Macmillan English Dictionary - Second Edition
Writers Forum - June 2007.
We are all fascinated by words and although English is a rich and treasured language year by year new words are added from a variety of sources. Many catch on and are added to the everyday vocabulary.
It’s often said that once and author uses a phrase it is out of date in new popular use. Cool and wick are just two examples. Company executives no longer run things up the flagpole to see if anybody salutes it, a dim person is no longer described as not the sharpest tool in the box or two pence short of a shilling. Deals no longer go north or south and a bid that is too low is just that – not a deal breaker. Try explaining what Teflon Tony means to a foreigner. No wonder students of English and foreigners trying to get to grips with our tongue: cow and cough, bough and bow and all the other idiosyncrasies find it hard to become fluent [sic]. In recognition of this Macmillan have come up with a masterly new English dictionary – for Advanced Learners. Anybody who has taught English as a foreign language (TEFL) will know how valuable this can be.
For example, it is dangerous to take us Brits too literally. When we say that somebody lives “in a world of their own”, we don’t actually mean he is a friend of ET or an alien.
There are thousands of examples. This dictionary covers nearly 2,000 pages and has a CD as well. Well worth a sov. Know what I mean?