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3000 Common Word Learners Dictionary
Internet
Archive Dictionaries
Descriptions of various dictionaries
3000 COMMON WORD
LEARNERS DICTIONARY
I have produced this dictionary PDF
specifically for learners, comprising over 11,300 outlines, see
Downloads page.
INTERNET ARCHIVE DICTIONARIES
The Internet Archive has a free download of the
New Era Shorthand Dictionary by Arthur Reynolds/Pitman. This is the
largest "Big Red" dictionary, with approximately 100,000 outlines
and meanings:
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.449114
If you are studying historic
shorthand, you may need the Centenary dictionary at:
https://archive.org/details/englishshorthand00pitmiala
The New Era version dates
from 1922.
Please note there is no such
thing as an Anniversary version of Pitman's, this was merely the
name given to one particular publication of the New Era instruction
book. (There is, however, an Anniversary version of Gregg
shorthand.)
DESCRIPTIONS OF VARIOUS DICTIONARIES
To help you make an informed purchase, I have described below the Pitman's New Era Shorthand dictionaries that I
own. I have not come across any others (within UK), but there may
similar editions in different colours.
Although
these dictionaries do not give the latest words and jargon, there are
sufficient to enable the writer to create new outlines
intelligently. They are no longer in normal print to my knowledge. The only one of these that I believe
is still in print is the small white pocket dictionary. This is just
about sufficient for learners, but not enough for the serious
shorthand writer.
I have seen the big dictionary available online for
sale "New" but I noticed in one excerpt that it said "Centenary", so
this seems to be the same as the free Internet Archive download above, the "new"
description probably referring to the paper "print on demand" copy
that is being offered. I suspect also that sometimes "publishing date"
may refer to the date of production of the newly-printed hard copy, rather than the original
date of the work. Caution and close inspection of the details would
be prudent on all of these, whether dictionaries or other shorthand
books, and if in doubt you can always search for it first on
Internet Archive to check up on the exact details.
Second-hand bookshops and Ebay are where you will
have a choice of the bigger dictionaries, and Ebay UK has the most Pitman's books. When buying second hand, ensure that the book
is described as New Era. Either the cover, spine or title page will
have the words New Era on
it. Book No.2 below is the only one of the five that does not have
the words New Era on the cover.
The book called "Pitman Shorterhand" will contain
Pitman 2000, as this was the name that it started out with in 1971.
The version called "Shorterhand" is very slightly different
(regarding thick and thin vowel signs) from the subsequent Pitman
2000 editions that followed, so it would seem better to study the
latter if you are doing that version of Pitman's, to ensure compatibility across your study books.
It is convenient to have the definition alongside
the word, but not essential. Having the maximum number of shorthand
outlines available is absolutely essential. Making do with guessed-at outlines through lack of a dictionary will produce a less
efficient and less reliable version of shorthand. It is always
possible to make up an outline from theory, but you may find it ends
up having awkward joins, is just too long and straggling or, worst
of all, clashes with another when the vowels are left out, a
situation no shorthand writer wants to find out "the hard way".
Pitman's many revisers and have worked on all this out over the years and this is why some outlines
depart from basic theory is in order to produce compact outlines,
and you will sometimes see instances in instruction books where
certain outlines are justified purely on the basis of convenience/speed in
writing, which is the main purpose of shorthand.
As well as using the dictionaries, there are many thousands of outlines throughout
this website and the shorthand blog, and you can use my search page
to find the one you are after. All shorthand on the sites (apart
from the Snippets) has its
text underneath.
Shorthand books (and maybe even pens) have a way
of emerging from dusty storage when friends and family realise you
are studying it. Time for an extra note in your email signature text
"Rest your typing fingers and send me your latest news and chat in a
sound file so I can practise my Pitman's Shorthand!"
If you are not learning, but have an old unused shorthand
dictionary/instruction book gathering dust, please consider making it available
to today's upcoming writers, either through Ebay or your local
charity shop, some of which have branches that specialise in books
(e.g. Oxfam), and this
is a good place to ensure the copy is handled carefully and made
available at a reasonable price, benefiting everyone involved. The
committed student/writer will not mind the condition of the copy, the
scribbles or the ink blots, they will see past that and really value
the information that they gain. The marks in my books remind me of
their history, the student toiling to master each page, and they give a sense of continuity of learning.
The fastest writer had
to start somewhere. Did the person who wrote these laboured marks
enjoy their lessons, or indeed did they have a choice? Did they relish speed victories, have an encouraging
teacher, and finally achieve a usable speed? Did they actually use
their shorthand in later life? Maybe it was a child drawing the
marks, exactly what I would have done in very early years if I had
had this book to play with.
Dictionaries 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5, given in size order.
Dimensions given below are width x length x thickness, the ruler is
30cm/12 inches.
Pictures
of the page spread show fingers in order to indicate scale.
