Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-12-13
DICTIONARIES.
Real Books of Science and Histories
as Well.

Real Books of Science and Histories
as Well.
Sir James Murray has given a lee
ture recently, on the making of a die
tionary, in which he described the
elaborate organization that was neces-
sary for his own great undertaking.
the Oxford English dictionary, relat-
ing how there were 100000 quota
tions stored in pigeonholes in an iron
room in his garden. The result is
work not only Of great practical use.
but as interesting to read as any book
that was ever written. There are some
people who never open a dictionary.
except to learn how a word Is spelled;
and for them dictionary means list
of words with short definitions Of their
meaning. The Oxford dictionary was
not written for these; nor was John
sons dictionary That great work, as
we know, contains not only the learn
ing, but the prejudices Of its author.
Sometimes he will express, in his def
milton of a word, his hatred of a thing;
as in the case of the word excise
the definition of which caused the
commissioners of excise to consult the L,
attorney general as to whether they
could obtain legal redress.
1t Is amusing to find that Johnson
at first was in doubt whether or not
he should make his dictionary color
less work; but that finally he deter
mined to interpose his own judgment
and ito support what appeared to him
most consonant to grammar and rea-
son." His doubts, he says, were re-
solved by Lord Chesterfield, but we
may be sure that he could not have
made his dictionary colorless If he had
tried. The compilers Of the Oxford
dictionary have tried to make 1t COL
orless; or rather they have allowed
every word to tell it's own story in
quotations, and it is not likely that any
one will ever contemplate an action
for libel against them. But words them
selves refuse to be colorless, except
when bad writer's misuse them; they
have their adventures. their ups and
downs in life. They gather to them
selves glory or squalor by the most di-
verse chances, sometimes through
some quality of sound in themselves,
sometimes through quite external
causes. And in the Oxford English
dictionary we can trace the history OF
each word, not told coldly by histo-
rian, but in quotations which bring
its adventures before our very eyes.
That is the peculiar interest OF
complete dictionary. 1t does not re-
late history, but revives the past for
us. II gives us not merely documents
but life. And the life Of words Is
part of the life of the human mind.
1t Is not only legacy handed on from
one generation to another, 1t Is a per-
sistence of thought without break,
but with the constant changes 10 De
found in all life. Poets, as we know,
often study the dictionary. and TO 40
so would be a useful discipline for
philosophers. For II Is common vice
Of philosophers, and particularly OF
metaphysicians, to separate the WORD
from the thing ard, in laboring to de-
fine the word exactly, to lose sight OF
the reality behind 1t. They try to SIM
plify thought by using words as pure
mechanism, by turning them all into
technical terms. A reading In the dlc-
tionary will show them that the great
mass Of words cannot be USED In tnis
way. They have not been made, IKE
the coinages Of science, but nave
grown to meet the wants OF tnousnt;
They are alive, and to use them as II
they were dead is to turn thought IT.
self into a mere machinery that Will
only deal with unrealitieS.
But a dictionary Is one OF those rev
and most delightful books that have
no context and need none. Each word
is a little story to itself; and yet as
the reader wanders from word TO
word he has no guilty sense that ne Is
wasting his mind upon snippets. Per-
haps the best and gentlest way OF in
Producing a snippet reader to ltera-
ture would be to set him upon the die
tionary. There he could begin on
words that have but short history,
filling half a column or less. words Of
ten modern and inglorious, and OF the
kind that he was most used to. And
from these, If he had any intelligence
at all, he would pass gradually TO the
great words. which are often the short
est-words like love" and death,
which were i'm our language before II
had a literature at all, and which nave
because they stand for things that do
not change. From contrasting these
two kinds of words he might at last
attain to some understanding Of the
relation Of language to thought, and
might see that some words are suspect
because they are so commonly USED Dy
writer's who do not know what they
mean. There is, indeed, something In
the very form and sound of certain
words that tempts this kind OF writer
to use them. He always likes long
words derived from the Latin, because
they suggest distractions to him. and
he Is more at ease with the ABSTRACT
than with the concrete.
II you use words like love and death
you must say something; but you can
use words like transpire or definitive
without saying anything or meaning
ANYTHING in particular The dictionary
contains all words good and bad, and
II criticises none. But II lets them
speak for themselves in quotations.
and these will prove. plainly enough.
whether word has anything to say
for itself: whether 1t Is mere vulgar
upstart with no history at all and no
right to exist: or word with an hon
orable past and a degraded present
like the Overworked adjectives awful
and nice: or a word. like steed. that
has withdrawn itself into poetry and
as a penalty for it's own fastidiousness
has come to be used ironically by in
ferior humorists; or one OF the great
words too simple to be misused and so
necessary that they have been used
all the ages. To read the die
Is to see all these different
kinds of words in action, some OF them
more than 1000 years; and II
should teach any one who can be
taught that words are not mere count
ers. but living things with the good
and evil, the wisdom and folly. Of all
life in them-LOndon Times.