Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics
Library Journal Review
Heftier (7 lbs. vs. 4 lbs.) and more expensive than competing adult desk dictionaries ($40 vs. $20), the new edition of The American Heritage Dictionary ( AHD3 ) will especially appeal to those who found the original (1969. o.p.) a refreshingly readable, attractive, and candid source of lexical information. The hallmarks of the first edition--handsome graphics and format, accessible definitions and etymologies, hardnosed advice on usage questions--are all here, updated to reflect American English as used in the early 1990s. AHD3 's stats (yes, that's a word, you can look it up) are impressive: 200,000 ``boldface forms''; 16,000 new words and meanings including such recent constructions as birthparent , date rape , moonquake , slam-dunk , and wellness ; 30,000 illustrative examples prepared by the staff and more than 4000 quotations from reputable writers and publications; 30,500 etymologies, complemented by 400 word histories and 100 regional notes; 900 synonymies; and 4000 pictorial illustrations, 80 percent of which are new. The Usage Panel, a familiar feature of previous editions, has now grown to 173 members and includes more women, English professors, and linguists. The panel offers 500-plus usage notes, many quite lengthy, that render stern, usually conservative judgments on questionable usage (see the flout / flaunt controversy, for example). AHD3 measures up well against the major competition--the Random House Webster's College Dictionary ( LJ 6/15/91), Webster's New World Dictionary (Prentice Hall Pr., 1988. 3d ed.), and Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictio nary ( LJ 9/1/83). All libraries of any consequence need the new edition of the American Heritage Dictionary . For an interview with editor Soukhanov, see ``Dictionaries Defined,'' LJ , June 15, p. 44-45.--Ed.-- Ken Kister, author of ``Best Encyclope dias,'' Tampa, Fla. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Arguably the most attractive work from page layout alone, the third edition of American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (AHD) features some 200,000 entries, placing the work in a class of its own--larger than most collegiate/desk dictionaries but smaller than a typical unabridged work. AHD offers many unique features. Lavishly illustrated with about 4,000 drawings and photographs (compared to 2,400 for Random House Unabridged), the oversize pages have ample margin space and do not have the crowded look some dictionaries do; the fact that all illustrations appear in the outside margins rather than within the entries themselves only increases the visual appeal of the volume. The oversize pages mark a return to some features that made the first edition (1969) famous and that made the smaller-size second edition (1982) so disappointing by comparison. For example, AHD features etymologies that forgo the usual abbreviations, fully spelling out terms such as Middle English rather than the usual ME. The work also has 900 synonym notes that go well beyond a simple listing of terms (the synonym note for sensuous, for example, is four times longer than the entry itself), 400 word histories, 100 regional notes, and 500 usage notes. AHD has garnered considerable notoriety with its 173-member Usage Panel, including authors such as Margaret Atwood, Harold Bloom, and William Manchester. Their opinions are reflected in many usage notes ("The transitive use of graduate, as in She graduated Yale in 1980, was acceptable to 77 percent of the Usage Panel"). This practice has not been without its critics, but considering this is essentially a collegiate work, such notes may prove useful for students. These features do not come without a price, and if the entry count of AHD places it beyond the typical collegiate/desk dictionary, so does its $45 price tag. Perhaps realizing this, Houghton released The American Heritage College Dictionary the year after AHD at a more palatable price point for the college market. There are several differences, however, between the two: slightly fewer main entries (185,000 compared to 200,000), shorter illustrative sentences, fewer illustrations (2,500), etymologies that use abbreviations, and a smaller trim size. AHD is available in a variety of electronic formats. For simple keyword searches, the version in Microsoft Bookshelf accomplishes its task, along with audio pronunciations. For those interested in more powerful Boolean capabilities, however, the Softkey version is recommended. Softkey's American Heritage Talking Dictionary allows a searcher to restrict a search to specific usage labels (regional or vulgar, for example), search by exact phrase, and search by partial words using truncation. It also includes all of the Indo-European roots found in the appendix of the printed edition, conveniently appended at the end of corresponding entries. The entry pneumatic, for example, includes the full entry for the Indo-European root pneu-, which in the print version would necessitate a separate lookup.
