration of radio, television, and the cinema, means that the natural cadences and struc- tures of speech exert increasing pressure on the pro- nunciation of words and the sentence structures of written English. The preparation of this new edition to take account of this rate of language change has meant the scrutiny and assessment of the many thousands of citations for new words, meanings, and idioms accumulated by our in-house reading programme since the publica- tion of the first edition; and it has meant the syste- matic reassessment and updating of the biographical and geographical entries to reflect the changes in the people and places in the public eye. It has also meant specialist consultants surveying afresh a number of rapidly developing fields like elec- tronics, computers, aerospace, industrial relations, information technology, life sciences, physics, social welfare, and so on; and the incorporation of the many new items arising from this source. The result is a new Collins English Dictionary, updated and some 10% longer than the edition it replaces. Over 7,000 new headwords have been added and thousands of new meanings. The entry count has gone up to 171,000 and the biographical entries now number some 15,000. We are confident that this new edition will enhance the already high esteem in which the book is held by many thousands of appreciative users and will win many friends for Collins English Dictionary. It would be wrong to close this Prefatory Note without thanking the hundreds of users of the Dictionary who were interested enough to write to us with their sug- gestions for improvements or additions. Their letters have yielded much interesting and valuable material: we are indebted to all of them, but in particular to some who have written regularly over the years, among whom may be mentioned Lindley Abbatt, Bernard Kramrisch, H. S. Perrin, and Peter Pledger. Nor must we omit to record our gratitude to the many firms, organizations, and government bodies who have patiently and helpfully answered innumerable queries. William T. McLeod Glasgow May 1986