{"id":1501,"date":"2014-09-20T11:50:53","date_gmt":"2014-09-20T18:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vinemaple.net\/studio\/?p=1501"},"modified":"2014-10-26T11:58:16","modified_gmt":"2014-10-26T18:58:16","slug":"dictionaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinemaple.net\/studio\/dictionaries\/","title":{"rendered":"Dictionaries"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was yelled at in the fourth grade for spending too much time at the back of the room reading the copy of Webster’s 2nd<\/sup> Edition that was strapped to a bookstand in a corner.<\/p>\n

I use a lot of dictionaries. On my laptop, I use the OED and Merriam-Webster Unabridged online editions, which I subscribe to. I also have dated copies of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate and the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary installed on my laptop hard disk in case I am disconnected from the Internet.<\/p>\n

In my workroom, I have a treasured copy of the Merriam-Webster Unabridged 2nd<\/sup> Edition, the flyspeck print two volume of the OED, and several other old dictionaries, including one my father got when he was in high school in the 1930s.<\/p>\n

This is overkill. Aside from my early predilection for dictionaries, in college I received advice from two obscure but great writers: Herrlee Creel<\/a> and Edwin McClellan<\/a>. Creel, whom I have blogged about before, was a historian of early China. McClellan translated and wrote about 20th<\/sup> Century Japanese novels. Both, in their time, were noted for their clear and elegant style. Both told me that they used a dictionary constantly. Both had copies of Webster’s Unabridged,\u00a03rd<\/sup> Edition, next to their desks. Both said that writers who use thesauri are illiterate. They both emanated a whiff of arrogant martinet, but I still think they gave good advice.<\/p>\n

I do know that poking around in a dictionary, especially the OED with its historic quotations and etymologies, consistently leads me to the exact word I am looking for. My online dictionaries have thesauri and lists of synonyms and antonyms and I have an old copy of Roget, but nothing works better for me than reading definitions and quotations.<\/p>\n

Webster’s 2nd<\/sup> Edition was the last prescriptive dictionary published by Merriam-Webster. If I had to take a side, I would declare myself a descriptivist rather than a prescriptivist. Generally, I think it is most important to know how language is used. Prescriptivists expect a dictionary to be a rulebook for language usage and want to be told what a word should mean, not what people mean when they use it. For example, a prescriptivist expects to be told that “hopefully” is an adverb that must never modify an entire sentence, as in “Hopefully, George will not anger Hephzibah.” A descriptivist will note that “hopefully” is often used in that manner, although some speakers avoid it.<\/p>\n

When the 3rd<\/sup> edition came out, the prescriptivists declared both the ruin of the English language and the end of civilization. Nero Wolfe burned the 3rd<\/sup> edition in his fireplace and high school English teachers wept in despair. For a while, condemning the 3rd<\/sup> edition was the rage among folks who hadn’t looked in a dictionary since the last time they read Homer. Nevertheless, serious writers and students of the language rejoiced. After its initial spike in popularity from the histrionics, the 3rd<\/sup> edition has continued to be a standard reference.<\/p>\n

Why do I keep a copy of the 2nd<\/sup> edition around? Because its pages are a door to a lost world. The authors and editors of 2nd<\/sup> edition were sure of their place in the world as the arbiters of crisp distinctions between correct and incorrect. Reading it, you catch a glimpse of a world where platonic ideal words hold all true knowledge. A wonderful world, but it never did exist and never will exist, but fascinates me nonetheless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was yelled at in the fourth grade for spending too much time at the back of the room reading the copy of Webster’s 2nd Edition that was strapped to a bookstand in a corner. I use a lot of dictionaries. On my laptop, I use the OED and Merriam-Webster Unabridged online editions, which I … <\/p>\n

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