(1)
THE PITMAN DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH AND SHORTHAND New Era
Edition
Publisher/Date Pitman Publishing Ltd 1974
ISBN 0 273 36137 6
Dimensions 14 x 22 x 5.5 cm
Cover Red, HardbackSpine
Stitched
Introduction 32 pages giving in detail examples of
the application of the rules, some special outlines, and how
proper names should be written.
Index to Introduction 10 pages longhand alphabetical
list, plus page numbers, of all the words used for
illustrating the shorthand principles.
Dictionary 836 pages containing 100,000 shorthand
outlines (all with a dotted line showing the position),
longhand word and meaning. Short forms and contractions shown in italics.
Appendix of Proper Names 42 pages of town, country
and personal names.
NOTE:
The dotted lines occasionally obscure the dot vowels in some
places.
The dark blue version contains Pitman 2000 outlines, and it
does say this on the cover and spine. It is the same size as
the red one, but three-quarters of the thickness, with
75,000 outlines. It also lists the differences between
Pitman 2000 and New Era. |
Dark blue = Pitman 2000 dictionary |
(2)
PITMAN’S ENGLISH AND SHORTHAND DICTIONARY New Era Edition
Publisher Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd (no date shown)
ISBN None shown
Dimensions 12.5 x 19 x 4 cm
Cover Pale blue, HardbackSpine
Stitched
Introduction 34 pages pages giving in detail examples
of the application of the rules, some special outlines, and
how proper names should be written.
New Era Changes 4 pages showing how New Era differs
from Centenary shorthand.
Index to Introduction 8 longhand alphabetical list,
plus page numbers, of all the words used for illustrating
the shorthand principles.
Dictionary 740 pages containing approx 60,000
shorthand outlines, longhand word and meaning. Dotted line
is only shown for 1st and 3rd position short forms. Short
forms and contractions shown in italics.
Proper Names 37 pages of town, country and personal
names.
Full List of Grammalogues 3 pages showing all the
short forms in stroke order.
Contractions 3 pages of the commonest contractions
plus a third of a page with some common phrase logograms.
Latin Prefixes 2 pages showing the prefix, meaning
and examples. No shorthand.
Greek Prefixes 2 pages showing the prefix meaning and
examples. No shorthand.
Foreign Words, Phrases and Sayings 11 pages giving
the phrase, language and translation to English
idiom/equivalent.
Appendix 36 pages of new words.
NOTE: Does not state number of
entries, so the entry count is my own average; I believe the
number of entries is
probably identical to the slimmer volume below. The print size is very clear, helped by the bold
main words. An educated guess at the date of my copy is
1950's, going by the new words in the appendix.
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(3)
PITMAN’S SHORTHAND DICTIONARY
Eleventh Edition (New Era)
Publisher Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd
ISBN None shown
Dimensions 12.5 x 19 x 2 cm Hardback
Cover Light blue, HardbackSpine
Stitched
Introduction 34 pages pages giving in detail examples
of the application of the rules, some special outlines, and
how proper names should be written.
New Era Changes 4 pages showing how New Era differs
from Centenary shorthand.
Index to Introduction 8 pages alphabetical list of
all the words used for illustrating the shorthand principles.
Dictionary 290 pages containing 60,000
shorthand outlines. Dotted line is only shown
for 1st and 3rd position short forms. Short forms and
contractions shown in
italics.
Proper Names 37 pages of town, country and personal
names.
Full List of Grammalogues 3 pages of all the short
forms in stroke order.
Contractions 3 pages of the commonest contractions
plus a third of a page with some common phrase logograms.
NOTE: The main dictionary part is
probably identical to No.2 but without the definitions.
There is another reprint of this
dictionary that includes a 32-page Appendix of additional
words. ISBN 0 273 40956 5, with royal blue cover, which
would date it to not earlier than about 1970. |
|
(4)
POCKET DICTIONARY NEW ERA – Pitman New Era Shorthand
Publisher Addison Wesley Longman Limited.
First published 1975, Reprinted 1985, 86, 87, 88, 90, 92, 93,
96, 97
ISBN 0-582-29890-3
Dimensions 8.5 x 13.5 x 1.25 cm
Cover White with red and black titles, Softback
Spine Glued
Dictionary 217 pages giving shorthand
outlines for 20,000 words. Dotted lines given only for 1st
and 3rd position short forms. Short forms and contractions shown in italics.
NOTE: Very clear shorthand. The book does not lie flat,
as the spine is glued, not stitched. |
 |
(5)
PITMAN POCKET SHORTHAND DICTIONARY New Era Edition
Publisher Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd
ISBN 0 273 40954 9
Dimensions 7.5 x 12.5 x 1.25 cm Hardback
Colour Royal blueSpine
Stitched
Dictionary 217 pages giving shorthand
outlines for 20,000 words. Dotted lines given only for 1st
and 3rd position short forms. Short forms and contractions shown in italics.
The book illustrated is about 1970, but
there is an earlier version in a dull matt blue cover, which
additionally contains lists of Short Forms (Grammalogues)
and Contractions.
NOTE: This book does lie
flat, and the print is slightly smaller than the later
white-covered version.
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