In writing a review of a book such as this one, it can be tempting to employ as many polysyllabic words as possible, particularly the obscure ones you have picked up as a result of reading it. However, this would go against the spirit of Satisdiction, the paperback edition of Ammon Shea’s account of reading the Oxford English Dictionary cover to cover in the space of one year. The title of the hardback edition was Reading the Oxford English Dictionary, which is certainly an accurate description of the book, but it lacks the concision of the new title, which is defined as ‘saying enough’. This seems to sum up Ammon Shea’s approach not just to language, but to life. He has an impressive word-hoard, yet he does not relish using a complicated word when a basic one would suffice, instead he relishes collecting words in the way a lepidopterist collects butterflies.

He writes with an enviable directness and charm, rather than the verbosity one might expect from someone who has been reading dictionaries since the age of ten, and it is an approach that seems to permeate his whole existence, for this, amongst other things, is a book about simple pleasures. From shelves, to coffee, to weather, the author has a deep delight for those things that people too often take for granted. This appreciation reaches its peak in his love for words. As he says “perhaps if I know there is a word for something (such as the smell of newly fallen rain) I will stop and pay more attention to it.” Petrichor is the word for the scent of rain on dry ground and it is hard to see how you could use it without sounding pretentious; but by knowing, it the phenomenon it describes may become just a little bit more tangible, and more readily appreciated when it occurs.

There are two parts to Satisdiction, running in parallel. One is the story of Ammon Shea as he works his way through the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary. His eyesight suffers, he dreams about definitions, he temporarily forgets he has ever seen the word ‘glove’, but above all he enjoys it and is successful at sharing this joy with the reader. The other part of Satisdiction is a sort of ‘best-of’, with a few dozen of his favourite words, or words that he finds particularly interesting, taken from each letter of the alphabet. It is in these parts of each chapter that his passion for language most clearly comes across, as well as his humour. For example, the word ‘cellarhood’ is defined as ‘the state of being a cellar’, and Shea continues: “Along with tableity (the condition of being a table) and paneity (the state of being bread), cellarhood is a wonderful example of the ways English has of describing things that no one ever thinks it necessary to describe.” Ridiculous words vie with beautiful words which vie with unpronounceable words. It is unlikely that many of them will make their way back into common usage as a result of this delightful book, but, as the author states, “Sometimes it’s enough to merely know a word exists in order to enjoy it.”

Bookmark to