Title: Webster's Online Dictionary, Rosetta Edition
Publisher: Philip M. Parker, INSEAD
Cost: Free
URL: http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/
Tested: March 18-25, 2005

Webster's Online Dictionary, Rosetta Edition defies my efforts to write a traditional review. I always try to evaluate and review digital ready-reference sources in this column in a systematic way. For example, I test general dictionaries using a benchmark of about 150 terms that represent a mix of contemporary, formal, slang, archaic, recently coined, foreign, borrowed, technical, medical, scientific, and everyday words. I give a score for each ranging from 0 (no entry) to 5 (perfect entry) depending on the quality of definitions, sample sentences, attributions, usage notes, etymology, print and audio pronunciation help and visual illustrations. I can't do that with this dictionary.

I put the dictionaries in context, comparing them with alternative sources that I reviewed or at least used extensively. I determine the hit rate, add up the scores, and calculate their average, then compare the numbers with those garnered by other dictionaries in the same league. These scores give me a quantifiable result, such as 85% hit rate in the American Heritage Dictionary (4th edition, 2003 digital update) with a total score of 541 points for 154 words (3.51 average) versus Merriam-Webster's 10th College edition (2002 digital update), with a hit rate of 75%, total score of 380 points for the same 154 words (2.47 average). Then I look at the typography, the layout, and various software aspects and write my review. It still may not be completely objective, but it is at least systematic and is based on extensive samples.

I can't follow this process with the Rosetta edition of the Webster's Online Dictionary. It is as if I were to try to describe a jam session featuring many of the best musicians, vocalists, other artists and performers. You must see it, hear it and feel it.

It is the brainchild of professor Philip M. Parker. His very short biography gives a hint of his lexicographic interest and competence. His affiliation with INSEAD may not impress you as much as it should because the institute is not well-known in the U.S. Suffice it to say that last year it was ranked no. 11 among the executive education programs in the worldwide yearly survey of the Financial Times. Its faculty have published many unconventional, eye-opening and award-winning scholarly articles and books. They may not be booked on TV morning shows and afternoon talk fests (a dubious sign of celebrity in the contemporary culture), but this faculty is certainly a very good company for the unorthodox and scholarly thinkers, doers and projects.

The project is based on the 1913 edition of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, but that is like saying that New York is based on New Amsterdam. It has been enhanced by millions of copyright-cleared entries (including images, drawings, book covers, posters and photographs) from both historical and contemporary sources. That's why you would find definitions and examples for such neologisms as bling, blog and wiktionary.

Parker is not only the instigator, but also the editor-in-chief of the dictionary (although he does not use this term). He has been assisted by contributors. But this is not one of the dime-a-dozen free-for-all wiki projects with contributions without attributions — though list is not yet complete. (Yes, I know, the dictionary does include entries from Wikipedia.) Definitions and illustrations for the words are included from a variety of sources, and each entry is meticulously acknowledged and, if possible, linked to — just as in the splendid Answers.com service, formerly known as GuruNet, Sling and Atomica, which I have reviewed more than once in this column and will probably do so again.

The editor seems to bear the brunt of the intellectually demanding selections and compilations. No matter how sophisticated computer technology is applied in this project, I doubt that "*t*he dictionary will soon consist of over 400 modern languages, and 10 ancestral languages, with some 30 million individual entries across languages."

As for the Rosetta qualifier, it's an obvious homage to the Rosetta Stone, the important cultural heritage from Egypt that included the same decree in three languages and whose deciphering was crucial for translating hieroglyphic text and for learning about ancient cultures. For further details and background about the project check out the About Us page.

I only illustrate here the lay of the land and pinpoint a few of the landmarks. Don't start by looking up words such as "love" or "money" as the results will be overwhelming. Instead go for the more esoteric words, such as, well Rosetta.

Each word has its own Web page. Most of the pages are very long, but an excellent index, which is always at hand, can help you skip quickly to the sections that interest you the most. The entries start with a traditional definition, etymology notes when appropriate, and dating of first usage. These are followed by definitions from special/subject dictionaries and crossword puzzles, usage examples from contemporary book and video titles, and even software titles. For the word Rosetta there is a series of images in slide show format (it did not work when I tested it), as well as thumbnails about the object or the person with links to the larger (and sharper) images (photos, engravings, clip arts, etc.).

The next section is the word usage statistics that reveal how frequently the word appears in the 100 million word subset of the huge British National Corpus, and the word's frequency rank among the 700,000 words used in English. If the word is also a personal name, similar statistics (based on U.S. census data) are shown for its use and popularity rank as first and/or last name. This may be followed by lists of derivative names, company names and compound terms in which the word is used.

The statistical data about the daily use of the word in queries submitted to the most popular English language search engines is very interesting, and a goldmine for Web site optimizers.

Translations of the word in a variety of languages are then listed (only three for this word, but dozens for others) along with a list of words for which rosetta is recommended by spell checking programs as the correct term. This section is followed by direct anagram(s) for the word (such as toaster and rotates) and by various Scrabble riddles with some of the letters in the word. A series of professional photos may follow this section, which includes images of books, CDs, software and household items whose name, or author's or performer's first or last name includes the search term.

This section concludes with a few bibliographic citations of primary newspaper and magazine articles from HighBeam with the search word automatically passed forward. HighBeam is not a free service, so you can see only a small snippet of the full HighBeam record if you follow the link. As a nod toward Google, there is a Google search box with your term already in the search cell, ready for launching.

You will probably not use this last option too often because you may already be full from the mountain of well-clustered information about a single word.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg. For other more common words, there are definitions from many more dictionaries, encyclopedias and thesauri in zillions of contexts with example sentences to illustrate the use of the word in a great variety of sources, such as:

• the Bible (in numerous English versions of different eras and in many foreign language translations)

• classical literary texts (dramas, novels, poems)

• famous historical and contemporary speeches and talks

• contemporary fiction and non-fiction

The word is often shown in different notation systems and orthographies ranging from hexadecimal notations to Braille and Morse code, from sign language to Leonardo's mirror-writing. For some words there are also animations and sound bites.

This is a fascinating carnival of words. It is a very smart and honest project aimed at appreciating and learning about English, as well as foreign languages and cultures. After all, Noah Webster was a polyglot and solving the enigma of the Rosetta Stone depended on understanding foreign languages and cultures.