The earliest English dictionary of importance was Nathan Bailey's An universal etymological English dictionary (1721)

vious to the publication of this work, there had been no attempt to prepare a dictionary of all the words in the English language. Many glossaries of difficult words had been compiled during the 17th century, but they were not what we now mean when we speak of dictionaries.

After Bailey's great work, the next important dictionary was that by the celebrated author and lexicographer, Dr Samuel Johnson, which is now better known than any of the dictionaries that appeared in the 18th century. It was published in 1755 (2 vols. folio) and was used as a basis for other dictionaries by many compilers. The publication of Johnson's Dictionary "formed a greater era than that of any other work. No other dictionary has had so much influence in fixing the external form of the language and ascertaining and settling the meaning and proper use of words." Worcester.

Many dictionaries followed Johnson's, but there were none of much value until the appearance of Charles Richardson's New dictionary of the English language, which was published in 1838 (2 vols. 4°) In this work more attention was paid to the history

of words, showing by numerous quotations their meanings and any changes in meaning they may have undergone. This dictionary is still ranked high among scholars.

We now come to the dictionaries of the present day, which for practical use have superseded the earlier ones. The most comprehensive is :

New

Murray, James Augustus Henry. English dictionary on historical principles. Ox. Clarendon press, 1888-1908. v. 1-7, F. 52s. 6d. per vol. 423

Founded mainly on the materials collected by the Philological society since 1857. The interesting history of this undertaking is told in the preface.

Vol. 5 to K, v. 6, pt. 1, v. 7, pt. 1, and many sections of other volumes have been published.

Very full on the philological side, it includes English words now in general use, or those in use at any time during the past 700 years, giving their meaning, origin, and history, with a large number of quotations from English writers to illustrate the history and use of words. It is a dictionary for the scholar rather than for popular use.

Known also as the Oxford dictionary.

Other English dictionaries of importance are: Stormonth's Dictionary of the English language (N. Y. Scribner, 1899. $9); Ogilvie's Imperial dictionary (Lond. Blackie, 1882-83. 4v. £5) encyclopedic in character; the Encyclopædic dictionary (Lond. Cassell, 1879-88. 7v. Q. 21s. per vol.) which has been reprinted in America (Phil. Syndicate pub. co. 1895. 4v. $16)

SYNONYMS

Books of synonyms are in constant use to distinguish words of similar meaning, and to assist in obtaining a variety of expression. Of these the best are:

Crabb, George. English synonymes explained in alphabetical order. New ed. enl. N. Y. Harper, 1892. 424 856 p. O. $1.25. Quotations from the best writers illustrating the use of the words are given.

Fallows, Samuel. Complete dictionary of synonyms and antonyms. N. Y. Revell, 1886. 512 p. D. $1. 424 Contains, in an appendix: Briticisms and Americanisms, prepositions, discriminated foreign phrases, list of abbreviations, colloquial phrases, homonyms.

Fernald, James Champlin, English synonyms and antonyms; with notes on the cor

ETYMOLOGY

424

For the etymology of the English language, the best authority, so far as it has been published, is Murray's New English dictionary. A smaller but very useful volume, and the best concise dictionary is :

Skeat, Walter William. Etymological dictionary of the English language. 2d ed. Ox. Clarendon press, 1893. 844 p. sq. Q. £2 4s.

422

"Each article begins with a word, the etymology of which is to be sought; then a brief definition merely as a mark to identify the word; next an exact statement of the actual or probable language whence the word is taken, with an account of the channel or channels through which it has reached us." Preface. A few quotations are given.

Clapin, Sylva. New dictionary of Americanisms, being a glossary of words supposed to be peculiar to the United States and the Dominion of Canada. N. Y. Weiss, 1902. 427.9 It has an appendix in which all substantives are classed analytically.

581 p. O. $5.

De Vere, Maximilian Schele. Americanisms; the English of the New World. Scribner, 1872. 685 p. O. $3. o. p.

N. Y.

427.9

Not alphabetically arranged; index. Farmer, John Stephen, and Henley, W. E. Slang and its analogues, past and present; a dictionary, historical and comparative of the heterodox speech of all classes of society for more than three hundred years, with synonyms in English, French, German, Italian, Lond. Printed for subscribers only, 1890-1904., 7v. sq. O. $75.

etc.

750 copies only printed.

427

Illustrative

The most important slang dictionary. quotations are given. The work will be found only in large libraries as the number of copies is limited. Even in large public libraries the use should be restricted owing to the inclusion of many slang words of objectionable character.

Dictionary of slang and colloquial English; abridged from Slang and its analogues. Lond. Routledge, N. Y. Dutton, 1905. 533 p. O. 7s. 6d. $2.50. 427

The standard work on slang in one volume. Contains a list of the more important dictionaries.

