海角大神

At this time of year the clever domestic engineer may be starting to think about having a holiday turkey, and then about what to do with the leftovers 鈥� sandwiches, casseroles ... Anyone for turkey soup?

The great bird that keeps on feeding us is the metaphor that comes to mind as I read Erin Brenner鈥檚 recent 鈥淭ip of the Week鈥� column at Copyediting.com. She describes the Oxford English Corpus, a body of 2.5 billion (yes, with a 鈥渂鈥�) words that 鈥渇eed鈥� both the Oxford English Dictionary and Oxford Dictionaries Online.

鈥淟exicographers are continuously working on the corpus, feeding us new words and updates each quarter, thanks to the wonders of digital publishing,鈥� Ms. Brenner writes. 鈥淏ut what else can you do with such a massive collection of words? Publish more books, of course!鈥�

One of the turkey sandwiches, er, books, from this vast corpus is Martin Manser鈥檚 鈥�1001 Words You Need to Know and Use: An A-Z of Effective Vocabulary.鈥�

Part of an Oxford University Press series focused on language and writing basics, 鈥�1001 Words鈥� has a target audience: occasional writers cranking out essays, letters of application, reports, or business correspondence.聽

To introduce a new metaphor: Paging through this book is like browsing in a word store 鈥� not a 鈥渂ig box鈥� store, but more like a convenient corner store, maybe even a bodega, that doesn鈥檛 have a vast selection but does have just what鈥檚 needed (that specialty ingredient for the recipe you want to try tonight, perhaps).

鈥�1001 Words鈥� is as compact and manageable as the corpus it comes from is not; 166 pages (albeit in smallish type that gets a lot onto the page) in a format that slips easily into any student鈥檚 or young professional鈥檚 bag.聽

The main entries are listed alphabetically, as in a dictionary. But in the back there鈥檚 a subject index that groups just the bare words into broad categories referring to the contexts in which they are likely to be useful: application letters, reports, essays. If you鈥檙e writing a 鈥渞eport鈥� for your boss, for instance, you can go to the 鈥渞eports鈥� section and just browse. You could do the same thing with a regular dictionary, but with less focused results.

Many readers will find the book most helpful for its usage notes, detailing shades of difference: 鈥�Significant but not important can mean 鈥榞reat in degree.鈥� 鈥� For another example: Basic refers to a 鈥渘ecessary minimum,鈥� whereas something fundamental to something else is 鈥渆ssential to it.鈥�

One last thing: American readers should be aware that 鈥�1001 Words鈥� follows British usage and spelling. This is mostly no big deal. But I did chuckle at a reference to 鈥渂espoke鈥� computer software. Sorry, I can鈥檛 see bespoke without getting a mental image of a bolt of a chalk-striped fabric draped over a tailor鈥檚 shoulder. In American usage, we would say 鈥渃ustom鈥� software.