Dictionaries are a neat idea (and not only on your shelf; in your programming language too, Thank you Python). But that's where my thoughts pretty much ended about dictionaries. Dictionaries are hardly fascinating I mean. But there is this book I recently read that forced me to change my opinion, at least for one such learned tome. I am talking about The Surgeon of Crowthorne.
You are sure to be familiar with the central character of the book, the Oxford English Dictionary, known to affectionados as OED. One sight of the immense multi-volume tome is enough to convince anybody of its learned pedigree. OED was begun because people were not very happy with dictionaries available at the time, the mid 19th century that is. Just like many open source projects begin from a developer's etch. (At this point you would be right to question your truly's mental state. Open source? Where did that come from? But please bear with me). So back to the story, a system was set up, and a new approach was decided upon. OED guys wanted to illustrate the words through published quotations; what was the first documented use of a word, how its use changed over centuries, what different senses the word could be used in and so on. And OED guys also realized that commendable as the goal was, it was too much to ask for from a single team. So they sent out a call for volunteers (just like an open source project). Volunteers were to read books, dig out illustrative quotations, and report them back. The team would also publish a list of the words it was presently looking for (much like an open bug tracker). To send a quotation, the volunteer should write the word on top left of a half sheet of paper, write the citation (book name, author, published year and so on) below it, and then follow it with the actual quotation. In case you wanted to submit more than one slip, they were to be alphabetically sorted, packaged and sent (and doesn't it sound like the coding guidelines you must comply with before your patch gets accepted?). I guess you got my point.
And there is more drama here. A volunteer turned up, a certain Dr Minor, who impressed everyone back at the headquarters with his systematic and prodigious work, over a period of more than two decades. Sir James Murray, leader of the project, casually assumed that he was 'an established medical man with a good deal of leisure'. Murray wanted to thank him personally for his work. And here comes the punch, Dr. Minor turned out to be a convicted murderer, confined for the last two decades to a lunatic asylum. The crime was committed under the effect of the psychiatric disorder from which he was suffering. And born in an era when psychiatric treatment was just beginning, he essentially remained uncured, losing his mind bit by bit; his work on OED providing a much needed link to the real world. It is hard not to be moved by this tragic story.
The writing is good and I think certified bookworms (you know if you are one) will derive a not-easy-to-explain tingling, seeing this story of words unfold (I did). Highly recommended.
You are sure to be familiar with the central character of the book, the Oxford English Dictionary, known to affectionados as OED. One sight of the immense multi-volume tome is enough to convince anybody of its learned pedigree. OED was begun because people were not very happy with dictionaries available at the time, the mid 19th century that is. Just like many open source projects begin from a developer's etch. (At this point you would be right to question your truly's mental state. Open source? Where did that come from? But please bear with me). So back to the story, a system was set up, and a new approach was decided upon. OED guys wanted to illustrate the words through published quotations; what was the first documented use of a word, how its use changed over centuries, what different senses the word could be used in and so on. And OED guys also realized that commendable as the goal was, it was too much to ask for from a single team. So they sent out a call for volunteers (just like an open source project). Volunteers were to read books, dig out illustrative quotations, and report them back. The team would also publish a list of the words it was presently looking for (much like an open bug tracker). To send a quotation, the volunteer should write the word on top left of a half sheet of paper, write the citation (book name, author, published year and so on) below it, and then follow it with the actual quotation. In case you wanted to submit more than one slip, they were to be alphabetically sorted, packaged and sent (and doesn't it sound like the coding guidelines you must comply with before your patch gets accepted?). I guess you got my point.
And there is more drama here. A volunteer turned up, a certain Dr Minor, who impressed everyone back at the headquarters with his systematic and prodigious work, over a period of more than two decades. Sir James Murray, leader of the project, casually assumed that he was 'an established medical man with a good deal of leisure'. Murray wanted to thank him personally for his work. And here comes the punch, Dr. Minor turned out to be a convicted murderer, confined for the last two decades to a lunatic asylum. The crime was committed under the effect of the psychiatric disorder from which he was suffering. And born in an era when psychiatric treatment was just beginning, he essentially remained uncured, losing his mind bit by bit; his work on OED providing a much needed link to the real world. It is hard not to be moved by this tragic story.
The writing is good and I think certified bookworms (you know if you are one) will derive a not-easy-to-explain tingling, seeing this story of words unfold (I did). Highly recommended.
2 comments:
lovely review..very technical essentially :) linked!
ohh..n btw..thanks for the review :)
hehe.. thanks kya..
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