Lexicon

THE SHORTER OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY--Prepared by W. Little; edited by C. T. Onions & Staff of Oxford English Dictionary, with co-operation of H. W. Fowler--Oxford (2 vols., $18).

Every lexicon but youth's is bright enough to include such words as "fail," but not every dictionary is first-rate. The appearance of a first-rate dictionary is a newsworthy event in literary history. Since Nathan Bailey's Dictionarium Britannicum (1721), these events can almost be counted on the fingers of one hand.* Though every dictionary is more of a Who's Who of words than a supreme court of language, it is the ambition of every lexicographer to be the final arbiter. Generally acknowledged by scholars to be the nearest approach so far to supreme authority is the great ten-volume Oxford English Dictionary, finally "completed" (only dead-language dictionaries can ever be completed) in 1928.

Comparatively sprightly spawn of this leviathan of lexicons is The Shorter Oxford Dictionary. In two fat volumes, together weighing 14 1/2 lb., it lists some 250,000 words, "covers not only the history of the general English vocabulary from the days of King Alfred down to the present time, but includes also a large number of obsolete, archaic, provincial, and foreign words and phrases, and a multitude of terms of art and science." Begun in 1902, it is more up-to-date than its parent, less unwieldy, and has all the parental authority behind it.

Special features: Every sense of every word is dated. Reason for present spelling and pronunciation of difficult words is given. Idioms, often comparatively neglected, are defined, illustrated. Dialect words in general use, slang and colloquialisms are included.

London's Morning Post comments on the large number of new words of "America's queer coinage (which so often proves ancient currency disinterred)." E. g.-- "Racket--a trick, dodge, scheme, game, line of business or action. 1812." "Skirt--A woman. Now vulgar slang, 1560.'' Unlike Sam Johnson, who occasionally winked (as when he defined "lexicographer" as "a harmless drudge") and who occasionally nodded into Latinic somnolence ("Network--anything reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections"), editors of the S. O. E. D. are always serious but try hard not to be too pedantic. Thorough, they give the small word "set"' almost seven long columns.

Samples of S. O. E. D. definition: "Tycoon. 1863. (ad. Jap. taikun great lord or prince, f. Chinse ta great & kiun prince.) The title by which the shogun of Japan was described to foreigners.''

"Whoopee. (hu'pi), int. orig. U. S. 1845. An exclam. accompanying or inviting to hilarious enjoyment; also sb., esp. in to make w., to have a good time, go on the razzle-dazzle."

*A Dictionary of the English Language-- Samuel Johnson (1755): Noah Webster's American Dictionary (1828); Century Dictionary (1889-91): Webster's International (1890); Funk & Wagnalls' Standard (1893): Oxford English Dictionary (1884-1928): Wyld's Universal (1932).

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