Overview with a hassle

Press, 7 April 1979, Page 17

Overview with a hassle

The Pocket Oxford Dictionary (Sixth Edition). Edited by J. B. Sykes. Oxford University Press. 1055 pp. $8.75. (Reviewed by Naylor Hillary) "Pakeha to you too, O rangatiras of lexicography.” wrote “The Times" reviewer to the editors of the Concise Oxford Dictionary when a new edition appeared three years ago. The reviewer was piqued by what he called "the New Zealand mafia" of scholars who had infiltrated the Oxford dictionaries and ensured that a surprising number of Maori words, seldom used outside New Zealand, had found their way into the text. Now a new (sixth) edition of the Pocket Oxford Dictionary has appeared, based largely on that last edition of the Concise Oxford, but the rangatiras appear to have taken the hint. Pakeha no longer appears, although “Paki” (as a slang abbreviation for a' Pakistani) is in; nor has rangatira been retained, although “Rani,” a Hindu queen, remains. Kiwi is still there, but tui has gone. The list could be extended. For all that, the new edition is a handsome little book, set in the Baskerville type used for the new Concise Oxford. At 1055 pages it is hardly a true pocket dictionary (not that it has been for several editions), but it is still probablv the best small dictionary of current English vocabulary and usage. Unlike another recent issue from the Oxford stable, the Oxford Paperback Dictionary, the Pocket Oxford is not didactic. It records the language as it is, rather than as it should be. While this must be enormously helpful to many people, especially those for whom English is not their first language, it does offend to find some of the worst popular abuses of English accorded pseudorespectability. “Hopefully, the dictionary provides a viable and meaningful overview of language without any massive hassle” — that sentence contains at least six

miserable dilutions ot language, and all of them are recorded in the new Pocket Oxford as if they were useful. Perhaps the dictionary would be failing its users if it left them out. but it makes the task of the handful of schoolteachers who still believe in the English language much more difficult when smart pupils can cite dictionan authority for a wTong meaning (such as "massive" in the sentence above i. a trite and inexplicit piece of slang such as “hassle." or a noise quite devoid of meaning such as "meaningful.” Still, it does no harm tor a tuddv buddy (“slang: old-fashioned or ineffectual”) reviewer to be reminded that the language continues to draw some of its strength from its power to adapt and expand. So, in this dictionary for the times, are such entries as “overkill" and “kinky." “Ms.” and “B.O.” Hundreds of new words and meanings are said to have been included alter a thorough scrutiny of every entry. American spellings and Anglo-Saxon vulgarity are given treatment equal to the most elegant English. The Pocket Oxford is still a considerable condensation of the Concise Oxford, not only in the detail given for most entries, but also in the number of words listed. Those who seek a meaning for “mallenders” or “scrobiculate” will have to use the Concise; the Pocket can help, however, with “ylang-ylang” or "maraca,” as well as with such useful entries as “plonk” (inferior wine), “reflation" (“inflation following deflation to restore previous condition”), and “bunny” (“club hostess wearing costume suggesting rabbit”). Though it includes “pot” (marijuana), but not the “pothead” of the Concise, it at least gives a derivation — an abbreviation of the Mexican Spanish name “potiguana.” Perhaps everyone except fuddy-duddies knew . that already.