Re: Lookin' for the OED

John Cowan
> Peter Clark scripsit:
> >         Does anyone know of an electronic version of the Oxford
> English Dictionary
> > that can be downloaded? As far as I know, the copyright for the
> first edition
> > should have expired some time ago.
>
> AFAIK no one has ever taken the trouble to transcribe it.  It is a 20-volume
> multifont nightmare.
According to inside info I had at the time, in the mid 80s IBM gave OUP
a million pounds to finance the cost of creating an electronic version
(in those days it was done by keyboarding rather than scanning). This
laid the foundations for the second edition. But evidentally, the
donation didn't have any strings attached about the result being public domain.
(But I know from experience that such strings get ignored.)

In reply to Peter's query, I don't know of any decent downloadable
dictionary. There's a surprising dearth of such stuff when you
actually set out to look for it.

--And.

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