CHARMS OF A DICTIONARY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1043, 4 February 1911, Page 9

CHARMS OF A DICTIONARY.

There is no more insidious occupation than sitting, in an easy chair with a dictionary. Olio takes the bulky volume from the ehelf in a businesslike way and props it on the book-rest, meaning to look up a word or two as a preface to somu more definite task. But the eye travels 011 from one strange word to another, attracted by long scientilic ta rnia, new usages, foreign intruders, or tho varied meanings of a single word, an«l the hand which turns the tinges so readily is powerless to closo the book, at least till all hope of work is gone and it is time, for another meal. Lamb's famous denunciation of "biblia abiblia" is only true for certain minds; for others there is an irresistible fascination in picking up little pebbles of knowledge from kingdoms into which they have never strayed.- That curiosity, which was tlio glor.v of tlio Middle Ages, has now to be sternly suppressed; to bo encyclopaedic is impossible. Nevertheless, the tendency still remains in those who love to pla'v with dictionaries. They are. delightful but dangerous toys.' H would- bo interesting to speculate how many good pages of French or German have been left unread .through the allurements of

"Larousse" •or a "KonversationsLexikon." It is the same with the Century Dictionary, to which two supplementary volumes have now been added to embody the additional learning of the.last twenty years It is melancholy to reflect that the best, worn ;ot reterence is 'alivays out of dato before it is' printed. . Thus the article on. •'Battleships" contains no mention of the Dreadnought (though it is included in.the list of Proper Names at the end of the second new volume). Seeing that ihc introduction is signed in ISIUf), it is hard to understand the ■ reason of tliib omission, unless it was 'that tho "B's" ivent to press before wo built the first Dreadnought. The article in question is concerned chiefly with a United States battleship (launched m 1904), for readers must remember that this is an American production by. a staff almost entirely American. Again, if wo turn to musical matters, we shall see" that Debussy is mentioned without any reference to his tonal scale, and tho "Mektra" of Strauss is apparently too recent for inclusion. I'aderewski s so-called musical instrument,, tho tonitruone, ■ is included, whereas the heekelphone, which is more important, is .not. Among sporting terms auctionpool is noticed, but .there is no reference to auction-bridge; break-bowling is included, but not the googly; and it is amusing nowadays to read of rinking that it' is "the act of skating on a rink (rare)" tho literary authority for its use being a passage from Bcsant and Rice's "lho Golden Butterfly.'^

One could not read through, a' dictionary without coming across some quaint words and phrases. "Nosepaint" for drink is an excellent Americanism! and so is a "sporty notrumper." The English golfer'will he horrified to find "cleek" spelt throughout as. "cleife," and the English billiard player will be mystified to- learn that ''lined balls" are balls "so much in alir.emeiit that the first object cannot'be hit for a count without hitting the second also, such a situation being commonly, though- not always," a tieup." There is an excellent; word, "slapeiness," apparently used in the textile industry to denote slipperiness; but the prettiest neologism wo came across was to ■ "ballhornize"—that is, "to spoil while' trying to mend." It is- derived from an enterprising printer, Joh.ann Hallhorn, of Lubeck, whose advertised amendment of an ABC book consisted in printing upon the last page a spurless cock with two eggs besido him, instead of the usual cock with spurs. It is also interesting to, note tlio literary authorities for various usages. In pure literature the authorities are almost entirely English. ' Shakespeare often appears, Browning answers for "ombrifugo," Dr.vdcn- for "uev; laid" eggs. Kenneth Grahame for "rot" ks .mi exclamation, and Rudyard .Kipling for ever.v kind of expression— "dowpond." "route marching," "peg out," and—surely this is American — "Nope."—London "Times:"