in the Dictionary of Sailors’ Slang.)

Before the cooling in the ’90s of America’s passion for colossal encyclopedia sets (bought from door-to-door salesmen), and well before the advent of massless Wikipedia.org and Dictionary.com, the navy blue compact O.E.D. was part of the standard décor of a bookish middle-class life. I was overjoyed to have one of my own. Furthermore, my other totemic college books — “Speculum of the Other Woman,” “Reading Black, Reading Feminist” and “Sexuality in the Field of Vision” — could go out of style, maybe; the O.E.D. was forever. Wasn’t it?

No.

I had a compact encyclopedia set as a kid. I remember annoying my parents with endless questions about natural disasters. I was especially intrigued with things that spin; the tornado, hurricane, tumbleweeds; or things you could get stuck-in; like quicksand or whirlpools.

I wasn't very impressed with the encyclopedia set though. I always liked to hear my dad's explanation instead!

We had some 13 different sets of encyclopedias in our house, including a medical set, a home handyman set, and a single volume encyclopedia as well.

I could use one now.
Can someone look up the etymology of the phrase "used to". This is impossible to do in google. :/

Online OED is great, but very expensive. It's better to get through a library. I'm graduating and I won't be able to use it anymore!