C.T. Onions's Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (Oxford, rev. 1969, $45) is the source of this compact version, and for the most part the reductions are carefully chosen, as in eliminating the pronunciations of common words and technical terms. Butthis work is abridged: e.g., over two former pages, between dickens and dignity, entries for dictaphone, dies non , and dight have been deleted, and these deletions are representative.