Oxford English Dictionary (2nd Ed.) PDA-friendly

[Alexander Turcic]

Is the Concise OED more useful than Merriam Webster?

[BasilC]

Originally Posted by Alexander

Is the Concise OED more useful than Merriam Webster?

I'm afraid I don't know. Merriam Webster is American, so as a Brit I wouldn't really use it - which is not to say there's anything wrong with American English, it's just as legitimate and historical as English English.

Maybe I was a bit rash when praising the Concise OED without ever having looked at Merriam Webster. But the various OED dictionaries have a great pedigree - the OED itself (gigantic, and of more use to linguistic academics than normal people), the Shorter OED (a scaled down OED), the Concise OED (the kind of largish dictionary that would be of use to ordinary people), and the Pocket OED, which, I suppose, distills the wisdom of the bigger dictionaries but doesn't got into enough detail in its entries for my liking. The Concise is just about what I would want, especially as it's a brand new completely revised edition.

I'm not a Mobipocket fan (I wish you could get these DRM ebooks in iSilo format instead of just Mobipocket, eReader and Adobe), but I have to admit that the Concise OED has been beautifully implemented. It is rather expensive, though in my opinion worth it because of the huge amount of information it contains and the amount of work that evidently went into it. To have a look at it go to here.

Incidentally, I notice you've got a thread on the best (or more likely worst) format for DRM ebooks. I'll have a read of it and may add my tuppenyworth.

[Alexander Turcic]

Thanks for pointing out the differences! I have never used anything but Merriam, probably because I went to an US university and as you pointed out, Merriam is US-based.

I will definitely have a look at the Concise OED, perhaps first in paper book form which I can lend from the library

Originally Posted by BasilC

Maybe I was a bit rash when praising the Concise OED without ever having looked at Merriam Webster. But the various OED dictionaries have a great pedigree - the OED itself (gigantic, and of more use to linguistic academics than normal people), the Shorter OED (a scaled down OED), the Concise OED (the kind of largish dictionary that would be of use to ordinary people), and the Pocket OED, which, I suppose, distills the wisdom of the bigger dictionaries but doesn't got into enough detail in its entries for my liking.

[BasilC]

Originally Posted by Alexander

Thanks for pointing out the differences! I have never used anything but Merriam, probably because I went to an US university and as you pointed out, Merriam is US-based.

I will definitely have a look at the Concise OED, perhaps first in paper book form which I can lend from the library

You might find that the libraries have out-of-date editions, this one has only been published this year, I think, and I think the changes have been fairly major.