《牛津英語詞典》網絡版流行 或將停止印刷

It was first published 126 years ago and is respected the world over.

But the Oxford English Dictionary will never appear in print again, its owners have announced.

Instead, the 80 lexicographers who have been working on the third edition for the past 21 years have been told the fruits of their labour will exist solely online.

The OED has been available on the internet for the past ten years and receives two million hits a month from subscribers who pay £205 a year, plus VAT, to access it.

Oxford University Press says the dominance of the internet means the latest update to the definitive record of the English language - currently 28 per cent complete - will never be published in print.

'The print dictionary market is just disappearing - it is falling away by tens of per cent a year,' said Nigel Portwood, 44, chief executive of OUP.

'Our primary purpose - and this takes a bit of adjusting to - is not profit, it is the dissemination of knowledge,' he said.

'Print is still pretty important round here but, wherever possible, if there is an opportunity, we are moving out of it.'

The printed dictionary has a shelf life of another 30 years, he predicts.

The third edition is only expected to be completed by 2037. The OUP has already stopped producing illustrated reference books because of the growing popularity of the Wikipedia website.

Erin McKean, co-founder and chief executive of Wordnik, an online dictionary, said: 'I want my young son to think of the print dictionary like an eight-track tape - a format that died because it was not useful enough.'

《牛津英語大詞典》在126年前首次出版，如今在全世界範圍內受到尊敬。

然而該詞典的所有者宣佈，該詞典將不會再出紙質版本。

在過去21年間修訂第三版的80位詞典編纂者被告知他們的勞動成果將只存在於網上。

過去十年人們已經能夠在網上讀到《牛津英語大詞典》，該詞典每個月所用戶點擊量達兩百萬次，訂閱費用爲每年205英鎊（含增值稅）。

牛津大學出版社說，由於網絡已經佔據主導地位，最新更新的英語詞條（目前已完成了28%）將不會再出紙質版本。

牛津大學出版社的總裁——44歲的奈傑爾•波特伍德說：“紙質詞典的市場正在消失，每年減少10%。”

他說：“我們的主要目的不是賺錢，而是傳播知識，要實現這個目的還需要一些調整。”

“印刷在我們這一行業依然相當重要，不過，只要有可能，只要有機會，我們會捨棄這一途徑。”

他預言說，紙質詞典還有30年的壽命。

第三版預計在2037年纔會修訂完畢。由於維基百科網站越來越受歡迎，牛津大學出版社已經停止出版帶插圖的工具書。

網上詞典Wordnik的聯合創始人兼總裁艾琳•麥凱恩說：“我想讓我年幼的兒子把紙質詞典看作像八軌道磁帶一樣的老古董，一種因爲用處不大而消亡的形式。”

Vocabulary:

lexicographer: a person who writes and edits dictionaries（詞典編纂者）

VAT: a tax that is added to the price of goods and services (abbreviation for value added tax)（增值稅）

fall away:to become gradually fewer or smaller; to disappear（減少；減小；消失；消散）

dissemination: the act of spreading something, esp. information, widely; circulation（散播；宣傳）

shelf life: the length of time that food, etc. can be kept before it is too old to be sold（貨架期，保存期）