I'd disagree with "almost no one". Lots of people still read books and texts that were composed in the past - it's even compulsory at school - and lots of peopl

I'd disagree with "almost no one". Lots of people still read books and texts that were composed in the past - it's even compulsory at school - and lots of people have a hobbyist interest in etymology. If I look a word up in a smaller dictionary than the OED I usually find it doesn't tell me anything I didn't already know, or it just raises questions that send me to the OED anyway. Of course you wouldn't use the OED to look up a technical term. Wikipedia would be better for that. What I really love about the OED is how it keeps getting better even in its coverage of old words. There are lots of words which ten or twenty years ago had the etymology given us "unknown" but which now have a detailed explanation, thanks to recent research. (If you want an example, I think the word "koala" is one.)