I used to go to Australia a lot on business and was there in 1981 when the first edititon of the wonderful Macquarie Dictionary of Australian English was released. It hit the stores the day I was due to leave and I remember having a cab frantically take me to one bookstore after another in Sydney in order to find a copy before my plane left – and then I sat on the airplane for hours thumbing through its wonderful pages. (Not my best trip to Sydney, however, as all the beer distributors were on strike!) Such a fresh and new approach to dictionaries!
Since then I’ve carried the Dictionary with me from job to job and it now proudly sits on my bookcase of most-favored books. As I have the first edition I checked yesterday to find if it had been updated and was gratified to see that it has reached edition 5. However, the asking price is just short of obscene, about $140 US, and I can’t justify this.
Going to the Macquarie Dictionary site, though, I saw that there are Macquarie ebooks, but unfortunately only of the Concise and Budget editions.
They do have a series of apps for both iOS and Android. however.
Macquarie Complete Australian Dictionary, 210,00+ definitions – $34.99
Macquarie Concise Australian Dictionary, 124,000+ definitions – $19.99
Macquarie Essential Australian Dictionary, 74,000+ definitions, $4.49
Macquarie Lite Australian Dictionary, 30,000+ definitions, $1.99
Macquarie Aussie Slang Dictionary, 2.100+ definitions, $1.99
So I jumbed on the Complete edition. Now I have it on my iPad and it sits in good company along with the apps for The Chanbers Dictionary, Merriam Webster Unabirdged, The American Heritage Dictionary and the Encyclopedia Britannica.
You can check out all the Macquarie publications here. I’m going to pick up the Aussie Slang Dictionary as an app and will order a copy of Macquarie Aboriginal Words from Australia, as it’s not available here.
