Quote:
Originally Posted by stuartjmz
1913 is a critical limitation imo - the one constant in language is change, and there's been so much change in English over the past century that a dictionary so old is of limited value. ...
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I don't agree. Although a lot has changed in the English language, I think you underestimate the value of a comprehensive dictionary like the 1913 Websters. For example, my kids who work at a retail store were talking about the problem of shoplifting. For some reason that reminded of the word that was in common usage for shoplifting in Montana, when I was a teenager, "kipe" or "kype." I wasn't sure if I remembered the word right, so I looked it up on dict.org when I got home. (Dict.org uses the 1913 Websters.)
Code:
Kipe \Kipe\, n. [Cf. OE. kipen to catch, Icel. kippa to pull,
snatch. Cf. Kipper.]
An osier basket used for catching fish. [Prov. Eng.]
[1913 Webster]
Well, that got me started, so I went to the Internet and found that kipe (or kype) was slang for shoplifting (snatching, small theft) and it was (mostly) regional to the northwest United States.
It doesn't appear in the Oxford dictionary on my Kindle or Sony. Nor does it appear in the
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary in the Kobo or Nook. It does, however, appear, in the default English dictionary on the Tolino (which is based on Wiktionary.org).
I don't know what I would find in the OED for "kipe." I used to own a copy (one of those two volume editions with four pages per page and an included magnifying glass), but I gave it to my dad. I do, however, find that that there is enough difference between American English and English English that the 1913 Websters is sometimes more accurate with its shades of meaning (for Americans) than is the Oxford, even the American edition of the Oxford.