Oct 7, 2008 1:51 pm US/Central
Word Nerd: Man Reads Entire Oxford Dictionary
There are 59 million words in the Oxford English Dictionary, and Ammon Shea has read all of them.
Over the last year, the 37-year-old writer and language lover read the 20 volume, 21,000 page dictionary set from cover-to-cover.
"Reading the dictionary is just like reading any other great book, but the words happen to be chopped up sand alphabetized," says Ammon. "And it has all the same emotions and qualities that a great book would normally have."
It makes sense for a man who has 1,000 different dictionaries in his west side apartment, and for a man who is admittedly "benevolently compulsive."
But Ammon says feeding his head with 59 million words wasn't necessarily a good thing for his brain.
"I think it turned me into a blithering idiot," he laughs, admitting he often becomes tongue tied and unable to remember the simplest of words, such as – incredibly enough – "milk."
"I would end up stumbling and ask the guy around the counter, 'Where's the white stuff, the white liquid,'" he says.
Ammon has documented his reading experience in a book called "Reading The Oxford English Dictionary," which at a mere 60,000 words he says should not cause any major side effects.
We asked Ammon to pick just a few of his favorite words he memorized, and he came up with "avidulous," "petrichor," and "acnestis."
What do they mean?
Avidulous – somewhat greedy (Answers.com)
Petrichor – 1. The scent of rain on dry earth. 2. The yellow organic oil that yields this scent. (Allwords.com)
Acnestis - The part of an animal's skin that it cannot reach to scratch itself - usually the space between the shoulder blades. (Allwords.com)
