Evening star., 1925-06-22

himself in tracing the origin and de-
failing the signification of words"
Harmless" or otherwise, the drug
cry that has gone to the making of
the great Oxford Dictionary probably
constitutes q record. 1t is worth re-
calling just a few of the surprising
details of this mastadon among labors
of scholarship, because the main
scheme of this work will be followed
in the making of the dictionary of
American English.
Work Took 81 Years.
Begun 81 years ago, the work of
compiling and publishing the oxford
Dictionary is only now on the eve
of completion. Merely to collect the
quotations that are used in 1t re-
quired the corporation Of over 1900
volunteer readers, resident all over
the world. and since the work began
these have sent in over $4,000 quo
tations, representing the works of
more than 5000 authors of all periods
Quite number of Americans took
part in this work, and a sensation
was caused when it was revealed a
few years ago that one of these. the
late DR.. w. c. Minor, carried out his
work of quotation hunting in a
criminal lunatic asrlumn. where he
was confined for a murder committed
in England during a At of insanity
1t is recorded in the introduction to
the dictionary that DIR. Minor a man
of exceptional culture, contributed
between 5000 and 5000 quotations.
In this mightiest of lexicons the
verb get" alone occupies % columns,
and is divided into 73 senses, many
of which have numerous subdi-
visions. Give fills 25 columns and
grow 35. And even these are
dwarfed by comparison with set"
which runs to So columns, with 164
numbered sections. the last of which
has so many subdivisions that it ex-
hausts the alphabet and repeats the
letters down to rr.
Nine Volumes Ready.
OF the dictionary's 10 volumes, 9
are finished, and the tenth is well
on its way to completion. The vol
unes and parts already published
comprise a total of over 14,900 pages,
and contain over 1000 words, illus
trated by 1.746. 500 quotations. When
the dictionary is complete, it will
contain 100000 words
DR.. Craigie has taken leading part
in this prodigious work of lexicon
making since 1897, and has been joint
editor of the dictionary since 1901. A
little, bearded Scotsman. with a
keen sense of humor, he ranks among
the greatest scholars of his time.
An NJ. A. of ST. Andrews and Oxford
Universities, an LII. D. of the former,
and D. Lift. of Calcutta, he is a
fellow of Oriel College, and has been
professor of Anglo-SaX at Oxford
since 1916 Now he is vacating this
chair in favor of the newly crea ted
Of Of II 1io1 I,a
University of Chicago.
Studying American Words.
1t is in the latter capacity that DIR.
Craigie will supervise the work of
creating a great and authoritative die
| tionary of American English. How
long it will take to carry out this
work it is impossible, he says, even
/ to guess.
1.-THE duration Of the task will be
entirely dependent on the work done
| by Students he declared, "and the
| actual compilation of the dictionary
| is conditional on the accumulation of
what I may call the raw material.
Also it will be essential to have at
the outset regular staff, which must
be created, to show beginners the
proper steps. Otherwise there is GER
| tain to be a great waste of time. At
present those who are willing to assist
! in the work have little idea how to
set about 1t.
I'VE shall make a start during the
| Winter quarter at Chicago University
with what will be really a regular
| course on the making of a dictionary.
Those who go in for it, and become
proficient in word-hunting. will scat.
ter after leaving the university, and
so gradually we shall have, through.
out the whole country, people trained
to carry on the work of compiling a
dictionary.
90. Describes Technique.
! "a student who takes this course
will be asked to conduct detailed
examination of the words used by an
Individual American writer of an early
period and to establish which ones
are characteristic OF that, writer A
] student might, for example, make a
study of the vocabulary Of Benjamin
Franklin. He should take his writings
in chronological order and write quo
tations containing the words selected
on separate slips, finally arranging
these in alphabetical order. At the
end he probably will have upwards
of two or three thousand quotations
Finally, the student will write dis
|C L A F L l N
Z