How to read a world

Back in 2008, Ammon Shea gave us Reading the OED, and now Knowles, a historical lexicographer who worked on the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, takes a more granular approach to dictionary analysis. Her step-by-step process in “unlocking the wordhoard” starts with understanding the elements in a dictionary definition, then looking beyond the dictionary definition to other sources in order to explore usage and context. The web is rich in possibilities, ranging from dictionary and word sites to search engines such as Google. A chapter is devoted to understanding how to use various resources, and another to understanding what is found. Finally, there are suggestions to the reader about building his or her own cache of word files. A helpful annotated list of online general and specialist dictionaries, thesauruses, corpora, and word sites rounds out the book. Numerous examples of the author’s own word hunts help convey her love of language and might inspire others to set out on similar journeys. --Mary Ellen Quinn