Today we were delighted to welcome Susan Purcell MA FCIL to unravel the
convolutions of the modern dictionary, as you will note from her Bio
below she is well equipped to present such a lecture and as a past
teacher excelled in her subject. We are even more delighted when Susan
offered to give the text core of her presentation which follows, but may
we not only thank her for this addition but for those not present
mention this is only the bare bones and Susan embellished this with a
multitude of facts and figures, in a humorous and entertaining fashion
well beyond the limited scope of these web pages.
Susan
continued, to explain that the
first English dictionary appeared in 1604 (Shakespeare died in 1616 so
didn’t have access to a dictionary for most of his career). It wasn’t
called a dictionary, but a Table Alphabetical (sic), and its author,
Robert Cawdrey, claimed it was for the benefit of ‘Ladies, Gentlewomen
or any other unskilfull (sic) persons’ so that they could understand
words ‘which they shall heare (sic) or read in Scripture, Sermons or
elsewhere’.
A century and a half later, leading English writers, including Jonathan
Swift and Daniel Defoe, felt strongly that the beauty and purity of the
contemporary English language should be recorded for posterity. They
envisaged producing a dictionary, which would advise future generations
on correct pronunciation, spelling and usage. Samuel Johnson, a teacher
and freelance writer, was commissioned for the task.
Johnson soon realised the futility of attempting to lay down the law
when it came to the English language – it is a living thing and is
constantly changing and developing. His two-volume dictionary of 40,000
words took seven years to complete and was published in 1755 at a price
of £4 10s. Unlike Cawdrey, he provided definitions for ordinary words
like ‘cat’ and ‘dog’, and he included quotations from erudite authors to
illustrate how words were used. In doing so, he set a precedent that
still applies to this day. Unlike countries whose national academies lay
down rules as to how words should be spelt and what they mean, English
meaning and spelling is determined by usage. Entries in Johnson’s
dictionary include:
Network: Any thing reticulated or
decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the
intersections.
Tory: One who adheres to the ancient
constitution of the state, and the apostolical hierarchy of the
Church of England, opposed to a Whig.
Whig: The name of a faction.
Patron: One who countenances supports
or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and
is paid with flattery. (Written to get back at Lord Chesterfield
who only offered Johnson the sum of £10 when he agreed to be
patron).
A hundred years after Johnson, the very learned Philological Society
decided to commission a dictionary which would trace the origin and
historical development of English words since Anglo-Saxon times. For the
next twenty years they occupied themselves in a somewhat desultory
fashion with the project. Progress speeded up after 1879 when James
Murray was appointed editor and the Oxford University Press agreed to
finance the undertaking. The first edition of the Oxford English
Dictionary appeared in 1928 in twelve volumes and contained definitions
of about 400,000 words. The quotations in the dictionary were supplied
by over a thousand readers throughout the country, who scoured works of
literature to find examples of how the meaning of words had changed over
the centuries.
The second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was published in
1989 in twenty volumes. It went online in 2000 and currently contains
the definitions of well over half a million words, illustrated by over
two million citations covering a thousand years of English writing. The
online version is updated quarterly with about 1800 new or revised
entries.
Susan concluded with the final fact that dictionaries differ in their
style. Chambers is an old Scottish firm, so the Chambers Dictionary
contains more Scottish and northern English words than its rivals.
Chambers is also renowned for its humour, typically shown below:
With this humorous finish to her
presentation, Susan opened the floor to questions, that came fast and
furious covering a wide range of probes, or was this a cross
examination? all of which without reference to any dictionary, old or
new, she ably answered. This left Tony Field in his vote of thanks to
express on our behalf his thanks for a concise definition of the
dictionary and it's history and formation on the British scene.
The membership agreed with Tony and showed
their appreciation in heartfelt applause, thanks Susan who reminded us
that if our question had been curtailed by the President due to time
constraints, then please look at her blog which has a hot link below.
ProBus
Club of Ewell 
Mullet:
a hairstyle that is short at the front, long at the back and ridiculous all
round
Éclair:
cake long in shape and short in duration.