Maitland, James. The American slang dictionary; embodying all American and English slang phrases in current use, with their derivation and philology. Chic. Kittredge, 1891.

308 p. Q. $5.

427.9

Vol. 6 contains a supplement, a bibliography and a grammar of the dialects.

Quotations and references to the sources from which the word has been obtained, the pronunciation, and the etymology are given. It also contains an account of all popular customs and superstitions, rural games and pastimes, which are likely to be of interest.

Morris, Edward Ellis. Austral English; a dictionary of Australasian words, phrases, and usages, with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the common scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia. Lond. Macmillan, 1898. 525 p. O. 16s. 427.9

Yule, Sir Henry, and Burnell, A. C. Hobson-Jobson; a glossary of colloquial AngloIndian words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological, historical, geographical and discursive. New ed. ed. by William Crooke. Lond. Murray, 1903. 1021 p. O. 28s.

Quotations illustrating use of words are given.

Clifton, E. C. and Grimaux, Adrien. Nouveau dictionnaire anglais-français et français-anglais. Nouvelle éd. rev. et corr. avec un supplément par J. M. C. Laughlin. Paris, Garnier, 18—. 2v. Q. 18 fr. 443.2

Edgren, Hjalmar, and Burnet, P. B. French and English dictionary, with indication of pronunciation, etymologies, and dates of earliest appearance of French words in the English language. N. Y. Holt, 1901. 1252 p. O. $2.50. 443.2

Other French dictionaries of merit are those by Hamilton and Legros (Paris, Fouraut, 1896, 2v. $6.50) and Spiers and Surenne (N. Y. Appleton, 1886. $5)

433.2

It is destined to remain for a long period the standard dictionary of reference for translating between English and German." Nation, 54: 155.

Other good German dictionaries are those by Muret-Sanders (Berl. Langenscheidt, 4v. $12) and Thieme-Preusser (Hamburg, Händeke. 12.59 m.)

Grimm, Jacob, and Grimm, Wilhelm. Deutsches wörterbuch. Lpz. Hirzel, 18541905. v.1-10), 11-12, Q. about $70. 433

Covers the alphabet from A to Sprechen and parts of G, T, and V. The standard dictionary, more historical than etymological; quotations illustrating the use of words are given.

con. 1900.

--

514 p. O. English - modern - Greek Athens, Constantinides, 1892. about $8 for the two vols.

HEBREW

489.32 dictionary. 692 p. 0. 489.32

Gesenius, Wilhelm. Hebrew and English lexicon of the Old Testament, including the

491.62

By far the most useful modern Irish dictionary which has been published, and for method, fulness and accuracy deserves the highest praise. . . . The dictionary must be regarded as a useful work for students rather than a complete exposition of the Irish language. Athenæum, May 20, 1905.

Fournier d'Albe, Edmund Edward. English-Irish dictionary and phrase book with synonyms, idioms and the genders and declensions of nouns. Dublin, The Celtic association, 1903. 338 p. D. 6s. 491.62 Lane, Timothy O'Neill. Lane's EnglishIrish dictionary comp. fr. the most authentic sources. Dublin, Sealy, Lond. Nutt, 1904. 581 p. O. 12s. 6d. 491.62

Stratmann, Francis Henry. MiddleEnglish dictionary, containing words used by English writers from the 12th to the 15th century; rev. and enl. by Henry Bradley. N. Y. Macmillan, 1891. 708 p. Q. $8. 427

POLISH

Kierst, W. and Callier, O. Pocket dictionary of the English and Polish languages. Lpz. Holtz, 1896. 2v. in 1, T. 2.90 m.

PORTUGUESE

491.8532

Michaelis, Hermann. New dictionary of the Portuguese and English languages. 2d ed. Lpz. Brockhaus, Lond. Pitman, 1893. 2v. O. 30s. 469.3

v. 1, Portuguese-English; v. 2, English-Portuguese.

RUSSIAN

Aleksandrov, A. Complete Russian-English dictionary. 2d ed. rev. and enl. St. Pet. 1897. 717 p. Q. 491.732

-

- Complete English-Russian dictionary. St. Pet. 1897. 895 p. Q. $14 for the 2v. 491.732

SANSKRIT

Williams, Sir Monier Monier-. SanskritEnglish dictionary. Ox. Clarendon press, 1872. 1186 p. sq. Q. £4 14s. 6d.

SPANISH

491.2

Pro

Velázquez de la Cadena, Mariano. nouncing dictionary of the Spanish and English languages. New ed. rev. and enl. by Edward Gray and J. L. Iribas. N. Y. Appleton, 1901. 2v. in 1, Q. $6. 463.2

SWEDISH

Björkman, C. G. Svensk-engelsk ord Stockholm, Norstedt, 1889. 1360 p.

bok.

O. about $5.

439.732

The selection of foreign dictionaries is based partly upon those in use in the Catalog division of the Library of Congress.