Words
Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 1:37 pm
I've just finished reading an interesting book on the compiling of the New English Oxford Dictionary. The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester.
The dictionary was an incredible effort that took 70 years to complete and included the meanings, quotes and earliest usages of words in 12 massive volumes. One of the contributors - Dr. William Minor was deemed insane after murdering a man and was incarcerated in an institution for 38 years. During 20 of those years he read copious numbers of books and contributed words and quotes to the dictionary.
The previous best known dictionary was that of Samuel Johnson in the 1700s. There was discussion at the time about "fixing" the language- establishing the limits of language. Jonathan Swift once wrote to the Earl of Oxford to express his outrage that words like bamboozle, uppish and couldn't were appearing in print. He thought such words were offensive to good taste and should be banned from use! One wonders what Swift would think of the words included in modern dictionaries!
The dictionary was an incredible effort that took 70 years to complete and included the meanings, quotes and earliest usages of words in 12 massive volumes. One of the contributors - Dr. William Minor was deemed insane after murdering a man and was incarcerated in an institution for 38 years. During 20 of those years he read copious numbers of books and contributed words and quotes to the dictionary.
The previous best known dictionary was that of Samuel Johnson in the 1700s. There was discussion at the time about "fixing" the language- establishing the limits of language. Jonathan Swift once wrote to the Earl of Oxford to express his outrage that words like bamboozle, uppish and couldn't were appearing in print. He thought such words were offensive to good taste and should be banned from use! One wonders what Swift would think of the words included in modern dictionaries!