Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Only Words. The new OED may be a ­revision- ­minded editor's dream, but it's trickier for readers seeking a truly definitive definition. The entry you consult in January may be different by March. The editors first revised the entry for make, one of the most complex verbs in the language, in 2000. On several occasions since, they have made ­changes— ­I can't give you chapter and verse, because the first version, and all the subsequent ones through June, have been expunged from the record. (I printed out the entry on two occasions, around 2002. The first time it came to about 98 pages, the second to about 102. But I mislaid these piles of paper, and now they are lost to me forever.) Scholars find this evanescence upsetting and infuriating; even the casual reader may find it disconcerting. By contrast, the printed book is ­(more ­or ­less) permanent and unchanging. If a new edition supersedes the old, the old does not ­disappear.