The word 'set' takes up eighteen pages in the hard copy of the Oxford English Dictionary (issued in 1989). At the time, it was the English word with the most meanings. However, it has been ousted from that position by the word 'run' which, according to Peter Gilliver, the OED lexicographer who spent more than nine months working just on the word 'run', has 645 meanings - and that's just for 'run' as a verb. So, you can run a race, run through a document, run up something on a sewing machine, run into another car, run for office; trains run on time (or not) and cars run on petrol. And there are over 600 other senses.
Here's an interesting article on the subject by Simon Winchester, author of The Surgeon of Crowthorne (UK title), which is entitled The Professor and the Madman in the USA. That particular book is well worth reading; it is about a prolific contributor to the first edition of the OED, who was an inmate of Broadmoor, a high-security psychiatric hospital.
It's great to hear from you and see what you've been up to. In your blog I feel your enthusiasm for life. thank you.
Posted by: Moncler Jackets Kids | December 22, 2011 at 01:06 AM