HISTORIC LAPSES

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 July 1927, Page 9

HISTORIC LAPSES

ERRORS IN THE DICTIONARY. Most of the great authors have been guilty of errors or lapses of ipemory in their works. Poets, novelists, historians and essayists have been equally at fault. Even the dictionary makers have occasionally contributed amusing mistakes. When a lady asked Dr. Johnson why he had defined pastern in his dictionary as “the knee of a horse,” instead of that part of a horse’s leg from the fetlock to the hoof, he disconcerted her with the frank reply, “Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance.” Still more disconcerting was his reply to the lady who said, “What I like about your dictionary, Dr Johnson, is that it has no naughty words in it.” “Madam, I hope you have not been looking for them,” said the great champion of literature. Though leeward and windward have opposite meanings, Johnson’s dictionary defined them both as “towards the wind.” Johnson inserted in his dictionary some definitions that were intended to amuse himself and annoy other people. The most famous of these intentional lapses is the definition of oats as “a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.” The Scot-, tish reply to this definition has always been, “Very true; and where will you find horses and men to compare with them.” A pension was described by Johnson In his dictionary as “an allowance made to anyone without an equivalent; in England, it is generally understood to mean pay given to a State hireling for treason to his country. When Johnson subsequently accepted with gratitude a pension of £3OO a year, this definition was quoted against him by his enemies; but he was able to face the situation with equanimity. “I wish that my pension had been twice as large, that they could make twice as much fun out of it,” he said. Daniel Webster, the American lexicographer, had no knowledge of cricket, for in the early editions of his dictionary the following definitions occurred: — Wicketkeeper.—The player in cricket who stands with a bat to protect the wicket from the ball. Long-stop (cricket). —One who is set to stop balls sent a long distance. Leg (cricket).—To strike in the leg. Bowler—One who plays bowls or rolls in cricket. Nuttall’s dictionary gives one of the meanings of sheet as a sail. The erroi is apparently based on the line in Allan Cunningham’s famous ballad, “A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea.” In nautical language a sheet is a rope, not a sail. Among the novelists, Scott, Dicl<ens and Thackeray have been guilty of errors. Dickens, in “Nicholas Nickleby, depicts Mr Squeers, of Dotheboys Hall, as setting his scholars to hoe turnips in mid-winter. In “Little Dorritt” Tattycoram enters a room “with an iron box two feet square under his arm.” Sfie would have had to be a giantess with very long arms to be able to accomplish this feat. In bis “Child’s History of England,” Dickens refers to Edmund, Earl of Kent as the “poor old lord,” but. this old man was only 28 years of age at the time. Other writers have made similar mistakes in the ages of historical figures. Barnes in h’s “History of Edward III.|’” states that the Earl of Leicester, “who was almost, blind with age,” flung up his cap for joy when he heard of the arrest of Mortimer in 1330. But Leicester was only 43 years of age at that date.