Publisher Oxford University Press said Sunday that
burgeoning demand for the dictionary's online version has far outpaced demand
for the printed versions. By the time the lexicographers behind the dictionary
finished revising and updating the latest edition — a gargantuan task that will
take many more years — publishers are doubtful there will still be a market for
the printed form.
The online Oxford English Dictionary now gets 2 million
hits a month from subscribers. The current printed edition — a hefty 20-volume,
750 pound ($1,165) set published in 1989 — has sold about 30,000 sets in total.
“At present we are experiencing increasing demand for the
online product,” a statement from the publisher said. “However a print version
will certainly be considered if there is sufficient demand at the time of
publication.”
Nigel Portwood, chief executive of Oxford University
Press, told The Sunday Times in an interview he did not think the newest
edition will be printed. “The print dictionary market is just disappearing, it
is falling away by tens of percent a year,” he said.
Although the comments relate primarily to the full-length
dictionary, the publisher says the convenience of the electronic format is also
affecting demand for its shorter dictionaries.
The first installment of the Oxford English Dictionary
was published in 1884, and it kept growing for decades until the complete text
went out in 1928. It was the first comprehensive English dictionary since
Samuel Johnson's “A Dictionary of the English Language” published in 1755, and
has since evolved to become the accepted authority on the meaning and history
of words.
The version users now consult — the second edition — has
291,500 entries, plus 2.4 million quotations as sources.
Unlike shorter printed versions such as the single-volume
Oxford Dictionary of English, it does not track current usage, it simply
includes every single word.
The Oxford English Dictionary first went online in 2000,
offering paying subscribers a much faster way to look up words. It has also
helped the dictionary catch up with rapid semantic changes and the large
numbers of new words: updates to the dictionary's online version are added
every three months.
In December, the online version will be relaunched to
include a historical thesaurus to make cross-referencing easier.
