This has been my go-to English dictionary in the past few years and I still love it! Unlike the venerable OED, they sort their entries by modern usage frequency, so you don't have to slog your way through archaic pre-Shakespearean locutions you'll likely never come across. It's concise and to the point, its examples are actually meaningful, and the panel notes are very helpful though not as numerous as one might hope for. I just wish they used IPA for phonetic transcriptions!
The American Heritage Dictionary has molded my life path more than any other book, and by a large margin. It entered my life the year it was first published; I was in junior high school and it came as a family Christmas gift from my aunt. The format makes it all too easy to get lost for extended periods when the intent was to look up a single word. Within a year of moving away from the family home, I purchased a copy for myself. Much of my mental database of ready info comes from this dictionary or from the other sources I consulted to expand on the seed of curiosity it sowed through its format choices.
I just preordered the 50th anniversary 5th edition the other day !!! Thanks for sharing. I'd never ever watch an unboxing usually but all your content satisfies this hunger of linguistic nerdism I have. Looking forward to much more Endless Knot.
I LOVE DICTIONARIES! Like the nerd that I am, I was so excited when my library was giving away a copy of the condensed OED. You practically need a microscope to read it, but I love to just flip through those two huge volumes.
Looks like an excellent addition to your library. If it's anywhere near as good quality as our Horizon Cookbook (a wedding present in 1969) or Hoorizon Magazine, from the same publisher, I assume, then it's well worth having.
7:00 I think is a good example of the editors' attitudes. Rather than just give up entirely on telling you how words should be used, they tell you how educated people think words should be used, but then are more than willing to criticize those same people for any inconsistencies that they display. Instead of telling you to ignore people who claim to know better, they give you ammunition to use against them. I like this approach, and feel that every time I open their dictionary I come away smarter (if not a little smugger).
I find the American Heritage Dictionary to be a nice edition, however, Webster's Unabridged Dictionary will always be my number one choice. Anyway, I enjoyed watching your video, and I hope you create more in the future :)
I like the little peanut gallery comments from the on-screen text. Keeps the video engaging; they're funny. Also, I didn't realize I was using 'hopefully' wrong all my life! This is what happens when you eject the pedants from Merriam Webster!
I like this dictionary because it teaches stuff people don't know in addition to the meanings of words. The definitions also include more interesting words that are worth looking up. So you learn words with new information as well.
This is a great video! Thanks so much! I'm in the market for a new dictionary, and have been considering Chambers, since it is apparently for word lovers, and American Heritage, but also the Shorter Oxford. Could you do more unboxings or reviews?
Thank you for taking the time to point out the appendices of Indo-European and Semitic roots and the word history notes. I am afraid that this will be the last print edition of the dictionary, however...
venancefortunat Glad you liked it. I hope not, but you're right, the way things are going it may well be. There are advantages to electronic editions, of course, but I'll be sad to see the print editions go, if they do.
I'm currently looking to buy my first print dictionary, something to class up my bookshelves and give me something to pore over and soak up new words. As I've never purchased one before, I've been pretty in-the-dark about which one to buy, and have been looking around at the different options, trying to get a feel for each and see which one suits me best. I had never even heard of the AHD before watching this video, but after it made a good first impression here, and a bit more research, the scales of my judgement have been tipped decidedly in its favor! What really won me over is their Usage Panel, which sounds like a fascinating way to get different perspectives on word usage and present a balanced view between Prescriptive and Descriptive language use. I'm currently still on the fence between AHD and Merriam-Webster, and plan to soon spend a long afternoon at my local library, poring over both to make my final decision, but I wanted to thank you for bringing this excellent tome to my attention!
I do think the AHD is a good dictionary to read or flip through, it has more discursive sections than most. Of course Merriam-Webster is good as well, but I'm glad you found this video useful in helping you make a decision, and I'm sure you'll enjoy whichever one you end up acquiring!
I went to a book sale recently and found two different editions of The American Heritage Dictionary. I am impressed with the illustrations. Though as I addressed earlier, Merriam-Webster is my favourite, because the words are often rarer (especially in the older editions) and more formal, whereas, American Heritage is more relaxed.
that's a pretty can of worms... hahahaha. As long as it's kept civilized, discussions about words heritages and their usage now are really interesting, amazing and entertaining. Also, they can make our own communication improve and expand.
