STOREHOUSE OF WORDS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8513, 5 August 1921, Page 5 (Supplement)

STOREHOUSE OF WORDS.

.iTTY-SIX YEARS TO MAKE A ** DICTIONARY.

U long ago as 1857 the PhiloSociety (philology is the JJJL of language) decided to bework of compiling a great Cjooary which should contain JJ* word in our language. 4 wetk or two ago the last word A e >*gw English Dictionary was * Nine huge volumes have JLjy been published; the tenth ■TJJst will be cn sale in 1923. jjty-six years will have passed the first approval of the scheme and its completion. Jj what has been done in this More than twelve thousand each of which measures about JL r e inches by nine, densely cov--2 with small print—these pre the of the labours of those who Irked upon ,he dictionary, gjjf a million words are catalog--4 and explained in it; and the -yj in which they are used are own by means of two million quortoi from English writers of all P * MURDERER'S VALUABLE HELP The idea originated with ArchTrench, a writer of popular £ki on the fascinating study of jgjj, As soon as the Philological bad decided to adopt it, a poittee was formed to begin the guide collet cion. Voluntary helpers in all parts of gworld w»re asked to assist; and job them came in a ceaseless gam ot words and illustrative quo--0085. One of the most valuable Miiest voluntary helpers was Dr. pir, the murderer, who for pitydive years was an inmate of |Mdßoor Criminal Lunatic Asyfc& Ii 1878 the compilers possessed no fewer than three and a-half million 1$ of paper, each contianing a pastg to show how one particular iwd was used. Think for a moment of the labour ktsired in sorting these slips and litUtcing the quotations. If one ua had been employed upon the mi his task would have occupied ks for more than twenty years, jriißg eight hours a day. It took liyears to get the first volume mif for the press. ffhen Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary, luh is still in use, appeared in IJTJ, it was regarded as a monu■uul work. But the New Engb Dictionary contain:; more than ■ lines as many pages as his, and fere are a great many more words itae hof its pages. Take words beg.nning with A and L Dr. Johnson disposed of them ll 127 pages; the late Sir James Irray, the first editor of the New bpih Dictionary, required 1240 Kb to deal with them—not an ex- *>- allowance, considering that ktoliected 31,254 of them' THE LAST WORD—ZYXT. Sr James Murray gave up his to!* life to the work; for thirtyyears he laboured on his task. &PPi!y he did not live to see it Epi'ted. for he died six years ago. hdwbat a task it was! Think of kproblems that had to be decided, brtwere several spellings of this Which was the correct one? were two or even three ways I Renouncing the next; the right be decided upon. Was the ■ slang, or could it be called fr-ty word had to be examined •toily; its derivation must be toi aud :f it had changed its a history of it must be illustrated by quotations to many w riters. J* ,tor y of th«* compiling of the ■ English Dictionary is one of the torotnanric in the history of writtoThe last word—* f zavt,” old tobij for “thou seest”—has just toidd‘d :o i s vast collection; but compilers cannot, lay down their nus; begin at once upon the In the years that have 2*®* s > n cc the first volume ap- •• hundreds of new’ words be- . 3 S*ith A and B hav< come into toguag*-. and all must be reand explained. When the 7r® en t is finished another must '•m.