COST OF A DICTIONARY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18100, 16 June 1924, Page 15

COST OF A DICTIONARY.

STUPENDOUS WORK OF COMPILATION. When Johnson finished his famous dictionary, after seven years of laborious work, Andrew Millar, the bookseller, exclaimed, to the author's amusement. "Thank God, I have done with him I" Johnson got £1575 for the work. That will give "some impression of the gigantic task involved in the Oxford Dictionary, which is now Hearing completion, for this great undertaking has been going on for 45 years, and is expected to cost no less than £1,250,000, says the "Yorkshire Post." It will be the greatest work of its kind in existence, and the last word on the philology of the. English language. Vet, in spito of the time occupied in compilation, it has been a record in speed for such a work, for a huge German dictionary and a Dutch dictionary are still dragging on in their respective countries, although the first was begun in 1838 and the latter in 1850.. According to one of the editors, the Oxford Dictionary will contain 425,000. words, the life histories of which, as given in this work, will probablv settle their origin and evolution Tor all time. Among its distinguished editors have been Sir Ja-nws Murray. Dr. Henry Bradley, and Dr. Wliliam Craisrie."