Hi , could you please send me the ISBN for this book? I would like to order a hardcover version but I want to make sure it has the tabs as you show in the video. Thanks.
It really depends what your purpose is, what you need the dictionary for. For the absolute fullest information on every word in English, nothing beats the online full OED. But for general purposes, and usage -- especially if you want American usage -- the AHD is my favourite. For British usage, one of the smaller OED's is good. I like the AHD for its etymology in particular, which is very good for a dictionary of its size.
@@yanikkunitsin1466you realize it's not a new island or anything, we became a country in in the late 1700s Canada didn't gain freedom from the English until the 1980s
This has been my go-to English dictionary in the past few years and I still love it! Unlike the venerable OED, they sort their entries by modern usage frequency, so you don't have to slog your way through archaic pre-Shakespearean locutions you'll likely never come across. It's concise and to the point, its examples are actually meaningful, and the panel notes are very helpful though not as numerous as one might hope for. I just wish they used IPA for phonetic transcriptions!
The American Heritage Dictionary has molded my life path more than any other book, and by a large margin. It entered my life the year it was first published; I was in junior high school and it came as a family Christmas gift from my aunt. The format makes it all too easy to get lost for extended periods when the intent was to look up a single word. Within a year of moving away from the family home, I purchased a copy for myself.
Much of my mental database of ready info comes from this dictionary or from the other sources I consulted to expand on the seed of curiosity it sowed through its format choices.
Splendid. I think you should have covered how it smelled, though.
monkeyheads Thanks. And duly noted--I need to find out if there's a word for "new book smell"...
I just preordered the 50th anniversary 5th edition the other day !!! Thanks for sharing. I'd never ever watch an unboxing usually but all your content satisfies this hunger of linguistic nerdism I have. Looking forward to much more Endless Knot.
Thank you! It did amuse us to do an unboxing with a rather different angle! :) And enjoy the dictionary!
I LOVE DICTIONARIES! Like the nerd that I am, I was so excited when my library was giving away a copy of the condensed OED. You practically need a microscope to read it, but I love to just flip through those two huge volumes.
My mom will buy me a dictionary,I don't know what type it is but I'm so excited, it's going to arrive in 17 dezember
Looks like an excellent addition to your library. If it's anywhere near as good quality as our Horizon Cookbook (a wedding present in 1969) or Hoorizon Magazine, from the same publisher, I assume, then it's well worth having.
7:00 I think is a good example of the editors' attitudes. Rather than just give up entirely on telling you how words should be used, they tell you how educated people think words should be used, but then are more than willing to criticize those same people for any inconsistencies that they display. Instead of telling you to ignore people who claim to know better, they give you ammunition to use against them. I like this approach, and feel that every time I open their dictionary I come away smarter (if not a little smugger).
I find the American Heritage Dictionary to be a nice edition, however, Webster's Unabridged Dictionary will always be my number one choice.
Anyway, I enjoyed watching your video, and I hope you create more in the future :)
Thank you! I hope to get back to some dictionary discussion fairly soon, actually.
I like the little peanut gallery comments from the on-screen text. Keeps the video engaging; they're funny. Also, I didn't realize I was using 'hopefully' wrong all my life! This is what happens when you eject the pedants from Merriam Webster!
I like this dictionary because it teaches stuff people don't know in addition to the meanings of words. The definitions also include more interesting words that are worth looking up. So you learn words with new information as well.
Absolutely!
This is a great video! Thanks so much! I'm in the market for a new dictionary, and have been considering Chambers, since it is apparently for word lovers, and American Heritage, but also the Shorter Oxford. Could you do more unboxings or reviews?
funkmon Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. I'm definitely thinking about doing some more in the next couple of months--thanks for the suggestions.
Thank you for taking the time to point out the appendices of Indo-European and Semitic roots and the word history notes. I am afraid that this will be the last print edition of the dictionary, however...
venancefortunat Glad you liked it. I hope not, but you're right, the way things are going it may well be. There are advantages to electronic editions, of course, but I'll be sad to see the print editions go, if they do.
