• The Professor and the Madman

    From Bob Roberts@1:218/840 to All on Thu Dec 24 10:44:46 2020
    Posting here in English Tutor because this is the best place I can think to discuss English language matters of interest.

    For those of you who have Netflix in the USA, they've made "The Professor and the Madman" available for streaming. The movie tells the story of how the Oxford English Dictionary was created in the late 1800's. The OED is something I've always been fascinated with, and the story of its creation is quite dramatic.

    Acted by Mel Gibson, and Sean Penn, the production was filmed in 2016, but not released until 2019 due to legal issues between Mel Gibson, the Director (both of which have disavowed the film) and the production company. Even thou Mel seems to hate this move, it's pretty darn good, and the acting of Gibson and Penn is excellent as usual.

    The task of collecting every word in the English language and charting its path from first published usage was daunting and took nearly 50 years. 20 volumes were released and continue to be revised.

    You can buy the printed volumes for around $850 USD, or get access to the OED via the Web at www.oed.com. They're actually running a special right now, a year of access is only $90 USD as opposed to the regular $250 USD price.

    For word lovers the OED can't be beat. For historial entertainment "The Professor and the Madmen" is a decent watch.

    Bob Roberts
    --- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
    * Origin: Halls of Valhalla =-= Happy Holidays (1:218/840)
  • From Ardith Hinton@1:153/716 to Bob Roberts on Sat Jan 16 20:00:05 2021
    Hi, Bob! Recently you wrote in a message to All:

    Posting here in English Tutor because this is
    the best place I can think to discuss English
    language matters of interest.


    Yes!!! :-)



    For those of you who have Netflix in the USA,
    they've made "The Professor and the Madman"
    available for streaming. The movie tells the
    story of how the Oxford English Dictionary was
    created in the late 1800's.


    Netflix doesn't have it available here in Vancouver, but the public library does. Thanks to your recommendation Dallas & I are currently reading the book & his name is on a v-e-r-y long waiting list for the movie.... :-))



    The OED is something I've always been fascinated
    with, and the story of its creation is quite
    dramatic.


    We'd run across a few parts of the story line before, e.g. the fact that one of the chief contributors was thought to be insane. But as the book points out the definition of insanity 'way back might be questioned nowadays. What matters for purposes of this discussion is that Dr. Minor was apparently very intelligent, well educated, and methodical... and that because he wasn't considered a threat he was allowed to keep his private library. Since he had nothing else to do he had time to keep up with the workload. I'm glad to see that this project evidently improved the state of his mental health too. :-)



    For those of you who have Netflix in the USA, they've
    made "The Professor and the Madman" available for
    streaming. The movie tells the story of how the Oxford
    English Dictionary was created in the late 1800's. The
    OED is something I've always been fascinated with, and
    the story of its creation is quite dramatic.


    Agreed. The OED is unique in that all of the examples are based on what native speakers... including GBS & Agatha Christie... actually said. If Fowler didn't approve of what they said, that's a different issue AFAIC. :-Q



    The task of collecting every word in the English
    language and charting its path from first published
    usage was daunting and took nearly 50 years.


    Yes... and it involved many people whose names are lost to history, but AFAIC it was well worth the effort. :-)



    For word lovers the OED can't be beat.


    The version Dallas & I have cost $100, quite some time ago, when it was offered as an incentive for joining a book club which we dropped ASAP. I don't use it as often as I once did because the print is quite small. All of the material is there... but it's been reduced to two volumes. Nevertheless, it's the source I rely on to this day when I want to track down details along the lines of why Noah Webster chose one particular spelling over another. In many cases, various spellings were used in England at the time. If the Brits settled on one & the Americans settled on another that's understandable. :-)



    For historial entertainment "The Professor and the
    Madmen" is a decent watch.


    Okay... so the movie is historical fiction. When we don't know for certain who said what to whom in private conversation, we have to accept that much of it has been added by script writers. But when most of it agrees with what we already know... or believe we do... we can learn a lot that way.

    Many thanks for your input on the topic.... :-)




    --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)