ENGLISH DICTIONARY.

Shannon News, 5 July 1927, Page 4

ENGLISH DICTIONARY.

GREAT WORK FINISHED. OVER 400,000 WORDS. . FRUITS OF 48 YEARS’ LABOUR. The year 1927 should be signalised by the successful completion of the greatest lexicographical undertaking the world has ever seen. In 1879 Dr. j. A. H. Murray—ho did not become Sir Janies till 1908—started work on the Oxford Dictionary, now known as N.E.D., “The New English' Dictionary.” Before this year is much older the whole, at last, should be in type, says “an old member pf the staff” in the “Times,” Who has been associated with the woTk since-it was undertaken by* Dr. Murray, Over 48 years of hard work to make a dictionary! But there is no other kindred work to be compared with it. The nearest is the great German lexicon of the brothers Grimm, well known for their Fairy Tales; but. It is far inferior in completeness, as all German students would admit. And, while it started in 1858, after 69 years it had only reached its thirteenth volume, down to Weg. Even with its supplements Littre’s French Dictionary, of which France is justly proud, is a small affair compared with N.E.D. We cannot think of English dictionaries ' without thinking of Samuel Johnson. But his work (1755), though ambitious enough, was a very incomplete piece of haick work. Webster’s Dictionary has been

the American’s boast for a century;

he may well boast of Worcester (1846), too; while England and Scotland have produced several other excellent works in this line. The History Of Every Word.

But is was early felt that none of these was adequate for the thorough student. The dictionary was first dreamt of in 1857; by Dean Trench, of the immortal “Study of' Words.” The Philological Society almost at once sought to make his dream a reality. The idea was to select and gather quotations to illustrate fully the historic development of every English word and its minutest shades of meaning; and, for this end, to have all English books read ante 1600, with as many as possible thereafter. The first editor was Hartley Coleridge. He i received splendid offers of help, but at the start, in 1861. Ho was succeeded by F. J. Furnivall, a man of marvellous and exuberant energy, with a genius for lexicography. To him and to Professor Skeat, more than to any two others, was the N.E.D. indebted for half a century of unsparing and most valuable work, right on to the days of their death. It % may here be interpolated fhat women, from* Miss Edith Thomson down to Dr.. Murray’s own daughters, -have throughout played a not unimportant part. Between 1860 and 1878 some two million quotations were,- gathered and partly arcajJg'tflThe work, however, proved very heavy, and for* a time it slumbered and slept. Then came the discovery of , James A. -H. Murray, with whom, above all others, N.E.D. will be for ever iden-

tified. Without him it might have remained still-born; , and he gave it svtch a strong impetus that, before he died, he had made sure that this magnum opus would be finished. He was born a poor boy at the little village of Denholm, near Hawick, In 1837. In 1878, while English master at Mill Hill School, he submitted to the delegates of the Clarendon Press, Oxford, specimen articles for N.E.D., with the result that, on March 1, 1879, he signed an agreement to be the editor. ■ . . Most Difficult Words* One or two examples may be given of the thoroughness and completeness of N.E.D. Enclid defines a point as “position without magnitude.” Yet t N.E.D. devotes over 21 columns of close print to' point alone. “Put” looks a very little word, and yet it has been subdivided into 54 meanings, each with its Own quotations, the earliest . occurrence always, and one if possible, or more, for each /following teentury. Such is the invariable rule. When the work is complete it will contain over 400,600, separate words. To the end of “wise,” and including X Y Z, the exact figures are 407,134. words, with 1,780,526 quotations. The letter C, \(ith its 29,295 words, takes a whole heavy quarto volume to itself. “Go-” alone took two years to print. But by far the heaviest letter is S. which yields 57,428 words, cov--ering 2403 quarto pages. The smallest letter is X; even that yields 286 words. Z was over 1000, while Q and J have not much over 2000 each. .