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Dictionaries as Models of
Standard |
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John Kersey's New English Dictionary (1702)
contained 28,000 words
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Nathaniel Bailey's Universal Etymological English
Dictionary (1721) had contained 60,000 by its 1736 edition
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However, by and large, these were mere
'word-lists' in which all words were jumbled indiscriminately
together
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By that time the great national dictionaries had
been produced by Italy (1612) and France (1700)
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In his letter of support for Johnson's project
Lord Chesterfield says: “It is a sort of disgrace to our nation,
that hitherto we have had no such standard of our language ...
The time for discrimination seems to be now come. Toleration,
adoption and naturalization have run their lengths. Good order
and authority are now necessary.”
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Johnson to Lord Chesterfield: “This, my Lord, is
my idea of an English dictionary, a dictionary by which the
pronunciation of our language may be fixed, and its attainment
facilitated; by which its purity may be preserved, its use
ascertained, and its duration lengthened.”
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Copyrighted material |
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