NAME

oed − Oxford English Dictionary

SYNOPSIS

­oed [ ­options ] [ -[iI] ­index ] ­word... 
­oed -baddr [ ­options...  ] [ ­sections...  ]

DESCRIPTION

Given one or more ­word arguments, ­oed prints the matching main entry or entries from the first edition of the OED with Supplements.  Flag options for this case are:

­-p Match all entries having ­word as a prefix. 

-Iindex Print sections of the dictionary in which, according to the index, the ­word appears. 

-iindex Like -I, but only head words are printed, along with a command that will print the rest. 

Available indexes are:

­le ­Word is a lexical entry (the default). 

­et ­Word appears in an etymology article. 

­se Sense: ­word is used in a definition. 

­la ­Word is used as a label. 

­qd ­Word appears in the date of a quoted work. 

­qa ­Word is the author of a quoted work. 

­qw ­Word is the title of a quoted work. 

­qt ­Word appears in the text of a quoted work. 

Except in the case of le, the program prints only the sections of an entry relevant to the word, e.g., indexing through ­qt produces the head word, a sense article, and the quotation. 

The second form of ­oed uses file block addressing, primarily for the use of oed -i....  Options are:

­-a Print starting addresses and tags for each section. 

-baddr Print the dictionary starting with block addr.

-ba.d Print the dictionary starting with the d’th definition (counting from zero) in block a. Printing stops at the end of this definition, or when the block specified with ­-e is reached. 

-eaddr Stop printing when block ­addr is reached. 

Specific ­sections or parts thereof may be selected within a definition, as follows:

­n Section number ­n (decimal). 

n.ttt Parts of section ­n (decimal) having tag ­ttt (hex). 

n.ttt.mmm Parts of section ­n (decimal) having tag ­ttt (hex), but only tag bits ­mmm (hex) are significant in the comparison. 

Options applicable to both forms are:

­-k Print the pronunciation key and exit. 

­-r Print the raw text from the dictionary, instead of a more readable form. 

EXAMPLES

oed poot
Look up the word poot. 

oed -i qt poot
Show words used with poot in quoted text. 

oed -i la spiritualism
Show words cited as terms of art in spiritualism.

FILES

­/lib/oed/rcd0
CDROM image. 

BUGS

The ­qa and ­qw indexes make heavy use of unpredictable abbreviations.  Entries for dates in the ­qd index include references that are ante, post, and circa; the program does not distinguish these.

Tabular and other typographically complicated material is missing from the database, and flagged by {...}. 

A cross-reference that is not a main entry may be missing from the ­le index (e.g., ­kinesthesia refers to kinæsthesia, but the definition is found under kinæsthesis). The ­-p flag with a long prefix of the desired word is often successful. 

Plan 9  —  January 03, 1993