New-York tribune., 1899-03-26
MAKING A DICTIONARY
THOUSANDS OF BOOKS READ Ann An.
IONS or QUOTATIONS. MADE
From Good Words


From Good Words.
The scheme is simplicity Itself. Tables -,
desks. and along tho walls row unon - "il
pigeon holes. more than thousand ~ ther, -. ~
Of slips. Every one OF these sps has rassr s- Al
viii pass through the han Us ~ five boIre,s " G =,
four assistants AT the tables are conei.,,.ia az
work sorting and classifying them Tn, Tb's "a d
tain the quotations; Approximately a mini .'A,
them 60 to the tOn-there are about siv 80 =. .
them. II would take You thirty years - ,''' y, M o'
through them a. the rate u me a minn,s, rL, -.'a
only million will Doe is-d in The dic,,oaaea'
gives one the impression that things are ~. :,
bad after all Yet. as matter of fact the e.,
ing Of labor would be immense II the W., s'',
the six tons could BE- printed Asiti ig fhey h ~ "
all 70 be weighed in the balance Then ~ ~
the best have been selected. hey must he ,,s,
Of convenient length. for the dictionary is 1
tied To eight times the size Of Webster a.
slopes against the wa. and On sbe,ve. -. "a
ranged the works of reference: dictionaries a.
cient and modern. in many languages. 4''
The Slips which line the safiptlrum came f-,.
all parts of the world-from France and f,,
Florida, from Algeria and Amsterdam f,,m
Upper Egypt Stockholm. Rome Florence ,,S
Japan. Among the early readers thero arc ~ 81.
distinguished names: R0ss.tti Hazlitt D.
rowne Lubbock. Littl.caia. Lightfoot Tusbi,,
ton Craik and D0Wdcn. Nor. than one bund,ot
thousand books have been raai and oYfr,..,
made. II took two assistants three years Vo-L
ing eight hours day, 10 sort the material f-s,s
ferred 10 D.. Murray by the Pathological 50
ETY. H. sent out circulars 10 the registered ,s,1
trbu'Ors, five hundred II tham-four hurd,-s
ana hfty came back through the dead-le,,s,
oihcet TWenty-SiX su1-cdlturs had been .,,
lnally appointed. one for each letter of tho -
phaD't. Nearly one-halt 0f these were dead
FROM executors and survivors however ono,,
tions came tumbling in hy the ton. unear,b1l
from iumber-rooms. from cellars from garrefS
ana from cupDOaris IT. = came in cases In
trunk. In hampers in baskets There Wow
barrels of nouns and bundles ~ verbs sheayss
or c9nJunctions ami parcels " adjectiyes N
every conceivable form ~ pee kage-eyen an Ok
bassinet full containing. t9o 4 mouse and b.,
FAMILY. reared on parts 90 speech But the sin,
Or Pa could not boz found nor the sub-ai-a,
responsible for them. With .nnn.t. difficnitv ba
was traced from place % place TIL il was ascer
tanned that he had last resided in County Cayan
There he had died. and ther. in a loft ove- a
shed. the missing words were found II mn,,
DE Understood that these sub-editors and read.
ers haTe given. ana sti. give their services
without fee or reward. The o0rresyondence ~.
tailed in keeping them a. work vas in Itself
nuSe matter From thirty o forty .etters day
had 10 be written Altogether not fewer than
two thousand people have had Il finger in he
pie.
The conditions have happily changed snop
then. The chief work At present consists IN
sorting anu classifying the material! New book,
%
again, which must De read But a trained hand
OF some hundred men and women undertake al
that Is required. The scope of the New Engish
Dictionary Is wider than hat 0f any Of its ureie
cessors. 1t includes all words not only tboss
belonging to modern English but those which
are archaic and obsolete IL is enriched with
Quotations from the earliest written records
down 10 the present time Dr. Johnson despsed
derivation. Horne TOoke definition: in the new
derivation and definition 90 together:
IN fact. etymology is for The first time assigned
It's tull honors in the history of words By
curious inversion. the longest words come %
have the brefest treatment in tn New Dlcton.
airy. That this should ie so is natural enough
)ur ancestors had not tn taste or indeed the
necessity, for long words They have been r.
Gently introduced. chiefly for scientific and tech.
nlcal uses They have NJ history worth men.
toninG and no Infections and are Therefore
easily dealt with. Stevenson Vas applied to as
To the word "brsan." which had turned up in
one OF his hreathless tales. To which the 70
mancer replied that he was sorry 10 say that be
had not read the proofs Of the book but "brsan'
was plainly a misprint for ocean" And he
goes on 10 show. by an example. how his hand
writing made this possible