62 



Dictionary is a desideratum in our Literature, and the want of it a 

 great inconvenience to learners of our Language. 



O'BRIEN'S IRISH-ENGLISH DICTIONARY— Quarto.— 



Paris, I768. 



' The Preface to this work is excellent. It is a learned dis- 

 course on the antiquity of our language and its affinity to others. 

 The Remarks which precede each of the letters are valuable ; and 

 more than one of our Lexicographers have been beholden to them. 

 Vallancey, in compiling his Grammar, has drawn largely from 

 them, when treating of the letters. This Dictionary is chiefly 

 compiled from O'Clery's, Plunkett's, and Lluyd's Vocabularies, but 

 wants thousands of words still existing in the written and living 

 language. So far, however, as it extends it is tolerably perfect. 

 -The derivation of many words is given, as are also several examples 

 or quotations to illustrate the meanings of those which are obsolete 

 or obscure. But at the same time, some of the practically useful 

 points of a Dictionary are omitted, such as the Genders Of Nouns, 

 Parts of Speech, &c. The number of words is uselessly encreased 

 by repeating the same word as often as it has a different meaning, 

 which should never be done, except when it is of different gen- 

 ders or parts of speech. No reason is given for this departure from 

 the established and more economical rule in Lexicography of 

 affixing all the different varieties of signification, with the above 

 exceptions, to the same word in the original. Though adopted by 

 Doctor O'Brien s predecessors, O'Ciery and LIuyd, and even since 

 his time, it is liable to objections^ Notwithstanding the adoption 

 of this plan, Doctor O'Brien has not, in many instances, given all 

 the meanings of the words, but to recompence for this defect 



