Man finishes reading entire Oxford English Dictionary
source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3129082/Man-reads-entire-Oxford-Engl...
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- JanaPokana
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The Oxford English Dictionary is certainly not everyone's idea of a page turner, but a man has just completed the mammoth, if not bizarre, task of reading the 22,000-page book cover to cover.
Ammon Shea, 37, who has been dissecting dictionaries since the age of 10, spent a year absorbing 59 million words, from A to Zyxt - the equivalent of reading a John Grisham novel every day.
Cooped up in the basement of his local library, the removal man from New York would devote up to 10 hours a day painstakingly making his way through all 20 volumes of the OED - helped by cup after cup of very strong coffee. Every time he came across an interesting word, he jotted it down, fearful that he would not remember its meaning.
Among his favourite discoveries were obmutescence (willfully quiet), hypergelast (a person who won't stop laughing), natiform (shaped like buttocks) and deipnosophist (a person who is learned in the art of dining.)
He even wrote a book about his experiences, entitled 'Reading the Oxford English Dictionary: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages'. In it, he recalls a low point when he started learning words beginning with the letter N. "Some days I feel as if I do not actually speak the English language, or understand it with any degree of real comprehension," he said. "It is as if I am visiting a foreign country, armed with one of those silly little tourist phrase book...I may know enough to order a cup of coffee or inquire where the bathroom is."
Many people ask Shea why he would put himself through the ordeal, but the self-confessed lover of words maintains that reading the entire OED was a challenge he set himself many years ago. "The OED, more so than any other dictionary, encompasses the entire history of all English's glories and foibles, the grand concepts and whimsical conceits that make our language what it is today," he said. "It's a great read. It is much more engrossing, enjoyable and moving to read than you would typically think a non-narrative body of text could ever possibly be."
Ammon Shea, 37, who has been dissecting dictionaries since the age of 10, spent a year absorbing 59 million words, from A to Zyxt - the equivalent of reading a John Grisham novel every day.
Cooped up in the basement of his local library, the removal man from New York would devote up to 10 hours a day painstakingly making his way through all 20 volumes of the OED - helped by cup after cup of very strong coffee. Every time he came across an interesting word, he jotted it down, fearful that he would not remember its meaning.
Among his favourite discoveries were obmutescence (willfully quiet), hypergelast (a person who won't stop laughing), natiform (shaped like buttocks) and deipnosophist (a person who is learned in the art of dining.)
He even wrote a book about his experiences, entitled 'Reading the Oxford English Dictionary: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages'. In it, he recalls a low point when he started learning words beginning with the letter N. "Some days I feel as if I do not actually speak the English language, or understand it with any degree of real comprehension," he said. "It is as if I am visiting a foreign country, armed with one of those silly little tourist phrase book...I may know enough to order a cup of coffee or inquire where the bathroom is."
Many people ask Shea why he would put himself through the ordeal, but the self-confessed lover of words maintains that reading the entire OED was a challenge he set himself many years ago. "The OED, more so than any other dictionary, encompasses the entire history of all English's glories and foibles, the grand concepts and whimsical conceits that make our language what it is today," he said. "It's a great read. It is much more engrossing, enjoyable and moving to read than you would typically think a non-narrative body of text could ever possibly be."
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rwylie
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The zyzzyva did it.
- 3 years ago
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rwylie
