The Little Oxford Dictionary of Current English [antikvár]

PREFACE npHIS work is based on the Pocket Oxford Dictionary Xedited by F. G. Fowler and H. W. Fowler; and, like it, rests ultimately upon the authority of the great Oxford Dictionary edited by Drs. Murray, Bradley, Craigle, and Onions [1884-1928]. The choice of words is in the main that of the Pocket Oxford Dictionary, but new words and phrases, whose place and dignity in the language is not yet assured, have been admitted rather more freely. It has been thought advisable to give more space to the usage of the United States of America than is commonly done in smaller English dictionaries, because the interaction of the two great branches of the English language is steadily increasing. We think at once of the wider spread of American books and journals; of cinema captions and of the new power of wireless; but these are only striking examples of the growing rapidity and frequency of all means of communication; and free commimication is the great leveller of differences in language. As the distinction of American usages is of considerable importance, they are marked by an asterisk * prefixed to a word, phrase, or meaning; and the sign must be imderstood as a mark of territorial origin or use, not as an indication of inferiority. Attention has also been given to words and meanings common in the British Empire overseas; and if, in this or other respects, a user of the dictionary finds it incomplete, he is asked to remember that it is a Little Dictionary, in which rigorous selection has been necessary. Compounds and derivatives. GeneraUy words are given in their alphabetical order; but for brevity compounds and some derivatives are grouped under the main word. Foreign words and phrases are entered among English words in their alphabetical order, and are printed in the same black type as the English words; but a parallel sign II prefixed marks those foreign words and phrases that are not yet naturalized in English and are therefore commonly found printed in italic type. P. at the end of a definition indicates that the word defined is or appears to be a proprietary term, trade mark, or the like; but competence to settle the question whether a word is or is not proprietary is disclaimed. In order to save space, definitions have been omitted from derivatives where the meaning is sufficiently clear from tho meanings given for the main word. For the same reason many words have been shortened by the use of the tilde — e.g. under fulfil, -^ment = fulfilment; fusible, «ability = fusibility ; emerge, ~nce = emergence. Where more than one spelling is given the first is to bo preferred. 3495 a 2