New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-02-16
NEW WORDS IN THE DICTIONARY
GROWTH OF VOCABULARY THAT INDICATES DE-
NELoPMENT OF LANGI.AGE

To the Editor of The Tribune
Sir: Your editorial on Words and Spelling and
your allusion to the interchangeable compNers who
think that their highest obligation is to ransack
the purheus OF speech for the purpose of giving
eternal lie TO the largest possible number of words
that would otherwise perish in the gutter" re-
call similar alusion, or, rather warning given
by the late James Russell Lowell that l find quoted
in the most recent dictionary published
"A 6ro Is not drag net to bring up
speech Spec as 1--WE Wei as its living fishes Nor do We
sI Il fo F test or such work that one should
his fancy in favorite author
feel that your attention should be drawn to
Iact which you seem to have overlooked and this
is that speech and its purlieus do not alone con-
stitute language. The written word is quite as
important as the spoken word If not more So
II Is seldom that dictionary is consulted to find
the meaning OF a spoken word but the number of
times reader Of average education has to con-
suit 1t for words he meets IN the course of his
reading is quite large. Therefore, the printed
ana even the purlieus of the printed word should
be examined for photographed purposes
IN justice to those panstaking photographers
the late Professor W. D. Whitney and the Rev
l. X. Funk, whose respective dictionaries show
a distinct advance in language such as neither
the book published by Webster nor that compiled
attention of linguists and educators, permit me
to point out that the natural growth Of language
shoulu ma a resting place somewhere and
more fitting place can be found than within the
a
You viii find striking examples of language de
oteiopment within the last quarter century under
tongue by five thousand words; again YOU
VIII find similar growth in medicine, in chem
istry in glass manufacture and even in water.
The advances IN each of these directions
sponsible for the fact that the vocabularies OF
modern dictionaries far exceed in number of words
the 4n yOG Gog Of their Predecessors
tinet adyanGe oyer that Of william shakesPesre
son; that of Whitney left Webster far behind and
mat mat OF Funk exceeds all. In the last case the
elapsed between the publication of the Century
As Dr. Funk lays it down IN the preface of his
STANDARD Dictionary, "a dictionary is expected
used by representative writers and speakers of the
language, and very practically adds that 1t is the
rule he has followed is that no word should be
omitted from his work that is TO be found in a
Take a glance Murray's scholarly work, the
New English Dictionary, now being published I'M
vast array of dead words which this great work
includes in its vocabulary; note the names of the
Spenser, down the ages through the Elizabethan
period to the eve of the present day, and at least
are not allowed TO perish in the gutter.
To appreciate fully the extent of the ''ransack-
must go into figures. In the section Of Murray's
work which embraces the words Glass-coach to
same words, johnson recorded only 3d. The Cen
fury 1875 and The Standard 1881, so that the
the purpose of giving eternal life the largest
possible number of words" is certainly not one
During the last few years have given consider
come into language since 1885, and feel sure
of the continued growth that can almost see the
words together with their meanings and deriva-
lions, shall be recorded to enable to keep
abreast with our moth FER 6 sSnguf F. v1zETEL1Y
Network. Feb. s. 1900.