unlike what is found in German and Dutch, the terms of culture, art,
science, and philosophy, are of French or, through French, of Latin
origin. The corresponding Old English terms were forgotten during the
age of illiteracy, and when, generations later, the speaker of English
came again to deal with such subjects, he had to do like Layamon, when
he knew no longer _tungol-croeft_, and could refer to it only as 'the
craft ihote _astronomie_ in other kunnes speche.'
[5] Also _Medulla Grammaticae_, or usually _Grammatice_.
[6] At the end is an alphabetical list of adjectives; extending from
lf. 79a, col. 2, to 83a, foot.
[7] It must however be mentioned that the second dictionary of English
and another modern tongue was appropriately 'A Dictionary in Englyshe
and Welshe, moche necessary to all suche Welshemen as wil spedlye
learne the englyshe tongue, thought vnto the kynges maiestie very mete
to be sette forth to the vse of his graces subiectes in Wales, ... by
Wyllyam Salesbury.' The colophon is 'Imprynted at London in Foster
Lane, by me John Waley. 1547.'
[8] In the Dedication he says, 'Which worke, long ago for the most
part, was gathered by me, but lately augmented by my sonne Thomas, who
now is Schoolemaister in London.'
[9] 'To the right honourable, worshipfull, vertuous, & godlie Ladies,
the Lady Hastings, the Lady Dudley, the Lady Mountague, the Ladie
Wingfield, and the Lady Leigh, his Christian friends, R.C. wisheth
great prosperitie in this life, with increase of grace, and peace from
GOD our Father, through Iesus Christ our Lord and onely Sauiour.' (A
2.)
[10] His explanations of such words were curt enough: '_Cat_, a
Creature well known'; '_Horse_, a Beast well known'; '_Man_, a
Creature endued with Reason.'
[11] 'An interleaved copy of Bailey's dictionary in folio he made the
repository of the several articles.' _Works of J._, 1787, I. 175.
[12] Pg. _coco_, a grinning mask, applied to the coco-nut because of
the three holes and central protuberance at its apex, suggesting two
eyes, a mouth, and nose.
[13] The following are examples of his own practice: _The Rambler_
(1751), No. 153, par. 3, 'I was in my eighteenth year dispatched to
the university.' Ibid., No. 161, par. 4, 'I ... soon dispatched a
bargain on the usual terms.' _Letter to Mrs. Thrale_, May 6, 1776, 'We
dispatched our journey very peaceably.'
[14] Among such must be reckoned the treatment of words in the
explanation of which Johnson showed political or personal animus or
whimsical humour, as in the well-known cases of _whig_, _tory_,
_excise_, _pension_, _pensioner_, _oats_, _Grub-street_,
_lexicographer_ (see Boswell's _Johnson_, ed. Birkbeck Hill, i. 294);
although it must be admitted that these have come to be among the
famous spots of the Dictionary, and have given gentle amusement to
thousands, to whom it has been a delight to see 'human nature' too
strong for lexicographic decorum.
[15] In some cases, long Lists of the Authors, from whose works 'the
illustrative quotations have been selected,' are given, without the
statement that many of those quotations have not actually been
selected from the authors and works named, but have merely been
annexed from Johnson or one of his supplementers.
[16] The famous _Deutsches Wörterbuch_ of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm,
after many years of preparation, began to be printed in 1852; Jacob
Grimm himself died in 1863, in the middle of the letter F; the work is
expected to reach the end of S by the close of the century. The great
_Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal_ was commenced in 1852; its first
volume, _A--Ajuin_, was published in 1882, and it is not yet quite
half-finished. Of the new edition of the _Vocabolario della Crusca_,
which is to a certain extent on historical principles, Vol. I,
containing A, was published in 1863, and Vol. VIII, completing I, in
1899; at least twenty-five more years will be required to reach Z.
None of these works embraces so long a period of the language, or is
so strictly historical in method, as the New English Dictionary.
Rather are they, like Littré's great _Dictionnaire de la Langue
Française_, Dictionaries of the modern language, with the current
words more or less historically treated.