After having a conversation about writing with Tiff, I realized I had not seen my dictionary in awhile. I think I left one of my favorite writing tools at a former job. And while the internet dictionary suffices, it does not produce the same neurotic fix I need from holding the definitive grail.
I have a need with a bound dictionary around to look up words I know, peruse for words I don't, and investigate synonyms of words in the same alphabetical region. I have to come to believe only a hard copy of the dictionary can allay my word neurosis.
Yesterday, I left at lunch for the bookstore with the sole intention of picking up said dictionary and forgoing offers of lunch in the cafe. Once at Borders, I headed straight to the reference section, ignoring all the scrumptious temptations on display. Normally I am a Webster girl, but yesterday, I picked up the Oxford American Dictionary and Thesaurus. More than 200,000 definitions and 300,000 synonyms. How could I pass it up?
True, I could have purchased a bigger, badder dictionary, but I have a small desk at home. Having a colossal version wouldn't be practical.
Once back at work, I endured much teasing about my neurosis from coworkers:
"A dictionary! How exciting!"
"You know Michelle there is this thing called the internet. I hear they have a dictionary."
Yeah, well, no snubs to http://www.m-w.com/, but I need the feel of pages in my hand. I feel better. How could I go without for so long?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Don't worry ... I'm the same way myself. I need to have a hardcopy of Black's Law Dictionary even though we have the online edition at work. And yes .... when I'm at Barnes & Noble, I get geeked up whenever I see a new edition of it come out.
Amen! My mother got me an unabridged dictionary (I don't remember if it's Oxford or M/W) for Christmas some years ago, and it's one of my favorite things, ever. If I had a big enough house, I would purchase a pedestal for it.
My budding logophile coworker was looking at the bookshelf in my office yesterday (I'm the only person - aside from the attorneys - in this building who has a bookshelf in her office), and was goggling at The Oxford Dictionary of Difficult Words, and Word Menu, and Write Right and Junk English and the Knight Rider Compendium...
ah well. Congratulations on reuniting with Dick. :-)
I would love to get the granddaddy of dictionaries. I have to make due with my red M-W's dictionary.
Sweet! A BIG dictionary! Loves it....
I am the same way, I much prefer to look words up in a physical book (the thicker and more unabridged, the better!) as oppposed to doing it in cyberspace. It just doesn't feel the same way. I prefer reading a real newspaper printed on the nasty grey paper than I do reading it online. This is despite being online for more than a decade. I guess some old habits do not die.
Post a Comment