#OTD in 1755. Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language is published in London.
Johnson's dictionary was not just a list of words with their meanings; it also included extensive quotations from various literary works to illustrate the usage of each word. It played a significant role in standardizing English spelling and usage, helping to establish a common linguistic framework for communication.
Roget's Thesaurus, created by retired British physician Peter Mark Roget, is first published as Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases Classified and Arranged so as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and Assist in Literary Composition in London.
New entries! We're famously fond of time travel chez HDSF, so here's "changewar" (from 1958; associated with Fritz Leiber) and its synonym "timewar" (1950; with various specific associations):
"The Maknuune Lexicon" is a Palestinian Arabic lexicon which is updated regularly and available to download as PDF, and raw TSV. Also, it is built with #LaTeX (could easily tell by the underlined hyperrf toc links 🤓 It is part of an encyclopedic project Palestinian Arabic dialect by NYU University in Abu Dhabi.
A bit late reporting this, but last week, the indefatigable researcher Fred Shapiro found a clear 1906 example of "science fiction", in reference to H.G. Wells. Since (as with many terms) the early history is a bit muddled, this is an important discovery.
(The first known example is from 1898 (also referring to Wells), with an 1897 quote (perhaps from the same person) in the sense 'a work of science fiction'.)
HDSF news: Still working on that important group of entries, but meanwhile, here are big antedatings of shuttle (1940 to 1930) and shuttlecraft (1967 to 1953) (also cleaned up both entries):
📚 Every year the big dictionary publishers decide on the year's most important word. This year's Oxford Word of the Year is 'Rizz'.
Word of Mouth is a podcast about language and how it evolves, presented by poet and educator Michael Rosen.
There are over 250 episodes on BBC Sounds, covering every aspect of language - from chatbots to 'goblin mode' to Shakespeare to sci-fi to Yiddish to apostrophes…
In HDSF news, I'm working on a connected series of important entries, but meanwhile, here's one for "Cthulhu Mythos", for all of you #Lovecraft fans. First recorded in 1942, from (no surprise) August Derleth.
French lexicographer & author Pierre Larousse was born #OTD in 1817.
He published many of the outstanding educational & reference works of 19th-century France, including the 15-volume Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle, from which Le Petit Larousse was later drawn.
The publishing house Éditions Larousse still survives, but was acquired by Compagnie Européenne de Publication in 1984, Havas in 1997, Vivendi Universal in 1998, & the Lagardère Group in 2002. via @wikipedia
Help revise The F-Word: @jessesheidlower is looking for suggestions, quotations, antedatings, and anecdotes for the fourth edition of his dictionary of "fuck"
Publication of the Oxford English Dictionary is completed.
The 125th & last fascicle covered words from Wise to the end of W & was published in 1928, and the full dictionary in bound volumes followed immediately. William Shakespeare is the most-quoted writer in the completed dictionary, with Hamlet his most-quoted work. George Eliot is the most-quoted female writer. Collectively, the Bible is the most-quoted work; the most-quoted single work is Cursor Mundi.
Really, Oxford? You and I have spent many nights in vigorous thesaurusing, and I have few complaints about your performance.
But I dunno this time, hey. "#Lekker" could easily be used for "tipsy", and even "buzzed", but drunk? Which is, by our own definition, "affected by alcohol to the extent of losing control of one's faculties or behaviour"?
British physician, natural theologian, lexicographer Peter Mark Roget was born #OTD in 1779. He is best known for publishing, in 1852, the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases, a classified collection of related words. Roget's schema of classes and their subdivisions is based on the philosophical work of Leibniz, itself following a long tradition of epistemological work starting with Aristotle. Some of Aristotle's Categories are included in Roget's first class, "abstract relations".#dictionary
Time-travel fans: really nice HDSF antedating of "time track", once-favored synonym of the (now preferred) timeline, from 1942 to Edmond Hamilton in 1931 (and now earlier than timeline itself (1935)).
New HDSF entry! The SF cliché "food pill", something that has always been regarded as coming in the future (like jetpacks and flying cars). Examples from the 1880s (they eat them in "Moonland"!) onwards.
From 2010 to 2020 I wrote about language for Macmillan Dictionary Blog – 215 posts in all. The blog has now disappeared. Macmillan's online dictionary & thesaurus are gone too.
They were created and maintained specially for language learners, and they were terrific. But the new corporate owner didn't seem to appreciate the websites' purpose or value and just let them die. It's a depressing development 1/2
The Maknuune Lexicon (Palestinian Arabic dialect) (sites.google.com)
"The Maknuune Lexicon" is a Palestinian Arabic lexicon which is updated regularly and available to download as PDF, and raw TSV. Also, it is built with #LaTeX (could easily tell by the underlined hyperrf toc links 🤓 It is part of an encyclopedic project Palestinian Arabic dialect by NYU University in Abu Dhabi.