NOPE NOPE NOOOOOPE fuck that man.
Double reminder that local offline copies of wiktionary.org dictionaries are available in Stardict, Tabfile and Kindle formats for download here: https://github.com/Vuizur/Wiktionary-Dictionaries
It’s always surprised me that search engines don’t point to Wiktionary by default, and in fact usually don’t show it in search results on the first page.
Over the years, it has gotten better and better and now is an almost universal resource on all word forms. You see a word and don’t know what it means? You put it in the search bar at Wiktionary and the site will figure out it is the second person aorist of the passive voice of the Ancient Greek verb kataminomai, used only between the second and third centuries in the Hellenistic colonies of Mars. Made up example, of course, but the quality of the information is insane.
You can probably get access through your local public library, if you’re on their Wi-Fi. OED has been like this for as long as I’ve been paying attention. Source: librarian and before that was annoyed at OED, but now I’m almost always on work Wi-Fi if I’m looking something up, so it’s invisible to me.
Yep, exactly this.
I use OED as my standard reference when writing - I can log in from anywhere with my library card number and get full access without paying a penny.
The most offensive part is the monthly price point. What goo between the ears business idiot convinced these people they could charge more than a Netflix (+ ads) subscription for the dictionary? You could literally buy a brand new one and set it on fire every month for that cost. Fucking leeches.
You couldn’t do that, OED is so massive they’re not even printing it anymore. Old sets are on Amazon for $1000+
It’s weird to talk about “the dictionary”, there’s no single default dictionary, they’re all different and this is a dictionary for specialists. It’s a historical dictionary, so it covers words and their usage from up to a millenium ago (although IIRC it doesn’t include words that haven’t survived into Modern English, so 400-ish years ago).
