THE COMMON SPEECH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 63, 14 March 1903, Page 3

THE COMMON SPEECH.

[ The research of which The Century Dictionary & Cyclopaedia & Atlas is the fruit, was not directed to the study of only the rarer words in the language, The common speeth of the couiu-on people is full of words that called for careful treatment in the Dictionary. A m<m may supposi that he has no use for an elaborae dictionary because he does not want to undtrs'ar.d unusual words, or rare meiuings of usual word*, but if he adopts this point of view h> is assuming that he knows all there is to know about ordinary words. Take, for example, the familiar compound " B>eam-etg : ne." The rough conception of a s'eam-engine is that it is a machine tint turns a wheel when the water in a boiler is hot enough to yield steam. Yet amm will hard'y fake a trip to Sydney without feeling si me vague curiosity as to the distinction between a double expansion and a triple expaision engu.e, between a high pressure cylinder and a lowpressure cylinder. A definition of the word steim-ergine has not gone over all the ground it professes to cover un'il it has mada these matters phin to the reader's mind by the use of unt*chnical words and explanatory diagrams. One miy, therefore, well be pirdoned to wonder not that " The Century " is to largo, but that it is no" larger; am zement cot that five I hundred specialise were employed in ; making the hook, but that the number was not immensely greaHr,

To teachers Thb Century is peculiarly useful. Thty are beset by the eager of children, and if, when they are questioned, they u e th* Dictiona y, o-, bettir s'il', 1 5 tho children ue i; themselves, every question leids the child to new knowledge. " The l'itnss " offer to sell the work at over 40 j;er* cent, discount on the published piiep, is on'y open for a limited period. The publishers announce the fatly withdrawal of the offer in New Zealand.