RIVAL DICTIONARIES

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 103, 28 October 1933, Page 22

RIVAL DICTIONARIES

THE TEST OF SMALL WORDS

55 COLUMNS FOR ONE WORD

(By "Ajax.") .Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language. Edited by Rev. Thomas Davidson. London and Edinburgh: AY. and E. Chambers, Ltd., 1903. 8 x 5-1, viii + 1207 pp. Published price 7s 6d. The same. Thoroughly Beviscd with Supplement containing Hundreds of Words, Terms, and Phrases of Becent Coinage and Currency, 1933. 1264 pp. Published prico 7s 6d.- ' The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Currant English. Adapted by H. W. Fowler and P. G. Fowler ■ from the Oxford Dictionary. Oxford: At the • Clarondon Press. 1911. 7} x 5, vii ■ -j- 1041 pp. Published price 7s 6d. 'i'he same. New edition. Bevised by H. W. Fowler. 1929. 7} x 5, xv • -j- 1446 pp. Published price ; 7s Cd. [Final Notice.] When Sir James Murray, the first and principal editor of. tho Oxford English Dictionary, was dealing with the word "do," he is said to have been discovered "walking in tho midst of tho senses spread out over his draw-ing-room, carpet." Whether the object was to get a convenient bird'seye view of a troublesome word, or to vary tho sedentary labours of lexicography with a littlo wholesome exercise, or both, there were other tiny ■words which would havo lent themselves even better to this kind of treatment and some might even havo justified the resort to a public hall instead of a drawing-room. Hero are half a dozen of these monosyllables with the space that they respectively occupy: — Do ........ 16 columns Get : 22 columns Go 37 columns Run » 37 columns Take 40 columns Sefc 53 columns «■ i ■;:• » The bulk of these- are an almost haplazard selection, but I did know that "set" was top.scorer, and that "run" stood very high. Of tho former Dr. Murray wrote as follows in his 18S1 report:-— In returning to me his last batch, Mr. Jacob mentioned that the division of the i meanings of the verb "set," and the attempt to put them in satisfactory order, Lad occupied him over forty hours. In examining his results, with fifty-one senses of the simple verb, and eighty-three of phrases, like "set out," "set off," "set Sown"—l 34 divisions in all—l do not wonder at the time: I suspect that the Editor will have to give forty more hours to it, for the language seems not to contain a more perplexing word than "set," which occupies more, than two columns of Webster, and will probably fill three of cur lurge quarto pages. * 'it « But on the completion of tho work the rest of tho story was told in the Dictionary number of the "Periodical" (February, 1928) as follows: — When "set" finally came to be done Sf) years later, it took more like 40 days Than 40 hours to digest the mass of material which had been brought together. The word occupies a column more than 18 pages of the Dictionary, and extends to 154 main divisions, the last of which ("set up") has so many divisions that it exhausts the alphabet and repeats the letters down to "rr." . To realise the labour spent upon a word like this it would be necessary to see the material in its original undigested state; it is assuredly a case of Had you seen these roads before they were made, you would hold up your hands and bless General Wade. •& « «- The words scheduled above, would supply another teat for the comparison which I have been endeavouring to make between Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary and the Concise Oxford Dictionary. After handicapping the C.O.D. in' the proportion of four to three, which equalises tho advantago it would otherwise derive from shorter lines and larger type, the spaces which the two dictionaries allot - *o the words in question are as follows:

In its space allowance to these six !»>rords the "Concise Oxford" is therefore nearly three times as liberal as (Chambers. ' .. «• * «- As a, test of the workmanship of the two books one may compare corresponding parts of their treatment of "get" in combination with prepositions. Chambers is, as usual, very concise:— Get at, to reach, attain ; . . . Get up, to arise, to ascend; to arrange, prepare. "Get into" is mot recognised by Chambers and at first one may bo inclined to wonder whether thero is such a thing. But these Oxford dictionaries are constantly reminding one of tho ■unsuspected /resources of the English language, including particularly those colloquial expressions which we are hearing and using every day with the same unconsciousness of the fact' as that displayed by Moliere's gentleman ■who had been talking prose all his life vrithout knowing it. * * * The relative parts of the "Concise Oxford's" article on "get" are as follows:— (With piepp.): ''Get at/ reach (whence "gtt-at-able" a.)» set hold of, ascertain, (slang) tamper with, bribe, etc., (sking) attack, banter, ("who are you getting at?" often equal to trying to impose upon— expressing incredulity); "g. into," (colloq.) put on (boots, clothes), (o£ liquor) affect, confuse, (one's "head") ... "Get up," rise esp. from bed, mount es'p. on horseback, (of fire, wind, sea) begin to be violent, (of. game) rise from cover, (of cricket ball) rise sharply from pitch, organise, set on foot, (of laundress) dress (linen), make presentable, arrange the appearance of, (hair, the person, mounting of play, binding and print of book), make rise ("I got my, his, back up," became, made him, angry or stubborn), produce! ("g. up steam," enough to work engine, I also fig. of working oneself into anger or en*rgy; "g. the wind up," slang, (feel afraid), work up (factitious emotion;-sub-ject for examination, etc.) >i * •:* So far as the last phrase "get the wind up," is concerned, it may be as-

sumed that it is included in Chambers's supplement of recent words, etc., which the specimen page that I havo seen shows to be strong in the vocabulary of the war. But, though justice demands this admission, tho point is a small one. What I set out to prove was that it was unfair to quote in 1933 the judgment of tho "British Weekly" that Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary supersedes all other cheap dictionaries" ■ without quoting the date- which would have shown the judgment to bo at least as old as 1924; and that, at any rate since its revision in 1929, tho Conciso Oxford Dictionary, published at the samo price, has been incomparably tho better book. I now claim to have established both propositions by chapter and verse.

Chambers. C.O.D. Inches. Inches, X)i> . )., M .. J ■"> Get !•„'.-.. 3i : ■ 10i (io ■«.►-».! 1-i 15|Sun •*»-.. 94 20-i Take .^.^ 5 13-J Sot ;«»-.. '71 16} Total : « S8i ' Sli