From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 5697
Date: 2001-01-22
----- Original Message ----->If OED 2nd ed 1994 is already dated then I'd better stick with
Cybalist where I can keep up to scratch with the latest discoveries
in the field of etymology. :-)Joking apart, the best way of learning any skill is doing it and showing the results to other people so that they may criticise you. You can't learn to drive or swim by reading the latest literature on the subject.I thought you were referring to the "classic" edition (NED). Of course the 1994 OED has been updated in many respects, though most etymologies are simply copied from the old one. It would be too much work to re-work everything from scratch.Don't despair. Good dictionaries are usable, but you can't rely exclusively on them. Typically, a dictionary offers a good starting point from which you can start exploring further. *Some* etymological dictionaries, even of English, are however absolutely hopeless because of the authot's lack of elementary qualifications (Eric Partridge's is a good example).Piotr