I'm currently looking to buy my first print dictionary, something to class up my bookshelves and give me something to pore over and soak up new words. As I've never purchased one before, I've been pretty in-the-dark about which one to buy, and have been looking around at the different options, trying to get a feel for each and see which one suits me best. I had never even heard of the AHD before watching this video, but after it made a good first impression here, and a bit more research, the scales of my judgement have been tipped decidedly in its favor! What really won me over is their Usage Panel, which sounds like a fascinating way to get different perspectives on word usage and present a balanced view between Prescriptive and Descriptive language use. I'm currently still on the fence between AHD and Merriam-Webster, and plan to soon spend a long afternoon at my local library, poring over both to make my final decision, but I wanted to thank you for bringing this excellent tome to my attention!
I do think the AHD is a good dictionary to read or flip through, it has more discursive sections than most. Of course Merriam-Webster is good as well, but I'm glad you found this video useful in helping you make a decision, and I'm sure you'll enjoy whichever one you end up acquiring!
I went to a book sale recently and found two different editions of The American Heritage Dictionary. I am impressed with the illustrations. Though as I addressed earlier, Merriam-Webster is my favourite, because the words are often rarer (especially in the older editions) and more formal, whereas, American Heritage is more relaxed.
Yeah, there's no such thing as a perfect dictionary, of course. The ideal is to have as many as possible! Well done on the book sale finds.
I definitely agree that the ideal is to have as many as possible. Thanks, the book sale was fun to attend.
All hail THE HERITAGE!
What a lovely and useful book!
that's a pretty can of worms... hahahaha. As long as it's kept civilized, discussions about words heritages and their usage now are really interesting, amazing and entertaining. Also, they can make our own communication improve and expand.
What 's word frequencies,Sir?
Hi , could you please send me the ISBN for this book? I would like to order a hardcover version but I want to make sure it has the tabs as you show in the video. Thanks.
The copy we have has the ISBN 9780547041018. :)
I'd like to know what you think of Wiktionary?
I miss a video of english sounds that would use the AHD phonetic key.
compared to oxford dictionary of english, which one is better?
It really depends what your purpose is, what you need the dictionary for. For the absolute fullest information on every word in English, nothing beats the online full OED. But for general purposes, and usage -- especially if you want American usage -- the AHD is my favourite. For British usage, one of the smaller OED's is good. I like the AHD for its etymology in particular, which is very good for a dictionary of its size.
A fine dictionary.
I’d love to own this!
I see somethings flashing on the right-top corner of your video. Are that errors of captions?
+bearboyn They're silly captions--perhaps a bit too fast, though.
Yes, but does it have Batrachomyomachy?.
No dictionary worth its salt is without this word :):)
Another TH-camr has re-uploaded this video. The guilty channel is: Advanced Mindset. Unless that’s your second channel?
Thanks, I'll take a look. It's definitely not my channel!
@@Alliterative did you end up finding it?
It seems like they may have deleted it? I found the channel but not our video, as far as I could see.
@@Alliterative no it’s still up. I’ll try and send you a link
It won’t let me send a link. Just search “American Heritage Dictionary” and it’ll be near the top of the search results.
if you dont know its copper colored races of american in websters dictionary 1828
Odin is not my father. It's like, mythical person.
does anyone know the real definition of american?
yes its the copper color races of America
red brown do you know if dna is accurate or not? 0.01 percent or if people know about rna
red brown we were also the molders of copper in america some were moon eyed people ad pygmies
And giants from the mounds!
even He not look really like American...how I'm gonna if that real American dictionary and not Pakistan dictionary with different cover.
Don't tell you're one of dem neopaganism guys
Heritage is not applicable for USA
Because?
@@punklover99 because 250 years of history is laughable
@@yanikkunitsin1466you realize it's not a new island or anything, we became a country in in the late 1700s Canada didn't gain freedom from the English until the 1980s
@@punklover99 and?
@@yanikkunitsin1466 that's not a lot of time, even if it was just established yesterday it's just a name
American heritage? Oxymoron