History Of The Dictionary

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History Of The Dictionary

A concise history of English Language dictionaries from Samuel Johnson to the present

English language dictionaries comprise a sub-chapter in the history of the

English language, which was born in the 5th Century A.D. with the invasion
English Dictionary? www.oxforddictionaries.com of England by Germanic tribes. As the Germanic conquerors remained in
Try the new free site from Oxford: The World's England, the language of one of them eventually prevailed; Anglisc, and so
Most Trusted Dictionary the language of the Angle tribe became the progenitor of the language we
speak today.
Best KOREA Electronic Dic www.bestfromkorean.com All English subsequently spoken and written has been arbitrarily divided
GREAT Sharp, Iriver Dictionary No.1 Korean into three periods: Old English--400-1,000, Middle English--1,000-1,500,
Dictionary to Blogger and Modern English--1500-to the present.
It's safe to say that no English dictionaries were developed during the Old
American History Course Academy.Mises.org English period because the printing press had not yet been invented.
Learn US History Online. Colonies. However, a number of lexicographic efforts were attempted as early as
Revolutionary War. Enroll Today! 1440 during the Middle English period, but these were essentially spelling
books and/or books of hard words only. The most complete of these effort,
prior to 1676, covered only 5,000 words.
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Although scholars dispute that Englishman Samuel Johnson wrote the first
A source for wide range of softwares at in.com. English dictionary in 1755, it is without argument that Johnson created the
first significant dictionary. Johnson's intent was to "fix" the language, i.e.,
lend it stability and regularity. Based on his own wide reading, the
dictionary he set out to create was to be a book of hard words only.
Working in long hand with aid of three amanuenses, he finished the book in nine years, leading a later wit to comment that Johnson did in nine
years what it took the French Academy a century to do.
Johnson's book rapidly became a British standard reference work, found on library shelves for the next 100 years. Unlike our modern faceless
dictionaries, Johnson's work is peppered with peculiarities. Some of his definitions, for example, are absolutely baffling. Take Johnson's
definition of "network"

Any thing reticulated or decussated at equal distances,

with interstices between the intersections

or his definition of "cough" as examples:

A convulsion of the lungs,

vellicated by some sharp serosity.

In other cases, his book was simply quirky as when he defined such defunct words as "clancular," "incompossible," and "jobbernowl," or when
he defined "oats" as that grain which in England is fed to horses, but which in Scotland supports the people. Or his definition of a
"lexicographer" as "a harmless drudge," in keeping with his estimate of a dictionary making as "drudgery for the blind...requiring neither the light
of learning nor the activity of genius."
The first American dictionary of significance was that of Noah Webster, a New England lawyer and teacher, interested in spelling reform. In
1828 Webster produced An American Dictionary of the English Language. The uniqueness of this 70,000 compilation was its abandonment of
British spelling for "simpler" American variations, e.g., waggon became wagon, centre-center, musick-music, and honour-honor. It's interesting
to note, however, that not all of Webster's reforms took hold. Example of his failure include tung for tongue and wimmen for women.
Eventually Webster's dictionaries were purchased by the G. C. Merriam Company, giving them the right to call their publications Webster's
dictionaries, but subsequently the name Webster has gone into the public domain, and any dictionary company wishing to make its product
seem more authoritative appends Webster to the title. The upshot of that is the term Webster's on the front of a dictionary has become
essentially meaningless.
The next leap forward in dictionary making happened in England. 100 years after Johnson, the
British philological society, set out to completely reexamine the language from its Anglo-Saxon Ads by Google
origins onward with an eye towards completeness. Under the guidance of James A. Murray, the Dictionary
project proved to be far more formidable than expected. After five years, the collaborators had only English Language
reached "ant." However, work continued, and after 71 years a dictionary in 10 volumes, totaling
Ghetto Words Dictionary
400,000 words emerged. Probably the most scholarly of all dictionaries, the Oxford English

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History Of The Dictionary

Dictionary for English

Dictionary, or OED, gives a separate entry for each different meaning of a word, including various
sentences citing and illustrating that particular usage. Subsequently, extensive revision and
supplementation, costing millions of dollars, have been ongoing, and a CD-rom version now exists.
After Noah Webster and the OED, the world of dictionary making rolled on placidly for over a hundred years, but then a new science, linguistics,
appeared on the scene. In 1963 the G.C. Merriam Company introduced their periodic revision. They called it Webster's Third New International
Dictionary.
What was unique about this version was it was based on linguistic principles, setting out to describe the language as it actually existed rather
than acting as a policeman or legislator of language as had Johnson back in the 1750s. The immediate impact of this new approach was that
slang words, offensive words, and certain incorrect words were admitted to the dictionary. Henceforth, one could no longer assume that a
word's inclusion in the dictionary meant that it was a correct word.
Now status labels and lexicographic notes became terribly significant in revealing the whole truth regarding the word. For example, a word
might be cataloged in the dictionary, but the status label might reveal it is a non-standard word, e.g. "ain't" or "irregardless." In other cases, the
label might reveal the word is archaic, e.g., "bodkin"-dagger; dialect, e.g., "poke"--an Appalachian word for a bag or sack; colloquial or
conversational, e.g., to have "guts"; vulgar, e.g., "piss"; or even an obscenity.
This powerful new unabridged dictionary, which cost several million dollars to produce, created something of a stir, sometimes evoking
passionate criticism. In the 1990's, a further revision was released. This masterful work, costing a purchaser over a hundred dollars, examines
nearly half a million words and includes an addendum of the latest words. And finally in 1996, Webster's Third went on line.
However, controversy dogs the makers of dictionaries. Inclusion of the word "nigger" has offended various groups, and a campaign has been
mounted to excise it. However, dictionary makers have refused to succumb to pressure, arguing that the offending word is labeled an
objectionable slur and that the function of today's dictionary is to describe the language as it exists, warts and all.

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