DICTIONARY 



1793 



have a vocabulary exceeding 2,000 words. 

 Therefore a dictionary, which may define from 

 100,000 to 400,000 words, is a necessity in every 

 household. 



Children should be able, before they leave 

 the fifth grade, to look up a word quickly, to 

 discover its pronunciation and to pick out its 

 various meanings; this they can best accom- 

 plish in some of the smaller, more simple dic- 

 tionaries. But the older children should be 

 taught to use a complete, or unabridged, dic- 

 tionary and to appreciate the wealth of infor- 

 mation to be found there. The difference in 

 the amount of knowledge which two people can 

 glean from a given paragraph in a dictionary 

 may be very enlightening. One will find only 

 the meaning of the word sought, and perhaps 

 not the very best meaning for his purpose; 

 another will discover fact upon fact word 

 forms, obscure or old meanings, apt quotations 

 and a tracing of derivations which is a veritable 

 word-romance. There is given herewith an 

 illustration, explaining all that is said in a 

 certain standard dictionary about a common 

 word; and by means of guide letters the varied 

 character of the information is pointed out. 

 Some words call for less explanation and illus- 

 tration and some for far more; this is a fair 

 average. 



The large school or library dictionaries also 

 contain much other matter besides word defini- 

 tions. Lists of geographical and biographical 

 terms, with brief explanations; much-used 

 terms from foreign languages; national flags, 

 state seals all this and more is to be found 

 in the various appendices. The pictures should 

 not be neglected; they are inserted not for 

 ornament but to make the text clearer, and in 

 many instances have been drawn by high 

 authorities in the subjects which they portray. 



History of Dictionaries. The dictionary is 

 far from being a modern invention, for the 

 Assyrians had one of their language over 2,500 

 years ago, pressed in cuneiform characters on 

 clay tablets (see CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS). 

 The Arabians, the Greeks and the Romans, too, 

 compiled dictionaries; they did not make any 

 attempt at giving all. the words of a language, 

 but contented themselves with listing rare or 

 difficult words. During the Middle Ages, when 

 an ever-growing interest in Greek and Latin 

 literature was felt, there arose the need for 

 lexicons dictionaries which define the words 

 of one language in terms of another and with 

 the increased intercourse between peoples this 

 need has become even stronger. To-day there 

 113 



DICTIONARY 



A BC 



I.; nx- 



preinentutn ; prae befoi 



To come or go before ; 



with ; to anticipate; forestall 



tm 



K 



nrrreitt them which an asleep. I Tfiett. iv. 1 



2. Tn intercept ; lander; impede; keep (from); frnV 

 Irate ; stop ; check ; thwart ; to keep from happening or 

 eiistiiiR ; often followed by from ; as, to prevent one 

 from coming. " This vile purpose to prevent.** Shalt* 

 Perhaps torcitsllinc nifhl premferf them. Milin*.- 

 -8yn. PREVENT, FRECLCDE. AVERT. PREVENT is the gen- 

 eral term for hindering, checking, or stopping; to I 



, 



cluding, or (esp.) to prevent by* 

 cipative action; u, " disaster of war that Our 

 himself could not have prevented " (Sftak.); " Prevent the 

 11 " 



danger, or pre 



of drawing off a lubiect ... to ine dregs, effectually 

 cliulei a revival of that lubject ... for tome UBM-fSi _ 

 future " (OMimillir, " In wishing tojmmTend to per- 

 nicious experimenu, I do not tae^a^rrprecJude the fuUeH 

 Inquiry" (Burke} To AVEarfs to prevent or turn aside 

 (esp.) some threatened evil ; as. "To live in constant fear 

 of every accident . . . and to tend up my hourly prayers 

 to avert them from you" (Steelrr. "the satisfaction of 

 averting war " (/. K. Green). See roaxsTAJ-L. 



-M 



GETTING INFORMATION FROM A 

 DICTIONARY 



A. The dictionary gives the pronunciation of a 

 word. Almost always a list of well-known words 

 is given at the bottom of the page to make clear 

 the method of marking pronunciation. 



B. It tells the part of speech of the word. 



C. In the case of a verb, the dictionary tells 

 whether it is transitive or Intransitive that is, 

 whether it may or may not take an object. 



D. It gives the principal parts. 



E. It indicates the language and the word or 

 words from which the word under discussion Is 

 derived. For added clearness, It shows the make- 

 up of the source word. 



F. It refers to other words which are related 

 in meaning. 



G. If certain meanings of the word have passed 

 or are passing out of use, the dictionary makes 

 clear that fact by the use of the abbreviation Obs. 

 (Obsolete) or the word Archaic. 



H. In some cases it gives quotations from well- 

 known sources to show in what period the word 

 was in use in its now obsolete sense. 



I. It lists the various meanings of a word under 

 different numbers. 



J. It illustrates the correct method of using a 

 word by showing how some writer of good Eng- 

 lish has employed it. 



K. It gives a list of synonyms that is, of 

 words which mean the same or nearly the same. 



L. By means of further definitions arid care- 

 fully chosen illustrations, it points out just the 

 shades of difference between these similar words. 



M. It refers to other words under which re- 

 lated information is given. 



are lexicons which make almost every language 

 on the globe, and many dialects, available to 

 English students. 



Of English dictionaries which aimed at 

 completeness the first was that of Nathan 

 Bailey, published in 1721 and called the Uni- 

 versal Etymological English Dictionary. The 

 English dictionary of Samuel Johnson, pub- 

 lished in 1755, marked an epoch in the history 

 of the English language and created a stir 

 which it is difficult for the present age, rich in 

 dictionaries, to understand. A dictionary is the 

 last place in which one would expect to find 

 humor, yet Johnson introduced it, consciously 

 or unconsciously, into his. Oats, for instance, 

 he declared to be "a grain which in Scotland 

 forms the main subsistence of the people, but 

 which in England is fed to horses." It was 

 Johnson who introduced the practice, now well- 



